CHEYENNE — “We better pass something,” said Sen. Dan Laursen.
The Powell Republican, and a founder of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus who did not seek re-election, was speaking as vice chairman of the Legislature’s Management Audit Committee.
The committee, with an unusually high Caucus membership, took a big hit two days earlier in the Republican primary election.
But seven Caucus members showed up for the meeting, either by Zoom or in person. Four non-Caucus members were excused, including two Democrats, Sen. Chris Rothfuss and Rep. Trey Sherwood, both of Laramie.
The Caucus folk who attended included the committee chairman, Sen. Chris Knapp of Gillette, who survived the election. He said he was attending through Zoom because he recently had heart surgery.
The meeting was the last of two assigned to the committee this interim.
With a budget of $27,500, they had a mighty light workload.
It included reconsideration of two bills that failed to be considered in the 2026 budget session.
One concerned administrative rules (yawn).
The other was hotter; the penalty for ignoring legislative penalties.
Their second priority study was review of audit processes — of special district audit processes, non-compliance and challenges faced by districts.
A there was an assigned review of Livestock Board theft prevention resources.
I don’t think the committee ever got to that one.
The audit process is a foreign web of language, statutes and standards.
Last year the committee broke with legislative tradition and issued subpoenas to local officials of towns and counties and special districts over noncompliance audits.
The move was not well received. Officials and leaders said they were offended because they would have responded if only asked to come to Cheyenne and explain their positions.
The delivery of a subpoena with its legal backup is not a way to build a friendship.
So the committee stepped back a bit. The members talked about ways to help the locals with their accounting. Perhaps with resource officials available to help the small towns, like the Wyoming Association of Municipalities offers its members.
The state audit officials said this is important because few young people are choosing accounting as a career. Wyoming communities can’t afford to hire professionals.
The traditional situation in Wyoming was the loss of a long-term employee who knew where the cash was going and could account for it.
Then she (it always was a she) retired. And there was no one to replace her who could continue her method of accounting.
Which may not have been General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), but it worked for her business at the time.
Anyway, the committee will re-run its bill to increase the penalty for ignoring a subpoena from $100 to $750.
During the recent meeting the members heard from Johnson County officials, who had been subjects of complaints for failing to file audits that were in compliance, for nine years.
Officials acknowledged that they were sometimes late with the audit reports, but were now caught up and in good standing.
Their audit negative finding was always lack of internal controls and a GAAP system.
More recent is a number of complaints over the Campbell County Cemetery special district.
Citizens questioned the use of $50 million reserve for a new cemetery in Wright.
They claimed the district was using tax money for economic development, and was spending $30,000 a year for a marketing director.
This, being the last meeting, the committee voted to have one more half day meeting, probably in Gillette
There’s the cemetery to discuss, but possibly more important the entire issue of audits and enforcement, or lack thereof
The idea is to get people from the attorney general’s office to attend the meeting as well as the auditors.
The committee learned that many troubling audits are turned over to the attorney general’s office, which does nothing and has no comment on the issue.
“We need to talk about enforcement and what to do when the attorney general's office does nothing,” Knapp said on Zoom.
“We need to get behind the curtain.”
Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
