“Joe, what is the role of County Auditor?” “What do County Auditors do?”
I hear those questions frequently, and I’m happy to help people understand what the duties are.
As Jones County Auditor Janine Sulzner said in her presentation to attendees at the 2015 New County Officers School:
No, the job of a County Auditor is not glamorous, and we don’t hand out awards. County Auditors know that talking about the budget and other administrative matters may not be as fascinating or as “feel good” as talking about recreation, nor nowhere as close to your heart as roads. However, we can’t have all of those “things” without money and administrative work. And you can’t access that without taxes, and budgets, and budget amendments!
County Boards of Supervisors use budgets to manage the “real” needs vs the “perceived” needs of providing services to the public, and to attempt to convince your taxpayers that you aren’t sending THEIR money down the drain.
Oh… and just another one of those minor details…because the law says we have to!
It takes someone special…your County Auditor, who doesn’t care about all the glamour and fascination, but who DOES care about all the “details” to help [County Supervisors] make those “things” possible!
County Auditors are tasked with the following:
- Clerk To The Board Of Supervisors
- Payroll For All County Employees
- Accounts Payable For All County Departments
- Serves As Chief Platting Official Of The County
- Property Valuation Reports
- Local Jurisdiction Budget Review & Certification
- Preparation Of The County Tax List
- General Custody And Control Of The Courthouse
- County Commissioner Of Elections
- Various Other Duties
Auditor Sulzner also explained to County Supervisors that “Relationships Matter”
- Your County Auditor can be your:
– Right Hand
or…
– A Pain In Your Rear End!- Remember, we both Auditors and Supervisors are Elected By The Citizens of our county to do a job, and we each have to be individually accountable to those citizens.
- Sometimes there are conflicts, but at the end of the day our hope is that we can each respect each others’ opinions, decisions, and autonomous authority, and do the job we were elected to do.
I wholeheartedly agree with Auditor Sulzner, and I am committed to returning collegiality to the relationships between the Auditor and all other offices and entities .
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