Washington County to hire consultant to assist depleted finance department
The Washington County commissioners are expected to hire a Harrisburg-based firm to handle some of the normal business in the county’s finance office after the budget director and two other staff members left in recent weeks.
A vote will be held during the board’s 2 p.m. meeting today to contract with Susquehanna Accounting & Consulting Solutions Inc. to provide general financial and consulting services as needed until the finance office can be brought up to previous staffing levels.
The consulting work is needed following the resignation of finance director Joshua Hatfield on June 30 and the departure of two others in the four-person office. If approved, the contract will run indefinitely with a 30-day termination clause should the county be able to rehire for the open positions.
“Basically, we’re in crisis mode in the finance department,” Commission Chairwoman Diana Irey Vaughan said.
County officials met with representatives from Susquehanna twice in recent weeks, including on Monday to finalize details in the contract.
The contract will pay Susquehanna depending on the level of work that is required for county business, although Irey Vaughan said she thinks the cost will be offset by the recent attrition in the finance office. One of the representatives who will be working with the county’s finance office lives in Cecil Township, so there will be a local connection with the firm, Irey Vaughan said.
“There are three tiers, depending on which representative of the company provides which service, just like you see in a law firm,” Irey Vaughan said. “I believe right now, since we’re down three (county) salaried positions with benefits, the cost will remain within the finance department’s budget through the end of the year.”
Susquehanna provides similar consulting work for Fayette and Beaver counties, along with several other counties in Pennsylvania.
“The individuals in those counties I’ve spoken to are very pleased with their work,” Irey Vaughan said.
The plans to hire an outside consultant to handle the county’s financial matters follow a stream of resignations form longtime employees and department heads. In addition to Hatfield, chief of staff Michael Namie, planning director Lisa Cessna and human services director Kimberly Rodgers resigned from their positions in June, while human resources director Shelli Arnold left earlier this year.
With Irey Vaughan’s announcement earlier this year that she would not run for reelection after serving 28 years in office – the past four years of which Republicans have held the majority on the board – there is uncertainty about who will be leading the county government next year. Commissioner Nick Sherman and his Republican running mate Electra Janis are going up against Commissioner Larry Maggi and Cindy Fisher on the Democratic ticket in the Nov. 7 general election for the three-member board.
Irey Vaughan said the unpredictability about the election has made it difficult to find qualified candidates for department leadership positions since a new board of commissioners might want different people in those roles.
“We have vacancies that need to be filled and human resources is (working) on it,” Irey Vaughan said.