Multnomah County Auditor Jennifer McGuirk made an impassioned plea to wrest control of her budget from the chair of the county Board of Commissioners today.

Much of the auditor’s work involves scrutinizing county programs that are under the chair’s control, McGuirk told the board. A conflict of interest exists because the chair could use his or her pursestrings as a cudgel after unflattering audits.

“I don’t think, being in your roles, you can understand the level of anxiety that I experience every time we issue a report because I don’t know if it’s going to be used against us,” McGuirk said in today’s presentation. “That’s not about any particular chair. It’s about the nature of the system we have.”

McGuirk, who was elected auditor in 2018, has often pushed for more funding for her off

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