Text copied from Action Network form sponsored by ChangePeoria.

The Peoria County Board Is Attempting To Eliminate The People’s County Financial Watchdog!

The Peoria County Board wants to replace the Peoria County Auditor position with a computer program, the finance department, and an outside auditor all of which they control. They are meeting this Thursday, August 11, at 6 pm.

The County Board will then vote on wasting public resources for a second time to bring a referendum to the public to eliminate the Auditor’s office. But the auditor position is required for counties with over 75,000 people, including Peoria County.

Jessica Thomas, in response to the County Board’s referendum and illegally duplicating the county auditor’s duties:

“Only the county auditor has legal authority for these duties. Currently, this duplication by the creation of the finance office is costing taxpayers over $682,215 a year (the [finance] office’s current 2022 budget),” she said. “Keeping the [auditor’s] office around means ending this insane and illegal duplication and placing the duties back in the county auditor’s office, who works for the voters.”

The County Board tried to make the County Auditor an appointed position with a ballot measure in 2018. Voters rejected the ballot question to end elections for auditors and make it an appointed position.

“Now, with the referendum being proposed again, it is clear that the board is not seeking the will of the people from the 2018 referendum or the best interest of county resources by bringing this to voters again in hopes they can get the answer they want. It is wasteful for the County Board to use human resources and tax dollars to continually bring forth the same referendum voters have declined just four years ago,” Jessica Thomas said.

For Jessica, the reason for keeping the County Auditor position is the same as the reason the State created it in 1919–to act as a watchdog for the people. Jessica said:

“This battle isn’t a Jessica Thomas v. County Board; rather, this is a People of Peoria County v. County Board. The office of the county auditor belongs to the people. The County Board over the years has hijacked the office from the people and refuses to honor the determination of the 2018 primary election. Instead, they want to use the people’s money to continually propose this referendum in an effort to manipulate the voters to answer in their favor.”

We ask that the County Board respect the determination of the 2018 referendum, stop attempts to undermine the voters’ decision, and fully fund the County Auditor’s Office to be the people’s financial watchdog.

STOP ATTEMPTS TO ELIMINATE COUNTY AUDITOR

FULLY FUND COUNTY AUDITOR  

We invite you to attend the Informational Peoria County Auditor Virtual Town Hall this Wednesday, August 10, at 6 pm before the County board meeting on Thursday. The meeting is via Microsoft Teams at this link. Please share and invite all to attend the Informational Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday at 6 pm and the Peoria County Board Meeting Thursday, August 11 at 6 pm.

This article was originally published on Strangecornersofthought.com.