As I compose this message, just across the hall from me are two dedicated ALGA members. Why are they here, you may ask? They are performing an ALGA Peer Review!
The ALGA Peer Review program is just one of the many professional services offered through your membership in ALGA. Our office is being reviewed for the fourth time and on the occasion of every one of our peer reviews, we have learned how to better our performance to best ensure that we efficiently and effectively follow government auditing standards. I could not state it more directly than this: a peer review is a positive experience! Over the years, our office has embraced the opportunity that a peer review presents to gain insight from other dedicated audit professionals. There is no doubt that the City of Orlando and its taxpayers has benefited from the improvements recommended by our peer reviewers.
After reading through the various publications written by ALGA members over the years, I’ve come to realize that our organization has really done some pretty amazing things. From its humble beginnings in an auditor’s living room to the professional organization that it is today, ALGA has become the preeminent professional organization for local government auditors in all of North America.
The evolution of the Local Government Auditing Quarterly has tracked the organization’s history nicely. The founders quickly realized that without a journal, it would be impossible to share knowledge gained and to connect with fellow auditors. Thus, the LGAQ was born when ALGA was but a hatchling herself.
Conference Topics: Starting the Organization, Performance Auditing, Peer Review, Selling the Audit Function, and Practical Approaches to Fraud Auditing.
Deb’s Memories: I will never forget how much it meant to me (a one person audit shop from a small county) when an auditor from New York City offered me a job. I thought that was huge… I don’t remember her name, but I do remember being in a restaurant and how sincere her offer was… I have had wonderful opportunities and experiences networking with auditors from all over the world ever since.
ALGA is an organization that means a lot to me and I wanted to share some of my thoughts about ALGA and then present some of ALGA's historical trends.
Waxing Nostalgic
I've been working as a local government auditor for almost exactly nine years (March 15th, 1999 was my first day as an auditor for the City of Austin). At first, my connection to ALGA was fairly remote. I heard about ALGA quite a bit because the Austin City Auditor at the time, Helen Niesner, was the president of ALGA in 1999-2000. But since the only people active in ALGA were managers, ALGA struck me as an organization for the higher ups. My only routine interaction with ALGA was in preparing and submitting audit abstracts (which did involve tracking down a copy of the most recent Quarterly to get the address to send abstracts to, which was not always an easy task) and searching for abstracts from similar projects on the ALGA website at the beginning of audit projects. I'm not sure when exactly it occurred to me that the Quarterly actually had timely, relevant articles about my job, but at some point I did realize that and it joined the stack of work magazines I routinely read (or at least skim).
First City Auditor in Lawrence, Kansas Mike Eglinski has been appointed as Lawrence, Kansas’ first city auditor, reporting directly to the City Commission and conducting performance reviews of city services and programs. Eglinski has been with the city of Kansas City, Mo., since 1992 and conducted performance audits on a range of government services including public works, parks, police, fire, budgeting, health, water and emergency response. Eglinski has an undergraduate degree in economics from Kansas University, and a master’s degree from Stockholm University in Stockholm, Sweden.
New City Auditor for San Jose The San Jose City Council has selected Palo Alto City Auditor Sharon Winslow Erickson, who previously worked 12 years for San Jose, as San Jose’s new City Auditor. "She brings a wealth of experience and a solid track record," San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said in announcing the hire. "She is an extraordinary manager, and she's able to handle adversarial situations with grace."
When Corrie Stokes asked if we would write an article related to ALGA’s history, and suggested "perhaps something about the N.A.L.G.A. History Project, or some stories of early ALGA conferences", we knew it was a request we wanted to fulfill, because ALGA has given us so much over the years, both professionally and personally.
So here it goes…
From Joanne
Jay Poole interviewed me this week for a Virginia Local Government Auditors Association (VLGAA) article. He asked about the first conference and I remembered the excitement of finally being around others that could relate to the same unique issues or challenges I faced as a local government auditor. It was like being in a foreign land and finding a group that spoke my language. It was really quite exhilarating! Some of the attendees that I remembered were Dick Tracy, Mark F., Jack Smithyman, Al, Rol, Marilyn, Jerry H., Jerry S., and Bob Johnson. The Virginia group tried to vote as a block to get one of us on the board. We soon got Terry Ramsey on the board when Roger Liwer resigned the next year.
This 20th anniversary of our association is a good time to consider the progress ALGA has made toward achieving its purposes.
The First 20 Years
Here are the elements of our mission set forth 20 years ago and my brief comments on each:
Bringing together professional local government auditors Before ALGA, local auditors were isolated and yet we were struggling with many common challenges. We had so much to share with each other about our successes, strategies, and challenges but no common grounds. ALGA, an organization of, by, and for local government auditors was a fundamental need. The Membership Committee was created and has been successful in ensuring that every local auditor knows about and considers joining our association.
The Local Government Auditing Quarterly Writers' Guidelines
Contact the Quarterly Editor about your article ideas at
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.
The Local Government Auditing Quarterly content is primarily divided into two segments: feature articles and abstracts. Potential authors need to decide whether their ideas should be explored in depth — and are thus more appropriate for a feature article format — or whether their submission would work better as book review, editorial, or as a simple abstract.
Authors are usually practicing ALGA members, but not always. Retired auditors, senior management, academics, those involved in research relevant to the local government auditing profession, consultants, and others are welcome to submit articles for the Local Government Auditing Quarterly.
Many of the Local Government Auditing Quarterly's readers are from regions outside the United States, so submitted manuscripts should reflect the magazine's global focus. Authors need not worry about their writing ability; the magazine's review committee and editors are available to help focus the article and develop its content.
