Town auditors ensure that local officials are accountable for their expenditures of taxpayers' money. It is the auditor's job to review the accounts of local officials and report the findings directly to the taxpayers for review. Because this report is presented only days before town meeting, the statutory scheme envisions that if the taxpayers do not like what the auditors’ report indicates about how the officials have spent the taxpayer’s money, the officials will be voted out of office. Thus, it is the auditor’s function to present an easy-to-understand picture of the town’s finances to its citizens.
Historically, there have been three town auditors, one elected each year for a three-year term by the voters at the annual town meeting. In 1997, the legislature authorized towns to vote to eliminate elected auditors and to contract for the necessary services which auditors have provided. Currently, Shaftsbury has three elected auditors.
The board of auditors compiles the town’s annual report. The auditors must mail or otherwise distribute a copy of the report to every legal voter of the town at least ten days before the annual meeting. At the same time, copies required by 24 V.S.A. 1173 are delivered to the town clerk. This mailing requirement helps avoid the need to publish the warning of the annual meeting in a newspaper.
The auditors must begin meeting at least 25 days before each annual town meeting to examine and correct the accounts of all town and town school district officers, as well as the accounts of all other persons who are authorized to draw money from the town treasurer, including elected and appointed officials who submit bills for expenses to the town for payment on a monthly or annual basis. Officers who refuse to provide this information to the auditors will not be eligible for reelection for the ensuing year.
The town report should provide a detailed financial statement of each department of the town and town school district for the preceding fiscal year, as well as a statement of the assets, receipts and disbursements of all trust funds in which the town has an interest, the bonded indebtedness of the town and the outstanding notes or orders of the town or town school district.
