September 22, 2005 Update on county vehicle reports

I received the vehicle report from the Work Release Director yesterday. Don Baird said he had tried to send it before, but there was a problem with the county e-mail system. He finally just sent it from his personal e-mail.

That leaves only two departments that haven't responded in writing or by e-mail to the Sept. 13 request for mileage/condition info. The departments that are left are the Maintenance Dept. and the Sheriff's Dept.

I'm hoping that these two departments will provide a written or e-mail list soon since they are the only two still hanging out there.

Tomorrow, I'll give a full report on today's County Commission meeting. It was long. But it was one of the best meetings that we have had. There was a lot of good, thoughtful discussion on important issues. Commissioners were willing to listen to one another, to send problem areas back to committee, and in general work together well.

We decided to send a contentious rezoning issue back to the Planning Commission.

We voted to approve a 3-year contract with the Comptroller's Office (County Audit) to continue performing the county's audit in 2006-2008.

If state law doesn't change the amount charged, we will continue saving $18,000/year by having county audit perform our audit. That was my central campaign plank and we've already saved $54,000 in the past 3 years (2003-2005) by having state auditors instead of local private auditors perform the county audit.

As important as the savings, I think all commissioners now realize that state auditors specialize in this work and that, as a result, we are getting a far better audit (along with the savings) by having the state auditors handle this. They do an outstanding job, and they have helped the county come into compliance with state law and adopt procedures that provide for better record-keeping and greater accountability.

I'll have more on audits later--they are very important but they have certain limitations as well. Audits are like a spot check. The auditors do not (and are not expected to) check every payment, every deposit, every grant, every insurance enrollment, every gasoline purchase, every bid and contract, every time sheet, every payroll check, or the accuracy of inventory reports.