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Auditor‑Controller highlights recruitment gap for government accountants and Workday support needs
Summary
Auditor‑Controller Andy Sisk described outreach to university programs, rising special‑district workloads and a need for internships, and said the auditor’s office is monitoring talent shortages that affect accounting, payroll and audit operations; no supplemental county general‑fund request was made.
Auditor‑Controller Andy Sisk presented the department budget and described several workforce and training initiatives intended to address a widely reported talent shortage for governmental accounting and auditing.
Sisk said the office has expanded outreach to universities (Sacramento State, Sierra College, University of Nevada‑Reno) and high‑school civic programs to recruit accounting and IT talent; the office will bring two interns on for the summer to help with special‑district workload and peak‑period accounting tasks. He described the auditor’s role in training county departments on financial and accounting fundamentals and said the county’s annual single‑audit for federal awards returned a clean compliance report in the most recent audit cycle.
Sisk flagged recruitment and retention as a continuing challenge for government accountants and auditors, noting that neighboring jurisdictions and agencies are actively recruiting the same personnel. He said some county job specifications (senior accountant, supervising accountant and other professional series) are outdated and that updated specs and a professional compensation study are needed to remain competitive.
The auditor‑controller’s office listed three vacancies in its office and said it would continue recruiting an ERP analyst (Workday), a supervising account auditor and a senior auditor. The office is seeking another payroll technician in Workday to help manage growing payroll complexity; this request appears in the department materials but the office submitted no other supplemental general‑fund requests.
Board members praised the outreach and noted the difficulty of competing for certified professionals; Sisk said the national accounting profession is seeing a public‑sector talent shortage and he and HR are pursuing strategies including internships, job‑spec modernization and engagement with higher‑education partners.
