At least two city budget cycles have passed without a permanent finance director and it appears Toledo also will begin its next round of budget deliberations with nobody in that key role.
The most recent candidate turned down the job after his employer made an appealing counter-offer, Tyrome Alexander, the city’s human resources director, told the Toledo City Council Finance Debt and Budget Oversight Committee on Nov. 30.
“Right now we are in the midst of working with our third-party vendor GovHR USA to help us in advertising the position,” Mr. Alexander said Thursday. “We’re still in the active search process. Hopefully, we’ll be able to find somebody soon.”
The challenge in finding talented individuals to fill top-tier positions comes from the private sector’s willingness to “sweeten the pot” with enhanced compensation against which the public sector struggles to compete, Mr. Alexander said. He is working with the administration to adjust salary compensation for the finance director position, which currently falls in the range of $136,365 to $147,668 based upon qualifications.
Having to manage additional funds made available through the American Rescue Plan Act has also made filling the position difficult because it adds another layer of responsibility, he said.
Toledo received $180 million last year in ARPA funds, designed to help cities recover from the coronavirus pandemic. All such money must be allocated by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026. As of last month, $8.6 million of Toledo’s share had been spent and $60.8 million appropriated, with $111.4 million remaining.
“There is not a lot of movement or very little movement in that financial space because of that,” he said. “Those finance directors, who may be considering other opportunities, are getting paid more money to stay because they have to manage that ARPA money.”
Toledo could hire an administrative staffer with the financial and legal expertise to oversee the money. When city council approved a Toledo Recovery Plan last year that outlined the ARPA fund budget, over $1 million was designated to hire administrators to oversee the program. To date, however, none of that administrative money has been allocated.
Melanie Campbell, the acting finance director, said Thursday there were no plans to hire an administrator to oversee the funding because a team of the mayor’s staff -- including financial analysts, staff attorneys, and marketing personnel -- meets approximately once a week to review those funds.
“The job has been posted and we were not successful in filling it,” she said. “The group has been working together really well, so the plan at this point is to not fill that position.”
The money allocated to administrative fees associated with the ARPA fund will be used as needed, but maybe not in the form of a newly hired position, she said.
But Mr. Alexander said the ARPA administrator position would be posted in January.
“One of the challenges of that search is the short-term nature of that work,” he said. “And if we can’t find a candidate, we’ll see if we can outsource that position to a third party.”
While Councilman Vanice Williams, a member of the committee tasked with creating an ARPA fund budget based on community input, said she did not believe any money has been spent inappropriately, she still wants a specific administrator hired.
“I ask every time we talk about ARPA dollars,” she said last week. “I’m just urging that it keeps getting posted [the job] until we find somebody. I feel like there needs to be someone in place, yes. I don’t want to pay a dime back.”
In addition to those positions, the city auditor job also is open following council’s vote last month to terminate former auditor Jake Jaksetic. Councilman George Sarantou said Tuesday that with assistance from councilmen Theresa Morris and Katie Moline, the formal auditor job description will be updated and sent to council for approval.
Councilman Moline called the current situation of open administrative positions a “trifecta of financial failure leadership in the city of Toledo.”
“I am so concerned about the ramifications of the lack of leadership and how that is going to translate for the city of Toledo,” Ms. Moline said. “We cannot wait until January [to hire an ARPA administrator], this should have been done a year ago, period. Council voted to put over a million dollars to ARPA administration because we knew how important it is that we oversee these dollars, to make sure not just that they are spent wisely, but that we don’t have to send any of this money back because we weren’t compliant.
“It is absolutely critical we hire an ARPA administrator and use that position to train someone that can then stay with the city and use that expertise for other federal dollars that might come in, and other financial administration that we so desperately need in the city,” she said.
Councilman Sam Melden said filling the auditor vacancy was more critical, considering council’s oversight role of that position.
“I am personally more concerned with finding our next city auditor and I think council should be primarily concerned about making sure that the positions that report directly to us are operating well,” Mr. Melden said. “Then the mayor’s administration will do their part to fill the positions on the other side.”
He also said he thinks a call to public service will generate a healthy response from many candidates. But filling open positions is a challenge many organizations currently face, especially in the public sector, said Bob Bethel, vice president of human resources and learning services at Employers Association, a member-based employment organization in Maumee.
“When you throw in the complication that in a public entity, it’s hard to attract people from the private sector because you can’t offer as much in compensation,” Mr. Bethel said. “And some [people] just don’t have interest in going into the public sector at those levels.”
That trend will likely continue well into the future, he said, as Baby Boomers continue to retire and new sources of incomes, such as in consulting, provide a more enticing scheduling flexibility not typically found in a 9 to 5 job.
“There are so many factors causing this [employee shortage]. I think those things are going to continue. I don’t know if they are ever going to change, I don’t see it in the near horizon,” Mr. Bethel said.
In addition to vacant financial positions, other top tier vacancies in Toledo’s administration are the police chief, director of public service, and commissioner of public transportation.
The city administration is engaging in talks to fill all of the positions, Mr. Alexander said. The city is now working with a consultant in the search process, which includes community surveys and stakeholder interviews, and has a March goal for naming a police chief, he said.
First Published December 11, 2022, 8:20 p.m.
