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2006 Seattle Elections General Elections Voters' Guide Chrtr Am 9-Auditor Appointer and Length of Term - Statement For and Rebuttal Statement For Charter Amendment No. 9 This proposed charter amendment changes the manner of appointment of the City Auditor and reduces this person’s term from six to four years. Currently the Chair of Seattle City Council’s Finance Committee appoints the City Auditor. The City Auditor no longer does exclusively financial audits. The bulk of the City’s fiscal audits are handled by the State Auditor. The primary job of the City Auditor’s is to conduct internal performance audits of city agencies and departments, such as the very recently completed audit of the Parks Department’s public process, or earlier audits of City Light and the Seattle Public Library. It is preferable that a majority of City Council, rather than a sole Councilmember, appoint the city auditor, in order to avoid possible bias in this person’s selection. A four-year term for this individual provides consistency with the terms of other department heads. STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY: Gail Chiarello, Progressive Democratic Caucuses of Washington 46th District (PDCW46), P. O. Box 51164, Seattle, WA 98115. E-mail gailchiarello@comcast.net Rebuttal of Statement For The change in appointment authority is technical in nature—since the appointment requires Council confirmation, the Finance Committee Chair does not actually have sole authority. If this were the only change, there would be no problem with the amendment. However, the change in length of term is the critical issue, and will potentially compromise the independence of whoever is appointed. STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY: Richard Conlin, Seattle City Councilmember |
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