Stevens, a Democrat, is both a certified public accountant and a certified internal auditor with decades of professional experience in private business. He is a former vice president and general auditor of Northwest Energy Co., and a former senior financial analyst of Standard Oil Co. of Indiana (Amoco).
By contrast, his opponent, Sean Thomas, is neither a CPA nor an experienced professional auditor, though he does hold an accounting degree and has worked as an investment analyst. Thomas, a Republican, was appointed to the auditor's job after his predecessor, Craig Sorensen, resigned earlier this year and pleaded guilty to stealing gasoline from the county.
Thomas, who was working in the private sector at the time, was
appointed by the county council on a 5-3 party line vote. Thomas ran unsuccessfully
against Democratic County Councilman Joe Hatch in 2002.
Stevens, by contrast, has never worked for the county government,
though he ran unsuccessfully for county auditor in the 1980s. He pledges to bring a
combination of professional expertise and political independence to the job. We
believe those qualifications are critical for the person charged with watching
over taxpayer funds and preparing the county budget, especially in the wake of
the current scandals.
Since he has no history with the cronyism that has plagued Salt Lake County government for decades, Stevens appears to be in a good position to deliver on his promises of independence.
He told us that the auditor's office has an excellent professional staff, but their talents are not being properly utilized. They conduct exhaustive examinations of simple transactions, but are about four decades behind the curve when it comes to performance audits, examinations of contracts and systems analyses that could save taxpayers money.
In terms of cost/benefit analysis, taxpayers are not getting their money's worth for the approximately $1.5 million they now invest in internal audits, according to Stevens. He pledges to change that.
The only knock on Stevens is his age. He is 68. But the former Army ranger and paratrooper is a certified flight instructor, so he is physically qualified to fly a plane.
Sean Thomas, by comparison, is 32. We believe in this case, experience and professional qualifications trump youth.
