Blair County hires first in finance role; replaces elections director
New position will be paid $55,000 salaryBy Kay Stephens, kstephens@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG - Blair County commissioners have hired a finance director and an elections director who will play key roles in the coming weeks as county leaders continue to monitor finances and prepare November's presidential election.
Timothy Brown of Duncansville, a certified public accountant and co-owner of Advertising and Marketing Fulfillment Co., Altoona, is the first finance director.
Commissioners Terry Tomassetti and Diane Meling voted Tuesday to hire Brown at $55,000 annually. Commissioner Donna Gority was out of town on county business.
Commissioners also hired Ingrid Healy of Altoona to succeed Elections Director Shirley Crowl who resigned recently to take another job.
Healy was director of operations at the Central Pennsylvania Humane Society. She started her county job Monday at $28,000 annually and was in Erie Tuesday attending a conference for county election personnel.
Brown said he is aware of the county's tight financial picture and has a copy of the 2008 budget.
"Once I get through a learning curve ... I see my role as being one of helping out," Brown said.
Brown graduated from Penn State University in 1982 with a bachelor's degree in accounting, then went to work in financial jobs for companies in Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, Minnesota and Maryland.
He moved to Duncansville in 2004 after about 16 years of working for telecommunications companies including the Frontier Corp., formerly Rochester Telephone, Hickory Tech Corp. and CCG Consulting.
''I hope my experience in the telecommunications industry will help me ... where I've been through situations of trying to do more with less,'' Brown said.
Tomassetti said Brown was one of two candidates commissioners interviewed.
"I was impressed with his breadth of experience. ... He gave me the sense he would attack our problems," Tomassetti said.
Tomasseti, Meling and Gority voted in June to create the position. They said they wanted more financial information than they were getting, and asked the director to be responsible for preparing the annual budget, analyzing financial reports and working with county departments on efforts that will bring in revenue or save money.
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08-24-08 12:15 PM
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If they have to hire a new person to do another persons work that they can not do, then that job should be eliminated. We do not need to pay two people to do one job. I looks like this is always taking place just adding more people to the payroll. Where is all this money going to come from? Between taxes, utilities, food , medical, fuel and everything else going up, where do they think we are going to get all this money to pay for them. I do not have a printing press in my home to come up with all these expenses. A lot more going out but no more coming in. I hope this new administration coming in next year can straighten things up.
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lily0510
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08-21-08 12:46 PM
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Guttertrol: Excellent point. This Board of Commissioners will be faced with the same financial crisis that they criticized other boards for creating and they have done nothing so far to solve the crisis....only made the situation worse by hiring an unneeded Finance Director.
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guttertroll
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08-20-08 5:29 PM
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"Tomasseti, Meling and Gority voted in June to create the position." Wow they are now creators. Hey! How about creating some MONEY now! Isn't there some systematic procedure for them to CREATE jobs? Especially since these are taxpayer supported?
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jetsy62
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08-20-08 12:23 PM
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The salary for being a county commissioner should be the median salary of the constituents they are supposed to be serving. Maybe then they would be a a little more understanding of the taxpayers financial situation.
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lily0510
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08-20-08 11:33 AM
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Venting: Obviously your are showing your ignorance on how County Government operates! The task you think are performed by the Controller are the responsibilities of the elected Commissioners when they are here.
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TheOneAndOnlySurge
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08-20-08 11:32 AM
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Here's a good question. Anyone know why Donna Gority might be in Vermont on county funds? I'm sure thats not a waste of county money for Donna's free vacation.
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lily0510
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08-20-08 11:19 AM
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Isn't it wonderful that the Commissioner's can hire someone at $55,000 to do the JOB that the taxpayers elected them to do in hopes of a miracle to save money that they are spending foolishly on a Finance Director when they promoted someone in their office with an $18,000 raise to to be the Chief Clerk,obviously a job she is not qualified to do and an agency to analyze the County's spending which is "supposedly" to be grant funded! The County NEVER needed a Finance Director because they had a Chief Clerk and 3 Commissioner's who understood their responsibilities! The lack of state funding and frivolous spending such as above are the reasons the County is in a financial bind. I guess it's difficult to gain knowledge on the office you were elected to if you only show up for a few hours a week when the cameras are at the weekly Commissioner's meetings. Do you think their 3 signatures on documents prepared by everyone they have hired supports a $61,000 salary each? I think not
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TheOneAndOnlySurge
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08-20-08 10:32 AM
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I'm still waiting to see these new commissioners do anything but spend money. Can anyone say impeach.
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PensLover87
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08-20-08 10:02 AM
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Venting - Do you ever notice that the lovely Commissioners are never at work. Heck I can go for days without saying them. At lease Rich shows up for work everyday. I don’t know why everyone has something against Peo. He is the only one that wanted to give a rise to the people that didn’t get it. But yeah that’s right the county don’t have the money to give everyone a raise. So if the county doesn’t have the money to give everyone a raise then why in gods name do we have to have a financial director? The Chief Clerk is to do all the stuff that the financial director is going to be doing. So why did we give our chief clerk an 18,000 raise last year if she can’t do her job? And another question comes from that. The Chief clerk watch’s over the financial director so does that mean she gets another raise cause now he makes more then her?
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guttertroll
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08-20-08 9:27 AM
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SOUNDS LIKE A DUPLICATION OF SERVICES. The County Treasurer's Office serves as the repository for all monies remitted from the various county departments, with all funds kept separate and fully accounted for on a department by department basis. The Treasurer records and deposits all monies due to and received by the County. These monies consist of payments of county taxes, county fees, as well as State and Federal grants. A receipt must be issued and provided to the departments and the Controller's Office for all monies received by the County.The County Treasurer is responsible for investing County funds in short or intermediate term investments until such funds are needed for disbursement MAYBE SINCE THE TREASURER IS ELECTED THEY CAN"T BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE? Tomasseti, Meling and Gority, "said they wanted more financial information than they were getting, and asked the director to be responsible for preparing the annual budget, analyzing financial reports and working wit
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guttertroll
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08-20-08 9:16 AM
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If each of the PART time commissioners donate part of THEIR salaries there would be plenty of cash to pay for this. Besides isn't $28 grand a lot of money for something that occurs so infrequently over a year?
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venting
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08-20-08 8:26 AM
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great time to get rid of PEO. Isn't it his job to be doing these tasks? Oh wait..he only goes to to his office for half the day. He doesn't have time to be doing that stuff. He has tanning sessions to get to.
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Aces20
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08-20-08 7:31 AM
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How are the commissioners going to pay for this guy? Will they raise taxes, or will they just pay him with the money they will supposely save?
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