It seems Republican Vince Illuzzi is having a tough time finding talking points for his run at the auditor’s office. In today’s Free Press, he takes poorly aimed pot-shots at public employees without encumbering himself with a whole lot of facts.

His Democratic opponent Doug Hoffer points out that, in framing the “three part plan” regarding overtime that he would advocate as auditor, Mr. Illuzzi seems to have failed to read the existing Human Resources Manual that pretty much has all that covered.  

According to Hoffer:

I was surprised to see Mr. Illuzzi’s suggestions today since the core elements are already part of state’s Human Resources Policy Manual (see below).

The auditor has an important role to play in ensuring compliance with policies and procedures. But any recommendations should come after conducting the necessary research, not before. In this case, Mr. Illuzzi admitted that he had “not yet had the opportunity to assess agency by agency and department current controls that may be in place.” He should have done his homework.

In fact, the third part of Illuzzi’s overtime management plan has nothing to do with overtime:

Ensuring that agency assets such as vehicles, cell phones, equipment, and other agency resources are used only for official business.

According to the Free Press, Illuzzi alleges that

supervisors are providing inadequate oversight of employee time sheets. He said also the de­tection and prevention of time sheet fraud is not a priori­ty for some departments and there is often a failure by some management to establish procedures to monitor overtime claims.

And he knows this for a fact?  Apparently not.

Hoffer, however, noted Illuzzi said he had not had the opportunity to assess agency by agency and department current controls that may be in place.

While Hoffer agrees that the overtime issue must be reviewed and any systemic failures addressed, it isn’t very productive making blanket statements about agency mismanagement without any concrete information.

Doing so only alienates the people with whom the auditor will have to establish a respectful relationship in order to do an effective job.

This raises the question of Illuzzi’s personal style and how it might hamstring the work of the auditor’s office.

Old habits die hard.  If Mr. Illuzzi cannot resist the temptation to shoot from the hip; or if he forgets himself and attempts to legislate from the auditor’s office, he could potentially be an even less effective auditor than the perennially distracted Tom Salmon.