Chillicothe — A familiar person in the sidelines of council sessions and other city processes now has an upgraded role: Lauren Baker is now the Deputy City Auditor. She has assisted in various city government interfaces with the public, including information sessions on the Yoctangee Park improvements and council committee meetings.
But Baker says she has mostly helped auditor Krystal Spetnagel as a clerk for the last two years. Her promotion was announced in the Chillicothe Council session on February 9th, 2026.
Baker said the two most important tasks she helps with in the auditor’s office is the city budget and financial transparency. She said there are two platforms that Chillicothe uses for transparency, Ohio Checkbook and ClearGov, where the public can see every dollar tracked. Both are linked to from the auditor’s office webpage.
Baker said ClearGov shows city revenues, expenditures, and live check data, and 2025 is now fully uploaded. Baker also said the 2026 capital and budget exhibits are on the auditor’s website.
She pointed out that the auditor’s office is also the city income tax office, and since the 0.2% street levy was not renewed last year, residents have a reduced tax burden…until the tax may be revived after the spring election. She can be reached at [email protected].
The outgoing 27-year-old Baker said she was happy to get this promotion, but after being teased about running for mayor, said she is nowhere close to getting into politics.
She is also in the leadership of the local League of Women Voters – a meeting of which will be the subject of an upcoming story – where she told me she enjoyed working with numbers and getting information to the public.
