About Champaign County Auditor:
The auditor is essentially our county’s accountant, who audits all claims against the county, and also “maintains a continuous internal audit of the revenues, expenditures and financial records of all County offices, a file of all contracts, and an inventory of all property,” according to the website. Democrat George Danos is the current auditor.
Danos was elected to a half-term in 2018, and is now running as the incumbent. He previously ran in 2012 and 2016, losing to John Farney both times, the second time by just over 100 votes. When Farney left to take over as County Treasurer in 2018, Danos was elected to finish out the term. Danos is a Certified Public Accountant, and has degrees in Economics, Actuarial Science, and Accountancy from the University of Illinois. I don’t think you could pay me to study any of those things, but I am glad there are people in the world who like and are good at these things. In his candidate questionairre for The News-Gazette, he says:
The first CPA to serve as Champaign County Auditor, I am proud to have added three tools to the Auditor website conducing to firmer internal controls and more transparency: a Waste, Fraud and Abuse portal; a downloadable list of the county’s mobile assets; and a searchable database of our vendor contracts.
By the end of next month, I will have supplied three annual reports in less than two years and further streamlined the reporting process for future years. My staff and I have gone above and beyond our assigned duties when we relieved the treasurer of performing bank reconciliations for some fifteen bank accounts relating to more than sixty funds. And despite this additional work, we are under budget.
Maxwell, a Republican, has a degree in engineering from the University of Illinois, and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. He has previously served on the Champaign County Board. In this campaign ad, he states:
I will…
…push for a state law and local referendum to move the Treasurer and Auditor functions as well as County budget responsibilities into a nonpartisan appointed County Financial Officer in order to provide taxpayers with independent and competent fiscal management.
…work with new Republican Treasurer to create an optional online system for sending out tax bills, assessment notices, and other snail mail documents savings hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I think it’s also important to note that Maxwell shared this post from Republican County Board member Jim Goss on his campaign Facebook page. In it, Goss calls the Champaign Urbana Public Health Board a dictatorship and warns of “socialist rule” in Champaign County.
Photos of Gary Maxwell (l) and George Danos (r) from their Facebook pages.