Financial guru? If you have ever sat in on a budget presentation at a City Council or agenda meeting, you might question that title.  Reread the city’s finance director’s answers to the reporter’s questions, and you can imagine what a budget presentation is like, if she even gives it. More often than not the city manager will elaborate on it or just give it because the finance director is not available.

We were paying thousands of dollars a month for this individual as a private contractor to assist the finance department part time. Now somehow it makes more sense and is more economical to hire her full time and pay her a wage plus benefits, and she is still only here in our finance office two to three days per week? Does that position pay that much that she can afford to fly back and forth from Texas to Minnesota weekly, and yet the salary wasn’t enough to entice more than four qualified applicants? And what does “She also works from home” mean?  Does it mean she still works as a private contractor with other cities in addition to being our so called full-time finance director, or does it mean she is doing and discussing Albert Lea’s finances through emails on an Internet service, and if that is the case is this service secure?

The City Charter says the appointment of a department head by the city manager has to be approved by the City Council within 30 days of the appointment, or the appointment is not approved. If you question the city attorney or city management on this issue, they will tell you the city’s finance office is not a department; it falls under the title of administration, yet the director sits in department head meetings.

So what do you think as a taxpayer who has to pay for every expense of the city? Are you getting your money’s worth in paying a 9 percent raise to the city manager who hires someone who lives in Texas as our full-time finance director and flies here to work in this finance office two to three days per week? The city manager’s statement that the city is not allowed to require a non-emergency employee to live in Albert Lea is a real stretch in this case. 

We need strong, knowledgeable councilors to represent our best financial interests, who speak up and question decisions that do not sit well with the taxpayers they represent. The taxpayers who elected them to office will have to pay for all of these questionable decisions. As a taxpayer, I sit at all of these meetings and take notes because there is a lot going on behind the scenes that the ordinary taxpayer doesn’t know about. Better transparency and accountability could help correct this problem.

If you are OK with all of these decisions, do nothing and let your taxes continue to increase.  If you are not happy, band together and make your voice heard.

Gary Hagen

Albert Lea