For those of us that were involved in the media when Chris Koster was Cass County prosecuting attorney in the mid-1990s, there was an old joke: the most dangerous place in Cass County was between Koster and a television camera. While Koster was not always available to the media, he would move heaven and earth to be there if a TV camera was involved. His savvy served him well as he advanced to state representative, state senate, attorney general and came very close to being elected governor of Missouri. Many politicians know how to harness publicity.
I wonder how much of that is the case with state auditors: is it dangerous to be audited when its election time? I regularly receive notices of a state auditor’s work, most are mundane; some seem to reveal serious problems, but rarely, unless in the case of criminal acts, do they get the dreaded “poor” rating. Poor is defined as “the audit results indicate this entity needs to significantly improve operations. The report contains numerous findings that require management’s immediate attention.”
Somehow, this is the rating the current state auditor, Scott Fitzpatrick placed on the Bates County Sheriff’s Office last week. Clearly stated, there were no criminal actions, however the auditor characterizes things like the mounted patrol and an appendant organization, the Sheriff’s Posse, as “wastes” of taxpayers’ money. To be clear as an outsider looking in, one could wonder if the expenses are justified. But words mean something and an auditor using a term like “waste” is harsh and is not warranted.
There are two avenues to look at this issue. I have often been at events where the mounted patrol has been on display and I have on several occasions taken the opportunity to pet the equine’s snout. From a public relations standpoint, the mounted patrol is wonderful: kids love the horses, people feel comfortable coming up and asking deputies questions and horses coming down the street in a parade make you feel much better about law enforcement than someone driving an urban assault vehicle demonstrating law enforcement strength. The mounted patrol has been called on and played key a key role in life-saving operations. Bates Countians are proud, and should be, of the mounted patrol.
But the second avenue of thought is the political side: again, the state auditor found no criminal actions or intents. There were some issues in bookkeeping that should be addressed, but they were minor in comparison to the vicious comments about the posse and mounted patrol. But, it sure made headlines, whether it was our website or every TV station in the area or news outlets throughout the state, the news came out: the auditor was exposing waste, ironically, two weeks before an election where Fitzpatrick is being challenged in the Republican primary. With one simple word, poor, he managed to get himself a good share of publicity.
I remember a case in 2017, it was my first month with this newspaper, when the then state auditor, Nicole Galloway, gave the same rating to the city of Harrisonville. Much like the Bates County situation, no actual misdeeds or criminal acts were noted, simply “appearances” and “need for improved procedures” were noted. Galloway, a Democrat, was appointed to the job in 2015 and was up for reelection in 2018, and many presumed her report on the city was a grab for attention. There were many in the crowd when the report was read, questioning the $70,000 the audit had cost the city. Although the cost of the Bates County audit has not been noted, with three years of action it will obviously be costly and the ones paying for it will be the citizens of Bates County.
I went back and reread the story of the Harrisonville audit and a couple comments stood out to me and should be noted in the current case as well. The audit manager at the time said both sides of the debate should not try to read too much into the findings.
“The audit is inherently negative; you don’t hear about the positive things. We looked at many other areas that are not included in the report, and the reason they are not reported is we looked and determined everything was fine.” He also noted, “The ratings, excellent, good, fair and poor, are very subjective. It is simply used for a comparison to what we find here as opposed to what we have found in other places.”
It is also interesting to note the Missouri Sheriff’s Association came out with a letter to the auditor’s office this week saying: “The media release accompanying the Bates County audit was unnecessarily personal, inflammatory, and sensationalized… Your office can, and should, identify questionable expenditures, inadequate documentations, weak financial controls and potential violations of law without personally diminishing an elected official.”
It appears that as far as the mounted patrol and posse are concerned, little if anything will be changed. County officials have promised to clean up some of the other details which were documented, which they should. And it appears the auditor has gained some notoriety, which we must assume was the reason for the kerfuffle.
In the end, a lot of money was spent and little was accomplished other than the auditor got some free publicity right before an election
