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Committee approves transfer of vacant positions to city auditor to stand up program-evaluation division
Summary
The Budget Committee advanced a proposal to reassign existing vacant general-fund positions to the Office of City Auditor to create a Special Review and Advisory Services division; the recorded roll-call vote was 7 in favor, 1 opposed and several members absent.
The Budget Committee advanced a personnel-transfer proposal to create a program-review and evaluation division inside the Office of City Auditor.
Casey Karl, head of the Legislative Department, explained the request: transfer a small number of existing, general-fund vacant positions (vacant at least 12 months) to the auditor's office to staff a Special Review and Advisory Services division. The positions were limited to non-sworn, lower-level roles and financed from the general fund to minimize operational disruption. Karl said the approach is intended to be an apples-to-apples transfer that supports the auditor's charter duties without creating new budget pressure.
City Auditor Robert Timerman outlined the proposed work of the new division: independent program evaluations, after-action reviews, special investigations into fraud, waste and abuse, and advisory services to improve departmental performance. Timerman said the office currently has six auditors and that demand for advisory and program-evaluation work exceeds capacity; he requested adding two internal auditors, a quality-assurance and training manager and an administrative assistant in 2025, with additional hires and a director-level position to follow in 2026. He estimated mid-range annual salary costs for the initial hires in the low-to-mid hundreds of thousands of dollars total (staffing cost estimates were presented by step level ranges).
After questions from committee members about supervision, alignment with work that had been moved to the clerk's office, and how the additional capacity would be prioritized, the clerk called a recorded roll. The vote was recorded as seven ayes (Council President Payne, Councilmember Wonsley, Councilmember Cashman, Councilmember Chavez, Councilmember Chowdhury, Vice Chair Koski and Chair Chughtai), one no (Councilmember Palmisano) and several absences (reported in the roll). The chair announced the motion carries and the item will move forward for finalization.
The committee discussed next steps: staff directed to work with the administration and the auditor on a final staffing and funding plan for a subsequent meeting and to provide details on any fiscal impacts and classification steps needed to implement the transfers.
