Jackson Free Press

State Auditor Phil Bryant is leaving a vacuum in the auditor's office that three Democrats are fighting to fill.

Former Assistant Attorney General Jacob Ray, 29, said he is not afraid to investigate the most public of public figures.

"I worked in the criminal appeals division in the attorney general's office, arguing in Supreme Court and in the Court of Appeals, and I've had the unfortunate opportunity to prosecute elected officials, so I've had my mettle tested in the state," said Ray, whose most recent work this year involved the investigation of a Madison County constable, Eddie Gilmer, for misuse of his county vehicle. Ray said Gilmer is now serving 15 years.

Ray, of Jackson, said he'll be using his open line with prosecutors all over the state to devise new ways to perfect investigations and bring about successful prosecutions.

"The jury pool is already tainted in favor of locally elected officials, so you need to have a good prosecution lined up against them. I know of people who've embezzled a million or a quarter of a million dollars and they get a slap on the wrist and don't see a day of jail, thanks to a plea deal that the prosecution had to cop. Meanwhile somebody who steals a car, a theft worth about $10,000, gets 15 years. That bothers me," Ray said.

The Ole Miss graduate said he also wants to use performance audits to shave off government waste. He sees the auditor's office as extremely understaffed, however, and wants to expand the number of auditors in the office.

"We're short at least 20 to 30 people, which has caused a shortage of audits of our universities and junior colleges, leaving some government money going to these institutions unaudited, which is unfortunate for taxpayers," Ray said, adding that he can fill these holes with the help of bonds he drafted at the state Capitol as the legislative liaison of the AG's office,.

"We'll need good relationships with legislators because we'll have to make the office attractive to new employees," Ray said. "We've got to find some creative ways that don't put an extra burden on the taxpayer but still makes the job attractive to new blood."

The 'Wrong Mix'
While Ray wants to retain the auditor's office as a Phil Bryant-styled policing agency, former Forrest County Chief Financial Officer Mike Sumrall, 50, wants to return the office to the bean counters. "They've got the wrong mix of people in there," Sumrall, a USM grad, told the JFP. "They've got the police type, like retired police officers. Police types are fine, but they're not very useful when you're doing embezzlement type cases or when you're doing complicated debit and credit type investigations. Since the early 1980s, we've had a series of auditors who didn't know the difference between a debit or a credit. They each tried to mold the office in different ways, such as law enforcement, instead of the audit way it was designed for."

Sumrall, who worked as a county auditor, said the office desperately need to go back to doing audits. School Average Daily Attendance audits are particularly important, he said, because schools receive funding based on ADA numbers. Sumrall said the state office hasn't checked the ADA numbers in three years.

The accountant said he wants to do more financial audits, and beef up the technical assistance division to support county staff.

"One thing Bryant has done over the last few years is lower the budget. But by doing that he's lowered the staff, and what the county has to do now is go out and hire a CPA at a higher rate than what the state used to provide an auditor for. What he's done is shift your burden from the state income tax to your local ad-valorem, so your local board of supervisors now has to hit you with higher property tax in order to pay for that CPA firm. Sumrall said he can make the shift with no extra cost to the taxpayer. "They've got staff," Sumrall said. "They've just got them assigned to unproductive locations. They've got the most people in the investigative division probably in the history of the agency, yet they're three years behind on investigations."

'Sonny Montgomery-Style'
Candidate Todd Brand, of Bailey, said he wants to foster a balance between police and accountant roles. Brand, 33, is a Meridian Community College fine arts/communication professor, who also teaches macroeconomics.

"I think there's a balance between those two type roles. I don't think you should have to go to extremes to make the office work," Brand said, adding that he's running chiefly because of the importance the office poses for the state's education system.

"Up until a couple of years ago, the Auditor's office monitored the community colleges, the universities and the average daily attendance system," said Brand, who describes himself as a "Sonny Montgomery-style Democrat. "The office hasn't been doing its job for a long time, but our school system depends upon it for that."

Brand, like Ray and Sumrall, also notes that the auditor's office is woefully short-staffed, and said he wants to recruit accounting majors into working at the office.

"The problem is that many accounting majors stand to make more money working privately than taking a state job. It will be a challenge, but I think we could implement a scholarship plan that will pay for a student's college in exchange for time at the auditor's office," he said.

The winner of the Democratic primary in August will face Republican Stacey Pickering in the November general election.