McLean County adds referendum to eliminate auditor's office (2024)

BLOOMINGTON— Voters will be asked on Nov. 5 whether the McLean County Auditor's Office should be eliminated.

The County Board voted on Thursday to introduce a referendumasking voters, "Shall McLean County eliminate the elected office of County Auditor?"

An amendment proposed by board member Geoff Tompkins eliminated language stating the county already contracts with an external auditor as required by state law and process improvements and the elimination of redundant functions would be of great cost savings to the county.

Tompkins said this language was almost like a sales pitch to the voters.

"I think the voters are being asked to make a choice so let's word this ballot so they can make that choice," Tompkins said.

Board member Jack Abraham echoed the comments that the additional language was too leading.

"The referendum question is not supposed to convince a voter to vote a certain way," Abraham said. "It's just asking the question."

A resolution establishing the referendum was approved without opposition.

Elizabeth Johnston, vice chair of the board, said the county administration is reviewing best practices of counties that do not operate with an elected county auditor so there would be a system in place if the referendum were to pass.

Currently, the county's department heads review all of their bills before submitting them to the auditor for review and that process would still happen within each department, Johnston said.

An external auditor still will be retained to perform an annual audit, she added.

McLean County Auditor Michelle Anderson, who has held the position since 2007, issued a statement disputing that there are redundancies of her office. She did not speak at the meeting.

She added that external audits generally use sampling and are never a 100% audit of invoices.

In 2020, Anderson said CliftonLarsonAllen, the county's current external auditor, pulled 65 invoices out of 21,369 invoices that were processed that year. In 2021, the firm pulled 42 invoices from 23,388 paid that year.

"(The auditor's office) seems to be the only ones capable of saying no and ensure departments adhere to county policies," Anderson wrote. "We also make sure all bills are coded and approved and have a business purpose."

The budgeted salary of the McLean County Auditor for the 2025 fiscal year is $90,324.

Although Anderson is up for reelection in November, she would have to vacate the office after the general election if the referendum were to pass.

There currently are 16 Illinois counties with a county auditor's office. Although the office could be eliminated via countywide referendum, state statute requires it be established for all counties with a population between 70,000 and 3 million.

Other statutory functions of the auditor's office for these counties include auditing all claims against the county, maintaining a file of all contracts entered into by the County Board, reporting the entire financial operations of the county to the County Board on a quarterly basis and auditing the inventory of all real and personal property owned by the county.

Voters in Peoria County decided to eliminate the auditor's office in 2022.

In 2018, roughly 57% of Tazewell County voters chose to keep their county auditor's office. However, a resolution for a similar referendum will be brought before the county's executive committee on Wednesday, June 19.