NEW MADRID TO GET COUNTY AUDITOR

NEW MADRID -- At the end of the month, New Madrid County residents will have a new county official.

The appointment of a county auditor is an unexpected addition to the county's budget, and not entirely welcomed.

The additional county post is the result of a law approved this spring by the Missouri Legislature. A small part of House Bill 987, and unknown to local officials until recently, was a requirement that second class counties (those with an annual valuation of $300 million) must have an auditor.

While many second class counties, such as Cape Girardeau, do have auditors, previously Missouri statutes left this provision up to each county. When New Madrid County became a second class county officially on Jan. 1 of this year, county officials had agreed not to add another county office, instead operating as they did as a third-class county with periodic review from the state auditor's office.

"The state statute would allow us to continue to operate as a third class county or if we wished to we could have a county auditor," said County Clerk Jim W. Farrenburg, who has served as the county's chief budget officer."Pure and simple, we had decided to go without an auditor because it would cost so much money for taxpayers."

The new county's auditor salary, set by statute, will be $45,000. With the additional costs of setting up the new office, including a an assistant, New Madrid County officials are estimated total cost will be more than $100,000 annually.

"I don't know how much it will cost, I don't even know where we will put the office in the courthouse because we are running out of space," added Farrenburg.

Missouri statutes set the requirements for the new office holder to be a U.S. citizens, above the age of 21 who has resided in Missouri for at least a year and in the county where he or she will serve at least three months immediately preceding the election or appointment. The candidate must be familiar with the "theory and practice of accounting by education, training and experience and able to perform the duties imposed upon the county auditor," according to Missouri Statute 55.060.

Once filling the office, the auditor must be a county resident.

According to the county clerk, had officials anticipated the change in Missouri laws to require second-class counties to have an auditor, they could have declared the office open and the candidate could have run for a full four-year term in 1998.

"We learned just over three weeks ago when the state auditor's office called to say the law had passed and the governor had signed it," he said. When the law goes into effect Aug. 28, the governor can name a person to fill the vacancy.

Once appointed, the auditor will fill the post until the next general election in the county. In this case, each party can elect candidates in the August 2000 primary with the auditor elected to a two-year unexpired term in November 2000. A full four-year term can be sought in 2002.

A seasoned politician, Farrenburg even worries whether a candidate would want to face three elections in a two-year period.

"Obviously though, this will give employment to someone," he continued. "Our position as the governing agency was we hate to get into something that will cost taxpayers over $100,000 a year for a service that we were getting free (through audits by the Missouri State auditor's office). But this is the law and we are going to have to comply."

H. Weldon Macke, who has served as Cape Girardeau's county auditor when it was a second-class county and through its transition to first-class county status, sees the addition of the office to the county rolls as a benefit for local citizens.

The main job of the new auditor will be to audit every county office in a monthly basis and to certify that expenditures made by officials are legal. In Cape Girardeau County, Macke serves as the budget officer and works with the treasurer on the county's investment program.

While praising New Madrid County's financial operation, Macke said, an auditor will work with county officials to make sure the county's budget balances to the penny. "It is just a check and balance on the county operations ... The auditor becomes a money manager. (The auditor) certifies the bills to be paid, the treasurer writes the checks and the county clerk mails out the checks."

Describing his other duties as serving as "watchdog," Macke said he works with the county commissioners to ensure bidding is done by state statute. If there is a problem with an office, the auditor can bring this to the county prosecuting attorney's attention for investigation.

Also the job can take financial duties off other office holders, freeing them up, he added.

He suggests that voters look for someone to fill the office who is experienced with balancing books, doing financial statements and investing. As a member of the Missouri County Auditors Association, the new auditor will also benefit from the 20 hours of training provided annually by the organization.

But most important, a county's auditor should work well with county officials and have a desire to serve the taxpayers. "An auditor can begin to put things in practice to make a better county," Macke said. "An auditor should save the county money, in our case it did."