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Long Beach, California <br />Population is 470,000 City Budget is $2.4 billion City Manager has executive authority <br />The elected auditor the department has 17 support staffers, and has a $3 million budget <br />Long Beach has a Council -Manager structure similar to Eugene. There are nine councilors, who <br />have the authority to appoint the City Manager and the City Clerk, and are responsible for budget <br />approval. The city budget includes the airport, the harbor, and water, gas, and oil services. <br />DUTIES OF AUDITOR The Long Beach auditor's office has been around since 1908, and <br />performs a wide variety of duties. On the financial side these include overseeing the <br />Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, performing quarterly treasury audits, a review of all <br />city disbursements (every check must be signed in the auditor's office), and processing wage <br />garnishments. While these are the only duties prescribed explicitly by the charter, other audits are <br />not prohibited and in practice the office also does performance audits of departments as the <br />auditor deems fit, and maintains several performance auditors on staff. An annual work plan <br />guides the process, with direction from City Council. The office also maintains a fraud hotline. In <br />2016 the office performed a total of 14 audits. <br />INDEPENDENCE The auditor has full authority to appoint all employees within the auditor's <br />office, and such appointees serve at the pleasure of the City Auditor. Since the auditor is elected <br />by a city-wide vote, neither Council, the Mayor, or the City Manager have any authority over the <br />staffing of the auditor's office at any level. In 1979 a charter amendment was proposed that would <br />have restricted the auditor to financial audits only, prohibiting performance audits, but the council <br />unanimously voted to reject the amendment in the interest of maintaining independence for the <br />office. <br />ACCESS TO INFORMATION The charter specifies that "The City Auditor shall have the right <br />of immediate access to all financial records of the City." <br />ACCOUNTABILITY Long Beach follows generally accepted government accounting standards, <br />and the auditor is subject to a triennial peer review. In order to be eligible to run for the office of <br />auditor, the candidate must be a licensed CPA in the state of California, and must have held that <br />certification for a minimum of five years. The charter requires audit reports to be filed with the <br />City Clerk when completed, and reports are also posted publicly online, as is the annual audit <br />plan, and an annual summary of the prior year's audit results. <br />FUNDING The City Council is in charge of approving a budget, with the City Manager obligated <br />to propose one for their approval. There are no explicit charter -defined minimums for the <br />auditor's budget that must be adhered to. <br />OTHER UNIQUE PROVISIONS The City Auditor is not term limited, even though City <br />Councilors and the Mayor are limited to two terms each. Myrtelle Gunsul served as auditor from <br />1919 until her retirement in 1951, and is the longest serving elected official in the city's history. <br />Long tenures have been common, with Ms. Gunsul being the first of only six auditors to hold the <br />office in the last 98 years (since her first election). <br />