VIRGINIA BEACH

The finalists for the city auditor's job - the first new City Council appointee in nearly 20 years - are the temporary head of the office and a School Board member.

The two candidates are Chris Ford, the acting director of Virginia Beach's Audit Services office, and Lyndon Remias, a first-term board member who works at Amerigroup.

Interviews with the council are scheduled for today. The auditor and his staff would investigate fraud, waste and abuse in government spending.

The identities of the finalists were confirmed by Councilwoman Reba McClanan.

Remias acknowledged he was a finalist. Ford could not be reached for comment.

"We're talking about two well-known commodities in the community," McClanan said. "They both have track records, and they've both worked with a lot of people."

Whoever gets the job will have the distinction of being Virginia Beach's first new council appointee since Jim Spore was hired as city manager in 1991.

Until recently, the job of city auditor reported to Spore, as do all department heads.

Council members decided last year to make the position the fifth in the city to report directly to them.

The other four are the city manager, real estate assessor, city attorney and city clerk. The new position comes with an annual pay range of $76,000 to $115,000.

Remias, 39, is a senior auditor for Amerigroup. Before that, he worked for Eastern Virginia Medical School. He was elected to the School Board in 2006.

"Any internal auditor strives to be in the position where they lead," Remias said. "This is going to be a position of great leadership because we're being the eyes and the ears of council."

Remias said that if he gets the job, he hopes the council would let him keep his School Board seat. He added that he would be sensitive that some would have "an inkling that there's a conflict."

"Absolutely, I would love to do both," Remias said, "but as an appointee to council, it's their call, and it would be their decision."

Ford has worked in Virginia Beach's auditor's office for 14 years, said Marc Davis, a city spokesman.

Ford is filling in for Joanne Griggs, who retired in February, Davis added.

Ford was out of the office Monday and could not be reached for comment.

Councilwoman Rosemary Wilson, who pushed to make the city's head auditor a council appointee, said the change should not be construed as a message to Spore. She emphasized that no incident prompted her efforts.

"It's nothing hidden or complicated," Wilson said. "It's a good accountability piece we should have in place."

Councilman Jim Wood said that, although the new auditor reports to the council, individual members won't have the power to order audits.

Instead, a committee of two nonvoting council members and three voting citizens will work with the auditor. A majority of the council can also request an audit at any time.

"We did not want any single council member to have the authority to direct an audit toward any department," Wood said. "We wanted to take the political will out of the process and make it as independent as possible."

Richard Quinn, (757) 222-5119, richard.quinn@pilotonline.com