What does Sanford think about the County’s Audit?
The County Audit is a critical issue for the County right now.
Here is Sanford’s take on the situation, and why he’s the right person to deal with this…
Why is this important?
The county's late fiscal audit has real impact on county residents. Grant money is not being reimbursed and the county is unable to apply for some future grants.
Programs conducted by the regional planning commission will be impacted and services might be reduced.
Future grants may not be awarded for the next year, meaning the county's budget problems will only get worse
This will be a problem for at least a year, certainly until we have a clean and timely audit. Hopefully that can be the 2025 audit.
What will Sanford do about the audit?
If I am elected, I will accept full ownership for taking care of this situation. I didn't create this problem, but I will make sure we fix it.
The Budget Director reports directly to the County Executive, and the Budget Director manages six positions of Finance staff. (These titles and numbers are from the County’s 2026 budget.)
This means that the County Executive can work directly with the Budget Director to define procedures for payments, journal entries, reconciliations, and validations in the financial system. (The County uses the Tyler system known as “Munis”.)
“Procedures” are the basic instructions we create for staff about how to perform the steps of their process. This is a fundamental tool for government processes - and it’s something I know a lot about. (Here’s a long blog I wrote about them: https://blog.tectonicspeed.com/2022/05/tectonic-speed-of-government-part-7.html)
Training staff to follow procedures and perform functions regularly (daily tasks, monthly reconciliations, etc.) is how we will create repeatable processes that can occur even when staff change.
Why is Sanford the right person to handle the audit?
Helping governments set up financial procedures and reporting is exactly the area where I've spent most of my 33 year career.
As a consultant, I just helped McLean County transition to exactly the same system that Champaign County uses. I know the Tyler Munis system. I helped McLean County set up their chart of accounts, their financial controls, and helped identify procedures for common tasks like journal entries and reconciliation. I even met with their auditor, Clifton Larson Allen, to discuss future audit strategies for McLean County.
Want a deep dive? Here is the proposal I wrote in 2025 to win the work with McLean County: Sanford’s Proposal
When I decided to run for this office, I thought I'd be bringing my general skills with government administration. Little did I know that my expertise in government financial systems would be such a huge benefit.
I look forward to hitting the ground running with the county executives finance team. They will not need to spend any time getting me up to speed on Munis. We will focus on clear and repeatable procedures and instructions for reconciliation.