A well-known and respected forensic accountant has resigned from the Clark County Audit Oversight Committee after she claimed to have been used as a “political pawn” by Auditor Greg Kimsey and Councilor David Madore.
Tiffany Couch, founder of accounting firm Acuity Forensics, submitted her resignation Tuesday night following what she describes as several months of being used by both Republican elected officials to serve their political agendas regarding the county’s fee waiver program.
“It does not appear that my education, professional experience or background are the basis for my appointment,” she wrote in the letter addressed to Councilor Jeanne Stewart, who is on the oversight committee. “Instead, it is apparent that both Mr. Kimsey and Commissioner Madore wish to use me to support whatever political initiative they are currently supporting — seemingly to spite one another.”
Couch, known locally for her critical reports of the Columbia River Crossing, was appointed to the oversight committee in November with Kimsey’s encouragement.
Kimsey, however, denies the accusations, praising Couch’s efforts on the board and expressing regret over her decision to resign from the committee, which reviews and provides feedback on internal audits.
“I have every confidence in her education, work experience and background,” Kimsey said. “I believed she was an excellent representative of Clark County citizens on that committee.”
Madore has praised Couch in the past, once hiring her to provide forensic accounting work of the then-ongoing Columbia River Crossing bridge project. Couch said she stopped working for Madore long before he was elected.
Madore and Kimsey have clashed over the controversial fee waiver program and its resulting audit. The program, which waives all traffic and development fees for nonresidential projects in unincorporated Clark County, has been touted by Madore and other proponents as having created thousands of jobs and brought in millions of dollars in construction revenue to the region.
An audit by Kimsey’s office of the program, however, describes it as ineffective and costly. At the time the audit was released, the report concluded that only 115 jobs had been created by businesses receiving the fee waiver, and that little jobs were created in the way of new construction.
Couch’s appointment came shortly before the release of the fee waiver audit. In her resignation letter, Couch said her opinion of the audit was “not favorable to the Auditor’s office,” and that many of her concerns — detailed in a 13-point list to Kimsey and Operations Review Manager Matt Grady — were not properly addressed.
Couch also said she was concerned that the county commissioners did not have the opportunity to comment on the audit at a presentation of the audit in November.
Kimsey, however, said he believed the audit had been adequately edited to address those issues.
“There were some changes that were made to that report based on her observations,” he said.
He also said the then-commissioners had ample opportunity to comment on the audit last fall but elected not to submit an official response. Madore presented the oversight committee with a document about the audit after the official deadline for the commissioners to respond had passed, Kimsey said. That same document, which named no author, was posted in November on the county’s website The Grid, where it was described as “Fee Waiver Audit – Commissioner response.”
Though Couch indicated that her doubts about joining the committee started from the minute she was appointed — Commissioner Ed Barnes questioned her association with Madore in a way that was “unnecessarily insulting,” she wrote, while Madore’s praise of her was “overly saccharine” — the final straw appears to have come this week.
According to Couch’s letter, Kimsey emailed Couch on Tuesday to alert her that her name appeared on Madore’s campaign website on a recently added Fact Check page the councilor is using to dispute “some of the misinformation and errors published by unreliable sources.” Included is a Columbian blog post fact-checking Madore’s campaign literature, as well as the fee waiver audit. Couch said Kimsey then gave conflicting information on whether she should respond publicly or with a private phone call to Madore.
Madore said the audit fails to properly include dissenting opinions — which, he said, should have disqualified it from a national award it received earlier this year from the Association of Local Government Auditors — and praised Couch for her work on the oversight committee.
“Mrs. Couch is beyond reproach, is unwilling to compromise on any ethical issue and, of course, disagrees with Kimsey’s Fee Waiver ‘audit,’ ” Madore wrote. “Couch deserves our highest respect.”
Kimsey, who confirmed that he emailed Couch, said he first became aware of her continued problems with the fee waiver program when he saw it on Madore’s website.
“It should be noted,” Couch wrote, “that I was unaware of and had not authorized my name being used on Mr. Madore’s campaign website and will be requesting that my name be withdrawn immediately.”
In an email to The Columbian, Madore defended using her name on his website.
“The (Audit Oversight Committee) is a public agency and the activities of that public agency are a matter of public record,” he said. “It is appropriate to reference her role as a member of that public body. Couch announced her resignation from the AOC. We are thankful for her service and wish her the best.”
As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, Couch was still mentioned on Madore’s page.
“It is difficult to attribute words which would accurately describe my disappointment in this situation,” Couch wrote. “It is shenanigans like these that alienate good people from wanting to participate in their government.”
