What is the relationship between auditors and legislators, and how do each contribute to effective oversight? Watch the State Oversight Academy’s conversation with state auditors on how to maintain a relationship with the legislature while preserving political boundaries. The panel discusses how auditing contributes to the overall state oversight ecosystem – whether the auditor finds a problem during a routine investigation, or the committee requests an audit following a scandal, they need each other to bring positive, lasting change in their states.

Panelists

• Kathy Patterson, Auditor @District of Columbia
• Kade Minchey, Auditor General @Office of Utah Legislative Auditor General
• John Geragosian, State Auditor @Connecticut
• John Sylvia, Director, Performance Evaluation & Research Division @West Virginia Office of the Legislative Auditor

Host:

Ben Eikey – State Training & Development Manager, Levin Center

• Connecticut audit report: Department of Social Services and Veyo Non-Emergency Medical Transportation
  • Follow-up: Non-Emergency Medical Transportation
• Utah audit report: A Performance Audit of Healthcare in State Prisons
  • An In-Depth Follow-Up of Healthcare in State Prisons
• D.C. audit report: District’s 911 System: Reforms Needed to Meet Safety Needs
  • 911 Reform Status Report #1: Minimal Progress
  • 911 Reform Status Report #2: Progress Made but Transparency Needed
• West Virginia audit report: Review of the State’s Laboratory Facilities – State Laboratory Testing Facilities’ Needs and Issues Are at Critical Point

• Amelia Knisely – Freelance Journalist, West Virginia
• Camryn Sanchez – Arizona Capitol Times
• Jonathan Oosting – Bridge Michigan

• Adam Zelizer – Assistant Professor of Political Science, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago
• Ben Eikey – State Training & Development Manager

• State Senator Kyra Hoffner (D-Delaware)
• State Senator Ed McBroom (R-Michigan)

On March 16^th, the Levin Center conducted a workshop on oversight for the North Carolina General Assembly. A bipartisan mix of elected officials and staff came together for an all-day workshop covering the basics of legislative oversight, the four phases of an investigation, developing and keeping an oversight plan, and an interactive exercise involving disaster response.

Instructors:

Jim Townsend – Levin Center Director

Ben Eikey – State Training & Development Manager

Attendees:

20 Participants

Downloads:

Presentation Slides

On January 23, 2023, Ben Eikey and Jim Townsend trained state legislators from across the country and political spectrum on how to build an oversight agenda for the upcoming legislative term. Following the presentation, attendees joined breakout rooms to create their own oversight agendas.

Instructors: 

• Jim Townsend, Director, Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy
• Ben Eikey, State Training and Communications Manager, Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy

Participants: 22 state legislators

Downloads:

• Masterclass Slides
• Summary Sheet

Properly administered election audits are one of the most important tools states can use to improve voter confidence and election security. In 2020, however, state legislatures in multiple states used audits for the opposite goal of undermining the public’s faith in elections and the electoral results themselves. Watch our panel discussion as representatives from the Brennan Center for Justice and the R Street Institute discuss the audits that followed the last election cycle and explore options to strengthen oversight of our elections going forward. This virtual panel discussion is hosted by Wayne Law’s Voting Rights and Election Law Society and the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.

Panelists:

• Matt Germer, Resident Elections Fellow, Governance Program, R Street Institute.
• Derek Tisler, Counsel, Democracy Program, Brennan Center for Justice.

Download the Election Audit Report referenced in the panel discussion

“Oversight, Infrastructure, and Federalism: Ensuring Transparency, Accountability, and Effectiveness of U.S. Infrastructure Investments”

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 is poised to send billions of taxpayer dollars from the nation’s capital through the states to local communities to improve our roads, bridges, dams, broadband networks, electric vehicle charging stations, mass transit systems, and more.  To ensure the success of these historic infrastructure investments, action must be taken to prevent waste, fraud and abuse, and ensure the law lives up to its promise.  On March 25, 2022, the Levin Center and Wayne State University Law Review held a  one-day online symposium focused on meeting our infrastructure investment challenges and opportunities.

(Visit our symposium webpage for full bios of moderators and panelists and additional resources on infrastructure oversight.)

Welcoming Comments: U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI)

Panel 1:Establishing Mechanisms for Oversight of Infrastructure

Moderator: Beth Osborne – Director,  Transportation for America

• Shruti Shah – President & CEO, Coalition for Integrity
• Lawrence (Larry) Goldenhersh – President, Center for Sustainable Energy
• Alexander (Alex) Beckmann – Senior Policy Advisor on Transportation and Infrastructure Issues, Congressman Jesús “Chuy” García (D-IL)

Panel 2: Exercising Oversight of Infrastructure Performance

Moderator: Portia Bamiduro –  Technical Adviser to Senior Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs, Amazon

• Elizabeth (Biza) Repko – Director for Physical Infrastructure, GAO
• Andrew (Andy) Doctoroff – Michigan Lead, Gordie Howe International Bridge Project & Adjunct Professor, University of Michigan Law School
• Joseph (Joe) Colaianne – General Counsel, Four Lakes Task Force
• John Sylvia – Director Performance Evaluation & Research Division, West Virginia State Legislature

Recommendations:

Capacity Building

• Build a culture of infrastructure oversight at the federal, state and local levels.
• Establish a committee of inspectors general, either modeled after the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) or by expanding the PRAC mandate, to coordinate federal infrastructure oversight, data, and analysis.
• Invest more in oversight capacity in the executive and legislative branches, at the federal and state levels, to enable more rigorous and timely investigations and reports.
• Build into federal and state laws, regulations, and practices up-front risk assessments, continuous auditing, and fraud detection.

Public Involvement

• Build a public website that tracks spending under the IIJA and enables public and private sector analysis of government and contractor spending and performance.
• Expand up-front community involvement in infrastructure policy and projects, particularly in establishing project needs, scope, and design.
• Educate national, state, and local media about the IIJA to assist in media oversight.

Design & Practice

• Encourage states to be more specific about their infrastructure goals in planning documents and performance metric design. Encourage reviews of past state projections for congestion reduction, reliability, safety improvements, and repair to identify challenges and improve future projections.
• Monitor and critique performance of infrastructure programs, including formula-based programs, using agreed upon goals and criteria, including repair and safety.
• Enlist project owners, auditors, agencies, prime contractors, and lawmakers in executing different aspects of oversight of specific infrastructure projects.

Data & Measurement

• Require more timely availability of data on infrastructure condition, safety, and performance management results. Measure the movement of people and the performance of non-car transportation systems.
• For electric vehicle charging stations, create a national data warehouse, direct grantees and contractors to supply data on charger use, reliability, and performance, and ensure the data is collected and analyzed.
• Leverage technology and best practices from industry regarding useful performance criteria and methods for gathering infrastructure performance data.

Contracting

• Provide training for state and local government personnel on project planning and cost estimation to enable effective reviews of contractor bids and make informed selections.
• Build oversight elements into infrastructure contracts requiring contractors to report performance data on a timely basis and cooperate with agency and auditor oversight.
• Build oversight costs into each contract.
• Provide state contracting officer and supervisor training on the collection and analysis of contract performance data (quality metrics, pay protocols tied to milestones, safety performance) and how to deal with subpar performance.
• Encourage or require cost estimates to be updated every 3 years.

Links and materials shared during symposium:

• Coalition for Integrity’s Oversight of Infrastructure Report
• Federal Highway Association – State Performance Dashboard
• Washington Post article from March 17, 2022:  ‘Under federal rules, ‘significant progress’ on infrastructure can mean more road deaths and decrepit bridges’.
• Slides used by Biza Repko
• Slides used by Larry Goldenhersh

Watch Panel 1

Watch Panel 2

• Ben Eikey – State Training and Communications Manager, Levin Center
• Rehana Mohammed, Associate Director for Transparency, PRAC
• Lisa Reijula,  Associate Director for Communications and Outreach, PRAC

• Levin Center 50 state study on legislative oversight: https://levin-center.org/state-lawmakers/oversight-in-the-50-states/
• Levin Center resources for State Lawmakers: https://levin-center.org/state-lawmakers/
• Levin Center resources for Congressional Lawmakers: https://levin-center.org/congressional-lawmakers/
• Levin Center blog on pandemic spending oversight: https://levin-center.org/2022/03/11/read-our-new-blog-post-and-join-the-webinar/
• PRAC slides: https://www.levin-center.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/PRAC-Presentation_Levin-15MARCH2022.pptx
• PRAC resources: https://www.pandemicoversight.gov/oversight
• PRAC resources: https://www.pandemicoversight.gov/oversight/reports?updated=&f%5B0%5D=report_type_taxonomy%3A123

Emergencies require a rapid government response, often with little time to screen vendors or review contracts. This sometimes leads to overpriced or mismanaged state contracts. How can state legislatures fulfill their oversight duties to scrutinize state contracts and protect taxpayers in an emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic? Listen to state legislators from across the country discussing legislative oversight of contracts signed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The panel heard from three leading elected officials across the country, including

• State Senator Dan Johnson from Idaho,
• State Assemblymember David Chiu from California, and
• State Senator Machaela Cavanaugh from Nebraska.

This panel discussion was recorded on May 4, 2021 sponsored by the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy. It follows the Levin Center’s recent case study report on oversight of emergency contracts in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

On April 9th, 2021 the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy and the Wayne State University Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice jointly hosed a virtual panel discussion entitled “Corrections and Re-Entry: Legislative and Community Efforts for a Successful Transition after Prison“.  The panel addressed questions of re-entry from prison to society, featuring legislative, academic, and community perspectives. How can a prisoner’s re-entry to the community better serve the interests and needs of both? be done successfully? What factors hinder or foster successful re-entry? What oversight efforts do state legislatures and agencies need to engage in to ensure re-entry programs fulfill their promises?

The panel heard from

• Michigan’s Legislative Corrections Ombudsman Keith Barber,
• Former Representative Joe Haveman from Hope Network, and
• Darryl Woods Sr., activist and returning citizen.

The Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy was invited to speak at the Council of State Government’s National Conference 2020. The session entitled “Strengthening the Role of Legislative Oversight” was hosted by the CSG West Oversight Working Group. The Levin Center presentation was followed by a panel discussion hearing from three different lawmakers in different states. The session was moderated by Assemblyman Ken Cooley (D-CA).

Levin Center presentation:

• Jim Townsend, Levin Center Director
• Elise Bean, Levin Center Washington Office Director
• Ben Eikey, State Training and Communications Manager

Panel discussion:

• Assemblymember Dan Quart, New York State Assembly, Chair, Commission on Administrative Regulations Review
• Senator Sarah Elfreth, Maryland State Senate, Chair, Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive & Legislative Review
• Senator Dan Johnson, Idaho State Senate

Download the Levin Center presentation (pdf)

Download the session’s agenda (pdf)

View the recording on the CSG website (no-cost registration required to view the recording)

Symposium Overview

On Friday, March 22, 2019, the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy, together with The Journal of Law in Society, held a symposium entitled “Gerrymandering: The Power of Boundaries” with to foster civil discourse on this matter of rapidly evolving public policy. Leading scholars from around the U.S. joined experts from Wayne State University to discuss partisan gerrymandering and race-based redistricting in a full-day event.  Michigan’s newly elected Secretary of State and former Wayne Law Dean Jocelyn Benson provided keynote remarks.

• See photos from the event
• Read the news release

Agenda

8:45 a.m. Opening remarks

• Former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, chair, Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy; distinguished legislator in residence, Wayne Law
• Emad Hamadeh, editor-in-chief, The Journal of Law in Society

9:00 a.m. Keynote speaker

• Jocelyn Benson, Secretary of State of Michigan

9:45 a.m. Gerrymandering: Past, Present, and Future

• Jowei Chen, associate professor and faculty associate at the Center for Political Studies, University of Michigan
• James Lancaster, chief counsel, Voters Not Politicians
• Eric Lupher, president, Citizens Research Council of Michigan
• Moderator: Justin Long, associate professor, Wayne Law

11:15 a.m. Race-Based Redistricting

• Guy-Uriel Charles, Edward and Ellen Schwarzman professor of law and director, Duke Law Center on Law, Race, and Politics, Duke University School of Law
• Aleks Kajstura, attorney and legal director, Prison Policy Initiative
• G. Michael Parsons, assistant professor, New York University School of Law
• Moderator: Rhonda Haidar, symposium editor, Journal of Law in Society

1:30 p.m. Political Gerrymandering and the U.S. Constitution

• Edward B. “Ned” Foley, Charles W. Ebersold and Florence Whitcomb Ebersold chair in constitutional law and director of Election Law @ Moritz, Moritz College of Law at Ohio State
• Nicholas Stephanopoulos, professor and Herbert and Marjorie Fried research scholar, University of Chicago Law School
• Daniel P. Tokaji, Charles W. Ebersold and Florence Whitcomb Ebersold professor of constitutional law, Moritz College of Law at Ohio State
• Steven Winter, Walter S. Gibbs distinguished professor of constitutional law, Wayne Law
• Moderator: Jonathan Weinberg, associate dean for research and faculty development, Wayne Law

3:00 p.m. Closing Remarks

• Rhonda Haidar, symposium editor, The Journal of Law in Society