This election, Champaign County residents are voting on whether to eliminate the elected position of county auditor. If the referendum passes, the results of the auditor election will effectively be overridden, and the county will begin the process of hiring for the position, according to local officials.
“Regardless of who wins the election, [if the referendum passes], it doesn’t really functionally matter because the position will dissolve,” said Mike Ingram, chair of the Champaign County Democrats.
The referendum on the Champaign County ballot asks: “Shall the office of the Champaign County Auditor be eliminated effective December 1, 2024?”
If the referendum is voted down, the winner of the auditor’s race will take the county auditor seat. Incumbent George Danos, a Democrat, is running against challenger Alan Anderson, a Republican.
Danos has held the position since 2018, and over the past year, he has faced criticism over missed audit deadlines and was confronted with allegations of improper conduct that led to a censure from the Champaign County board.
In September, the Champaign County Democrats took a vote of “no confidence” in Danos as they announced that they will not endorse him for a third term. “As a candidate, the party does not support or endorse him [Danos] in any way,” Ingram said. (Danos disagrees about the lack of support from his party, saying, “That’s not true, I won the primary.”)
The “no confidence” vote means Danos will continue to be allowed to serve as a precinct committee person and attend meetings and cast votes, Ingram said, but he no longer has access to party resources.
While the party does not endorse Danos, Ingram said, neither does the party endorse Anderson, the Republican challenger. Instead, they’ve endorsed the referendum to eliminate the office of the county auditor.
The origins of the referendum to eliminate the auditor’s office
The Champaign County auditor’s role includes conducting annual audits on county finances. The auditor is also responsible for auditing claims against the county, paying all valid claims, and designing and maintaining an accounting system.
Steve Summers, Champaign County Executive, said if voters decide to eliminate the auditor’s office, the Champaign County Board is likely to merge its accounting department, including the auditor’s role, with his department. “Then, with County Board approval, a new hire would be made and carry out the work of the auditor’s office,” Summers said.
The effort to eliminate the auditor’s office in Champaign County goes back many years, Summers said.
“The League of Women Voters did an exhaustive review to determine which countywide offices not required by statute should be retained. The auditor’s office was one of the positions they concluded needed to go,” he said.
In addition, Summers said the role of the auditor has diminished in recent years, as the current software system “handles many of the tasks that an auditor 30 or 40 years ago would have done manually.
“He doesn’t really audit anything; he just provides audit data to our outside auditor,” Summers added, noting that county audits are submitted to the state for review.
Both candidates for county auditor oppose the referendum to eliminate the position they’re running for.
Anderson said he believes incorporating the audit responsibilities with the County Executive instead of an elected independent leaves room for fraud.
“The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners — they have broken down fraud that occurs, even if it’s an executive that does it, if it’s a manager that does it, or if it’s just a regular employee,” Anderson said, noting, “The higher you get up in the organization, of course, the greater the fraud becomes.”
On a similar note, Danos said an audit “can only be done when the person is not threatened with the authority of those whom they are auditing.”
What the referendum aims to do in eliminating the auditor’s office is not a new concept, said Ingram with the Champaign County Democrats.
“Many counties have faced problems with their auditors and have chosen to eliminate the position in a similar fashion,” he said.
The problems Ingram references include recent allegations of improper conduct by Danos, which ultimately led to a censure by the Champaign County Board in May and a vote of “no confidence” from the Champaign County Democrats last month.
Summers said the recent issues with Danos are unrelated to the referendum. But others, like Ingram, say the problems the county has faced with Danos in office serve as an example as to why the auditor position should be hired and not elected.
“Having so many repetitive problems just shows why it is important for the office to not be elected, but to rather be somebody that can be hired and can be held accountable and potentially fired if necessary,” Ingram said.
In his defense, Danos said Ingram’s comment demonstrates a failure in his understanding of civics. “You can say that about any elected official. You can say that about the president of the United States. What is the point of tenure? You want to insulate people who make important decisions from day to day,” Danos said.
In response to Summers’ support of the referendum and critique of Danos’ work as auditor, Danos said Summers is seeking power, saying that if the referendum passes and the auditor’s office is eliminated, Summers “would be the most centralized tyrant of any county leader, in this case executive in Illinois… He seeks to have an untrammelled, unchecked, rule and that’s why he’s criticizing me like this.”
Allegations of improper conduct led to Danos’ censure in May
Earlier this year, an anonymous Freedom of Information Act request sparked an investigation into Danos by the Office of the Champaign County Executive.
The FOIA turned up documents related to HR issues with Danos dating back to January 2023, including an incident where an employee found an “inappropriate photograph” on Danos’ work desktop, which was confirmed by the County Executive’s investigation. The request also turned up a record of Danos’ log-in times for the financial banking system, Munis.
The HR complaints against Danos show his employees had concerns about Danos’ commitment to his job and his attendance at work. One employee wrote, “We usually do not know when he will or will not be in the office until the day has passed and he either shows up or remains absent.” Another wrote, “he is so disconnected from the County that he does not know what day the office is closed for holiday.”
Champaign County Board member Emily Rodriguez, who serves as chair of the labor committee, led the effort to censure Danos. In an interview with IPM News, she said her primary reason for drafting the censure was the detrimental work relationship Danos had with his office.
“It became clear to me that employees come in every day… They engage in the most significant process in the auditor’s office [forming the audit], and Mr. Danos is nothing but a barrier every step of the way,” Rodriguez said. His employees “have to teach him very basic things over and over again.”
In response, Danos said he is “the only CPA to have served as Champaign County Auditor. And they’re telling you these silly fibs about how I butterfinger with technology and don’t understand the system.” Danos also refuted the HR reports saying, “These were solicited complaints…They just came up with little things that irritated them. Believe me, I know when the office is closed.”
The Champaign County Board discussed the issues at a special finance meeting in April, where members also expressed concerns that Danos does not seem to be putting in the time needed to do his job properly. Administrators from the County Executive’s office, including Summers, explained that all county expenditures, income, revenue and expenses go through the Munis system, and that “there is no money action happening that is not through Munis.” The administrators also noted: “You could not do the audit without the Munis information or accessing information out of Munis.”
Under Danos, the county audit has been late numerous times, said Stephanie Fortado, board member and finance chairwoman. “This year, we received a very harsh letter from the Illinois Supreme Court regarding the state of the audit from the circuit clerk’s office,” Fortado said.
Fortado cited her experience with a similar system to Munis at a previous job, and expressed disbelief over how Danos could possibly have been doing his job without logging in much more frequently.
There were months-long stretches “during which our auditor [Danos] did not interact with our financial system, which contains all of our financial documents,” Fortado said. “What could you do in that office without looking at this system? Do we have an auditor’s office and an auditor who is doing the job he was elected for, for which we’re paying him nearly six figures, and doing it with the integrity that the public should expect?”
IPM News asked Danos how many audits have been turned in late under his tenure, to which he responded, “None.” He said that since there have been no repercussions or warnings from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity from previous audits during the COVID pandemic, that an audit, in theory, could not be turned in late, even if it misses the stated deadline.
In response to concerns expressed by the Champaign County Executive administration regarding time spent accessing Munis, Danos said they don’t know what they’re talking about.
The Champaign County Board ultimately voted 15-to-2 to censure Danos in May for “Failure to Serve as an Independent Watchdog of County Taxpayer Funds and Conduct Unbecoming an Elected Official.”
Rodriguez, who worked with the state’s attorney’s office to draft the censure on Danos, said the censure is “a statement of values and intent… It’s saying this [Danos’ actions] does not align with our values; this is against our mission as a Board.”
The censure serves as a public reprimand, but since the auditor is an elected role, the Board does not have the power to remove Danos from the position.
Concerns about retaliation after the censure
A few weeks after Danos was censured, he sent an email to Emily Rodriguez’s landlord, stating that he was conducting an audit on her qualifications to represent her district. The email, sent from Danos’ personal account, included his signature as county auditor and a link to the Champaign County auditor’s website.
The email Danos sent to Rodriguez’s landlord states: “Can you assert whether your tenant, Emily Rodriguez… continues to be a current, paid-up tenant in good standing. I am auditing her residential qualifications to represent County Board District 8.”
Rodriguez said she learned about the audit from her landlord, who forwarded the email and inquired how she would like to proceed. (IPM News received a copy of this email from Rodriguez).
Danos told IPM News he was auditing Rodriguez because she did not vote for herself in the primary election in the spring. This, he said, suggests that she was not being honest about where she lives, which would affect her eligibility to serve as a County Board member representing the 8th District.
Rodriguez said she failed to vote for herself during the primary due to COVID-19, a claim confirmed by Ingram with the Champaign County Democrats, whom Rodriguez had asked to help gather signatures on her behalf because of her illness.
She said she feels that Danos’ so-called audit on her “residential qualifications” was an act of retaliation against her for leading the censure, and was targeted toward her because she’s Latina.
“I think the impetus for him questioning my residency was because I pushed back with his censure,” Rodriguez said. “And I think he chose something that would grab clickbait and accuse a Latina of not living where she says she lives.”
Furthermore, she said auditing County Board qualifications is outside of Danos’ authority. “It’s so clearly not in his job description,” Rodriguez said. “…Through his signature line, he is implying that this is part of an official proceeding, something that is useful to the county and normal, which it absolutely is not.”
Asked whether auditing County Board members falls within the powers of the Champaign County Auditor, Champaign County Executive Steve Summers stated, “No, it does not…we’ve consulted with the state’s attorney’s office, and it is completely outside of his purview.” Since then, Rodriguez has reported that Danos has not pursued his audit regarding her qualifications to represent the district.
Danos said that when he emailed Rodriguez’s landlord, he did so as a private citizen, and mistakenly included his auditor’s signature. He said this was not an act of retaliation, and that he didn’t know Rodriguez had led the censure efforts at the time he sent the email.
“I was acting in my capacity as a citizen and a voter in the county…Any citizen has the right to ask a landlord or anyone else, ‘Does the person live in a district? Do they live at this address that they’ve published?’” he said.
Danos said he objects to the question from IPM News about why he emailed Rodriguez’s landlord, reiterating that the email sent to Emily Rodriguez’s landlord has nothing to do with him being the auditor, despite having signed it with his signature.
“Of course, I should’ve just simply signed my name and he [the landlord] would’ve recognized it anyway,” Danos said.
He added that he uses the word “audit” a lot, and didn’t mean to say he was trying to “audit” Rodriguez’s qualifications as a district representative but rather make sure she was meeting her criteria. “Of course, I like the lowercase ‘a’ in ‘auditor’ because I think about auditing every day.”
Danos continued on to say that his investigation on Emily Rodriguez as a private citizen was not personal: “It’s strictly a political business decision to see if somebody … who’s about to vote against you, is qualified to even represent their district on the County Board.”
Asked for clarification, Danos said he’d like to rephrase: “Anyone interested in public affairs has a right to ascertain whether a County Board member lives in their District.”
The audit is past due again, but Danos says it’s not a problem
Danos continues to face backlash from the County Board after not attending a County Board meeting in September where he was expected to deliver an update on the county audit. Instead, he left a memo stating that the anticipated delivery of the audit would be in mid-October, despite the deadline being September 30.
“Technically late but too early for any enforcement mechanism to delay any of our RPC [Regional Planning Commission] grants,” Danos said in the memo.
Dalitso Sulamoyo, the CEO of the RPC, warned of serious consequences if the audit is not submitted on time — including being prevented from accessing funds from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
“If the audit is not submitted by October 15, the County will be placed on the Stop Payment List, which prevents RPC from accessing funds from all statewide agencies,” Sulamoyo said.
Champaign County Executive Steve Summers confirmed that local grants are at risk if the audit is not submitted on time. He said three previous audits under Danos were late — including one that was submitted a year late — and explained the potential consequences if the current audit isn’t submitted by the end of October.
“Regional Planning provides a multitude of different programs: light/heat assistance, weatherization, Head Start, emergency food and shelter programs, among others, for people in Champaign,” Summers said. “The potential impact, if we’re continually late and if we have something that really takes us far later, could cause these programs to be interrupted… And that would have a significant impact on people in our community, particularly people who are in need.”
Asked for comment on these concerns, Danos said some of the grants — like the Community Services Block Grant and the Weatherization Assistance Program — are never affected by the Stop Payment.
He also said the state doesn’t enforce the deadlines so strictly: “You get a 15-day warning on October 1. If you get the favorable opinion back between October 16 and October 30 you get your November 1 check the same way you would have always.”
Danos also said that the audit will not be turned in by the October 15 deadline but should be submitted by the end of the calendar month.
The county had offered measures to prevent another late audit this year, Summer said, but Danos didn’t take advantage of the $20,000 of funding “from our American Recovery Act money to provide him with additional support… additional funding for staff.
“Mr. Danos really didn’t spend any of that [money] on additional staff,” Summers said. “It just sat there. He did spend $540 to provide payment for outside auditor expenses that they had.”
In response, Danos said, “Yeah, I run a tight ship. Why does he want me to spend $20,000 if I don’t have to?” When reminded that a past audit was submitted a year past the September 30 deadline, Danos said, “No, I was telling you there were no enforcements during Covid in the state. Wasn’t even at their desk so there were no deadlines.”
Summers said he thinks Champaign County residents could be concerned about good governance and best practices.
“And the fact of the matter is, the auditor’s office does not fulfill a viable purpose at this point and should be eliminated,” he said.
Danos rebutted Summers’ claim saying, “No, no, no, for the first time you’ve got a serious auditor with credentials and moxie. I’ve stood up to the Board that is dominated by my own party and they resent it.”
The Champaign County Board, Danos added, is “so hellbent on their public safety sales tax [a referendum Danos has argued against in contrast to his party] that they can’t even tolerate an auditor from their own party.”
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to state that three previous audits have been submitted late by Danos, one including that was submitted a year late, according to Summers. An earlier version incorrectly stated that all three previous audits were a year late.