LaSalle County finance committee hears case for a dedicated finance director; will collect job descriptions from larger counties

Tina Bush, chair of the LaSalle County Finance Committee, opened the April 22 meeting and said, “We’ve called this meeting today to discuss a finance director.”

Mary, county administrator for Grundy County, and Matt Melvin, finance director for Grundy County, described how creating a finance department helped their county move from reactive spending to multi-year budgeting and a five‑year capital improvement plan. Mary said the director role was intended to do more than an auditor’s review: “We wanted someone to bring the departments together and actually give them some guidance as they go through, especially budgeting time.”

The committee heard that Grundy County reorganized the finance function as a separate department reporting to the county administrator, added a purchasing manager under the finance director, and changed an initial “finance analyst” title to “finance director” after evolving the duties. Matt Melvin told the committee the most visible benefits were a…