Three candidates vying for office as city auditor in first non-partisan election

The City Auditor serves to provide independent oversight on how the mayor and the city council spends your tax dollars.

For the first time, this year's election for auditor is non-partisan, meaning if one of the three candidates receives fifty percent plus one vote in Tuesday's primary, they will win the office.

The three candidates are incumbent City Auditor Clift Richards, former Tulsa Chief Risk Officer Cathy Criswell, and Josh Lewis, Senior Supervisor with the Oklahoma State Auditor's Office.

Richards, 73, was appointed to the office by Mayor Dewey Bartlett.

He tells KRMG "the people elect a city auditor to keep an attendant watch over the resources they provided to the government" in the form of tax dollars.

"Citizens want accountability from the city government that resources are safeguarded, and efficiently and effectively applied to the intended purposes," he added.

Lewis pointed out that both his opponents were mayoral appointments, and calls himself the "only independent" candidate for the office.

He says the auditor is the "independent watchdog for the city. Their chief duty is to protect your tax dollars."

The office "was envisioned as an independent branch, which doesn't answer to the mayor, but answers to the taxpayers," Lewis told KRMG.

KRMG also reached out to candidate Cathy Criswell, but she did not return our call.