In his bid for a third term as Denver Auditor, Dennis Gallagher is facing two challengers.
But we’ll stick, again, with Gallagher, who has operated the office effectively for the past four years.
Gallagher’s office is now in the middle of what is expected to be a months-long audit of the Public Works change-order process. Of Public Works contracts in 2010, 26 required change orders, and their value grew by an average of almost 17 percent, according to a recent Denver Post story.
In a letter to former Public Works director and now Mayor Guillermo “Bill” Vidal, Gallagher called some of the change orders for one particular company over the years “outrageous.”
“Is there any real justification for the dollars paid to this company over and above the original bid?” Gallagher wrote.
Last year, Gallagher needled the Hickenlooper administration over whether the city’s wastewater enterprise fund was being used appropriately.
Even if the city wasn’t facing a $100 million shortfall, these are the types of audits that are necessary to ensure that taxpayer money is being spent efficiently.
Gallagher has adapted well to changes made to the city charter in 2006 that moved payroll and accounting functions out of his office and to an appointed chief financial officer. The change has allowed the auditor to focus on these types of financial and performance audits.
Gallagher served 16 years on the state Legislative Audit Committee, and has been a dedicated public servant for decades.
One of his opponents, Bill Wells, is a professional auditor, and has run for the office three previous times.
Wells has proposed submitting a charter amendment to replace the elected auditor with a professional auditor, hired by the independent audit committee. We think that’s an intriguing idea worthy of some debate.
Also running is Marcus Richardson, a certified internal controls auditor.
