Finance director money OK'd

Bryant to make offer to only candidate who applied

BRYANT -- After a nearly 15-minute executive session, Bryant aldermen gave Mayor Jill Dabbs approval to make an offer to a candidate for the city's finance director position.

During Monday's meeting, Alderman Rob Roedel motioned to authorize Dabbs to offer up to $85,688 to fill the position, she said. Current Finance Director Ken Rhone was serving on an interim basis.

The city has made the offer to Joy Black, a certified public accountant who has seven years of municipal experience, Dabbs said. She was the only candidate to apply during the city's 10-day advertisement.

"We can't pass up the opportunity to hire a qualified candidate," she said. "She's ready for this."

Dabbs said she hopes to complete the hiring within 30 days.

If Black accepts the offer, she will become the fourth full-time finance director under Dabbs' administration and will replace Rhone, who began March 31. He began his employment at a time when aldermen had approved the 2013 general and street financial reports. Aldermen approved those "taken from the bank statements" before the April 1 deadline so they wouldn't lose state turnback funds.

Rhone replaced Dennis Edwards, who sent a two-sentence resignation letter to city officials Jan. 9, informing them he left everything assigned to him in his old office.

Edwards took the position in October after the City Council voted to spend $20,000 to conduct a forensic audit of city finances. The contract for that audit was awarded to L. Douglass Brown, a former white-collar crime investigator with the Arkansas State Police.

Brown was awaiting direction from the council on how to move forward with the audit on a limited budget.

Alderman Randy Cox said during Monday's meeting that Brown wanted to start with the exit interview documents from legislative auditors.

"He feels like he needs that information to be able to get started," Cox said.

Cox said Brown contacted legislative auditors, who would not release the report, and later turned to Dabbs to see whether she would.

Dabbs said Monday that state auditors gave her a report but asked her not to release the information yet because it was not publicly available. Nothing in the report, she said, was of great concern.

After further discussion, Alderman Mike Chandler made a motion to release the report to Brown after the investigator signs a nondisclosure agreement with the city. The council unanimously approved it.

Metro on 07/22/2014

Upcoming Events