OAKLAND CITY AUDITOR Courtney Ruby has announced her resignation and said her last day will be Oct. 13.
She will be leaving to take a job with the San Diego Association of Governments.
Ruby was first elected in 2007 and held office until 2015, when she ran an unsuccessful bid to become mayor of Oakland, after which she was hired as the director of finance and administrative services for the Association of Bay Area Governments and later served as the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s director of administration and facilities.
She again ran for Oakland auditor in 2018 and beat out then-incumbent Brenda Roberts. She ran unopposed for reelection in 2022.
“It has been the greatest professional honor of my life to serve as Oakland’s elected City Auditor for 13 years, and to have the opportunity over the years to have led such incredible teams of audit professionals and dedicated public servants focused on improving government,” Ruby said in a news release Friday.
The city’s auditor is an independently elected position with a salary of roughly $213,000 who is responsible for monitoring and overseeing all the city’s activities with an eye toward uncovering and preventing fraud, waste and abuse.
Assistant City Auditor Michael Houston will take over the job until a special election can be held within four months, although such an election could be pushed back by an additional three months if it can be combined with a regularly scheduled election, according to Ruby’s announcement.
During her time in office, Ruby implemented the city’s Whistleblower Hotline Program so employees could safely report malfeasance and “has uncovered multiple instances of fraud, waste, and abuse and held fraudsters accountable including criminal charges and restitution,” according to the announcement.