County auditor decides not to run for re-election, and a contested race shapes up.

A challenger appeared in the form of a political novice who on March 2 pulled elections papers to run, followed by a change of heart by Miller: he’s not seeking re-election, and instead endorsing his assistant auditor-controller, Rupa Shah.

“I am 63 years old. I have been in this business for 40 years,” Miller says. “I’m not ready to commit to residents to work until I’m 67.”

Miller says Shah is the best person for the job, since she’s spent 25 years as a government accountant who has produced the county’s financial statements for the last 10 years. (Shah did not respond to a request for comment by the Weekly’s deadline.)

Pebble Beach resident Darren Huber, a registered certified public accountant and senior manager at a global accounting firm based in Irvine, is the political novice who’s also running. Huber does not have government experience, but says his accounting acumen and leadership ability are what’s needed to bolster a troubled department.

“It’s a challenge for me, but I’m trying to look at the bigger picture, the greater good,” Huber says by phone from his office in Irvine, where he works for Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company in the accounting and operational due diligence group. (He currently stays in Orange County on weekdays, commuting back Pebble Beach on weekends.) Huber has worked for several global investment and banking firms in Germany, Mexico and the U.S.

Huber says the decision to run came after several people involved in county government told him his experience and personality would be a good fit for the auditor-controller job.

Huber declines to say anything negative about Miller, although he indicates he would have handled the implementation of the electronic upgrade differently.

For his part, Miller contends the criticisms over the upgrade are “overblown,” and blames “internal politics” for the Board of Supervisors’ decision to remove the project from his department.

“Eighty percent of it has been up and running for the last year,” Miller says, although he concedes there are still issues with the payroll part of the system.