CITY FINANCE | Interim Director Departure Extends Finance Department Challenges | The South Pasadenan
South Pasadena Interim Finance Director Maida Alcantara, who has served in that place for only 3 months, unexpectedly still left the job late past thirty day period, the Town acknowledged late Friday. Alcantara, the 3rd interim to serve for the duration of the City’s two-and-fifty percent year look for for a long lasting director, is a previous California municipal worker who functions for MV Cheng & Associates, a contracting agency the Metropolis hired final 12 months to give temporary finance companies.
On Wednesday, the city council will be asked to approve a $199,500 modification to the MV Cheng deal to protect the expense of prolonged short term staffing services. These will contain putting in position John Downs as the new interim finance director and Ken McDonald as a component time unique tasks senior analyst. Equally adult men have virtually 30 years of relevant practical experience, the City explained.
Downs earlier applied for the long-lasting posture.
The modification will bring the overall value of the MV Cheng deal to $344 000, though the metropolis reported it may well eventually recognize a net preserving owing to the ongoing emptiness in the permanent position, the wage for which is previously in the funds.
In addition, the Metropolis “is doing work to carry in a high-stage finance advisor beneath the city manager’s authority to help with substantial-amount consulting, strategizing and organizing for the section,” according to a workers report. “The town supervisor options to embark on a permanent finance director recruitment in the following several months, right after the completion and adoption of the once-a-year spending budget.” The City’s fiscal year starts July 1.
Nonetheless, “I am self-confident we will have a lasting finance director shortly,” Mayor Jon Primuth explained to the South Pasadenan.
Issues developing stability in the Finance Department has been a single of the largest troubles for Town Manager Arminé Chaparyan, who joined the town in June 2021 and is slated for a performance analysis during the Council’s closed session Wednesday. Even so, the trend precedes her tenure: South Pasadena cycled as a result of at the very least 4 acting, interim or long lasting finance directors through the a few several years prior to her arrival.
The factors for Alcantara’s departure had been unclear, but experiences surfaced in excess of Christmas that she withdrew from the assignment shortly after getting asked to finish an assessment of the Finance Division, which has been recovering from what the mayor has termed a economical reporting crisis. “The work of the interim was fruitful and designed strides in [her] small time, but [she has] decided to stage down from the position for private motives,” the metropolis claimed in a team report.
“A recent finance office assessment/overview was started off by our previous interim director in conjunction with administration personnel [and] will be finalized and introduced forth to the City Council…in the future two months,” Chaparyan explained to the South Pasadenan in electronic mail, introducing that the assessment will be completed inhouse.
Previous Finance Director Josh Betta has pushed the metropolis to make certain the evaluation involves meaningful thought of several reviews that presaged the 2020 monetary reporting crisis, in specific the so-termed CityGate report, from which he believes the Town has tried to length alone. He has also strongly encouraged the Metropolis to outsource the Finance Department assessment.
The Town Supervisor has undertaken assessments of 10 metropolis departments or divisions. Some have been or will be finished by outdoors contractors, like the just one the Council is slated to approve Wednesday for the law enforcement division, although other people are becoming concluded internally.
