MOORE’S SUMMARY: There was no elaborate backstory to Chris Meister’s interest in serving and eventual appointment as Illinois’ fourth auditor general. “Oh, I saw a job posting and I filled it out and I submitted it,” Meister told me matter-of-factly in an interview last week in his Springfield office, located one block west of the Capitol.
It didn’t hurt, however, that Meister had a longtime connection to Illinois Senate President Don Harmon: the two Oak Park natives served up scoops together at Peterson’s Ice Cream when they were in high school.
Meister’s appointment to a 10-year term was OK’d with a 51-0 vote in the Senate and 97-1 vote in the House in February. He officially took the reins from retired Auditor General Frank Mautino on May 1. The Oak Park native previously served as executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority from 2009 to 2026. Before that, he worked in the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and as an attorney in private practice.
In a 45-minue interview, Meister laid out his philosophy for the role. He also offered a reminder of the limitations of his office and acknowledged that he’s still figuring things out.
“I think that an important distinction with a term of 10 years… is that this office can afford to be in the olive tree business before it is in the olive oil business, and olive trees take a long time to develop and grow and bear fruit,” Meister told me.
“So I’m grateful to General Mautino and to the late General (Bill) Holland, because they’ve provided certain priorities and structures that are strong enough to withstand the tests of time and flexible enough to allow evolution with a changing national and international climate and changing priorities of the policymakers — of the governor and the legislative leaders — and the evolving standards,” he said.
WHY IT MATTERS: The auditor general’s office is unique in Illinois government. It’s the only constitutional office that’s an entity of the legislative branch rather than its own executive agency. It’s charged with reviewing the obligation, expenditure, receipt and use of public funds. In this sense, it plays a watchdog role, ensuring that legislators who appropriate state funds and set program goals have an accurate view of agency financial records and compliance with state and federal laws and regulations. The office audits about 150 state agencies each year.
‘WE’RE NOT POLICYMAKERS’: The auditor general’s office answers to the legislature through the Legislative Audit Commission, a 12-member bicameral, bipartisan group appointed by the four legislative leaders. But Meister said he understands “the independence that’s inherent with the assignment.” He said it’s something “to be guarded and appreciated” but that it must be understood where the boundaries lay.
“I think that what is outlined on our website and in our reports is actually very clear where the boundaries are,” Meister said. “At the end of the day, and I think I’m quoting the late Mr. Holland, we’re not policymakers, and I think that’s by design.”
“There are 118 people that were elected by their districts in the House and 59 that were elected by their Senate districts, and then their collective four caucuses have elected their leaders, and the governor and the attorney general and the comptroller, the secretary of state, the lieutenant governor, the treasurer are all elected in their own right,” he said. “This is unique in that sort of category.”
Meister said his office’s function is largely a fact-finding one. While a common complaint, for instance, is that many state agencies have repeated audit findings that go uncorrected, he said it is the responsibility of state lawmakers, the governor and agency leaders to advocate and ensure compliance.
“This office and our vendors and our staff cannot maintain our independence if we are playing a management consulting role,” Meister said. “So that’s always an inherent tension that is not always appreciated by the auditees or the policymakers. But I think it’s very important.”
“We are not a regulatory body. We are not enforcement, and we are not management, and we are not policymakers,” Meister said.
SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES: Meister said that his philosophy for the office will be like his predecessors Holland and Mautino: “The audits speak for themselves.”
ENOUGH GUARDRAILS? In recent months, several Republican candidates and elected officials have called for full audits of state social service spending to root out alleged waste, fraud and abuse following the uncovering of a massive fraud scheme in Minnesota.
Illinois Republican gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey has called for the creation of an “Illinois DOGE” to identify wasteful spending in government.
“I’m too new at this point to see if some of the public national conversation filters out through our constitutional and statutory mission because, by their nature, audits are backwards-looking. … By using an audit to plan the future, it’s sort of the equivalent of driving on the Dan Ryan Expressway by using your rear-view mirror,” Meister said.
Still, Meister said there are “many checks and balances across state government,” and based on his previous experience, “a rather elaborate executive branch structure on procurement with a degree of segregation of duties.”
And, again, noting the limitations of his statutory role, Meister said the Legislative Audit Commission or the General Assembly can request a performance audit at any time.
FUTURE: Meister’s office employs 78 full-time people in Springfield and five out of a Chicago office. It has a budget of about $44.2 million. Asked if his office has enough resources to serve its purpose, he said “it seems to be a very effective return on investment for the Illinois taxpayers under the current structure.”
“We’re fortunate that we’ve got a track record and a plan here that allows opportunities for younger people to join the organization and develop and grow,” Meister said. “I mean, the challenge is going to be the same as other sectors of the economy, nonprofit, for-profit, public. It’s what does the growth of quantum computing and artificial intelligence mean to all of us?”
Regarding AI and how it could be deployed by the office, Meister said they’re “paying attention to what’s legally permissible” and “to issues that may have surfaced by the intemperate use of certain tools by early adopters.” Like with audits, Meister noted “we’re not windshield people, we’re rearview mirror people.”
FUN FACTS: Meister received his bachelor’s degree in history from DePaul University and his law degree from the University of Illinois. Those fields involve a lot of research and writing briefs and dissertations. Not all that different from what an auditor does.
While at DePaul, Meister wrote for the student newspaper. One of the first articles he wrote was about the 1986 movie “About Last Night” filming on campus. More than two decades later, Meister helped create the Illinois Film Tax Credit while at DCEO.
Meister lives in Oak Park with his wife, Connie, and has four adult children.
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