Our goal is to maintain the County’s financial records, and to provide quality financial and management audits, including energy and environmental issues, of County Agencies, to provide full disclosure of quality audits to the citizens of Onondaga County regardless of audit results, and to be a public advocacy office for the citizens of Onondaga County.

Most people don't even realize we have a County Comptroller.

The Onondaga County Comptroller, with a staff of 38, is responsible for keeping the financial books for Onondaga County's 1.113 Billion dollar budget and certifying compliance with the budget.

Perhaps more importantly, the Comptroller also directs and supervises an audit division that audits county departments and conducts investigations that aren't full-blown audits. The office also audits outside entities, such as hotels and motels, to make sure the County receives occupancy or other taxes due.

Unlike many organizations, the Comptroller is not the Chief Fiscal Officer for the County. The CFO is a person appointed by the County Executive and acts at the County Executive's direction.

I first wanted to run for County Comptroller in 1979. I have a background in economics, finance, and investing, and have studied public administration. I have worked in the federal and state levels in both the legislative and executive branches of government.

My desire is to raise the visibility of the work the office performs, bring transparency to County government, and to make sure that where credit is due, it is received, and where problems exist they are brought to the light of day, not just disclosed only to a few insiders.

When the public knows what is going on, the public is in a better position to demand accountability. When we have public accountability, costs go down, we lose less money, efficiency goes up, and all the taxpayers benefit either by reduced taxes, more efficient service, or both.

The biggest change I will make to the Comptroller's Office is to make the work of the staff more apparent to the public. We will also expand the scope of the audits we perform to address energy and environmental issues.

Several years ago, the County entered into an arrangement with Carrier Corporation to study and make energy improvements in a number of county facilities. The goal was to reduce overall energy use and consequently save money. We would institutionalize the criteria used in those studies and check performance against the promises made and also revisit the criteria on a continual basis to see if we can make further improvements.

One of the County's 2006 audits raised serious issues about the County's compliance with environmental laws. With my environmental background, I can tell you that preventing an environmental problem is much cheaper than cleaning up a problem after the fact. We will look at our audits in appropriate agencies with a view towards preventing environmental problems, as well as examining how to do things in environmentally better ways. Sometimes, just asking the questions leads to better solutions.

We deserve full disclosure. The Comptroller's Office is in the best position to insure that we get it.