Tooele County auditor's office warns staff strain after purchasing duties shifted

An employee in the county auditor’s office told the Tooele County Council on Sept. 2 that a recent budget transfer that shifted purchasing duties away from the auditor’s office has left the office with insufficient staff to complete current workload and ongoing audits. Carrie Mosling, who identified herself as an auditor’s office employee, said the office is operating at full capacity and the transfer reduced the purchasing position allocation to 49% of job duties while removing supporting staff.

Mosling told the council the office took on extra responsibilities during prior staff transitions, including substantial work to implement the county’s Tyler financial software, troubleshooting IT issues and reconciling a complex government bank account that she said was later expected to remain with the auditor’s office because Treasury staff could not complete the reconciliations. She said the office handled workman’s compensation claims during an HR transition until new staff could take over. Mosling said those duties, combined with seasonal peaks, leave the office unable to pursue additional modules of the Tyler system such as project accounting and grant management.

The employee said a budget transfer approved Aug. 19 allocated roughly 51% of the purchasing position to the manager’s office and left 49% within the auditor’s office “without any staff to support it,” an amount she characterized as insufficient (she described it as 19.6 hours per week of work, then clarified as 0.6 hours was not correct language used in her prepared remarks). Mosling said the change was made without council members visiting the office during busy seasons to observe workload and called the decision “disconnected” from the office’s daily reality.

A second speaker (identified in the transcript as a department head but not named) later raised related budget concerns during public comment, asking the council to clarify countywide priorities for the upcoming budget cycle and asked for consistent treatment when departments request personnel. That speaker said the manager’s office, facilities and the sheriff’s office had collaboratively moved funds for a generator and disputed a characterization that funds were moved against any department head’s will. They also noted an ongoing audit of a commissary account and questioned who would finish that audit if the person assisting left.

Discussion only: no formal motion or council action occurred during public comment on this item. Council members acknowledged the comments but did not take immediate action at the meeting. Mosling’s remarks were delivered during the public comment portion of the agenda; the record shows no vote or formal direction resulting from her remarks at this meeting.

Why it matters: Mosling described central financial functions and a sustained workload peak that the auditor’s office says could affect audits, reconciliation and the county’s ability to implement additional financial tools. Those services underpin county financial controls and the delivery of accounting and grant-management functions used by departments across the county. The council did not adopt any immediate remedy at the Sept. 2 meeting but heard requests for clarity and consistency ahead of the 2026 budget process.