CAO Expected to Get Budget Forecast Role

Supervisors are expected to shift budget forecasting duties from the auditor’s office to the chief administrator’s office Tuesday, greatly bolstering the power of the CAO’s office while reducing the role of auditor to more of a fiscal watchdog.

The move would enable the auditor’s office to concentrate more intensely on financial reviews, a duty critics say has been neglected.

“A strong auditing program should eliminate a lot of the problems the county is having,” said Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford, who proposed the changes to the board last year. And in recent weeks, supervisors have voiced support for the idea.

Supervisors have criticized the auditor’s office for failing to alert the board to the financial risks involved in the failed merger of the county social services and mental health agencies in 1998. A slow-moving auditor’s office also did not warn the board of a looming financial crisis in 1999.

Auditor Christine Cohen, however, defended her office, blaming some of the lethargy on understaffing.

“In total, the office staff today is less than what it was 20 years ago,” said Cohen, adding that the number of county auditors has plummeted from a high of 16 to seven today. Two of the seven positions are now vacant.

Part of the board’s proposal, in fact, is a request for five additional auditing slots, including two senior positions. Cohen said the additional help would allow her office to significantly increase the number of audits performed annually.

Meanwhile, all forecasting duties will formally be the responsibility of the chief financial officer, who will answer to the chief administrator. The CFO position, created in December, has been filled by Angela Sheffield, a former transit district director in San Diego County.

Starting Tuesday, Sheffield would be responsible for suggesting ways to increase revenue, determining the county’s borrowing needs and delivering fiscal forecasts.

Traditionally, those duties have fallen under the purview of the auditor, even though surrounding counties leave them to the chief administrative officer’s staff members.

The Ventura County arrangement was first criticized by former chief administrator David Baker, who, in a disparaging resignation letter after less than a week on the job, said the auditor-controller played too much of a role in forecasting and debt finance.

Since stepping in after Baker’s abrupt November 1999 exit, Hufford has agreed.

The chief financial officer, Hufford said, is “the person who has to know how the budget is financed and where the money is coming from. That’s what it’s all about.”