Port: Auditor Josh Gallion taking his grievances on the road
MINOT, N.D. — Auditor Josh Gallion has come under fire from state lawmakers and local government officials for expensive audits, the findings of which Gallion often exaggerates or, according to some, flat-out lies about.
Multiple local officials have accused Gallion of having a political agenda, seeking to aggrandize himself by making his audits seem to be more controversial than they really are.
In dramatic testimony before House appropriators last month , officials representing a volunteer fire district in Gwinner played audio of Gallion making sensational claims about his audit of their district, juxtaposing Gallion’s words with financial documents and other records proving that Gallion wasn’t telling the truth.
At that same hearing, the head of a volunteer ambulance department said the cost of Gallion’s audit nearly caused her organization, which serves about a thousand square miles of rural areas, to fold.
But Gallion doesn’t appear to be chastened by this criticism. Instead, he seems to be taking his show on the road, starting in the district of one of his sharpest legislative critics. According to a flier, Gallion will be headlining an event called “peeling back the curtain on state government” during which attendees will allegedly “learn what Josh has uncovered and who is trying to silence him.”
