Nevada County Auditor-Controller: Let the People Decide

The Nevada County Auditor-Controller role is an elected position serving a four year term. By design, the Auditor-Controller maintains independence and objectivity by being elected directly by the people and the role does not report to the Board of Supervisors nor the County CEO.  

One of the two candidates who ran lost the election in June 2022 by approximately ten percentage points but was ultimately appointed by the Board of Supervisors to the position because the winning candidate did not possess the required qualifications under California Government Code Section 26945. The folks from our community were not given an opportunity to place their vote in a follow-up contest for the Auditor-Controller role. The Board of Supervisors made that decision for them when they opted to appoint a current staff member to a four year term instead. At the very least, the Supervisors could have solicited candidates through a recruiting process to make sure they could find the best candidate, but they simply handed the office to the first person to raise her hand.

After being appointed, Gina Will threatened legal action against the winning candidate. Then, she filed a claim with the County to pay her campaign finance costs to the tune of $50,000. A few articles have been written on this matter and County officials involved have been asked to explain the reasons or need for this reimbursement. To date, the County has not provided any justification for this payment nor has the County addressed the legality of this payment.  

Agenda Item 27 Takes Away the Public’s Right to Choose Their Auditor-Controller

The Auditor-Controller position was up for re-election in June 2026. However, the Board of Supervisors placed at the very end of its July 22, 2025 meeting agenda item 27. If approved, agenda item 27 seeks to allow the Board of Supervisors to extend their original appointment term for the appointed Auditor-Controller by an additional two years. That means in addition to the four years the Supervisors have allowed an unelected appointee to serve in an otherwise elected position, they’re seeking to extend it by another two years to a total of six years. If enacted by the Board of Supervisors, this ordinance under agenda item 27 would push the new election date for this and other critical County roles from June 2026 to November 2028.

My name is Sal Alberti and I am running for Nevada County Auditor-Controller. I filed all the requisite forms on July 7, 2025 well in advance of the deadline for a June 2026 election. I decided to run for this position because the incumbent lost objectivity and independence under professional accounting standards when our County reimbursed her campaign finance costs to the tune of $50,000. Gina Will created a conflict of interest between County departments that were involved in this reimbursement and herself. She's the auditor for those departments!  

Grass Valley is my hometown. I attended Pleasant Ridge Elementary, Magnolia and Nevada Union class of 1987. I am a California licensed CPA in good standing. I began my career with one of the Big Four Accounting firms in San Jose after receiving my Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Accounting) and Master of Science in Accountancy from San Diego State University.  After twenty plus years in a variety of accounting and finance roles in the semiconductor, security software and medical device industries I returned to Grass Valley in 2019 to care for an elderly parent. In our community I was on the 2020-2021 Nevada County Grand Jury.  I also have been active as board secretary since 2019 for my road association covering 78 neighboring properties. 

If elected I plan to bring back to the Auditor-Controller office three critical standards essential to the proper function of this role: independence in fact and appearance, transparency to our community and a commitment to financial integrity.  

It would be a positive benefit for our community to allow the public an opportunity to elect their next Auditor-Controller in the June 2026 election. Let's encourage our Board of Supervisors to set aside and not pass agenda item 27. Let's give the people in our community a voice to choose their next Auditor-Controller in June 2026.