Finance director responsibilities in brief
- Plans, directs, and monitors all preparations for financial reports
- Provides annual and ongoing revenue for city expenditures
- Appoints all personnel within the finance department and oversees all departmental activities
- Maintains financial and accounting systems and prepares annual budgets
- Oversees the administration of federal grants, investment of city revenue, and disbursement of city funds
- Advises city officials on all financial matters and assists the city manager and other departments with the development, implementation, and preparation of all financial systems
Source: City of Hamilton
Hamilton city council has lowered the pay range for the position of finance director in an effort to draw more candidates.
Council raised the pay range for the position in early 2013 to $123,864-$158,746 per year. The raise was made at the time to attract a candidate with the qualifications and experience the city said it needed for such an important position.
"We had a candidate who needed that pay range to be brought in, but it didn't work out," said Hillary Stevenson, who has been serving as the city's interim finance director but will retire in June. Stevenson previously served as the city law director and as deputy city manager/general operations manager before handling the finance department.
By lowering the range to $92,102-$118,040 per year, where it was originally, the salary is more in line with the salaries of other city directors, according to a report submitted to City Council last week.
The city has been searching for a full-time candidate for more than a year now. Peg Bradner Hancock was the last to serve full-time in the role, and she left Dec. 1, 2012, according to Tim Werdmann, deputy city manager. Chief Finance Manager Ana Ramanathan took over as acting finance director before Stevenson assumed the position in January.
Werdmann attributed the city’s difficulty in landing a full-time candidate to having trouble finding someone who could be fully present in the position and the city.
“We had a candidate who was from Ohio, but didn’t want to move to this area, and was proposing only coming in for the week,” he said. “That obviously was not an ideal situation.”
He also cited the specialized responsibilities being a factor in finding a suitable candidate.
“We have specialized operations because we do own our own utilities, and we were finding people who didn’t have utility or public sector experience,” he said.
According to Stevenson and Werdmann, now that the legislation has been approved, the city will engage in another recruitment effort “very soon.” They are optimistic that the lowered pay range, while enabling the city to reduce costs without compromising services, will appeal to qualified candidates and will result in a full-time hire.
“I think maybe the job market has changed a bit, and people may be more comfortable changing positions,” said Werdmann. “In the bad economy, if people had a job, they were reluctant to leave it.”
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