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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2014 | Vol.124, No. 80 | WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | 75¢
ELECTION 2014
CPA challenges county auditor By JANIS REID Staff reporter
An accounting contractor who worked for the Island County Auditor is challenging her former boss in November’s general election. Independent candidate Rebecca Wagner, who worked in the auditors office for five months in 2011 and and three months in 2012, is questioning the performance of Island County Auditor Sheilah Crider. “When Sheilah was running unopposed, I decided I could do a better job,” Wagner said CRIDER in a Wednesday interview. “I think Sheilah’s a nice person probably, but I just don’t think she engages with her people.” Crider said she has succeeded in her role over two terms despite going through a period of economic turmoil and the resulting budget cuts. “I have taken the Island County Auditor’s Office WAGNER through the darkest of times, through the deepest global recession we could have and my office was reduced some 36 percent,” Crider said. “You don’t do that without the experience and a capability and the knowledge to help pull your staff together and get them through that time.” Island County was cited by the State Auditor’s SEE AUDITOR, A10
Photo by Michelle Beahm/Whidbey News-Times
Oak Harbor High School cheerleaders Sarah Bellis, left, and Jacklyn Curtis celebrate during the homecoming parade Wednesday on Pioneer Way.
HOME SWEET HOME
By MICHELLE BEAHM Staff reporter
Pioneer Way was the place to be Wednesday night, as students from the Oak Harbor School District gathered to celebrate homecoming. High school athletic director Nicky Luper said there were 39 different groups walking in the parade, totalling about 450 to 500 people.
“I think there were more people in it, and I also think there were more spectators,” Luper said. “It just gets bigger each year.” The elementary and middle schools were all represented, but the majority of the parade was filled with people from different clubs and activities at the high school including choir, the SEE PARADE, A20
Island Transit late on federal audit paperwork, may face findings By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
Island Transit was late with paperwork related to an audit, which is likely to have findings showing the misappropriation of federal funds, according to Oak Harbor Mayor Scott Dudley. An audit exit conference has been tentatively scheduled at Island Transit for Friday,
Oct. 24, but it’s unclear whether the board of directors will open it to the public. Andy Asbjornsen, an audit manager with Washington State Auditor’s Office, explained that auditors are conducting two types of regularly scheduled audits of the troubled transit agency. The so-called “federal audit” looks at how the agency spent dollars from federal sources;
for Island Transit, that means auditors are looking at how the $18-million federal grant for the new transit facility was spent. The other is the accountability audit, which will be completed after the federal audit. Asbjornsen said Island Transit missed the Sept. 30 deadline for completing the data collection form that goes along with the federal audit.
As a result, Asbjornsen explained, the federal government will automatically deem Island Transit as “high risk” for next year’s audit, which translates into greater scrutiny. The grant dollars, however, have already been spent, so there essentially won’t be a federal audit next year. SEE TRANSIT, A10
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