The auditor's office is the public-facing department of the city.
We take payments for utility bills, parking tickets, dog and cat licenses, chicken licenses.
We license contractors, a lot of different things like that.
I'd say the primary interaction that people have is with the utility billing.
Paying utility bills, there's lots of different options you can do. You can pay with cash,
money order, credit card, check. You can go online and pay or come into the office.
You can mail in payments. There is auto pay available too.
A lot of the position as the city auditor is about relationships. Whether it's with our
financial institutions or businesses, our liquor licenses. So to keep all that straight and to stay
in contact with the businesses. And then relationships with customers. So working
with the customers that are having troubles making their payments and that type of thing.
Providing them guidance on where they can go get some assistance. I think the worst thing is
you know when we get a call and the first thing that the customer says is this is the fourth time
I've been transferred. I try to assure them that it'll be the last time you're transferred until
we know that we get you to the right place. Election day is you know run by the county now.
We've got an agreement with the county that they'll do that. But it's our responsibility to have all
city measures and any candidates that are properly filled out their paperwork put together
and get that over to the county so that they can print their ballots and then conduct the
actual election. There are occasions when we will have a special election and the city office here
will have to conduct the election ourselves. Obviously working in this department we deal
with a lot of water issues and it feels good when you're able to help someone understand
because a lot of people that come in or call are either you know they're just not understanding
their bill. They want to know how to read it and so when you're able to explain that to them
they really appreciate it when you take the time to explain that to them. You know I had experience
in municipal government before and I had no you know we'd moved down to Fargo and I was working
for somebody that was quite a wealthy individual and I found that just to be so unfulfilling.
And I remember I was October of 1999 and I told my wife I'm going to get back into city government
where I can fill my soul and that Sunday there was a block ad in the paper and it was for a city
auditor and it was just a checklist for me. I had done all of the things on there and so they gave
me a chance and I'm just so thankful to have the chance to work for the city. It's been a
great place to work and great people that work for the city so I think that's why I've stayed so long.
Way too long.