“Heber Needs Noyes” was the slogan Corey Noyes used during his campaign for a City Council seat in the 2025 election, to no avail. Of the final four candidates, he received 1,865 votes, or 23.7%, coming behind winners Yvonne Barney and Morgan Murdock. The owner of a financial planning compan y and a tax preparation company, Noyes had never run for public office before. But he thought that his financial know-how would give him a unique perspective as a city councilor.  While his run for City Council may not have worked out, Noyes has found a way to utilize his skills while remaining civically involved. He was recently appointed by the City Council to Heber City’s Audit Committee. The Audit Committee provides oversight of city finances, meeting three to five times annually. While Wasatch County’s audits are performed by Clerk-Auditor Joey Granger, who is an elected official, Heber City has its own financial audit every year, conducted by freelance auditors. The committee is responsible for the bulk of hiring these contract auditors. Heber City Finance Director Sara Nagel explained that the reason for this is to ensure the city’s financial “watchdog” is truly independent. Once the audit is complete, it’s the committee’s responsibility to analyze the information with the auditors, then present it to the City Council. This year’s audit will happen in January. The committee also reviews Heber’s internal controls, according to Nagel. She said until recently, the treasurer, who handles sending out utility bills to residents, worked at the front desk, where residents can come to make utility payments in person. “If the same person who has control over utility billing also has control of taking cash, then there is a risk — and that is very different than ‘it happened’ … that that person could manipulate the bill,” Nagel explained. It was the Audit Committee that pointed out this oversight, leading to the hiring of new staff so the treasurer would not be working at the front desk. Maintaining internal controls is one reason why Audit Committee members are recommended to come from outside the government, making Noyes’ lack of civic experience a strength in this case. While Noyes works primarily with individuals on financial planning, he doesn’t think he’ll have any problem understanding city finances. He said he spends a lot of time analyzing investments and tearing apart companies’ financial statements to look for problems and opportunities.  “At the end of the day, Heber City is called Heber City Corporation for a reason. It puts out the same financial statements that I see all day long,” Noyes said. His goal on the Audit Committee is to better understand city governance, and hopefully help others understand it, too. He thinks the reason many people aren’t more civically engaged is because city communications are “so transparent” that they become “opaque.” “Putting out a balance sheet, or putting out the full budget, that is as transparent as you can be,” Noyes said. “You’re taking all your clothes off for the doctor, basically. But the problem is that those documents overwhelm people. They confuse people.” Noyes hopes the Audit Committee can help translate city finances to “real English” so citizens can better understand how their tax dollars are spent. He thinks that could be done through newsletters. Noyes is a newsletter writer himself, publishing the “Balanced Money” newsletter on LinkedIn each week. He structures each post by leading with an obscure story from history, later tying it into a lesson in personal finance. For example, Noyes referenced a story about a tiny town called Wilmer, Alabama, which reportedly relied on speed traps as a source of revenue until the town was disincorporated in 1993. The lesson to be learned, Noyes said, is that a city’s financial stability is a delicate balance.  “If that balance gets thrown off, any single part of that can be a death spiral of a city,” he said.  But he thinks Heber City has done a “fantastic job” of creating that balance — he just wants to “keep it going.” As for whether he would run for public office again, Noyes said, “If the opportunity presents itself, I would like to.” The post Corey Noyes joins the Heber City Audit Committee appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less