No 'Fresh Set Of Eyes' For La Grange Finances

LA GRANGE, IL — It is often recommended that government bodies rotate their auditors every few years. But many entities, including the village of La Grange, feel comfortable with the ones they have hired for decades.

Experts say the rotation of auditors allows for different people to analyze an agency's finances. The Illinois Government Finance Officers Association calls it a sound practice that protects taxpayers from potential corruption and abuse.

La Grange has stuck with the same auditing firm, Sikich LLP, for two decades. Village officials have given no indication that they plan to change.

At last week's Village Board meeting, Dan Berg of Sikich presented the village's annual audit. It came back clean, which is the case for practically every government entity.

Trustee Michael Kotynek asked Berg whether it was standard for organizations to stay with the same auditor for 20 years or whether they switch periodically to get a "fresh set of eyes."

Berg said he has been auditing some of his clients since he was a rookie in the early 1980s. Others, he said, have a rotation policy.

"It's really more of a style," Berg said. "If you're getting good service at a good price and you're happy with the outcomes and the reports, there is no need to rotate, but it's completely up to you."

Berg also said his firm has changed partners in the last 20 years and that different employees have come in to audit the village's finances.

In 2013, Rita Crundwell, the former comptroller for Dixon in northwestern Illinois, was convicted of stealing $53 million in village money. The city had stuck with the same auditor for decades. The relationship became so chummy that Crundwell was a member of the auditor's softball team for a time. And one of the members of the firm tried to date her.

Dixon always got clean audits from the firm, which ended up paying Dixon $35 million in an out-of-court settlement.