Auditor search

Erin Neff

Thursday, Jan. 13, 2000 | 11:16 a.m.

Despite the headlines two audits grabbed this week, the most controversy arising from Wednesday's Audit Oversight Committee revolved around candidates for the city auditor position.

Even though representatives of fighting ambulance companies American Medical Response and Southwest Ambulance were present, no one opted to comment on an audit suggesting AMR was not meeting the response times for emergency calls that its franchise agreement mandates.

An audit showing $258,000 in overtime expenses related to the Corporate Challenge, a city-coordinated Olympics-style event featuring area businesses and held each spring, also drew no comments.

The major discussion instead involved candidates for the long-vacant auditor position and the surprising addition of acting city auditor Phillip Cheng to a short-list of finalists.

City Councilman Michael McDonald recommended that Cheng be added to the top tier of candidates identified from a national search, even though Cheng didn't even make it to the top nine of that search.

Only the top five candidates, Cheng now included, will be interviewed.

"He's been with us through the hard times, and he's done a good job," McDonald said. "I'd like to see him included in the top tier."

Human Resources Director Rick Anderson had split eight finalists into two tiers for the committee's consideration. A ninth candidate dropped out from consideration.

Cheng, who has been acting auditor since the city fired Susan Toohey in March 1997, has applied for the full-time position both times the city held a national search.

Per McDonald's recommendation, the Audit Oversight Committee will now make arrangements to interview Cheng and the top four candidates identified by human resources.

Those candidates are Lawrence C. Gambone, public auditor for the Federated States of Micronesia; Michael D. Hall, city auditor in Colorado Springs, Colo.; John M. Cashmon, senior internal auditor for the Mashantucket Pequote Tribal Nation that runs the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut; and K. Radford Snelding, internal auditor in Shreveport, La.

The previous search resulted in three finalists and the offer of the job to Steven Shepherd, the city auditor in Garland, Texas. But after Shepherd was offered the position, he decided he didn't want it and sent the city back to square one.

Toohey was fired without reason amid allegations surrounding a number of internal audits that were not made public. She later filed a $2.8 million wrongful termination suit, which has yet to be resolved.

The so-called hidden audits were used against then-Mayor Jan Laverty Jones when she ran for governor against Kenny Guinn.

The committee was established as a watchdog to ensure that audits don't simply go from the internal auditor to the city manager without input from the council and public.

The committee is comprised of: McDonald, Mayor Oscar Goodman, City Councilman Michael Mack, Deputy City Manager Steven Houchens, former City Councilman Scott Higginson, certified public accountant Connie Lentz and Pioneer Citizens Bank President and CEO Bill Martin.

Martin's suggestion that the top five candidates be interviewed by some of the committee members drew some initial resistance from Goodman.

"I would respectfully move that the names be forwarded to the City Council," Goodman said. "A subcommittee of the council could then interview the candidates."

But Martin said he thought the Audit Oversight Committee was the proper group to conduct the interviews.

Goodman agreed when Martin said the committee would only recommend a selection to the council for approval.