Tazewell County voters opted to continue electing their auditor in 2018. Now, they could be asked if they want to keep the office at all.
The county board's executive committee held discussions Wednesday on the possibility of placing a referendum to eliminate the auditor’s office on the November ballot.
“I had several board members reach out to me and asked if I would be willing to put this back on the ballot, or at least for discussion,” board chairman Dave Zimmerman said. “We did try to pass this in the past and we were unsuccessful.
“I talked with several of the board members; I talked to the current auditor, Brett Grimm, to get his thoughts. And in light of that, everyone's feedback, I decided to at least put a discussion item on the agenda.”
Zimmerman is not seeking another term as board chair, and Grimm is in line to succeed him in that role as the unopposed Republican nominee. Zimmerman says this transition presents a renewed opportunity to consider whether the position is needed.
“It’s not like we're ousting an incumbent, and so this is kind of a good time to do it,” he said. “We did a lot of research several years ago when we tried this, and many of those facts remain the same.”
Before Grimm was elected four years ago to replace Shelly Hranka as auditor, he was on the county board when the 2018 referendum saw 57% of voters choose to keep the auditor as an elected office.
“Since then, it was one of those things that we really wanted to try to bring some qualifications and different things to the office, to help eliminate some of the different problems that were going on with it,” Grimm said. “So for me, it was a great opportunity to say, ‘OK, if the voters wanted to keep it, then you know, how can we make this better? What can we do?’
“So I got to be able to be in there for now for 3½ years and see what some of those things are. We moved some of the items out to the finance department, and that's been going very well and we've got kind of a plan for how that goes.”
Grimm says deciding how to handle the auditor's office is a topic he would rather deal with in a couple years.
“I'm not 100% sure where I fall on it, because the voters have wanted it back in 2018 – and I can argue it both ways. I can see the benefits of keeping it and I can certainly see the benefits of having somebody with certifications in that role. But I think now is not the right time to do it,” Grimm said.
Bill Funkhouser is the presumptive auditor-elect after winning the GOP primary with no Democrat currently in the race. He says the county auditor is a worthwhile position that functions as a safeguard for taxpayers.
“I do not expect to see any nefarious activities; Tazewell County is a pretty well-run county,” said Funkhouser, a registered and licensed certified public accountant (CPA). “But that being said, there needs to be some independent eyes looking at the information. Right now, the board gets all their information from the county administrator, and there's no checks and balances to make sure that that is accurate.
“Now at the same time, there's been previous county auditors – in Tazewell and in other places – that weren't qualified for the position, and I think that is probably what is driving some of the activity about getting rid of it. You need to get a person who has the expertise, and you have to have a person that is committed to the job, and sometimes we fall short in those things in Illinois. So I certainly understand county board members saying, ‘If we're not getting any value out of it, we need to get rid of it.’”
Acknowledging a history of disagreements with Zimmerman, Grimm says he would prefer to see Funkhouser get into the auditor's office and assess it, before any decision to eliminate it is made.
“David was the board chairman when we tried to put it on a referendum before; I was on the board when he put it on a referendum before, and I think (the auditor’s office) needs somebody who is actually qualified and impartial to come in, look at it for a couple of years, and then we talk to him about what he thinks. Because right now, I think that the people that are doing this are too close to the issue or have too much of a past,” Grimm said.
According to a fact sheet presented by the Illinois Association of County Board Members and Commissioners, the county auditor “maintains the official records of all receipts, disbursements, and fund balances.”
Under the Illinois statute, only counties with more than 75,000 residents are qualified to have an elected auditor.
“The biggest issue with the auditing statute as it is, is – even though Mr. Funkhouser is very qualified for this position – there are no qualifications other than being 18 and a resident of the county to be an auditor of a $65 million in entity,” Zimmerman said. “I don't think any business person, or really any voter, would be comfortable with someone just being 18 and a resident of the county auditing the books of a county.”
Only 16 of the 102 counties in Illinois still have elected auditors, after Peoria County voted to eliminate the office in 2022. Zimmerman says he anticipates following Peoria County's model on absorbing the auditor's duties.
“The auditor's office, quite frankly, in Tazewell County doesn't have a lot of responsibilities, only those that are statutorily mandated,” he said. “We feel like we can pick up many of those functions by using our outside auditor, which we're required by law to bring in every year, and with our finance department randomly auditing offices, like the current auditor does.”
Funkhouser admits he has a vested interest in seeing the auditor’s office remain, but he feels he should have the opportunity to show the value of the position.
“If the county board members don't feel that there’s a need for a county auditor, that’s one thing,” Funkhouser said. "If the county board members feel that there is a need but that they have difficulty attracting qualified candidates, then that's a different story. And I can fix the second one; I can't fix the first."
Zimmerman says he expects a proposal to put a referendum to eliminate the auditor on the November ballot will go before the full Tazewell County board at its June meeting.
