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the staff gets co -mingled and much of the staff actually respond to the Council <br />members rather than to the Auditor. So, it would be very difficult for the Auditor to <br />direct the staff under these conditions. In fact, when I was the Auditor, I had prepared <br />some documentation to provide for six-year terms, however, I believe at that time, I <br />proposed that the appointment of staff would be solicited by the Auditor, and the list <br />would be whittled down and submitted to Council for approval. Just so that, at least, <br />the Council members would feel comfortable with the quality of staff being hired. There <br />were two tiers of staffing; one staffing would not go through that process, would be the <br />patronage positions, which would do the constituency work for the Council members. <br />RAY: That's the Clerk's Office. <br />TAKAHASHI: They would have fell under the Clerk's Office. The Community <br />Reports would have been done by the Clerk's Office at that time. So, the staff at the <br />Auditor's Office would be pretty much kept to researching work, investigation work, <br />possibly program reviews. <br />IRVINE: I was just amazed when I read Connie's letter to us, that at the <br />Legislative Auditor's Office, they actually do a lot of constituent work. To me that <br />should be entirely over at the County Clerk's side, where the Council people are, and <br />the Office of the Auditor should be actually auditing programs to see how things <br />should be legislated. <br />TAKAHASHI: I think that's a reflection of evolution because when I served as the <br />Auditor, I don't think my staff did much of the constituency work. We did do a lot of <br />research work, bill drafting. We followed some of the State prepared testimony on <br />behalf of Council members to State Boards, Commissions. We did a few program <br />reviews. <br />IRVINE: To me, that follows from doing an audit because when you do the <br />audit, you see how the program works, and then you know how to write the legislation, <br />but writing letters to constituents has nothing to do with that, and there shouldn't be <br />patronage jobs over there, but if it's a question of either patronage or Civil Service, <br />maybe we should just have a few people in the Legislative Auditor's Office and hire <br />independent auditors to look at our performance within the County. How does that <br />sound? <br />TAKAHASHI: That would be very costly, very costly. <br />IRVINE: Well, we'd eliminate quite a few jobs in the Legislative Auditor's <br />Office. <br />TAKAHASHI: True. Because, 1 think, even some of the other jurisdictions, much <br />• <br />