City auditor urges council to restore and expand audit staffing, warns of independence risk

City Auditor Robert Timmerman told the Minneapolis Budget Committee on Oct. 16 that the Office of City Auditor needs additional staffing to meet growing oversight demands and warned that the mayor’s proposed budget, as presented, would eliminate positions the council had approved earlier in 2025.

"We must act in the public interest by maintaining honesty, courage and fairness," Timmerman said, describing the office’s adoption of generally accepted government auditing standards and its role reporting to the Audit Committee. He reviewed accomplishments since his appointment in February, including completion of a 2025 Enterprise Risk Assessment, three audit reports and five advisory memos, and said the office closed 33 audit issues while monitoring 38 ongoing issues.

Timmerman described a two‑phase rightsizing proposal the council supported earlier in 2025. The council approved four new FTEs in phase one; the auditor said three of those have been filled. He said the mayor’s proposed 2026 budget appears to remove two of the council‑approved positions and relies on an inaccurate baseline that omits council budget adjustments made during 2025. "The mayor's budget proposal disregarded your investment in the Office of City Auditor of the four FTEs I mentioned earlier," Timmerman said, adding that the proposed cuts would require layoffs of real individuals currently in roles the council had funded.

Timmerman asked the committee to restore the two positions and to approve a second phase that would add three more FTEs (a deputy city auditor, a director for a new division focused on special reviews and fraud investigations, and additional audit support). He presented benchmarking showing Minneapolis has fewer auditors per resident than peer cities and argued adding internal capacity would reduce spending on outside contractors. The auditor said the office had contracted with external law firms and auditors for specialized work (including reviews tied to high‑profile incidents) and estimated contractual outsourcings could cost roughly $175,000–$200,000 for current matters that would be less costly with in‑house capacity.

Council members from across the chamber responded with support for independent oversight and expressed concern about cuts. Council President Andrea Payne said the city auditor role is a key tool under the new government structure created by voters in 2021. Council Member Palmisano noted that other departments had been asked to propose significant cuts and said the legislative side was shouldering burdens "for us." Several council members and the auditor referenced recent audit findings — including an outside audit (Helix) that identified overpayments and contract‑management gaps in a Health Department contract — as examples of the work the auditor’s office enables.

Timmerman said the office reports to the Audit Committee and is accountable to Minneapolis residents; he warned against using the auditor’s budget for political maneuvering and urged the council to protect the office’s independence and fund adequate staffing to complete program evaluations, fraud and abuse investigations, and after‑action reviews.

Ending: The Budget Committee received the auditor’s presentation. Timmerman’s request frames a fiscal and governance choice for the council as it finalizes its 2026 budget: restore the two council‑approved positions and add three more FTEs to align the office with peer cities and reduce reliance on costly outside contractors, or accept lower in‑house oversight capacity and higher outsourced costs.