PEORIA, Ill. – Peoria County Auditor Jessica Thomas’ office staff will be reduced to just the auditor herself after the County Board voted for next fiscal year’s budget Thursday night, but not before hearing from the employees who will be cut themselves.
One, Brittany Strickland, has only been working in the auditor’s office the last five months.
“I’m concerned about the hasty timeline of this board’s proposed cuts,” said Strickland. “I’m concerned that the pressure of the still-prevalent pandemic may be hampering our public service duties.”
What’s more, Strickland claims she’s been asked by the county administration to defy direct orders from her Thomas. She’s also worried that the first African-American elected official the county has had is being mistreated.
Deputy Auditor Margaret Kowalski says she’d call what she worked on in the office a backlog, prior to her being hired and Thomas being elected, but that might be an understatement.
“When I started in the auditor’s office, we had 16 years of un-filed vendor forms — 16 years,” said Kowalski. “The department had been cut to one person who had been with the county for 30 years. And, she had all she could do just to process invoices and keep up with most of the day-to-day requirements of the office.”
“These jobs [being cut] will leave my office without the ability to perform many of the statutory duties — including accounts payable, auditing, internal department auditing, ensuring compliance with Illinois labor laws through prevailing wage, auditing procurement cards, and managing vendor accounts,” said Thomas.
Kowalski says she’d apply for another open county position as has been suggested, but she can’t afford to.
The Peoria County Board left it up to the State’s Attorney Jodi Hoos to defend the cut, saying Thomas’ office is, among other things, not good to taxpayers.
“The auditor has mismanaged her office for several months now,” said Hoos. “The county has been in a number of union grievances, as well as a number of potential claims and suits against the county.”
Thomas denied those allegations, and said the union grievance were against county administration, not her office.
The board’s vote on the budget — and, thus, the auditor’s office cuts — was 15 to 2. The county, though, is transferring money so that the employees can work in other county departments, if they want.
