Thurston shows well in draft audit

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian • Published April 01, 2008

Krupp added, "The bottom line is that through all of these, the county followed the law."

Chambers said that even if Thurston County did refer requests to independently elected officials, residents find it frustrating to be referred. So it often is better to have a centralized place to keep track of requests, she said.

Thurston County Commissioner Diane Oberquell criticized the audit last year, calling it a "sting" and asking for hundreds of pages of documents detailing what the Auditor's Office project entailed. Oberquell contended the audit was wasting county resources.

The draft audit cost about $600,000, Chambers said.

The audit awaits formal responses by the audited groups and notes that Thurston County refused to let its public-records officer, Robin Courts, be interviewed one-on-one — instead insisting upon having Oberquell, a deputy administrator or a county deputy prosecutor present.

Thurston County's responses also were found to be slower than other counties, although responses beat the average response time three out of 10 times.

One of those quick responses was for information on employee-recognition awards, but it took the county 15 business days to provide employee travel vouchers versus 10 days average time for counties.

Krupp did not comment on that relative tardiness of the county, and Chambers said it is up to the county to determine if it would take actions to make replies timelier.

Krupp said the county expects to submit comments in writing by April 17 and to have what he called "an exit interview" with the Auditor's Office on April 14.

Krupp also said the county was singled out in several areas where best practices were noticed, including acknowledgements of requests and one response exceeding expectations.