The King James Bible cautions: “No man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled.”
Yet Denver voters will indeed look at “new wine in old bottles” when they fill out their May 1 mail-in ballots. For the first time, they will directly elect their city clerk and recorder, pouring new powers into that old office in hopes of solving Denver’s election mess.
Additionally, whoever wins the familiar office of city auditor will face a radically different set of duties than the office formerly performed.
The first change will bring Denver into line with the 62 other Colorado counties that have long elected their clerk and recorder, a post that combines routine record-keeping functions with supervising elections. Denver gave the recorder duties to an appointed clerk when it created its city and county structure in 1902. But it gave control over elections to a three-member commission, two members of which were elected by the people while the third was the appointed city clerk.
When Broomfield became Colorado’s second combined city/county in 2001, it opted for an appointed clerk and recorder who also oversees the election division. Thus, 63 Colorado counties put control of elections under a single clerk. Only Denver clung to its hybrid system of two part-time elected election commissioners joined by a full-time appointed clerk doubling in brass as the third part-time election commissioner.
Denver’s divided command was a disaster waiting to happen – and so it did, though the wait was a long one, 104 years. The city massively bungled the 2006 general election, with estimates of as many as 20,000 voters giving up before the massive lines at the vote centers finally receded in the early morning hours.
The City Council reacted to the fiasco by putting a reform plan on the January ballot to abolish the commission and put election duties in the hands of a single elected clerk, and it passed by a 2-1 margin. Thus, Stephanie O’Malley and Jacob Werther are contesting for your vote as Denver’s first elected clerk and recorder. Let us hope the winner can restore Denver elections to the efficiency they displayed for more than a century.
As to the second historic change, most Denver residents were surprised to learn last year that their auditor did very little auditing. I was likewise astonished as a young Post reporter in 1973 when then-city auditor Chuck Byrne explained that the 1902 charter didn’t specify auditing as one of his responsibilities. Instead, it saddled the auditor with payroll and accounting functions for a host of city agencies. The kind of routine auditing most citizens wrongly assumed the auditor was doing – reviewing the books with a gimlet eye to be sure nobody is double-billing the city – was actually contracted out to professional accounting firms.
That changed last year after voters approved a charter amendment proposed by a study panel appointed by Mayor John Hickenlooper. The long-overdue reform gave the payroll and bookkeeping functions to an appointed chief financial officer, freeing resources in the auditor’s office for contract reviews and the vital modern job of “performance auditing.”
Performance audits go beyond merely verifying that nobody stole any money and focus on whether the best available management practices are in place. They often propose reforms that give taxpayers better service for less money.
Denver is the only Colorado county to elect its auditor – and when you think about it, filling a technical office like auditor by popular vote makes about as much sense as electing your dentist. But at least incumbent Dennis Gallagher or challenger Bill Wells will take office in July with the clear authority to do what most Denver voters always assumed their auditor did, which is to try to ensure the taxpayers get full value for their hard-earned dollars.
Bob Ewegen (bewegen@denverpost.com) is deputy editorial page editor of The Denver Post.
