Columbus City Council voted Monday to appoint Jacquelin Lewis as the new city auditor starting in early May.
Current City Auditor Megan Kilgore announced she was leaving the position for a job in the private sector. She will officially leave the position in early May, making way for Lewis.
The council voted unanimously to appoint Lewis after spending more than an hour questioning three candidates for the position.
Council member Lourdes Barroso de Padilla nominated Lewis, while Council member Nick Bankston nominated another candidate, Garrett Patterson.
The city solicited applications and then released a list of three "qualified" finalists Friday that it narrowed from a total of five applicants for the city's chief financial officer. Those candidates were Lewis, Patterson and Kimberley Mason.
Lewis thanked the council for the "tremendous honor" and said she is excited to serve.
"I know this was not an easy decision. You had some phenomenally qualified candidates and a very short window in which to do this," Lewis said. "But I'm excited about the opportunity to continue to serve. I'm excited about the opportunity to serve alongside you, to be your partner at the city and continue to move the city forward."
During the hearing before council voted, Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin asked Kilgore who she thought should succeed her. Kilgore said she favored Lewis.
"(Lewis) brings a depth of experience that I believe is both rooted in this community, but also tested in her practice and in her resume," Kilgore said.
Kilgore said Lewis knows how the city works and has earned the trust of city leaders already through her work as a private public finance attorney.
Lewis works with the private practice Bricker Graydon Wyatt LLP and is also a board member of several prominent organizations in Columbus, including the Affordable Housing Trust for Columbus and Franklin County, the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority and the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority.
Lewis graduated from Ohio State University Moritz College of Law with a juris doctorate. She also earned a master's in public policy and management and bachelor's degrees in French and international relations from OSU.
During her opening statement at the hearing, Lewis touted her experience working with Columbus, rating agencies and city departments to bring bond issuances to market and ensure compliance with state and federal finance laws.
Lewis called former city auditor Hugh Dorrian, Kilgore's predecessor, a mentor and said she learned from his leadership and mentorship. Lewis also said she admires Kilgore, stating her leadership left a strong foundation for the city.
"While I have not served as an elected official, I have spent my entire career working alongside those who have," Lewis said.
Lewis said she also spent several years working in economic development, advising cities on tools that help further development. She also mentioned her time interning for multiple state representatives and as a legislative liasion to then-Ohio Attorney General and Treasurer Richard Cordray.
Lewis said those experiences helped her build connections.
"Those experiences gave me a front row seat to the policy-making process, the realities of how policy is shaped, negotiated and implemented. And the ways in which politics inevitably intersects and influences those outcomes," Lewis said.
The city said in a statement last week that whoever is chosen will serve in the role for the remaining duration of the first two years of Kilgore’s elected term, until Jan. 1, 2028. The appointee or any other individual could then file to run for election in 2027 to complete the final two years of the term.
Then, another election for a city auditor to serve a four-year term would be held in 2029.
