Texas candidate to be offered LV city auditor’s post

Erin Neff

Wednesday, June 2, 1999 | 11:18 a.m.

After more than a year of searching, the city of Las Vegas will offer its internal auditor position to the city auditor in Garland, Texas.

The Audit Oversight Committee on Monday recommended the City Council hire Steven Shepherd in what committee Chairman Robert Martin said "seemed the longest, most permanent hiring process."

Shepherd was selected by the committee from three finalists who came to City Hall last week for interviews.

Committee member Connie Lentz said Shepherd had the strongest background and worked with a comparably sized staff in Garland.

"He worked with management in getting them to buy into the audit philosophy," Lentz said.

Shepherd's recommended hiring comes 15 months after city auditor Susan Toohey was fired without explanation last year amid controversy over certain audit reports she claims were not made public.

Toohey's $2.8 million wrongful termination suit against the city is pending, and the so-called "hidden audits" became fodder for television ads against Mayor Jan Laverty Jones during her bid for governor against Kenny Guinn last year.

Shepherd earned both his master's of business administration and a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Texas at Arlington. He is a certified internal auditor and reports to Garland's nine-member City Council -- a job duty that gave him the edge over some of his competition for the Las Vegas job.

He has served in his current post since 1996 and earns $78,250 annually. Prior to his work in Garland, a city just northeast of Dallas, Shepherd worked as audit supervisor in Fort Worth for nine years and as senior auditor for Central and South West Services Inc. of Dallas for three years.

Shepherd also worked for two years as an internal auditor for Arkansas Louisiana Gas Co. in Shreveport, La.

Human Resources Director Rick Anderson will negotiate the terms of Shepherd's contract with him before Monday's council meeting. The council is expected to ratify his hiring.

The Audit Oversight Committee upgraded the requirements for city auditor last year in an effort to recruit candidates with at least 10 years of internal auditing experience and certification as either an internal auditor or public accountant. The pay scale for the position was also increased from a range of $59,194-$98,658 to a range of $66,000-$110,000.

During the past 15 months, Philip Cheng has served as the city's acting auditor.

On Monday Cheng commented on the release of four new audits and updated the committee on a fifth audit report that now includes management's response.

Martin said that audit, which examined the city's contract for office supplies, points to an "area that really needs overhaul and supervision."

The audit estimates that switching office supply vendors from Office Depot to Advance Marketing cost the city $80,000 annually.

Other audits discussed Monday included a report examining the Information Technologies department's operations and cash-handling operations at 26 sites citywide.

An audit of the city's Building & Safety division operations, which was first requested in April 1998, was also discussed.

Martin called the report "ancient," and Jones said, "You have to question whether a lot of the information contained in this audit still holds."

Cheng said the report was detailed and took a long time to complete. Jones suggested the committee receive a timeline with all audits detailing how long they were in progress.

Committee members Scott Higginson and Councilman Michael McDonald did not attend the meeting, which started 30 minutes late as Martin and Lentz waited for Jones' arrival to meet the necessary quorum.