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Committee debates internal audit staffing; favors trial contract and requests hours estimate
Summary
After the internal auditor resigned, the controller presented four staffing models (contract audit executive, contract executive plus staff, part-time employee, and hotline contract) and noted a proposal from Tyson Plastow. Committee members favored a low-risk trial—Park said Plastow offered 10 volunteer hours per month—and asked the controller to estimate audit hours needed for the year.
Scott Park described multiple staffing options after the internal auditor's resignation and asked the committee for input on whether to hire a full-time internal auditor, a staff-level auditor plus a contracted audit executive, or contract audit services. Park warned of trade-offs between cost and independence and described prior experience finding audit work that added value.
Several committee members and public members favored a trial contract (model 1) or a short-term volunteer arrangement to assess value. Park said Tyson Plastow had offered to volunteer up to 10 hours a month and suggested starting with that trial then moving to a paid contract if useful. "Maybe what we do is... hire an internal auditor staff and let's see if just under that volunteer time if that model even makes sense," Park said.
Members expressed concern about costs (Park cited $75,000 per large audit as a past cost) and the need for clear objectives, procurement, and scope. The committee asked Park to return with an estimate of the number of audit hours needed for the year and recommended soliciting multiple candidates and writing clear scopes for procurement.
