County still lacks auditor

Almost a year after county Legislative Auditor Colleen Schrandt resigned, the position has not yet been filled and it’s unclear how much, if any, auditing has actually gone on.

That’s despite a county charter amendment that requires the County Council to appoint an auditor who has free rein to inspect county records and require employees to be available for questioning as the auditor prepares performance and financial audits of administrative and legislative departments. The auditor serves for a six-year term, and it takes two-thirds of the council membership to remove the auditor for cause.

The auditor is required by the charter to prepare an annual audit plan, detailing what departments and divisions will be audited for the year. The plan is supposed to be presented to the mayor and County Council and filed with the county clerk.

But a West Hawaii Today investigation has found that no such audit plan has been presented this year, nor has there been an update from the auditor about progress of ongoing audits.

The most recent audit plan was submitted by Schrandt and approved by the County Council in December 2012, shortly before Schrandt left. The charter to the contrary, Schrandt told the council the audit plan was supposed to continue through June 2014.

Acting Auditor Lane Shibata did not return several detailed telephone messages this week. Schrandt, who earned $94,284 annually and oversaw a staff of four, had endorsed Shibata as a permanent replacement.

“I think the charter requirement is fulfilled because they covered the years in question,” Corporation Counsel Lincoln Ashida said Wednesday.

This is the third time in recent months that county officials’ interpretations of charter amendments passed by Hawaii County voters have raised questions. The charter is the county’s constitution, the framework from which laws are made.

Officials earlier this year interpreted the charter to mean an Environmental Management Department director who did not have an engineering degree or degree in a related field could be appointed, and again when justifying why grants that were supposed to be made to community groups to participate in stewardship programs on county open space and public access lands were not.

The charter is silent on how long before a permanent auditor is named after the current one leaves office. But South Kona/Ka‘u Councilwoman Brenda Ford, who drafted the 2008 amendment to give the auditor more autonomy, said she’d hoped it would have been sooner.

“I wish we’d gotten to it six months sooner,” Ford said. “It didn’t happen that way, so we just have to move forward.”

The county advertised for an auditor earlier this year, and is now sifting through the responses, said Council Chairman J Yoshimoto. The council has scheduled an executive session Wednesday to evaluate the candidate applications.

“The responsibilities of the office have been carried out, as far as I know,” Yoshimoto said.

Yoshimoto said the council hasn’t acted on a replacement auditor sooner because of a heavy legislative agenda so far this term. In addition to a tight budget that required property taxes to be raised, the council tackled a contentious bill limiting genetically modified crops and several initiatives regarding geothermal power.

One of the auditor’s duties, selecting an independent auditor for a multi-year contract to conduct financial audits of all the county’s books, is proceeding on schedule, if not slightly ahead of schedule, said Finance Director Nancy Crawford. The independent auditor will audit the fiscal years from June 2014 through June 2017. That selection process was discussed in a Nov. 20 executive session.

The audit plan submitted by Schrandt listed upcoming audits of Civil Defense, the Department of Finance, Data Systems, the county Prosecutor’s Office, Department of Environmental Management, Fire Department, Water Supply, Clerk and Council, Public Works and Housing, as well as follow-up audits of three prior audits.

The council also made a special audit request this year, for a comparison of election expenses over the past three election cycles. Hilo Councilman Dennis Onishi, who was concerned that the previous county clerk racked up excessive staff overtime costs in the botched 2012 primary election, made the initial request and the council expanded it and passed it in May. The work was to have been sent to a contracted auditor.

A request for an audit of Police Department receipts, storage and disposal of evidence was withdrawn by Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille after assurances from the police chief that a similar review was conducted prior to Police Department accreditation by a national group.