Experts Weigh In: How Will the Linn County Auditor Lawsuit Play Out?

Kristi Harshbarger, legal counsel for the Iowa State Association of Counties, said there's a reason it's so hard to say what will happen in the Linn County Auditor lawsuit.

Iowa law gives many powers to the board of supervisors, but also gives many other powers to department heads, like the Linn County Auditor, which creates an often confusing balance.

"The way the code is written can be a good thing and a bad thing," she said. "It doesn’t give ultimate control to one person or two people in county government."

At the core of the between the Linn County Auditor and the Linn County Board of Supervisors are two questions: Who has the power to hire and fire department officials and can the auditor perform internal audits of county finance?

The case, in which the sides are suing each other, started when auditor Joel Miller hired a deputy auditor without the consent of the supervisors, and the supervisors refused to pay her salary. That’s in addition to whether or not the Linn County Auditor has the authority to investigate and audit county finance.

Marion Patch spoke with officials and experts about these issues to find out that this case might be decided on county rules and procedures, as opposed to state law.

Auditing

Holly Fokkena is Butler County Auditor and last year’s president of the Iowa State Association of County Auditors.

She said the issue of internal auditing simply hasn’t come up in the fourteen years she’s spent as an auditor or in her time in the association. 

She’s also never heard of anyone in any Iowa county whose sole job is to perform internal audits.

Still, she said she herself performs audits on payroll and expense claims fairly often. But, she said she does not perform audits of other departments, a key point debated in yesterdays case.

Kristi Harshbarger, the legal counsel for the Iowa State Association of Counties said county supervisors, said since counties vary so greatly in the way they operate, and this issue is not clearly laid out in Iowa law, this decision could be reached based on Linn County policy.

Deputies

Harshbarger said there is in fact a section of Iowa law that deals specifically with how deputies are hired and let go. She said according to code, supervisors have to approve deputies, often in a formal meeting.

As we Wedneday, Miller did not give the board notice that he was hiring a new deputy.

Harshbarger said Iowa law states that deputy officials have to be approved by the board of supervisors. She said they also have the control over the number of deputies assigned to each department. Linn County supervisors shrank that number from four to three after Miller appointed the deputy.