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The Salt Lake County Auditor's Office shrank some more this week.
Its ranks were reduced by 18.75 employees by the County Council, which voted unanimously to transfer the auditor's Division of Fiscal Compliance and Accountability to the Mayor's Office, effective April 16.
That move follows January's shift of the auditor's budget-division team into the mayor's portfolio. The changes were made to implement results of an efficiency study by a governmental-operations consultant, who said county financial management would be improved by consolidating budget preparations in the chief executive's office.
County Auditor Greg Hawkins is challenging the move in 3rd District Court, contending it illegally dismantles his independently elected office, in part because the public was not allowed to vote on the matter.
That litigation, which Hawkins estimated may cost the county $375,000 in legal expenses, has won the auditor no friends on the council. It rejected his request to keep 3.75 of those 18.75 accounting employees — including the division head — to help oversee the truncated office and to perform audits.
Hawkins did not attend Tuesday's council meeting. But he outlined his stance in a March 14 letter to the council, and Chief Deputy Auditor Lonn Litchfield elaborated on those positions at the meeting.
Litchfield said a law passed by the Legislature specifying that the county mayor could be the budget officer also directed the auditor to focus on performance audits of county agencies.
To accomplish that mandate, he said the Auditor's Office set up a system to evaluate each agency every five years, paying extra attention to divisions deemed risky. To do that, the auditor needs another 2.75 employees.
The other employee would oversee functions from internal fiscal management to ensuring mail was delivered. "We felt the pinch of having no one to do these functions," Litchfield said.
But Darrin Casper, Mayor Peter Corroon's chief financial officer, said the auditor had argued vehemently during recession-driven budget cuts that its accounting division could not function without 18.75 employees.
So why should the Mayor's Office be expected to do the same work with fewer workers, he asked, suggesting instead that all should be transferred. If the auditor needs more employees, Casper said, he should go through council processes for hiring additional workers.
Council Chairman David Wilde agreed, lashing out at Hawkins for the lawsuit and accusing him of displaying "the absolute worst judgment … playing games. There's been some trust lost, and he's got some work to do to rebuild that trust."
Wilde received strong support from Councilman Michael Jensen, who said the auditor should submit a formal request for any new hires he needs and that the council should focus on making the transition of the accounting employees to the Mayor's Office as painless as possible.
"We need to send a message [to the accounting division employees] that we value them," Jensen added, "and we're sorry this process has caused them some uncertainty."
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