Charter panel moves internal-audit language, debates auditor subpoena and deputy authority

The Lansing Charter Commission voted June 3 to move the internal- and external-audit provisions from the draft charter's legislative article into the finance article and approved adding the internal auditor as an intended recipient of the mayor's written response to audit reports.

The change was approved after commission counsel Kristen presented a memo recommending the relocation. "We don't think that it makes sense to keep it there given the sort of independent nature," Kristen said, describing the recommendation to place audit language in Article VII on finance rather than Article III, the legislative section.

Commissioners then debated how much power to give the internal auditor. Commissioner Boyd raised concerns about language that appeared to allow the internal auditor to subpoena city employees and to access personnel files. "The power that was given to them allows them, one, to subpoena anybody in the city they want," Boyd said. He and other commissioners said subpoena authority typically belongs to the city council and that broad access to human-resources files could raise privacy and labor-relations issues.

Kristen told the commission the audit language was modeled on Detroit's charter and that "if you're going to empower someone to do an audit, I think there was some misunderstanding as to what the scopes of the audits are." She characterized performance audits as reviews of departmental efficiency rather than investigations of individual employees.

The commission approved the motion to relocate audit sections by voice vote. It also voted to add the internal auditor to section 4-102.7, the provision that requires the mayor to respond in writing to an internal auditor report. That motion passed on a voice vote after Commissioner Boyle said, "I think we should add the internal auditor because the mayor and the city council are hiring the internal auditor together."

Commissioners debated whether the charter should "require" a deputy internal-audit director. Commissioner Dowd and others said mandatory deputy language was unusual in the charter; Commissioner Lopez argued that a required deputy would ensure staffing to do the work. Commissioners voted on an amendment to change the deputy appointment from mandatory language ("shall appoint") to permissive language ("may appoint"). The amendment failed on a roll call vote; the transcript records the motion as denied.

Discussion items were recorded as discussion only; no change was made to remove audit access language or subpoena language during the meeting. Commissioners asked staff to review the precise wording and the practical implications, and counsel said she would return with any implementing edits needed to reflect the commission's votes.

Ending: The commission left unresolved detailed limits on subpoena and personnel-access powers and directed counsel to prepare final text edits after the votes were incorporated. The adopted structural change—moving audit language into the finance article and adding the internal auditor to the mayor's response requirement—will be included in the packet forwarded for publication.