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The second thing that I would like to talk about that Ms. Wille suggested, is that the County Clerk be an elected rather than an appointed official. I know that we can think back to circumstances where the County Clerk has made recommendations that have gone array, and we have wound up in court. I think it's important that a County Clerk be as politically neutral as humanly possible; and that's really hard because every incoming Council has a majority and a minority. It's almost impossible over time for a Clerk to be neutral unless they are a really, really akamai County Clerk. Thank you, I do support that. I would like to go down the list here of your Communications, and say generically, I can make some of my testimony very quick. Communication 30 on the Legislative Auditor, I support this in its entirety. The Auditor should be able to retain independent legal counsel. The Auditor has one of the most important functions in the County. While the Auditor is selected by the Legislative Branch, the Legislative and the Executive Branches will be audited by the Auditor. We passed an amendment at the last election to hire the Auditor for six years, and within approximately two months of the Auditor being hired, an attempt was made to take money from that budget which would have impeded the Auditor's ability to do the auditing job the way it needs to be done, and advance it to a more professional level. We have a really good Auditor, and she has made many wonderful recommendations on how the County can bring things up to a more professional standard, protect the taxpayers and protect the County. No Auditor should be inhibited by having to face raids on her funds for the Office of the Auditor, either by the Mayor's Office or by the Council. So, in order to provide budgetary independence, I have submitted my recommendations in Communication 40. The bulk of it is that budgetary independence is at the heart of autonomy for the Office of the Auditor. This is a national recommendation. If you will notice in Communication 40 there is an attachment, a letter I received from the Association of Local Government Auditors. You can see from that, that this issue is rearing its head in a lot of different communities. I think it is important for our County to provide this kind of budgetary independence, and to prevent any political hampering of the Auditor's ability to do the function of the office, which is to audit and make recommendations without fear of reprisal or threats of political influence or bias, or a threat of censorship or retaliation. I'm not going to go through the whole thing, but I think one of the most important things that is in here is on page two of the draft that I had submitted to you. I want to be very clear on how this calculation takes place. You add the Operating Budget and the Special Funds Budget together, and then you do a calculation based on that total. The calculation is one quarter of one percent as a minimum. In a given year, if the Auditor thinks he or she needs more, they can apply through the normal process to the Mayor to ask for more money. There may be something that we cannot even conceive of, but the Mayor has the choice on that issue. But, the one quarter of one percent would be allocated from the General Fund, not from Special Funds; it would be the General Fund. Unexpended money would, of course, go back to the General Fund. The Auditor can release funds during any given year if she knows that she won't be using the funds. The Auditor is still subject to the scrutiny of the Mayor and the Council. Even though that amount would be the minimum amount, the Auditor must submit a budget to the Mayor and the Mayor's staff. It will be scrutinized by the County Council. Those are the highlights. I also agree with retaining independent legal counsel for the Auditor's office. So, this amendment in Communication 40, I hope that you will support. 19