Auditor-Controller’s Office

Re Times endorsements, May 17.

I would like to reply to a few of the statements in your recent editorial that were both incorrect and patently false.

First of all, the auditor-controller’s office does have e-mail capability and has had for some time. We rely on this as one mode of communication to make sure information is disseminated quickly, particularly with respect to the accounting and financial issues of the county.

Second, the auditor-controller’s office currently has a Web page on the Intranet and a page for the Internet is under development. It was felt that the Intranet was of priority to assist employees in departments within the county to have access to information for their work to be more efficient. You may be interested to know that rather than spending thousands of dollars designing a Web page with outside assistance, we have saved the county money by training employees in-house to undertake this task.

The direct-deposit issue is not something this office can implement unilaterally. This issue is subject to labor negotiations. I have kept the Board of Supervisors and each union informed of this issue.

THOMAS O. MAHON, Ventura County Auditor-Controller

Editor’s note: When we called the auditor-controller’s office and requested its official e-mail address, the receptionist conferred with someone else and then gave us her personal address.