Santa Barbara County supervisors have picked a side in the race for the Auditor-Controller’s Office, with most of them throwing their support behind a challenger for the role. 

Betsy Schaffer, the incumbent, will face off against Kyle Slattery for the position of auditor-controller in June, one of several county offices on the ballot. 

Four of the five county supervisors have endorsed Slattery for the position, including Joan Hartmann, Bob Nelson, Laura Capps and Steve Lavagnino.

Roy Lee does not plan to endorse a candidate for the position. 

The supervisors’ decision to endorse Slattery comes in response to claims that Schaffer has mishandled the installation of a new financial software system, with delays costing the county millions of dollars. 

The supervisors also voiced concern about how the office is run and a desire for more internal auditing at the county.  

Schaffer, who was first elected as auditor-controller in 2018, has worked for the county for more than 20 years. Slattery, another county employee, used to work in the Auditor-Controller’s Office with Schaffer before moving to the Information Technology Department last year.  

The Auditor-Controller’s Office oversees payroll and provides accounting and financial services for the county.

Hartmann said the reason she has endorsed Slattery’s campaign stems from dissatisfaction with how Schaffer has run her office. Hartmann originally supported Schaffer when she ran for the auditor-controller position in 2018, she noted.

One of the major issues for Hartmann has been the implementation of a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which would automate many of the county’s business functions through one software program.

Hartmann explained that the county currently uses an outdated system and decided to upgrade to a new system and company, Workday Inc., in 2022.

The Board of Supervisors approved contracts, including subscription rights that would last for 15 years, at $1.43 million per year.

“We allocated money for phase one, two and three, but we learned that the … cross departmental working group was having difficulty,” Hartmann told Noozhawk.

The first phase of the countywide system was scheduled to be finished by August 2023, but was not completed until August 2025. The full implementation was expected to be finished by November 2024, but the second phase has not begun.

Schaffer and the Auditor-Controller’s Office had an important role in the implementation.

Hartmann said she was told Schaffer was not attending working meetings, assigning staff nor prioritizing the project. Hartmann also said there were issues between Schaffer and the consultant in charge of installing the Workday system.

Hartmann added that modifications to the Workday system requested by Schaffer also increased the cost and slowed down the installation.

“We have three phases of Workday to adopt, and we had to spend all the money for all three phases just on phase one, because of these things that I mentioned,” Hartmann said.

Hartmann said she and fellow supervisor Nelson formed an ad hoc committee to address the timeline of the project.

Nelson said that Workday is the premier product used by Fortune 500 companies and counties. He added that other counties have completed the process in less time than Santa Barbara County, which is still waiting to begin the second phase out of three. 

He also raised the issue of whether Schaffer was attempting to protect the current system that was designed by her ex-husband and owner of Simpler Systems, Rick Schaffer. Schaffer gave up her portion of Simpler Systems when the couple officially divorced in 2013.

This issue previously came up during Schaffer’s 2018 campaign for auditor-controller. 

“If it’s not that, then it’s a lack of efficiency and urgency on her part on navigating that process, where there are auditors all throughout the state and country who have implemented this in a much faster timeline than Santa Barbara County,” Nelson said, “ultimately costing taxpayers millions of dollars.”

Auditor-controller is one of the county’s elected rather than appointed department heads. Nelson said another issue he has with department leadership is that he believes the office has not conducted enough internal audits in recent years. 

He added that the County Executive Office has hired outside auditors to conduct some internal audits. 

Nelson stated that some instances of embezzlement were discovered by whistleblowers, not the Auditor-Controller’s Office, including a Public Works employee who stole $2 million between 2008 and 2017. 

Internal auditing is one of the roles of the Auditor-Controller’s Office along with financial services such as employee payroll and accounting. 

“Betsy has been part of a team that’s been there in the auditor’s office that I think has been kind of hand-selected by past auditors for (the) last 20-plus years,” Nelson said, “and I think change and a new perspective is well needed.”

Tight Timelines for Workday Switch

Schaffer told Noozhawk that one of the issues in installing the Workday system was the county’s “super aggressive” timeline.

She added that one of the reasons for the delay was that the system was not prepared to go live. She stated that the county had to move certain records over to an entirely different system, and certain functions had to be added to the Workday system.

One of the issues she highlighted was tracking paper checks and the time between when employees receive them and when they are cashed.

Schaffer said the new Workday system did not account for this “float time” and that money was not being accounted for in the system’s tracking records.

She added that she asked for the system to show it can handle five basic things to prove it was ready, including writing checks, how to do deposits, budgets compared to actual reports, how to do encumbrances and issuing purchase orders.

Because of that, Schaffer said, she did not feel the system was ready to go live.

Schaffer also stated that the county contract included payments that needed to be made regardless of whether the work was completed.

“During the implementation period, there were milestone payments that had to be made, and these were significant amounts,” Schaffer said. “And … we had to make them regardless of whether the work had been accomplished.”

Schaffer added that the 30 days of service from Workday after the program went live were not enough for the county, and issues are still being addressed.

“I know I did the right thing by saying ‘no, that it wasn’t ready,’ because I wasn’t going to turn off a functioning system for a system that couldn’t take deposits and couldn’t write bills out and couldn’t do a basic report,” Schaffer said. “It is what it is, but I feel like I did the right thing. I know I did the right thing.”

In response to claims that she did not attend meetings, Schaffer said she was met with resistance to her ideas.

“I stopped attending because they quit listening to me,” Schaffer said, “or the project team stopped listening to me.”

Supervisors Support Kyle Slattery

The majority of county supervisors are endorsing Slattery in June’s election, pointing to his experience as well as their dissatisfaction with the way Schaffer runs the office. 

Slattery worked on the Workday project in the Auditor-Controller’s Office before transferring to the IT Department to become the deputy chief information officer in March 2025. 

Hartmann said she saw Slattery’s skills and believes in his vision for the future.

“Kyle is committed to more budget transparency and allowing people to understand where their tax dollars are going, and what they’re getting for it,” Hartmann said. “That is exciting to me, that he’s innovative.”

Nelson also expressed support for Slattery’s experience. He added that he believes the department’s Workday implementation would be complete if Slattery had overseen it.

Slattery told Noozhawk that he was the project manager for the program switch, but resources were not assigned to make sure it was implemented. He said there was time before contracts were signed to raise any concerns about the program. 

“We were in this state of constant friction and kind of running in place,” Slattery said, “and as we’re running in place, we’re burning hundreds of thousands of dollars in staff time, in implementor fees, and an unused return on investment from the software subscription, which we have been paying for.” 

Despite not having the support of many of the supervisors, Schaffer said she supports the board and its decisions.

“I support the board, regardless of who they endorse,” Schaffer said. “I’ll continue to do my job and support them.”

The Auditor-Controller Office and other county offices are on the ballot for the June 2 election.

Check back with Noozhawk for more election coverage, including profiles of the candidates running for auditor-controller and other positions.