Marcus Rothchild, city finance director, has accepted the position of finance director at Dickinson County. Leann Johnson, municipal court clerk and office manager for the Abilene Police Department, will replace Rothchild as the city’s finance director.
“I always like to better myself and find more challenges,” Johnson said. “I’m always doing that, so to have been accepted for this position is, I suppose you can say its something I’ve aspired for in the past, so to receive it now is an honor.”
Rothchild said the appeal of working with Janelle Dockendorf, assistant county administrator who will replace Brad Homman as county administrator, and the possibility of becoming assistant county manager motivated him to apply for the finance director position at the county.
“It’s really been an honor to work for the city of Abilene. This has been a very rewarding career. It’s been a position that’s helped me grow professionally and personally,” Rothchild said. “Growing up here, going to school here in Abilene, it’s really been very rewarding to have the opportunity to serve the community in this role.”
Rothchild has worked with the city or seven and a half years, working in his role of finance director for the entire time. He worked in a corporate office for retail chain ALCO before they closed down before joining the city of Abilene.
“Marcus was invaluable when I started back in June of 2021. He got me introduced to people in the city and showing me the ropes as far as how the city of Abilene operates. He’s been an invaluable resource and finance officer in the 18 months I’ve been here,” said Ron Marsh, city manager.
For the next four to five weeks, Rothchild will be aiding Johnson in her transition to finance director. Johnson said she has a base knowledge of financials, although her experience is more from a state’s perspective than a municipal.
“It’s definitely going to be challenging for the first couple of months. Just the fact that, I was hoping to get some time with Marcus even now just to shadow him a little bit before we start the hiring process and the training process here, but the time has not worked out well,” Johnson said.
Although her job currently is in the municipal court and police, Johnson said she has finance experience in previous positions. She worked in a fiscal services department for a superior court when she lived in California, first working in the department in 2001. Eventually, she and her department became their own entity as the first pilot court to develop the fiscal department for the entire state of California’s courts, titled the Administrative Office of the Courts Financial System.
“We tailored a software that was already developed, then we wrote all the processes,” Johnson said. “I believe they were going to end up having two processing centers, one was based in Sacramento which was the first one we went through and then they were going to have one in southern California down the road. So we sent everything through Sacramento in that new processing center all the finances.”
Johnson said she will continue her duties in covering court on Mondays until somebody is sufficiently trained as municipal court administrator. She also will step down from her positions in various state court organizations, such as the Office of Judicial Administration Committee.
Johnson first came to work for the Abilene Police Department in 2019 as the Municipal Court Administrator and Office Manager.
Rothchild’s last day will be around Dec. 22.
