Crookston council appoints Holly Eckstein as finance director amid calls for oversight and training

The Crookston City Council voted to appoint Holly Eckstein as the city’s finance director after discussing transition support, training and ongoing oversight.

City staff said the finance director post had been vacant since April and recommended promoting an internal candidate with six years’ experience as a chief deputy county auditor. The administrator told council members the candidate is familiar with the city’s systems and ‘‘would require minimal additional training’’ to assume higher-level accounting duties.

Several council members pressed for safeguards. One asked about a probationary period and more frequent reporting to ensure the city hit month-end closes and avoided recurring errors. In response, Lance of CliftonLarsonAllen, the city’s auditors and continuing-service consultant, said CLA would ‘‘stay on as long as need be’’ to provide regular check-ins and support during the transition.

Council members sought commitments that the new director would receive outside training, with the administrator saying the city would budget to send the director to Government Finance Officers Association training and other workshops. Council also discussed requiring monthly or quarterly reports; the administrator said monthly updates were feasible given the current situation but that quarterly reporting has been the typical practice.

After the discussion, council moved and approved the resolution to appoint Holly Eckstein. The city will continue to work with CliftonLarsonAllen on audit wrap-up and transitional support.

Next steps: staff said they will budget for external training and keep CLA engaged during the first year to assist with audit preparation and monthly reporting as needed.