DuPage County sheriff asks for financial audit, citing transparency, high standards

DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba has asked for a full financial audit by the county auditor for his department to ensure good governance and accountability.

The request came during the contentious budget process in late 2015, which featured the County Board and sheriff as they traded jabs over department headcount and minimal budget increases.

However, Chief James Kruse with the DuPage County Sheriff's Office said the department made the request as part of a commitment to accurate and responsible bookkeeping, not political pressure.

"We wanted to ensure that we were compliant with general county practices and that our books were accurate and we were maintaining accounts in the right way," he said.

Kruse said he found out County Auditor Bob Grogan had not taken a comprehensive look into department finances in several years because the department had few findings of potential problems in recent years.

Grogan said his office audits the department – one of the county's most costly – constantly and mostly does the deep dive Zaruba has asked for in areas around the county every few years or whenever signs of potential fiscal impropriety arise, such as accusations of fraud and personnel turnover.

He said these types of requests were not uncommon, comparing it to someone going in for a medical checkup even when he or she is not sick.

Kruse said Zaruba personally requested the audit – which Grogan confirmed – because of the department's confidence in its conduct, but he wanted its practices properly validated.

Grogan said he anticipates starting in earnest this week and expects the process to last a number of months as it looks into the Sheriff's Office's large foreclosure account, accounts holding money for inmates and investigative accounts, as well as a "multitude" of others.

The office was due for another checkup, Grogan said, and he already had asked several County Board members for inspiration on accounts to look into.

Grogan said he expected full cooperation from the Sheriff's Office.

"There have been times I said, 'I really want to come in and look at this particular issue,' and his office said, 'What time tomorrow do you want to start?'" Grogan said.

County Board Chairman Dan Cronin, one of Zaruba's largest and most vocal critics in recent months, said he was "delighted" the department was willing to open its books.

He believed the audit could go a long way toward addressing a number of longstanding questions to which board members did not receive adequate answers on the finances of the department, including the Explorer program that gives children experience in law enforcement.

However, it wouldn't give any help in addressing the board's desire to streamline the department and provide more efficient services, Cronin said. He said he would support spending additional county money to look deeper into management reform in the department.

"It's a wonderful new opportunity for the new year, and this is a big, big ticket item for our county budget," he said. "We need to be more immersed in a collaborative effort and need to take a shared services model."

Cronin said relations had begun to warm in recent weeks after months of only talking through angry public statements and critical emails during the crafting of the budget and hoped this would be the start of a "new collaborative, productive relationship that benefits the taxpayers."

Kruse said he and the rest of the department have confidence in both its financial reporting and focus on streamlining its practices and said the audit was not inspired by assertions of fiscal irresponsibility from many members of the County Board, including Cronin.

"We run a very lean, efficient office, and day to day, we’re assessing efficiency within our operations," he said. "We do that internally every day."