NorCo Council Fails To Invite Controller to Meeting About ... the Controller

Yesterday, Northampton County Council's Governance Committee, spearheaded by lameduck Mat (not Matt) Benol, released an agenda for a meeting today. One item is a proposed change to the Home Rule Charter that will limit the Executive to two terms in office. This discussion was scheduled at the last Council meeting. While they're at it, Benol has decided to address Council's term limits, too, even though Council term-limited itself several years ago. As if these two items are not enough, Benol has also decided to schedule a discussion on both "special qualifications" and "special prohibitions" for the County Controller. But he hasn't bothered to inform the person who has occupied that office for nearly a decade.

I contacted Controller Steve Barron yesterday, who was unaware of a meeting scheduled to talk about him behind his back. "I fail to understand why Council would schedule a meeting concerning my office and fail to invite the person who has occupied it for nearly ten years," he noted.

I know why. They want to clip his wings. He asks too many questions.

Since the mainstream press has more or less fallen flat on its face in covering county government, the sole watchdogs left are bottom-feeding bloggers like me and the County Controller. But as was recently pointed out in Governing, this is an increasingly troublesome problem for independent auditors.

When performance auditors rile mayors and department heads with negative audits, retaliation can come in the form of budget cuts, slow action on personnel requests or even suggestions that auditor functions be eliminated. David Jones, Seattle city auditor and chair of ALGA’s advocacy committee, says, “We frequently find that local government auditors are under attack.”

This is precisely what is going on here. In April, Barron infuriated County administrators and Benol with a detailed memo outlining county waste and abuse. He was concerned that Human Resources Director Amy Trap had increased staff development training from $5,749.35 to a staggering $56,758.15 in the course of just one year. He was bothered that her staff had taken trips to Las Vegas and New Orleans and had stayed at exotic places like the Mirage Hotel, with absolutely no effort made to get a government rate. He noted that her department was charging meals beyond what is permitted. He also warned that this was only the tip of the iceberg, and that a county credit card audit was being performed, which would certainly show that she spent $800 for a popcorn machine and bought meals at the courthouse, to which her staff had no right.

Barron suggested stronger internal controls were needed, and they are.

Though County Council is supposed to be a check and balance on administrative overreach. They instead went after Barron.

Benol accused Barron of playing "political football," adding, "I plan on taking some action on the Controller because the Controller is a financial position, it's not a political position. To me, it's a bean counter position."

Benol was upset that Barron had failed to provide his report to both sides,and that would be a valid complaint if it were true. Barron did make sure that the administration received a copy of his memo.

Under Northampton County's Home Rule Charter, the Controller is the person responsible for the internal control of the fiscal transactions of the county. This includes trips to Las Vegas and New Orleans. It includes department heads who exceed their spending budgets. It includes spending more money than permitted for meals. It includes the purchase of $800 popcorn machines and the abuse of the county purse to purchase gift cards that violate county credit card policy. As an independently elected official, the Controller has the power, at any time and on his own initiative, to review the fiscal transactions of any county agency without first seeking permission from John Brown or Mat Benol. That's what the Controller did, and that is his job. He has in the past found that the Executive himself was abusing his expense reports, and money had to be paid back to the County.

Benol clearly is planning on retaliation against Barron for doing his job.

Or Benol and his Ten Commandments may be trying to scare Barron off. His audit of the county credit cards (called P-cards) is coming out very soon.