Update at 11:45 p.m. — The County Board has approved the hiring of auditor Jessica Tucker by a vote of 4-1, with retiring Board member Walter Tejada voting no. Tucker is Deputy Auditor for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
The Arlington County Board is set to hire its first independent auditor, six months after voting 4-1 to create the position.
At its meeting this afternoon, the Board is expected to approve a contract with an auditor named Jessica Tucker, to serve as Arlington’s Independent County Auditor. If approved, Tucker’s employment will begin Jan. 25.
Tucker will be responsible for conducting ” independent audits of County programs and operations, focused on program efficiency and effectiveness, often with the accompanying goal of increasing revenue or reducing expenditures,” according to a charge approved by the Board earlier this year.
The contract sets Tucker’s annual base salary at $125,000.
Tucker will serve at the pleasure of the Board and may be terminated by a majority vote of the Board. The position is considered independent because Tucker reports to the elected Board, as opposed to an existing internal county auditing function that reports to the appointed County Manager.
(The County Manager is the executive in charge of the vast majority of the county workforce. The County Board oversees only the hiring of the County Manager, County Clerk, County Attorney and now the Independent Auditor.)
The existing internal audit function is performed by 1.5 full-time-equivalent county employees within the Dept. of Management and Finance, along with external consultants, and is focused on “systematic core financial and compliance audits and internal controls reviews.”