Chief Examiner says audit completions rose to 812 and outlines municipal compliance push

Chief Examiner Rachel Riddle told the Legislative Committee on Public Accounts on Feb. 12, 2026, that her office has rebuilt audit capacity and is seeing measurable progress in statutory audit completions.

Riddle said the office began with 128 examiners in 2018 and, through hiring and process efficiencies, has increased capacity and training. "We're actually seeing this happen," she said, citing audit progress that she summarized as rising to 812 completed statutory audits by the end of fiscal year 2025.

Why it matters: Municipal audit compliance affects transparency and public accountability for roughly 472 municipalities the examiner's office tracks. Riddle said the department received authority over municipalities via earlier legislation, has hired a municipal audit compliance director, and sent more than 300 letters to municipalities as part of a compliance outreach effort.

Riddle said Representative Chestnut’s 2019 bill (amended in 2021) provided the department jurisdiction over municipalities and that Representative Lamb has a bill this year that Riddle says has already passed the House and would tighten municipal compliance further. She told the committee the office is building an online public database so residents can view municipal audits and that the new compliance director will monitor filings regularly.

Riddle described uneven compliance across municipalities: some have never had audits, others lost auditing as a priority after administrative turnover. She said the office is trying to be "very, very fair" in implementation, noting the cost barrier for small towns where audits can run from about $5,000 to $20,000.

On enforcement tools, Riddle said a prior restructuring bill associated with Representative Pringle gives the office authority to impose financial pressure on municipal governance leaders: "It gave me the ability to charge people in charge of governance ... $250 a week personally" until corrective action is in place, she said. The committee did not record a separate, contested response to that enforcement description during the meeting.

Committee members asked about the timeline for improved consistency. Riddle told an unnamed senator she did not expect 100% compliance, but she hoped the office would "have our hands wrapped around it within 2 years." She framed the progress in staffing and training as the reason for rising audit completions and shrinking backlog.

What’s next: The committee heard the report and moved on to appointments. Riddle asked members to direct municipal calls and complaints to her office as the department implements the compliance outreach and the planned public database.

Quotes from the meeting appear as stated by speakers in the committee record.