Portland's Elected City Auditor

LaVonne Griffin-Valade

Portland City Auditor

CIA, CGAP, MPA

LaVonne Griffin-Valade was sworn in as City Auditor on June 9, 2009. Before joining the City, she served as the elected Multnomah County Auditor, and prior to that, she was the Deputy County Auditor and a Senior Auditor in the County Auditor’s Office beginning in 1998.  She has a Master of Public Administration degree from Portland State University and is a Certified Internal Auditor and a Certified Government Auditing Professional.

Portland has had an elected City Auditor since 1864.  The City Auditor is the sixth elected official in Portland City government, along with the Mayor and four City Commissioners.  As an auditor that is accountable to the voters of Portland, the City Auditor is administratively independent from the Mayor and other City Council members.  This allows the Office of the City Auditor to audit City government departments and programs, as well as provide other services that require independence and neutrality.

As Portland’s City Auditor, LaVonne heads the 50-member Office of the City Auditor and its eight divisions, which are responsible for conducting performance audits of City operations, serving as the City Council Clerk, preparing the City Council agenda, managing City records and archives, providing hearings officers to adjudicate appeals of City actions, managing City elections, handling complaints against the City (through the City Ombudsman’s Office and the Independent Police Review Division), working with financing of Local Improvement Districts, and administering foreclosures of City liens on property. 

For more information about the other divisions of the City Auditor's Office, besides the Audit Services Division, you can go to the main City Auditor's web page.

The Audit Services Division is headed by the Director of Audit Services.  The director and staff of the Audit Services Division perform the City Auditor's Charter and Code mandated auditing functions, and are sworn Deputy City Auditors.

LaVonne has a Masters in Public Administration degree from Portland State University, and a B.A. degree from Western Oregon State.  She has also done post graduate degree work in the Public Administration and Policy doctoral program at Portland State.  She is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and a Certified Government Auditing Professional (CGAP). 

She is a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors and also of the Association of Local Government Auditors, where she serves on the Peer Review Committee.