Two Republican newcomers will face off in the primary election for city auditor Sept. 8.

They are Lynn Ruemler, a retired certified public accountant; and Preston Doerflinger, a health care consultant and investor.

The winner will face longtime incumbent Phil Wood, a Democrat, in the Nov. 10 general election.

The auditor's term is for two years at an annual salary of $73,500, or 70 percent of the mayor's $105,000 yearly salary.

Ruemler, 52, said he was running because of his disappointment in how the Auditor's Office has handled a City Council-directed investigation into falsified firefighter-training records.

"It was like a burr under my saddle. I thought, 'I can do so much better than that and the city deserves so much better than that,'" he said.

That issue, coupled with the announcement that all city employees would be furloughed for eight days, solidified his decision, Ruemler said. "I thought, 'We need to watch every penny we spend,'" he said.

Ruemler is a native of Indiana who moved to Tulsa in 1998. He and his wife have two daughters.

He has spent the past 16 years as a stay-at-home parent, he said. Now that his girls are in college, he has the time to devote to civic service, he said.

Ruemler said voters should choose him because he has auditing experience. He was a CPA for Thomas Havey LLP of Chicago.

He said he has "hands-on" experience supervising the audit process and knowledge in analyzing the adequacy of internal controls and their sufficiency to ensure reliable accounting of taxpayer dollars.

"My opponent may be a better politician, but I think I'll do better auditing work," he said. "I will find and stop waste of our tax dollars."

Doerflinger, 37, said he had been considering a local elected position and that the auditor's office seemed to best match his skill set.

The Bartlesville native said he has been self-employed for 13 years. He has owned his current business, PLD Management Inc., for five years. He has interests in several businesses and is a registered respiratory therapist by trade.

Doerflinger said he thinks he is qualified to be the auditor because in his business he is "always reviewing financial data, trying to find places in my existing companies where we can trim costs without compromising services."

Although he lacks a CPA certificate, Doerflinger said he has begun the process of becoming a certified internal auditor, the same professional credential that Wood holds.

The auditor's office has no professional requirement. However, voters will decide during the Nov. 10 general election whether to require auditor candidates to be either a certified public accountant or a certified internal auditor when filing for the office.

Doerflinger said he doesn't agree with the way Wood has defined the auditor's role. It should be more active in helping the city to operate more efficiently, he said.

"I think we really need someone that takes on a watchdog role versus the current caretaker approach," he said.

"I've read how Wood said it shouldn't be about political grandstanding, but to me it's not political grandstanding if you find issues in areas that are going to save taxpayers money," he said.

"If you can't get policymakers to take actions on your findings, then I think you should be standing on your head until someone pays attention," he said.

Doerflinger said he realizes there are audit responsibilities from a statutory standpoint that have to be done.

"But my point is that we should be able to cull more data and fruit out of those audits rather than just doing audits for the sake of saying we did audits," he said.

The auditor's race is decided on a citywide vote. Tulsa has 92,109 registered Democrats, 95,439 Republicans and 25,074 independents.