By The Herald Editorial Board

Among the more consequential if under-appreciated statewide positions on the general election ballot is that of state auditor.

At a time of heightened concern regarding public confidence in state and local government and public officials, state residents are in keen need of the watchful eye on government finances, practices and performance that the state Auditor’s Office provides.

The Auditor’s Office is responsible for financial audits of hundreds of city, county and other local governments, reporting directly on their stewardship of public funds. It also conducts performance audits, a provision of a 2005 initiative, which go further to evaluate the work of state and local agencies. The office also conducts special investigations into reports of fraud and whistle-blower complaints.

In 2024 alone, the office has thus far completed 2,059 audits with 777 in progress, monitoring more than $170 billion in public funds.

The current auditor, Pat McCarthy, is seeking election to a third term. McCarthy, a Democrat, previously served as Pierce County executive, its county auditor and on the Tacoma School Board.

She is challenged by Republican Matt Hawkins, with 36 years in the private sector in commercial and investment real estate and investment banking and with four yeas of service as a Republican committee member in Spokane County.

Both candidates were interviewed separately by the editorial board.

Hawkins said he is running to increase the transparency and utility of the office’s work for the public, to address the state’s most-pressing problems with taxes, education, elections, parental rights, property rights and homelessness.

“What I have found is that, in my opinion, I think that our current audit process in the state is quite shallow,” he said. “When I say shallow, are you giving limited information to the public for them to understand? Or are you going deep?”

Some of Hawkins’ interest in the office was borne out of questions he had regarding the elections in Spokane County in 2020. Hawkins called for an audit of elections there in 2022, as head of a party election integrity committee, a request that the Spokane County Commissioners declined to act on. Party leaders later voted “no confidence” in Hawkins, but offered little detail as to their reasons, though they said it was unrelated to his work with the election integrity committee and didn’t remove him from that position.

Hawkins, at the time of the committee’s call for an audit, said he had no evidence of voter fraud but still didn’t trust the integrity of local elections, raising doubts about the state’s electronic voting equipment.

McCarthy disputes any notion that the work of her office hasn’t been thorough and accessible to the public. McCarthy noted the relationships her office has built within both chambers of the state Legislature and both parties and with her peers across the country; McCarthy is president-elect of the National Association of State Auditors.

“The transparency that I think we’ve brought elevated the state Auditor’s Office since I’ve walked in the door, and in the last four years continues to improve it,” she said.

One key to that accessibility, McCarthy said, is the office’s website, noting its efforts to make it more user friendly for the public and for officials and employees of state and local governments. The office has used feedback from the public and those subject to audits to improve the website and has expanded the office’s use of social media platforms to highlight what the office can provide.

McCarthy also touted the hiring of a data scientist — already “worth his weight in gold,” she said — that was critical to its discovery of fraud within the Office of Administrative Hearings.

Using an analytical tool that spotted anomalies within data, the audit, announced this July, found that a state employee in that office had misappropriated nearly $900,000 between 2019 and 2023. The report was forwarded to the Thurston County prosecuting attorney for charges.

The office also has launched a cyber security program, offering “cyber security checkups” for local governments to better protect themselves from cyber attacks, such as ransomware and data breaches.

McCarthy also points to the work her office has done to bolster the investigations of law enforcement agencies’ use of deadly force. Those audits, she said, don’t offer findings on whether a shooting or other action was justified, but instead on the investigation’s transparency and credibility.

McCarthy noted their was some opposition to its review of the investigations, but after three years, most agencies recognize the value of the reports. The reviews, like most audits undertaken by the office, consider best practices and how well those are followed.

“If we find that you haven’t followed it, we’re going to let you know,” she said.

McCarthy’s office, also in her recent term, has added the state’s 295 school districts to its Financial Intelligence Tool, an interactive page on its website that can allow officials and the public a better look at specific financial data. That greater accessibility to financial data, she said, can allow officials and public, now especially for school districts, to see potential problems earlier.

“They give us all this information; it’s their information, We’re just displaying it for them to see it and wrap their arms around it,” she said. With FIT, “you don’t have to be a data scientist to understand it.”

FIT and the office’s cyber security reviews are part of the office’s “Efficiency Toolbox,” meant to help local governments better serve their constituents.

McCarthy, when she first took office in 2017, stepped into the office following the tumultuous tenure of auditor Troy Kelley, who was later convicted of possession of stolen property, false declarations under oath and tax fraud.

During her tenure, McCarthy has led a revitalization of the office that has built on the accessibility of its findings and reports and their value to the public and to public agencies and officials.

Voters should eagerly return McCarthy to her office; and then spend some time on the auditor’s website to get a better understanding of the finances and performance of the governments serving them.

Candidate forums

Voters are invited to live and live-streamed forums sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Snohomish County and the Forum Coalition. A full schedule of forums with links is available at tinyurl.com/LWVSC2024Forums.

The League also hosts a live forum with candidates for secretary of state at 6:30 tonight at Edmonds College Black Box Theater, 20310 68th Ave. W, Lynnwood. Parking is free in lots O and P.