Galloway touts accountability in oversight of Auditor’s Office

By Roxie Murphy, Staff Writer
Posted 2/5/20

JEFFERSON CITY — Auditor Nicole Galloway, who is running for governor against incumbent Gov. Mike Parson in 2020, addressed the press Jan. 30 at the Capitol.

“I take my role as an …

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Galloway touts accountability in oversight of Auditor’s Office

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JEFFERSON CITY — Auditor Nicole Galloway, who is running for governor against incumbent Gov. Mike Parson in 2020, addressed the press Jan. 30 at the Capitol.

“I take my role as an independent watchdog very seriously,” Galloway began. “I believe in this office of State Auditor, in being an advocate for taxpayers and making all levels more efficient and more transparent.”

Galloway said it is also her job to root out corruption and to hold powerful people accountable for the conduct, mismanagement and some cases outright fraud. She said each time her office exposes abuse, it puts others on notice that their wrong-doing will see the light of day.

“Because my office serves as a watchdog within state government, we are not always welcome with open arms,” Galloway said, adding that reporters may understand the feeling. “I think we can all agree Missouri deserves openness and transparency from every level of government.”

Accountability and

Missouri’s Sunshine Law

“The Sunshine Law exists to make sure Missouri government operates under full accountability and transparency,” Galloway said. “When government entities follow the Sunshine Law, it allows citizens to fully participate in things that impact them. Government should not be in the business of finding ways to hide things from taxpayers.”

Galloway said her office has audited the many excuses government offices give for not complying with Sunshine Law and saw the excessive redactions, price tags, and missing information. Or how people are being asked to go beyond what is reasonable to comply with a Sunshine Law request.

“It’s a problem in Jefferson City where some legislators seem committed to evade Sunshine Law, and it’s also an issue with local governments where cities and counties fail to keep accurate, detailed records of what transpired in public meetings,” Galloway said. “Here’s an example that comes to mind. Last April the Kansas City Star reported that the Governor’s Administration was reciting the First Amendment as an excuse to redact information in response to Sunshine Law requests.”

Galloway said the redacted information was specifically related to individuals conducting business with lobbying or attempting to influence government entities.

“Transparency advocates, including the Missouri Press Association, expressed concerns about the legality of this process,” she said. “Shortly after the Star’s story, I requested information from the Attorney General as to whether these actions were lawful. It was then reported that the Attorney General was using this same argument in the First Amendment to prevent public disclosure of information in a legal brief file in Missouri state court.”

The Attorney General later withdrew the brief as public scrutiny and awareness increased, she said.

“In late August, I was pleased to see the response from the Attorney General confirming the Governor was wrong in withholding information from the public,” Galloway said. “It was a good resolution to such an important matter because the tone from the top sets an example for everyone else in public service.”

There are good reasons under the Sunshine Law to redact information, like personnel records or contract negotiations — still the government should error on the side of transparency. Galloway said her office has never charged a Sunshine Law request fee to any individual or entity for a Sunshine Law request.

Her office recently began posting individual Sunshine Law requests and their responses, to their website, which will be posted on a rolling basis.

“It is a lot of information — more than 200,000 pages of documents,” Galloway said.

Self-deleting apps

“In 2018, thanks to reporting from members of the Capitol Press Corps, we all became familiar with the disturbing way that then-governor Eric Greitens Administration was attempting to avoid Sunshine Law with self-deleting apps,” she said. “My view is simple. The use of these self-deleting applications allow business to be conducted in the shadows and should not be permitted.”

Last May, Galloway joined other state officials in supporting a new policy that prohibits the use of self-deleting apps. It applies to county and municipal governments. But there was very little discussion at the Capitol about the change.

“I sent a letter to all local governments, informing them of this change so they knew to take action to prohibit the use of self-deleting apps by officials and employees while conducting public business,” Galloway said. “Unlike the Sunshine Law, these guidelines are not enforceable.”

In the wake of the Greitens Administration, Galloway said there was talk about making policy changes that should have been common sense. Without newspapers, she said, citizens would be less likely to understand how the government business is conducted. Facts matter more than ever.

Galloway fields questions

A reporter asked Galloway about an audit in Clay County that began a year ago. Was it going to take another year to complete?

“Clay County is a first class county, which means we do not have the authority to do an audit there unless there is an invitation,” she said. “We received that invitation from 9,000 Clay County citizens requesting my office to do an audit of the Clay County government.”

Galloway’s office began the audit, and the Clay County Commission began a lawsuit to stop the state from conducting the audit. It was dismissed at the end of October 2019. The audit is ongoing, although subpoenas have been issued to the commission because they were refusing to provide information.

“There are lots of county officials who have been cooperative,” she said, while others have not

A second audit is being conducted in first class Jackson County, where the Auditor’s Office was invited by government officials.

“We have split that into different pieces,” she said. “We will be looking at the expenditures and procurement process, as well as contracting processes that will be released the first part of this year.”

Cleaner Missouri

Galloway was asked if there was a timeline for the decisions about when the Senate has to select a non-partisan demographer. Missouri Senators deliberated until 3 a.m. on Jan. 30 about Cleaner Missouri. What did the Auditor think about the Senate’s actions?

“I don’t believe there is a timeline when the Senate has to decide on a non-partisan demographer,” said Galloway. “My office is responsible for the application process for this non-partisan demographer under the Cleaner Missouri amendment.”

There were seven applicants, one of which was ineligible. The other six were passed on to the Senate to pick the demographer.

“Voters passed Clean Missouri by 62 percent, in urban and rural parts of the state, Republicans and Democrats said they want fair and transparent government and I trust the will of the voters,” Galloway said. “It is very clear to me that within days of Clean Missouri passing, politicians in this building did interviews saying that the voters had it wrong. They were confused. They didn’t know what they were voting for, and the politicians in this building were going to fix it for them. Why were the voters so smart when they voted these guys into office, but not so smart when they voted on things they care about in their government, like Clean Missouri?”

Galloway was asked how many different items were changed by the public vote, such as redistricting, campaign contributions and five to seven other items on the ballot. Was she completely comfortable that one vote passed all of those things?

“I am,” Galloway said. “There was a campaign to educate voters on what they were voting for and if you read the ballot language, it was clear what this amendment was about and what it was going to do.”

She said the bills being passed by the legislature now to undo Clean Missouri also have multiple subjects and points, just as Clean Missouri did.

“To me, if that is the argument they are making, it doesn’t hold water,” Galloway said. “I respect the will of the voters and what they say.”

Galloway was asked for a comment about the audit Sen. Dave Schatz called to be conducted against the Auditor’s Office.

“I have always said no one is immune from review, and that includes me and my office,” she said. “We have had a peer review from auditors across the country who have come in and looked at our compliance with auditing standards and the law. We got a clean opinion, the highest you can get, which is done every three years, and will be done again this year.”

The legislature has also audited Galloway’s office three times, each time looking at office operations to see if things were being done efficiently. They also looked at the auditor’s cyber security measures and found it was secure, according to Galloway.

“You will find the Greitens Administration audited my CPA license in 2018, and that came back clean,” she said. “So if they would like to do an audit, I am sure they will come back with the same thing.”

Past audits are posted to the state auditor’s website for citizens to review in the name of transparency.

Does she think this is an election year ploy to make headlines?

“It is unusual that past administrations typically have been audited by the legislature once a term,” she said “I have been audited or reviewed five times in the last four years. It is what it is. I am not immune from review and shouldn’t be.”

Galloway’s office previously said they would review Medicaid fraud issues and pass them to the Attorney General’s office. Did the review find anything as far as public corruption? Is it still being reviewed?

“We got a whistleblower tip about an attempt of Medicaid fraud and locked the account,” she said. “We reviewed those allegations, as we always do, and we deemed them to be credible. Medicaid fraud is handled by the Attorney General’s Office Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, so we have passed on all that information. We work with law enforcement when it comes to these issues, but it is a better question for the Attorney General’s Office as it is in their hands now.”

Medicaid expansion

Galloway was asked about Medicaid Expansion and that it has been rumored around Missouri that it is going to significantly affect the state’s budget, especially take funds from education. Is there any merit to that?

“There have been multiple studies that have shown Medicaid expansion would save money in the state’s budget, and more conservative leaning states have experienced that exact outcome,” Galloway said. “In expanding Medicaid, that means nearly a quarter of a million Missourians will have access to healthcare, and you all know our rural hospitals are closing. Even if you are lucky enough to have health insurance, there is nowhere to use it. I don’t think this argument about raising taxes or cutting education is a false choice. It is just an indication of how they would implement Medicaid expansion. There doesn’t have to be that choice.”