In the December 12, 2017, issue of the Register-Guard, reporter Christian Hill writes:
Eugene’s elected leaders steered clear Monday of taking a stance on the May ballot measure to create an office of an elected independent city auditor—at least at this time.
Later in the meeting, city councilors also took their first public action on the proposed downtown land swap since a setback from a judge last month.
The City Council took a wait-and-see approach on the city auditor measure while leaving the door open for future discussion.
City ordinance allows the council to either support or oppose Measure 20-283, an amendment to the city charter that qualified for the ballot in October; take no stance; or place a competing measure on the same ballot.
City councilors generally agreed during the 90-minute discussion that they saw value in a city auditor to identify ways to save public money, improve programs and services, and identify mismanagement and fraud.
While a majority of the city councilors said they had concerns about the ballot measure, they couldn’t come to an agreement on a formal response to it. Concerns identified by the city councilors included the measure’s cost as well as the lack of a residency requirement for the elected auditor, oversight for his or her work, and authority to effect change. …