Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

The Numbers Game

Inside San Diego City Council chambers on Monday, January 5, five certified public accountants — already vetted by the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst — vied for three positions on San Diego’s Public Audit Committee.

The prize? A chance to serve alongside councilmembers Faulconer and DeMaio, perusing the city’s finances and crunching numbers during their free time, with no pay for their effort.

The five contestants were the top guns of the applicant pool, all having met the stringent requirements laid forth by the steering committee. The requirements included: knowledge of accounting, auditing, and financial reporting, with a minimum of ten years' experience as a certified public accountant or auditor.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Dressed in suits, ready to show their statistical stuff, the five accountants sat in the front row, prepared to answer questions from the council.

Councilmember Donna Frye had a question for all of the candidates: “I would like for each of you to come up and tell me, in about a minute, why exactly it is that you want to do this? Especially given the great risk.”

Candidate Wade McKnight, a former partner at Arthur Andersen (Enron fame) and current partner at JH Cohn, responded to the first part of the question: “I’ve lived in San Diego for only a year, but it came clear to me early on that the city had a lot of problems. You don’t have to live here to realize that. So when I came here, I wanted to get involved in the community in some meaningful way.”

Rancho Peñasquitos local and chair of the Rancho Peñasquitos planning board, Charles Sellers, addressed the second part of Councilmember Frye’s question: “We’re a brave group. I don’t think the risk bothers us. I know what the rules are, and I know where the rails are. We bear that risk every day. From that standpoint, we’re a pretty brave group for facing that risk every day.”

After the smoke cleared, the big winner of the afternoon was Stephen Grant, who for the next four years will execute performance audits on the city’s finances. Grant, an expert of information technology audits, was chosen in part because of his knowledge of the Enterprise Resource Planning accounting system, which the city has spent two years and over $35 million on, trying to implement with little success.

Second place, a three-year commitment to the Public Audit Committee, went to Sellers, while the two-year term was awarded to McKnight.

The Public Audit Committee meets one to two times every month. For more, visit the city’s website at sandiego.gov.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tiny Home Central isn’t solving the San Diego housing crisis

But it does hope to help fill in the gaps

Inside San Diego City Council chambers on Monday, January 5, five certified public accountants — already vetted by the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst — vied for three positions on San Diego’s Public Audit Committee.

The prize? A chance to serve alongside councilmembers Faulconer and DeMaio, perusing the city’s finances and crunching numbers during their free time, with no pay for their effort.

The five contestants were the top guns of the applicant pool, all having met the stringent requirements laid forth by the steering committee. The requirements included: knowledge of accounting, auditing, and financial reporting, with a minimum of ten years' experience as a certified public accountant or auditor.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Dressed in suits, ready to show their statistical stuff, the five accountants sat in the front row, prepared to answer questions from the council.

Councilmember Donna Frye had a question for all of the candidates: “I would like for each of you to come up and tell me, in about a minute, why exactly it is that you want to do this? Especially given the great risk.”

Candidate Wade McKnight, a former partner at Arthur Andersen (Enron fame) and current partner at JH Cohn, responded to the first part of the question: “I’ve lived in San Diego for only a year, but it came clear to me early on that the city had a lot of problems. You don’t have to live here to realize that. So when I came here, I wanted to get involved in the community in some meaningful way.”

Rancho Peñasquitos local and chair of the Rancho Peñasquitos planning board, Charles Sellers, addressed the second part of Councilmember Frye’s question: “We’re a brave group. I don’t think the risk bothers us. I know what the rules are, and I know where the rails are. We bear that risk every day. From that standpoint, we’re a pretty brave group for facing that risk every day.”

After the smoke cleared, the big winner of the afternoon was Stephen Grant, who for the next four years will execute performance audits on the city’s finances. Grant, an expert of information technology audits, was chosen in part because of his knowledge of the Enterprise Resource Planning accounting system, which the city has spent two years and over $35 million on, trying to implement with little success.

Second place, a three-year commitment to the Public Audit Committee, went to Sellers, while the two-year term was awarded to McKnight.

The Public Audit Committee meets one to two times every month. For more, visit the city’s website at sandiego.gov.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Pacific Beach – car thief's paradise

Take photos of your automobile and license plate
Next Article

Looking back at race relations in Coronado

A former football player recalls the good and the bad
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.