Potential Heir as County Auditor Says She Can Handle Scrutiny

Even before county Auditor Tom Mahon got around to handing in his resignation letter Monday, the attention was on his assistant, Christine Cohen.

Although the Board of Supervisors have yet to affirm Cohen’s appointment to fill her boss’ slot until his term expires in 2002, talk among some officials was that Cohen was all but certain to succeed Mahon.

But she is already feeling the heat of public office.

At a board hearing Tuesday, Ventura County Supervisors John K. Flynn and Frank Schillo lashed out at Cohen for failing to notify the board of an audit that found the county owes the state $7 million.

“I don’t recall ever hearing anything about it,” said Schillo, who withdrew his previous public support for Cohen. “In fact, I found out about it in the newspaper.”

Cohen’s possible appointment is also stirring criticism among some county residents, who contend that the board is creating a system of incumbents and giving an unfair advantage to those handpicked by county officials.

“It’s been an endless process of appointed officials to fill elected positions,” said Ojai Valley resident Russ Baggerly, who addressed the board on the issue during its meeting. “It’s very difficult to get fresh oversight when you are constantly filling the position from below. And as we have all witnessed, the county of Ventura needs fresh oversight.”

*

Others have attacked Cohen’s potential appointment because, like Mahon, she does not hold a certified public accountant’s license. Although it’s not a requirement for the post, critics say it should be.

Cohen, meanwhile, sat through Tuesday’s board meeting expressionless. She’s never held public office, but said she’s thick-skinned enough to take on the kind of scrutiny that comes with the high-profile post.

Still, she is reserved when asked about her possible appointment.

“I’d be pleased if they ask me,” the soft-spoken Cohen said. “I know not many people are turned on by county government, but I love my job.”

She’s already had a practice run at the office, sitting at the auditor’s helm for the past three months while Mahon tended to his ailing wife. Now that his wife’s illness has forced Mahon’s early retirement, Cohen stands poised to finish his term.

Cohen joined the county’s auditing office in 1979, the same year she completed a master’s degree in finance from George Washington University. At the time, she was working with a green card.

Cohen was born in Norway 43 years ago, but got most of her primary education at British and American schools in Caracas before returning to Norway to graduate from high school.

Although she began her college career at Oslo University in Norway in 1975, Cohen said she was eager to follow in the steps of an older brother and come to the United States to study. She applied to Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C., and was accepted to study business administration.

“I jumped at the opportunity,” she said.

America has been home ever since for Cohen, who today speaks with no hint of an accent. “It comes out when I’m angry,” she said.

By the time she graduated with a master’s degree in finance and investments from George Washington in 1979, she was married and began looking for a job. About that time, her husband, then a contracts manager, was transferred to Oxnard, and the couple moved to Ventura County.

*

After the move, Cohen got some advice from a new and influential friend that would shape the course of her career.

“I met Sheriff [Al] Jalaty,” Cohen said. “And he suggested I apply with the county.”

She did, and in November 1979 she started as an accountant. Through the years, she worked her way up the ranks of the county’s financial office, working as an analyst, supervising accountant and chief deputy auditor-controller. Then in 1994, she took on the No. 2 post in the office, becoming assistant auditor-controller.

And it wasn’t until 1989 that Cohen decided to become an American citizen. Despite considering Ventura County her home, Cohen said she was sentimentally tied to Norway, where her parents still live.

“But once you have kids, your perspective changes,” said Cohen, who gave birth to a son in 1984 and a daughter in 1988.

After 21 years with the county, Cohen has built a reputation as a smart, no-nonsense professional who, according to one county official, “probably knows the numbers better than her boss.”

But Cohen is fairly protective of the man she considers her mentor. Mahon himself was a longtime county employee, serving as assistant auditor for 21 years before the Board of Supervisors appointed him to the top job in 1993. He was elected to the position the next two terms.

Two county chief administrators have had harsh words for the auditor’s position in the past year. In a resignation letter after only four days as county chief administrator, David Baker told supervisors that the auditor’s office “plays too much of a policy role, rather than an accounting role.”

*

Interim Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford has also charged that the office should scale back such duties and focus more on audits of county departments.

Some have charged that the office under-audits many areas of the county, and that’s the reason it failed to catch nearly a decade of Medicare overbilling--a mistake that cost the county $15.3 million in fines.

Cohen refuses to address most of the criticisms made during Mahon’s tenure, but said she believes most are unfair.

“Tom is still the auditor and he needs to address those,” said Cohen.

She added: “He’s going to be missed. He sets up a standard that I try to live up to.”

Although she declined to lay out any specific changes she would make as auditor, Cohen acknowledged that some of the office’s problems have been due to a staffing shortage. She said the county has to increase salaries for auditors to attract more candidates.

As to criticism that she’s not a CPA, “it just never occurred to me” to become licensed, Cohen said. “And I don’t need it, legally, to do that job.”

Still, Scott Weiss, a Ventura-based certified public accountant who ran for the auditor’s office in 1994, said supervisors should require such training for anyone handling the county’s finances. He noted that Ventura County was one of the few in the state whose auditor is not a CPA.

“I can’t see appointing anyone other than a CPA, despite their institutional knowledge,” Weiss said. “If [the supervisors] were to post that position, they would get qualified people from all over the country.”

Weiss and others have also spoken out against handing the office to another longtime county insider.

“Just because you appoint a woman doesn’t mean you’ve ended the old-boy’s network,” he told supervisors at their Tuesday meeting.

Mahon, however, isn’t letting such critics get in the way of his strong support for his assistant. He used glowing terms when speaking of Cohen in his Monday resignation letter, and clearly pointed to her as the next in line.

“There’s not a base she hasn’t touched in this office, not a job here she hasn’t handled,” he said in an interview Monday. “I feel very proud I can leave this office in such good hands.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Profile of Christine Cohen

Age: 43

Residence: Born in Norway, moved to Washington, D. C., in 1976, then to Ventura County in 1979.

Education: B. A. in business administration from Mount Vernon College, Washington, D. C., 1978; M. A. in finance / investments from George Washington University, Washington, D. C., 1979.

Background: Became an accountant for Ventura County in 1979, promoted to financial analyst in 1981, supervising accountant in 1983, chief deputy auditor-controller in 1989, assistant auditor-controller in 1994.

Personal: Married with a 16-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter.