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Finance director seeks mid‑year financial analyst; town manager proposes phased assistant town manager role
Summary
Finance requested a mid‑year financial analyst to support reporting, accounts receivable and payroll analysis; town manager and finance director outlined a phased plan to shift some finance responsibilities toward an assistant town manager role over time to expand management bandwidth.
Finance Director Brian (presented by Lee at the workshop while Brian was under the weather) asked the council to consider a mid‑year FY26 hire for a financial analyst and outlined operational improvements including use of an existing invoicing module and tighter accounts‑receivable tracking.
Lee told council the analyst position would support budgeting and audits, perform process analyses, help with purchasing reviews, and assist payroll processing, reporting and analytics. The request is for a mid‑year start (January 1) and is intended to backfill some duties and build analytic capacity that current staff say they lack.
Why it matters
Town staff said the finance team has historically handled transactional work and that the new analyst would perform top‑down analysis: cost‑benefit work, revenue and grant analyses, and help identify efficiencies across departments. Council members asked that the hire be technology‑adept so analytics tools and ERP modules can be leveraged to produce recurring reports and reduce manual work.
Assistant town manager transition
Town Manager Rob outlined a multi‑year transition that would shift a portion of the finance director’s time to an assistant town manager (ATM) role. The concept is a phased move — starting potentially January 1, 2026 — where the finance director would spend most of the week on finance duties and a portion of time on management and project work to expand executive bandwidth and project oversight. Rob said this is intended to grow the town’s management bench without a sudden leadership change.
Other operational items
Finance and HR are evaluating payroll enhancements with existing providers and the town’s invoicing module (already part of the town’s ERP) so the analyst could help activate and maintain an accounts‑receivable/invoicing process. Staff also noted the state DMV will begin collecting its own credit‑card processing fees; that change will remove a roughly $20,000–$25,000 annual cost previously passed through the town.
Council reaction and next steps
Council members supported adding analytic capacity but asked that the position be structured to leverage automation and reporting tools so it can generate timely, repeatable metrics that inform decisions. No final hiring approval or budget appropriation was made during the workshop; the request will be included in Draft 2 prioritization and the manager’s recommended budget timeline.
