The Macon County Auditor is the "financial arm of the county," according to Carol Reed, the current elected auditor. She manages financial reporting, payroll, health insurance, and grants.
If the April 4th 2023 Referendum passes, her elected job would be eliminated and likely replaced by an unelected financial expert, hired by the County Board. Carol says "anybody could run for auditor," and believes the County Board wants to ensure only a credentialed professional can run the office.
She says if a non-financial person were to be elected, the County would have to hire a financial expert to assist, in addition to the Auditor's $90,000 salary. It may not be a requirement, but Carol Reed is a CPA (Certified Public Accountant), has been the Auditor for 8 years, and served as deputy County Auditor for about 10 years prior.
As an independent elected official, Carol has primary authority over the office, with some oversight by the County Board. Under a hired financial expert, "the County Board would have more [say] in how the office operates," says Carol.
Carol says in most counties with auditors, the office's primary function is internal audits of other offices, but "We don't do that as much becasue we don't have the time. I mean, we do audit accounts payable, accounts receivable, and receipts and stuff, but we don't go out and do discovery type audits in other offices."
Carol said there haven't been any major auditing-related issues in her time in the office, aside from one incident with an employee 10 or 15 years ago, who was terminated.
"We rely on our outside auditors" who have to come in once a year for "a certified financial audit," she says.
As far as eliminating the elected-component of the office, Carol Reed says "I'm not really for or against eliminating it," that she doesn't "want politics to be involved in the running of this office," and that "I want it to function well and have a financial person in here who can run things."
She says it hasn't been a very political position during her tenure. She plans to retire in two years and just wants to see that "the office is left in good shape".
About the Referendum
The referendum was approved by the County Board on January 12th, 2023. The ballot question will read "Shall Macon County eliminate the office of County Auditor, effective December 1, 2024?" with a YES or NO answer.
Approving the referendum just means the question will be on the ballot. If a majority of voters choose 'YES' this April 4th, 2023, then the office will be eliminated. Otherwise, there will be no changes.
The referendum was approved with 11 YES votes and 1 NO vote. The County Board has 15 members total.
Macon County Democrats
At an MLK Day event, Karl Coleman expressed support for keeping the office of Auditor.
Karl did inform me that Charla Bond-Jones is planning to run for County Auditor in 2024 if the referendum fails. According to Karl Coleman, she currently works for the State of Illinois as an auditor. The 2024 County run would be her first foray into public office.
The Illinois Comptroller lists Charla as a 'Public Service Administrator', for the 'Department of Transportation', earning $84,700 in 2022. Charla is listed as a 'Grant Accountability and Transparency Unit Coordinator' for the 'Governor’s Office of Management and Budget' in a January 2022 Report
I contacted Karl Coleman and Charla Bond-Jones on Jan 26th for a formal statement regarding the referendum. Both said they would send me a statement that evening. At time of publishing (Jan 27th, 11am) neither has sent me a statement.
Macon County Republicans
I emailed Kevin Greenfield (County Board Chair) and Linda Little (County Board Vice Chair) for comment on January 26th, but have not received a reply as of January 27th at 11am.
Notes
- Carol Reed is the source for most claims in this article.
- This was also covered by Taylor Vidmar