City has only a financial auditor

In the April 18, 2018, issue of the Register-Guard, Eugene resident Bob Cassidy writes in a letter:

The president of the League of Woman Voters claims in an April 14 letter that the city of Eugene already has an auditor. And that’s true, but that’s a financial auditor. And it’s required of a city to have one. The numbers balance, and money is spent legally.

A performance auditor gives advice to the City Council — and city manager — on ways that they can do their jobs better and maybe even save money in the process.

How the city can give citizens better service is the real question. For instance, should the police department have more officers, or could it do as good a job with the current staff? Could a performance audit by an outsider assist the police to do a better job? Or should the police “audit” themselves? Should a police audit simply count the number of people in the city and its relation to number of staff? Should we just compare ourselves to other cities? Are there new ideas that could be implemented to police the city that they haven’t thought of yet?

It’s like hiring a consultant. But our auditor would know all the city departments, not just the police department.

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