Auditor fails to manage people, money

By Garth Fagerbakke

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The office of county auditor is not one that gets a great deal of attention in most Iowa counties. Campaigns are low profile and low budget, compared to other campaigns. Most people don't really know what the auditor does.

While the auditor's office has many functions, its primary duties fall into five categories: conducting elections, secretary to the supervisors, payroll and claims, GIS/real estate and managing facilities (county buildings).

To perform these functions, you need the ability to manage people and money, the ability to foster good working relationships, and above all, integrity. I am running for auditor because those attributes have been lost in the Linn County Auditor's Office.

The current auditor, Joel Miller, has consistently shown an inability to manage people, money, and projects. Recent news focused on the auditor hiring his friend to work on a software program, and paying the temp agency $37,000 for him to perform modifications that could have been done by the vendor for little or no cost.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. With a staff of 30 county employees who are dedicated to performing building maintenance tasks, such as snow shoveling in the winter, and lawn maintenance in the summer, Miller has often contracted work out to private vendors and refused to provide service to internal county departments.

The auditor has also sought to expand the powers of his office, embroiling him in lawsuits and costing the taxpayers of Linn County more than $17,000 to date. Getting his name in the paper and making a name for himself as a self-appointed watchdog seems to be more important than actually doing the job he was elected to do by the voters of Linn County. Who is watching the watchdog?

Our auditor has created and fostered bad relationships with all of the elected officials (sheriff, county attorney, treasurer, recorder and supervisors), and many department heads, managers and employees to the extent that many people avoid dealing with him unless required to. More time is wasted on trying to work with the auditor or work around him, which ultimately results in wasted tax dollars and lost productivity.

One of our auditor's earliest actions was to fire a longtime deputy auditor for elections, who had help to build Linn County's election department into a model for auditors across the state. When I worked in the auditor's office, we used to take pride in having the election results reports before the 10 p.m. news; now we are lucky to get them before midnight.

The taxpayers of Linn County deserve better. I have 18 years of experience in the private sector, 13 years in county government, all in facilities and project management. I have nine years of working in the auditor's office, some under former Auditor Linda Langenberg, so I have seen first hand how the office can and should be run.

I have managed significant multimillion dollar projects for the county, bringing them in on or under budget. I have the professional background and education to restore the sound fiscal management practices to the office, and more important, I can restore the integrity that the office of Linn County Auditor once enjoyed.

l Garth Fagerbakke, Linn County's construction manager, is the Republican candidate for auditor in the Nov. 6 election. Comments: garthf2@mchsi.com