Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on Internal Auditor:

POLITICS

More political twists with Hillsborough’s auditor post

By Mike Salinero | Tribune Staff 
Published: August 25, 2015

TAMPA — Hillsborough County’s internal auditor position was approved by voters to increase efficiency in county government and save taxpayers’ dollars.

But since its creation in 2002, the office has been known more for the auditors’ miscues and feuds with other county officials. The first two auditors were fired, and it took the county more than a year to find a third one.

This week, the tradition continued as the chairman of the county commission revealed plans to hire a top employee away from the clerk of court’s office to fill the internal auditor post. The employee, Peggy Caskey, is director of county audit for the Clerk of Circuit Court, a separate agency under Clerk of Court Pat Frank.

Frank had loaned Caskey to the county commission after the last internal auditor, Michelle Leonhardt, quit in March. The arrangement was supposed to last three months.

On Monday, Frank fired off a memo to the county commissioners saying she needed Caskey back.

“We agreed we could spare her for a time but we needed to have some understanding about exactly what that time is going to be,” Frank said in an interview Monday. “It’s now exceeded. We’ve got to get our business done.”

But on Tuesday, when a reporter asked commission Chair Sandy Murman why it was taking so long to recruit someone for the post, Murman said she planned to hire Caskey to fill the auditor’s post. She plans on putting the proposal on the agenda for next Wednesday’s commission meeting.

Murman acknowledged she had not told Frank about her plans.

“We wanted to see how it worked out,” Murman said. “It all worked out good. She has a lot of great experience and a lot of great ideas.”

When Frank was told about Murman’s plan, she took it calmly.

“I had not heard from Peggy, but from others that she was trying to get a job with the county,” Frank said. “If somebody wants to advance themselves, I’m never opposed to that. They pay more money than we do.”

Caskey could not be reached for comment.

Andrew Graham, chairman of the commission’s Internal Audit Committee, said the county has not advertised the internal auditor position. Nor has the audit committee, which plays an advisory role, reviewed any resumes.

“The county moves very slowly,” Graham said. “We’re just a committee of volunteers with no budget. We look to the county commission.”

Graham said the last time the county launched a search for a new internal auditor, it took a year before the board hired Leonhardt. The state’s sunshine laws hamper the process, Graham said, because job applications are public records and interviews are done in public.

“It’s a long process and not an easy process,” he said. “A lot of it is because it’s all public and people don’t want their current employer to know they’ve been looking for other work.”

Murman said she wanted to avoid another long, expensive search.

“We feel like we have someone that has the experience and qualifications,” Murman said.

Voters approved the internal performance auditor in 2002. The auditor, who was independent of the county administrator, has the power to audit any county department with commission approval.

But the office has often been in the news because of infighting between the auditor and other county officials. The original job description called for the internal performance auditor to analyze the county budget, which created friction with the county administrator.

The first two auditors, Kathleen Matthews and Jim Barnes were fired. Barnes gave county officials headaches, taking eight trips out of town on the taxpayers’ dime when the county was running a budget deficit. During that time, Barnes produced only a handful of audits.

Barnes also discovered a 1 percent pay raise that then-County Administrator Pat Bean approved for herself with the support of former County Attorney Renee Lee. The raise, which county commissioners had not authorized, eventually cost Bean her job.

In November 2010, voters approved changes to the office recommended by Orlando internal auditor Richard Tarr. They included creating an audit committee and dropping the word “performance” from the job title. The charter amendment also eliminated budget analysis from the internal auditor’s duties.

The audit committee, which meets quarterly, was created to review the internal auditor’s work and to serve as buffer between the auditor and the commission.