Full statement from Stephanie Jo Thompson, La Salle County auditor, on audit item

As Mr. (La Salle County Board Finance Chairman) Brian Dose is fully aware, the outside audit has been late all three years of their contract, due to the firm he recommended to hire as finance chair in 2019. The firm was not fully vetted nor did we have the full scope of our audit listed when we went out for bid.

After the three years (La Salle County Board) Chairman (Don) Jensen and myself went out to bid to get a reputable firm that we knew could do the job. The new auditors auditing our 2023 audit received the 2022 audit on Aug. 22, 2024, and have been working diligently to get it completed so we are back on track for the 2024 audit to begin in November.

The county’s financial position is still the same as there has been no fraud or mismanagement of funds.

As Mr. Dose stated this morning, we are on a stop pay, however no services in the county will be affected by that stop pay as he mentioned this morning. The stop pay will be removed by the 18th of October. We are not the only county currently on a stop pay due to late audits. We were also on a stop pay in 2021 but that was not an election year.

We do have a grant tracking program currently in place, however, our new auditors gave us some suggestions on how they would like to see it improved.

Mr. Dose speaks of transparency, transparency is telling the whole truth not just bits and pieces to what fits his agenda.

I did not run a negative campaign in 2020 and I will not run one in 2024. We are not here for our own agendas, but here to serve the people. It’s sad Mr. Dose has made this political and only gives half truths and not the entire story.