Nearly a year after voters endorsed bringing a government watchdog to City Hall, Riverside leaders have approved a general framework for the inspector general’s office.
A plan approved by the City Council this week eliminates the internal audit division in the city manager’s office and replaces it with the inspector general’s office.
Councilmember Steven Robillard said approval of the new office is a “starting point.”
“Every charter officer, every department head, they have their budget request, they have their needs. We work through that process just like anyone else, and it’s really up to them to determine that for themselves and what they need to function,” Robillard said at the council’s meeting Tuesday, Nov. 18.
With the framework for the office set, the council can now move forward with the recruitment process for an inspector general.
In November, Riverside voters approved adding the office of the inspector general to the city charter. As outlined in a city staff report, the office will continue to perform audits as well as review and manage ethics complaints. The inspector general will also identify opportunities to improve the efficiency of city departments.
Councilmember Philip Falcone, the sole vote against the inspector general’s office Tuesday, said in an email that he co-authored the ballot argument against Measure L on the November ballot.
“No other city in California’s 483 cities has found it necessary to have this type of expensive, untested and unnecessary new layer of bureaucracy,” Falcone wrote. “Riverside already has an effective internal audit division, which can address issues of waste, fraud, and abuse without costing the taxpayers of Riverside an extra couple million dollars in duplicative bureaucracy.”
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