URBANA -- Various Champaign County Board members have been talking about abolishing the elected county auditor position for years; the voters finally get their say on April 5.

If voters follow the lead of the county board which voted 14-13 in August 2009 to put the question on the ballot the auditor position would be eliminated after Dec. 1, 2012, and replaced with a person appointed by the county board. Although no particular title or administrative structure has been established, supporters of the idea want the elected auditor's replacement to be a certified public accountant who would become the county's chief financial officer and be assigned to the administrative services department.

The proposal is opposed by the current county auditor, Democrat Tony Fabri, as well as two former county auditors, Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing and state Sen. Mike Frerichs, D-Champaign, both Democrats. Also among the opponents is another former state senator, Republican Rick Winkel of Urbana, now a professor at the University of Illinois. His father was the Kankakee County auditor for 29 years.

"We're an independent office with authority that comes directly from the voters," Fabri said. "If you put the office directly under the county board or the county administration, suddenly you've got the watchdog hired by the folks who they're supposed to be watching. That's a bad idea that will cost the county a lot of money."

As an example he cited former Champaign-Urbana Public Health District director Vito Palazzolo who has been accused of theft from the agency, but whose misdeeds were never reported until the health district's director of finance resigned. Several health district employees said they feared for their jobs with Palazzolo at the helm.

"Those questions weren't raised in a timely manner to save the taxpayers money," Fabri said. "To have something like that happen in this community and then a short time later to forget that lesson is kind of shocking to me."

Frerichs said "public oversight is better. The role of the county auditor is to look at and question county spending, and if they owe their job to the county board, that person has an incentive to not rock the boat. But if they're responsible to the voters, I think there's an incentive to look closely."

Opponents of the elected auditor contend, however, that an appointed auditor would have to be a professional with a background in finance or accounting.

"We believe that a qualified person who is hired on the requirements is a better way to fill the position on a consistent basis. The key word is consistent," said Alan Nudo, a Champaign Republican on the county board. "Each election we put candidates up and it's basically a crapshoot. The state Constitution doesn't require that you have a degree in accounting or any professional background. Therefore, the county parties can put up candidates who may or may not be qualified.

"As it stands it's more titular and may require more professional staff on hand to do the work."

Barbara Wysocki, an Urbana who at one time was the county board chair, said the elected auditor is "superfluous."

"It appears to me that the duly elected auditor doesn't deal with the auditing business of the county because there's a deputy auditor (Carol Wadleigh) who is paid a whole lot more and has been there a whole lot longer and who does the day-to-day stuff," Wysocki said. "To me that says there is already a professional staff person. I understand the elected official is out there in the public and is the person who owns up to mistakes or takes credit. But my question is, why?"

Brad Jones, a Champaign Republican who opposed Fabri in the 2008 auditor's race, called the elected office "extraneous."

"The current elected auditor's continuing absentee issues are well documented, and the preceding county auditor (Frerichs) was focused on a campaign for higher office during his tenure," said Jones. "Nevertheless the actual accountants in the auditor's office have always completed the audit function for the county. This audit staff, which is led by a very capable and experienced CPA, will still complete the audit function if voters do away with what has proven to be an extraneous elected position."

Brendan McGinty, another Urbana Democrat who is the finance committee chair on the county board, said the watchdog function of the elected auditor is overblown.

"If the county board is doing its job, we're making sure there aren't problems," he said. "The external auditor is making sure things don't happen. And this is a very active community in terms of analyzing how we do our business, I think we'll have plenty of auditors watching."

Fabri and other supporters of continuing the elected office said it's important that voters separate their feelings for him from their feelings for the office.

"I have no idea if I will run again," he said. "But people shouldn't be thinking about me when they're voting on this. They should be thinking about if it's best for Champaign County taxpayers to have an elected, independent county auditor overseeing the county finances.

"I keep saying that if people want to vote against me they should hope that this referendum fails, or they won't get a chance. I see this as a fundamental issue of do we think that democracy, the idea of people electing people, do we believe that it works or do we believe that it's better to have public servants who aren't accountable to the public?"

Frerichs, a longtime ally of Fabri's, urged voters to look beyond the charges of absenteeism against Fabri.

"I'm not saying that the current auditor shows up every day and does the best job. But I'm also not convinced that his replacement, if picked by (County Administrator) Deb Busey, might be more efficient," Frerichs said. "People say that the auditor's office seems to work fine without him. I think that the simple fact that it is independent of Deb makes her and everyone else more honest."

Fabri, Prussing and Frerichs said the auditor's office has saved taxpayers millions of dollars and headed off potential financial or legal problems, not all of which became public.

Prussing said she saved the county an estimated $10 million by recommending 30 years ago that it go to self-funding of workers' compensation. Fabri said that in October 2008 he brought a no-bid contract, awarded to the son of a county employee, to the attention of the county board. Frerichs said he often questioned expenditures by department heads and administrators.

"I would hold up the vouchers and if that person was in charge of my hiring or firing, they could have brought a fair amount of pressure on me," he noted. "But at the time I just said, 'If you want to have an argument about this in public, I'd be more than happy to do that.' Because of that threat, most people backed down."

McGinty said that if the elected auditor's office is abolished, it likely would be replaced with a chief financial officer who would be under the county administrator.

"The idea is to create a CFO position and maybe pay 100K or a little more," he said. "What that would leave is 50 or 60K for another accounting position. We wouldn't be spending any more money than we are now. On top of that and the credentials and qualifications of these two people, you'd be getting more work."

The Champaign County Democratic Party opposes making the auditor position appointed. The Republican Party has not taken a position.