Dunn County to reassign finance staff as ERP rollout continues; CFO search underway

County manager Dan told the Dunn County Executive Committee the county will reassign several finance staff back to operational departments when a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is implemented to improve departmental access to financial information. He said, "As we roll out the new ERP, we'll have centralized finance positions that will be doing the accounting and the checks and balances and audit to make sure that we have the same process followed for all of those things."

Dan said the change moves some financial knowledge closer to department heads — he described assigning three staff to highway and three to "the neighbors of Dunn County" — while retaining a central finance team to handle accounting controls. He framed the shift as reversing an earlier centralization that left departments "blind to the financial aspect" of their operations and said the approach should help department heads make better operational decisions.

On the CFO search, Dan reported the posting has been open for several weeks and "closes on Sunday at midnight or just before midnight, 11:59." An external consultant (the former Chippewa County finance director) is assisting with initial screening and will sit on first-round interviews; Dan said a larger panel — potentially about 10 department heads — will participate in later-stage interviews and finalists will be asked to participate in a mock scenario to assess communication and leadership skills.

No formal action was taken at this meeting on staff reassignments; Dan said proposed changes will require committee approval as the process moves through the committee on administration.