City hires oversight auditor

The Spokane City Council has hired a new city auditor to provide independent oversight of city operations and spending.

On Monday, the council voted unanimously to hire Gwen Fuller-Vernier, a certified public accountant who earned a master’s degree in business administration from Gonzaga University in 1996.

Fuller-Vernier moves to City Hall from her current job as manager of internal controls and audit services for Spokane’s Educational Service District 101. She will start the $82,000-a-year position on April 3.

She replaces Allen J. Kliamovich, who was hired as the city’s first independent auditor in 2004. He resigned last September.

Creation of the job of independent auditor dates to former Mayor John Talbott, who in the late 1990s argued that the position would provide oversight into the workings of city government and would eventually save taxpayer money by making city operations more efficient.

Tree removal

In other business, the council rejected an attempt by Councilman Brad Stark to postpone for one year the reconstruction of Bernard Street and the removal of 18 damaged or crowded trees along the arterial.

Stark was the only council member to vote in favor of his resolution.

Mayor Dennis Hession earlier this month announced that six threatened street trees are healthy enough to warrant the extra cost of careful excavation to save them when the street is rebuilt later this year.

Hession made the decision after holding a community open house for residents to talk with city officials about the street project.

Stark sought a delay to find ways to preserve all the trees.

He suggested rebuilding Bernard with a narrower width to allow more room for the trees. He also said that trees on other streets slated for reconstruction could be cut down as the city moves ahead with a $117 million street repair program, approved by voters in 2004.

Councilwoman Nancy McLaughlin said she visited two homeowners with trees along Bernard and both told her they were not opposed to their removal.

Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch told the council that the debate on the trees had gone on long enough.

“I think we’ve kicked this dog around the block for weeks,” Lynch told the council.

Consolidation proposal

Also, the council approved a resolution sponsored by Councilman Al French calling on the cities of Spokane and Spokane Valley to form a Spokane Regional Municipal Roundtable to consider ways that local government services could be consolidated and made more efficient.

The roundtable would be open to officials from cities throughout the county.

Former Spokane City Manager Terry Novak, now a professor of the graduate program in public administration at Eastern Washington University, has agreed to serve as facilitator.