Richmond City Council finally created an office of inspector general to weed out fraud in city government, but not without debate over the independence of position's oversight board.

During Monday night's council meeting, councilman Marty Jewell (5th) was the only one to vote against the creation of an office of inspector general within the city auditor's office.

He questioned the independence of such an office when the board in charge overseeing the position would be appointed by the majority of council.

"There's the rub. What if, God forbid, the majority of council had an agenda, be it political agenda? There's too much here to where that person could bend to the wishes of that majority for which their job is dependent on," Jewell said.

"The inspector general is an important position. I don't want to suggest we shouldn't do it, but we need to make maximum effort to be independent from council and the mayor."

Though the mayor can make nominations for oversight board members, only council can appoint members to the board.

The seven-member oversight board will be comprised of seven members, including:

w three who are citizen members of the audit committee;

w one who is an auditor currently or formerly employed with the office of the State Auditor of Public Accounts;

w one officer currently or formerly employed by Virginia State Police and not by the city sheriff or police department;

w one who is an auditor with a private accounting or auditing firm that does not hold a contract with the city; and

w one who is an attorney currently or formerly employed with the city's commonwealth's attorney's office.

Council members have explored creating such an office for almost a year with studies showing that an inspector general could save the city as much as $60 million a year addressing waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer funds.

Jewell also questioned the legality of not requiring board members to live in the city and the six-year length of their terms on the board, but was told council is allowed to amend the law later on.

Council president Bill Pantele (2nd) said the position was a logical extension of the mayor's committee on efficiency and effectiveness.

"This process has been out there for nine months, and has been the subject of many meetings," he said. "At the end of the day, moving forward allows us to show we're serious about protecting the public's money."

In other business, council voted to override the mayor's two vetoes against installing all-way stop signs at two intersections in the West End.

Council also learned that a developer who had been requesting approval for a special use permit in the Woodland Heights and Springhill neighborhoods withdrew his request and would be reapplying.

The request had drawn the ire of many residents who complained that the request was completely different than what the developer first said he'd build, went against the master plan and that residents had not been properly informed about the development.