CHICAGO Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon named aide John Watson Friday to temporarily serve as state auditor following the suicide of Tom Schweich.
A funeral service is set for Tuesday for Schweich, who died of an apparent suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Thursday, Feb. 26. Schweich was re-elected in November to a second term. The 54-year-old lawyer had recently announced his intention to seek the Republican nod in the governor’s race next year.
“I know that John Watson will perform these duties with the professionalism, integrity and independence the citizens of Missouri expect and deserve, and I am pleased that he has agreed to serve while I move thoroughly and expeditiously to select a permanent replacement,” Nixon said in statement.
Watson served as Nixon’s chief of staff from 1997 to December 2014 during the Democrat’s terms as attorney general and then governor, and currently serves as his senior advisor. Nixon said the appointment is temporary and he intends to later make a permanent appointment. Under state law, the governor appoints a successor to serve out the term that expires in 2019.
The auditor’s office acts as Missouri's independent watchdog agency, charged with ensuring the proper use of public funds; it has audit powers over state agencies, boards and commissions, the circuit courts and some local governments.
The office weighs in on some local government and state budgeting and borrowing practices as well as on pension systems. During Schweich’s tenure, several stinging assessments of municipal financings were among the 570 audits released by his office.
Last summer, his office released an audit finding the Grandview School District misused some proceeds raised from $22 million worth of borrowing in recent years and warned that it needs to improve its handling of bond financed projects and methods for issuing bonds.
A report last September placed 15 public pension systems on a watchlist due to their financial condition. That month he also released a report accusing the governor of abusing his powers on spending cuts in the 2012 budget.
A 2012 audit found Missouri economic development officials failed to conduct sufficient due diligence on a number of projects before granting state subsidies, most notably, the bond-financed artificial sweetener plant abandoned earlier that year by a Chinese company.
Another audit found Missouri local governments’ penchant for negotiated sales over competitive bidding resulted in an estimated $43 million in higher costs over a four-year period.
More recently, Schweich’s office was among those leading a crackdown on municipal court abuses following the Ferguson riots. Schweich launched back in October an audit of 10 local municipal courts, including Ferguson, to ensure they were following state laws limiting the use of municipal court fines to support local budgets.
The shooting last summer of an unarmed black teen by a white police officer prompted questions over aggressive policing tactics used as some local governments to prop up budgets with court fines.
Schweich, a resident of Clayton, is survived by his wife, Kathleen Schweich, children Emilie and Thomas Jr. and his parents, Julius and BB Schweich.
