At Linn County auditor’s request, state auditor to audit Linn County

The state auditor's office will audit Linn County's books for the last fiscal year in response to a request from County Auditor Joel Miller.

“Based on the request for re-audit and other information provided, we have determined that re-audit procedures are neccessary and appropriate,” Deputy State Auditor Andrew Nielsen wrote to county supervisors last week.

Miller requested the re-audit in March, part of his ongoing dispute with supervisors over some county departments' practice of maintaining separate accounts, funded by fines and fees, to conduct day-to-day business.

Miller said that was just one of several issues cited when he requested the state audit. He declined to disclose what the other issues were.

“I'm not sure which items triggered the decision to do the re-audit,” Miller said.  “I don't know if it was the accounts or something else.”

Nielsen said the re-audit will focus on issues raised by Miller – it won't be a complete second audit.

“A re-audit is a situation where either a group of citizens or an elected official or an employee wants things looked into,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen said state law prevents him from commenting further on the audit's focus.

The audit of county operations for the fiscal year 2010 (fiscal year 2011 ends Thursday)by the firm Eide Bailey gave the county a clean bill of financial health. The firm reported no problem with the county's accounting, although Miller said the auditors considered only whether the independent accounts balanced – not whether they're allowed by state law.

“It doesn't hurt having a second set of eyes on this again, but if the re-audit is looking at the sheriff's and assessor's accounts we've been told they're legal,” said Supervisor Ben Rogers, D-Cedar Rapids, chairman of the county board. “We'll cooperate fully with whatever the state auditor requests.”

Nielsen said re-audit fieldwork will occur in July.

“The timeline beyond that depends totally on what we find or don't find,” he said. “If they answer the questions that's been raised we go no longer.”

Still, it will take at least six months to write the re-audit report, pushing its public release to early 2012 at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Miller's lawsuit against the supervisors challenging their authority over his office's personnel matters.  He filed suit in February 2010 after the supervisors refused to authorize the promotion of Karen Heiderscheit to a deputy auditor's position.

Miller had planned to have Heiderscheit audit the departments' independent accounts.

State Auditor Letter