By WMBD-TV

BLOOMINGTON – This coming November, voters in McLean County will decide if they want to eliminate the office of county auditor.

At Thursday’s County Board meeting, board members voted unanimously to add the referendum to eliminate the office to the ballot for the November general election.

Board members did amend the ballot measure to keep the wording short and simple. Previously, the item had information on why the position should be eliminated.

“We wanted to be clear with the voters that some of these pieces will continue to be done. As far as the review, the audit pieces to make sure that everything is following what the budgets are,” said Elizabeth Johnston, the board’s vice chair, adding that she was pleased the decision to amend the referendum was unanimous.

County Auditor Michelle Anderson is currently running unopposed for another term. If the position is eliminated, then the referendum would block her from serving again if she were reelected.

The county auditor position is currently an elected position. The board will later decide the next best steps for auditing the county.

“What’s happening in the administrative office, what they’ve told me is that they are doing a review of best practices,” Johnston said. “So, we’ll be looking at best practices to make sure that our internal controls stay in place and we will retain that external auditor to do the annual audit. So, we will have that kind of outside eyes looking to make sure that everything is clear.”

At a meeting earlier this week, the county board’s executive committee approved the measure, noting the move would save the county money by eliminating redundancy. The county already uses an outside auditor to look over its books.