This Spring Election, Milwaukeeans will have a chance to vote for the next city comptroller. The comptroller is the city’s chief financial officer and serves a four-year term.
The current city comptroller, Aycha Sawa, has worked in the comptroller’s office for nearly 15 years and announced last year that she is not seeking reelection.
She says that a city’s comptroller is often an appointed position and that the City of Milwaukee is one of about a dozen cities that elect their comptroller.
“The comptroller is the city's fiscal watchdog and they are looking out for your taxpayer dollars,” Sawa says. “They are not beholden to the mayor, they are not beholden to the 15 council members, and they are just looking out for the best interest of the city's financial health.”
As the city comptroller, Sawa says she oversees eight divisions including grant administration, auditing, payroll administration, the city’s debt program, fraud reports and more.
In other words, the city comptroller ensures grant dollars are being sent to and spent by the correct city departments and non-profits. They also oversee payroll for over 7,000 city employees, manage the city’s $1 billion debt program and make revenue estimates for the city.
In addition to exercising fiscal control over 40 city departments and agencies, the city comptroller serves on various boards and sits on all of the city’s finance committee meetings. Sawa serves on the Board of Directors for the Wisconsin Center District, is a member of the City’s Deferred Compensation Board and the Annuity and Pension Board and is the secretary to the Public Debt Commission.
Difference between the city comptroller and the city treasurer
Both the city comptroller and city treasurer play crucial roles in managing the city’s finances.
Sawa says one easy way to distinguish the difference between each role is that the city treasurer essentially acts like a bank and takes in all of the payments and loans for the city and the city comptroller takes care of accounting for that money.
“The nice thing … is that we have a really good checks and balances system with the treasurer being separate from the comptroller," Sawa says. “We work very closely with them, [for example] we process the checks to pay out all of the vendors of the city, and then they make [the payment] part happen.”
Difference between the city comptroller and county comptroller
While some residents will have the chance to vote for a new city comptroller and county comptroller in Milwaukee this Spring Election, it's important to note both roles oversee separate financial departments.
In large part, Sawa says the county comptroller’s office runs very similarly to the city comptroller’s office, such as the county comptroller being in charge of overseeing the county’s debt and conducting auditing and central accounting. However, she says, the county comptroller used to be an appointed position until 2011 when it became an elected position like the city comptroller.
