Experience

Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting has put together a team of experts in performance audits, evaluations and government consulting, and is pleased to be able to offer the benefits of their extensive experience to clients in the public and private sectors across the country.

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KURT SJOBERG is a Co-founding Partner of Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting, a national performance audit and government consulting firm. He brings more than 30 years experience in conducting, managing and overseeing performance audits, financial studies and program evaluations to the government and private sector consulting arenas. For 11 years prior to starting the firm, he was the California State Auditor, managing one of the most highly regarded independent audit operations in the nation. Since its inception in January 2000, Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting has grown steadily and significantly, and Kurt remains actively involved in the successful oversight and completion of the firm's many large performance audits, evaluations and consulting engagements. In the last five years, Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting's audits and engagements have addressed such diverse areas as health maintenance organizations, pesticide regulation, inmate services, Medicaid, highway construction and alternative transportation issues, governmental contracting and leasing, home loan programs, Indian gaming revenues and economic impact, child support enforcement, California's Superior Courts' financial and operational concerns, security regulation, information technology reliability, bilingual education, and special districts—to name only a few. Moreover, the firm has assisted clients in strategic planning, organizational development, human resource activities and financial management.

Although he has left public service, Kurt remains involved in numerous professional and civic organizations. He was the President of the National State Auditors Association for 1998-1999, and currently is a life member of the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers. He continues to be active in the Association of Government Accountants (AGA), of which he is a past Chapter President and honorary board member. Kurt also served a four-year term as a member of the U.S. Comptroller General's Advisory Council on Government Audit Standards, where he chaired the Performance Audit Subcommittee.

In 1994, he received the Frank Greathouse Leadership Award from the AGA and the Donald L. Scantlebury Award in 1995 from the Joint Financial Management Improvement Program, recognizing him for distinguished leadership in financial management. Recently, the National State Auditors Association presented him the Sixth Annual William R. Snodgrass Distinguished Leadership Award.

A former adjunct professor of business at California State University, Sacramento, Kurt holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting, and a Master's degree in Business Administration. He is also a Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Financial Services Auditor, and Certified Governmental Financial Manager. kurt@secteam.com

MARIANNE EVASHENK is a Co-founding Partner of Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting. Offering more than two decades of experience in government operations and auditing, Marianne has dedicated her career to improvement in accountability and excellence in government services. Since its inception in January 2000, Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting has grown steadily and significantly, and Marianne remains actively involved in the successful oversight and completion of all of the firm's performance audits, evaluations and consulting engagements. In the last five years, Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting's audits and engagements have addressed such diverse areas as health maintenance organizations, pesticide regulation, inmate services, Medicaid, highway construction and alternative transportation issues, governmental contracting and leasing, home loan programs, Indian gaming revenues and economic impact, child support enforcement, California's Superior Courts' financial and operational concerns, security regulation, information technology reliability, bilingual education, and special districts—to name only a few. Moreover, the firm has assisted clients in strategic planning, organizational development, human resource activities and financial management.

Prior to founding Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting, Marianne successfully managed one of the most respected, independent audit operations in the nation—the California State Auditor. As Chief Deputy State Auditor of California, the number two state auditor, she was responsible for the operations of the Bureau of State Audits—the State's independent fiscal watchdog. During her 18-year career at the Bureau of State Audits and its predecessor, the Office of the Auditor General, she managed and participated in literally hundreds of performance, financial, compliance and investigative reports. She began her accounting career as a paraprofessional accountant with CPA firms and moved to the Office of the Auditor General in 1982 at the entry level. In fewer than three years she rose through the journey audit ranks and was appointed to the Auditor General's executive team.

In addition to her extensive audit and executive experience, Marianne has a strong national presence in the government auditing and accounting community. She actively participated in the U.S. General Accounting Office's government auditing standard setting and exposure draft processes and served several years on the National State Auditor's auditing standards committee. Furthermore, she was closely involved in the Single Audit Act Amendments of 1996. Moreover, Marianne is known nationally as an expert in government auditing particularly in performance audits and evaluations. She is active in various professional organizations and has served on numerous national American Institute of Certified Public Accountants committees including Consulting Services Executive Committee, Business Assurance and Advisory Services, Business and Industry Committee, and Members in Government Committee. In addition, she was a member of the California Board of Accountancy's Technical Review Panel and participated on the Association of Governmental Accountant's national Emerging Issues Committee. She is also active in community efforts and serves on a non-profit education board of directors, and is involved in competitive gymnastics.She has led many fundraising efforts and served as the Legislative Sector Chair for the California Employees United Way campaign.

Marianne holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from California State University, Sacramento and is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Government Financial Manager. marianne@secteam.com

Catherine Brady is a Director with Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting. She brings nearly 16 years of experience managing and performing a wide array of projects, consulting engagements, financial audits and analysis, and performance reviews and audits at the state and local government levels. Since joining Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting, she has led such diverse reviews as Los Angeles' Harbor Leasing Practices, Idaho's Medicaid Program, Arizona's Bilingual Education Programs and Regional Freeway Transportation system, and California's Child Support Programs.As part of these reviews, she has assisted clients in improving effectiveness and achieving efficiencies, revising performance benchmarks to align with strategic plans, and strengthening fiscal management. Moreover, Catherine is the managing Director of several in-depth financial, operational, and system reviews of Superior Courts located throughout the state for the Judicial Council of California where she has honed a detailed working knowledge of court operations and fiscal functionalities, developed expertise in case management system functionality and distribution of complex fees and fines collected by the courts, assessed court organizational needs, and developed recommendations related to improving efficiency, effectiveness, controls, and adherence with Judicial Council directives.

Previously with the California State Auditor's Office for nearly 11 years in various management roles, she was responsible for planning and managing the work of multidisciplinary professional staff engaged in a variety of complex fiscal and performance audits and reviews, developing policies and practices for review, and providing management advice to the Legislature and top-level administration within State and County departments. Further, she was instrumental in the California State Auditor's reviews of the UCSF Stanford Medical Center merger and has extensive experience and expertise in government financial systems, Medicaid, and fiscal analyses.

Catherine has a Master's degree in Business Administration and Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting from California State University, Sacramento, and is a Certified Public Accountant. cathy@secteam.com

Lynda McCallum is a Manager with Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting. Ms. McCallum offers nearly a decade of experience managing large project teams conducting a wide array of complex high-profile engagements for local and state government, including large-scale complex performance audits, program evaluations, operational reviews, rate studies, and financial analyses. Ms. McCallum has presented her reports to city councils, boards of supervisors, and state commissions. Key projects include:

• California Emergency Medical Services Authority’s Poison Control System. The objectives of this engagement were to assess CPCS’ compliance with statutes, regulations, policies, and procedures; efficiency and effectiveness of its policies, procedures, and processes at meeting program goals and objectives; and, internal controls to prevent fraud and other activities incompatible with generally accepted accounting principles, and sound fund management practices.
• Sutter County’s Community Development Department, including its building permitting, planning, and environmental health processes. Efforts included evaluating planning and permitting activities associated with reviewing and approving building construction plans, scheduling and conducting inspections of construction work, and calculating, assessing, and collecting permitting fees.
• California State Water Resource Control Board administration of the $2.5 billion Barry Keene Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund Act program which provides reimbursement to owners and operators of petroleum underground storage tanks throughout California for cleaning up petroleum spills. The evaluation assessed the Board’s establishment of priority categories, processes to reimburse claimants for reasonable and necessary cleanup activities, contracting practices with oversight regulators, and the efficient and effective exercise of its overall duties.
• City of Sacramento’s Community Services Department’s building permitting processes. This high profile engagement was to determine the integrity and compliance of these processes with City code and applicable regulations. Efforts included evaluating CDD’s activities associated with reviewing and approving building construction plans, scheduling and conducting inspections of construction work, and calculating, assessing, and collecting permitting fees.
• City of Oakland’s hiring practices including evaluating candidates’ selection, training, advancement, and promoting practices. We reviewed the City’s organizational structure, management, administration, as well as protocols and controls in place over the hiring and employee performance monitoring. Our audit identified impediments to a fair, competitive and open hiring process, and our recommendations included implementing controls to increase transparency, accountability and aligning the organization with industry best practices.
• City of Los Angeles hiring processes to determine how the City identifies the particular skill set for employment positions needed to accomplish departmental objectives; how the City develops job requirements, qualifications; how the City reaches out to identify qualified candidates that meet job requirements; and how the City selects and hires qualified candidates. As part of this project, reviewed government best practices and recommended strengthening and streamlining the City’s hiring practices.
• Comprehensive study of the City’s anti-gang and social service delivery programs. As part of this study, we identified program initiatives as well as core services provided by the City for jobs, education, training, and family supportive services; determined how the programs and services are prioritized and integrated with providers; and recommended a new City program and service delivery model aimed at reducing gang activity and recommended methodologies for evaluating program effectiveness and allocating social service funding.
• Los Angeles Fire Department human relations and workplace issues facing women and minority firefighters and reviewed the Department’s leadership, communications, and recruit training. Assessed the utilization of sworn firefighters in non-emergency positions within LAFD and identified 80 positions that could be efficiently and effectively performed by civilians generating a $2.3 to $3.8 million annual savings, and redeploying skilled firefighters to fire suppression and medical emergency activities.
• Performance audit and follow-up audit of the Port of Los Angeles lease negotiation processes and practices. This complex project involved in-depth critical assessment of policy implementation and financial analyses relied upon by the Board of Harbor Commissioners to make long-term, multi-million dollar leasing decisions to determine if leasing decisions made were in the best interest of the City of Los Angeles.
• California Board of Pharmacy’s licensing fee and revenues structure and related expenditures. Reviewed resource allocation model for determining existing performance measures such as cost per unit and workload activity cost drivers, determined whether the Board’s practices comply with the applicable state and federal regulations, and ascertained whether revenues were appropriately matched with relevant costs. Recommendations included revising cost and workload allocation methods to maximize revenues and covering costs, and updating the fee structure. The recommended new fee structure was authorized by Assembly Bill 1071, implemented on January 1, 2010, and projected an 18 percent increase in fee revenue—each $1 paid by the Board for our study projected an additional $24 in fee revenue during the first full year of the increase alone.
• Compliance audits of multiple California Superior Courts with federal, state, Judicial Council, and other grantor regulations and rules that apply to the spending and accounting for various grant funds.
• Viability of a proposed $50 million bond issuance associated with the City of Long Beach’s Alamitos Bay Marina Rehabilitation Project.
• Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies’ ability to generate sufficient future toll revenues and development impact fees to cover its issuance of $2.5 billion non-recourse toll revenue bonds.
• Tested data transmission between a Superior Court in California and three of its local justice partners (district attorney, law enforcement, county jail). Responsibilities included developing the overall project test plan that guided all phases of testing, developing testing materials for each interface, facilitating and participating in daily status calls and weekly strategy meetings, interacting with other project managers (development, design, etc), and assisting in updating and managing the overall project approach, budget, and deadlines.
• Examined the case management system of five Superior Courts of California. This project included reviewing the assumptions, rules, configuration, and processes to accurately build and allocate fees and fines in compliance with laws, rules, regulations, and court determinations.

As part of the SEC Academy, Ms. McCallum has also developed and conducted numerous training courses covering topics ranging from performance audit techniques, fund accounting, and internal controls. Moreover, she has extensive experience conducting interviews, facilitating focus group discussions, and developing surveys and questionnaires.

Ms. McCallum earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration from California State University, Sacramento, with a specialization in Finance, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg. She is also a Certified Governmental Financial Manager (CGFM) and a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and Association of Government Accountants. lynda@secteam.com

George J. Skiles is a Manager with Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting, Inc. He is a Certified Internal Auditor with more than seven years of lead/managerial experience conducting organization, management and performance audits.

Since joining Sjoberg Evashenk, George recently served as a manager on a large-scale assessment of the youth development and gang reduction programs supported by the City of Los Angeles, which included offering recommendations regarding establishing a new office to administer youth development and gang reduction programming, improving coordination between law enforcement, school district and city departments; redirecting limited resources to strategically targeted programs; streamlining several narrowly-focused programs and enhancing methods to better target youth at highest risk of joining gangs; and implementing a comprehensive performance evaluation process that focuses on short-term and long-term outcomes necessary to determine program success. He has also recently managed several financial-related and operational reviews of California’s Superior Courts for the Judicial Council of California, and a performance audit of the administrative law hearing process for workers’ compensation cases for the State of Colorado—the latter of which focuses on improving the quality of service to the public in the highly regulated field of workers’ compensation. In addition, as part of the SEC Academy, George has conducted several training courses covering topics ranging from performance audit techniques and reporting to contracting practices.

Prior to joining Sjoberg Evashenk, George worked as an audit manager for the Los Angeles City Controller, where he was responsible for conducting or overseeing audits of many City departments, operations and programs. During this time, he also served as a part-time instructor at College of the Canyons and Moorpark College. George also worked as a tax compliance officer for the City of Los Angeles, enforcing various tax and fee ordinances.

In conducting and overseeing dozens of audits, surveys, and studies, George’s experience includes:

• A Diverse range of governmental operations, such as administrative law hearing processes, building and safety inspections and code enforcement, recreation and park maintenance and community service programs, cable franchise and public access television operations, tax and revenue collections, and convention center operations;
• More than half a dozen performance audits and reviews of social service and community development programs, including youth, family, housing and workforce development programs funded through State and federal agencies.
• Several contract-related performance and compliance audits regarding the use of professional services, construction and purchasing contracts in public works, public utilities, airports, harbor, courts, information technology, and general services agencies; and
• Several small-to-large scale financial-related and operational reviews of California's Superior Courts for the Judicial Council of California, which includes evaluating the processes used to manage and oversee the courts' fiscal activity; the collection and distribution of fees, fines and forfeitures; court security and information technology, the procurement of goods and services; and various other operational activities.

George earned his Master of Arts degree in Sociology with distinction, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology with an emphasis in Criminology and Corrections, cum laude, from California State University, Northridge. He also earned an Associates of Science in Administration of Justice, with honors, from College of the Canyons. He is a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA). george@secteam.com

Nicole Gossett is a Senior Consultant with Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting. She has several years of professional experience, with a broad range of work performed in the government environment, including GAGAS compliant performance audits, operational reviews and other consulting engagements. With Sjoberg Evashenk, Nicole has conducted several performance reviews of California Trial Courts operations, participated in evaluating and improving budgeting activities for a California educational institution, helped develop comprehensive policies and procedures for State agencies using Enterprise Resource Planning software, conducted a cost study of online services offered by superior courts, and performed contract compliance review on behalf of the Long Beach City Auditor. Recently, Nicole has worked on audits and studies commissioned by the Los Angeles City Controller’s Office, including the Los Angeles Anti-Gang study, Proposition F Animal Facilities Bond program, and a program evaluation of the City of Los Angeles Public Access channels.

Prior to joining Sjoberg Evashenk, Nicole worked as an analyst for a brokerage firm in San Diego, where she assisted in daily operations, created client cash flow analyses as well as asset allocations using modern portfolio theory. She also developed office procedure manuals based on an audit she conducted for her company to re-evaluate their internal controls.

Nicole has a B.S. degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Financial Services from San Diego State University. She is a member of the Association of Government Accountants (AGA). nicole@secteam.com

Lien Luu is a Senior Consultant with Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting. She brings experience in government procurement, contracting and has participated in performance reviews, compliance audits, and program evaluations of State and local governments where recommendations have been implemented to improve operational deficiencies.

Lien has conducted performance audits of nearly a dozen trial courts in California. She also developed comprehensive policies and procedures for a statewide human resources and financial system and reviewed the business process controls surrounding the human resources module. In addition, Lien successfully completed an audit of the Los Angeles World Airport’s contracting practices as well as a separate review of the Airport’s Information Technology contracting and contract management practices. Currently, Lien is participating in a program evaluation for the City of Los Angeles where $154 million in bonds were issued to finance multiple animal shelters throughout the City.

Prior to joining Sjoberg Evashenk, Lien worked on multi-million dollar projects for one the nation’s largest engineering consulting firms where she was responsible for contract compliance with the local, state and federal regulations. Lien also has experience conducting logistical research for a European pharmaceutical company where she was part of a business development team to organize joint ventures with companies in Asia and the Middle East.

Lien is fluent in French, German, and Vietnamese. She earned a B.S. in Business Administration with an International Business concentration and finance emphasis from California State University, Sacramento. lien@secteam.com

Angela Gonzales is a Staff Consultant with Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting. Most recently, Ms. Gonzales played a key role in reviewing multi-million dollar construction contracts for the Nevada Department of Transportation. She also assisted in the evaluation and analysis of the Sacramento’s Community Development Department permitting process where she identified and reviewed over 350 permits issued by the City to developers, including identifying fees owed to the City. Concurrently, Ms. Gonzales researched employee medical benefits as part of a benchmarking study identifying best practices among 15 mid-eastern states.

Ms. Gonzales has assisted in a performance audit of the City of San Diego's Center City Development Corporation. In assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Corporation in achieving its goals, Ms. Gonzales reviewed multiple elements of the Corporation’s operations including evaluating the development process, testing internal controls, evaluating procurement practices, testing expenditures, and evaluating the quality of information provided to the Board of Directors by the staff of the entity they oversee.

Ms. Gonzales has also reviewed state trial courts and assisted other government clients. Her most recent engagements include assisting in a number of financial and operational reviews of California’s Superior Courts for the Judicial Council of California. In this capacity, she led efforts to complete key analyses on several financial-related and operational reviews. In these reviews, she has led and conducted key analyses to evaluate fiscal activities including cash, procurement, accounts payable, contracting, MOUs, and other areas.

In addition to her work with the California Superior Courts, Ms. Gonzales assisted in a comprehensive study of the delivery of gang prevention services for the City of Los Angeles, where she conducted detailed analyses of multi-million dollar social service. She also performed key analyses associated with a performance audit of the workers’ compensation administrative law hearing process in the State of Colorado, including trending performance indicators and assumed a key role in conducting a public perception survey of attorneys and non-represented members of the public who participated in the State’s administrative law hearing process.

As a student, she published research and presented academic papers at the Association for Public Policy Analysis, UC Berkeley and Pennsylvania State University. She earned several honors, awards and fellowships, including the Ronald E. McNair Scholarship and the Leon Panetta Institute for Public Policy.

Angela earned a B.A. in Sociology with a minor in Business Administration from California State University, Sacramento. angela@secteam.com

Mashariki Lawson is a Staff Consultant with Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting. Mashariki is currently assisting with financial-related and operational reviews of California's Superior Courts for the Judicial Council of California, including evaluating the processes used to manage and oversee the courts' collection and distribution of fees, fines and forfeitures; the procurement of goods and services; reviewing and assessing the controls in place related to court physical and information technology security, as well as various other internal controls and business processes.

Mashariki recently participated in a performance audit of the City of Los Angeles’s Public, Educational and Government access channels. Key efforts of this audit involved evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of the oversight, operation, and management of the public channels, including assessing how programming decisions are made, determining the assurance of fair and unbiased programming, analyzing current performance measures, and evaluating if resources are used effectively. This project also involved benchmarking operations with other models of government cable programming. In addition to her work evaluating public access channels, Mashariki has assisted with performance audits of the hiring practices in the City of Los Angeles and the City of Oakland. These performance audits included reviewing and identifying strengths and weakness in personnel practices, assessing the efficiency and effectiveness and compliance with applicable rules, regulations, and agreements, identifying opportunities for business process improvement and determining best practices in these areas, as well as evaluating the overall system providing such services.

Prior to joining Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting, Mashariki worked for a government energy agency where she collected and compiled large amounts of energy data, created graphs, charts and PowerPoint presentations for agency staff, assisted with research on special projects, and was responsible for updating energy prices and trends on the agency’s website.

Ms. Lawson earned a BA in Economics from California State University, Sacramento. mashariki@secteam.com

Jim Roth is a Senior Consultant with 29 years in California law enforcement, including 18 years in management.

As an Undersheriff in a medium-sized department for seven years, one of his main responsibilities was the preparation, presentation, implementation, and adherence of the entire Sheriff’s budget, including patrol, detectives, three drug task forces, two jails, the Coroner and Public Administrator. After leaving the Sheriff’s Department he worked for the California Office of Criminal Justice Planning (OCJP) as Chief of the Public Safety and Crime Prevention Division. His primary responsibility was to allocate over $150 million in state and federal funds to criminal justice agencies and school districts in California. Further, for almost four years before joining Sjoberg Evashenk, Jim worked as a Senior Management Consultant for the Peace Officers Standards and Training ( POST). During this time he studied and made recommendations for improvement to over 25 police and sheriff’s departments.

Jim earned a BA in Law Enforcement and Administration. jimr@secteam.com