PORT ANGELES — Clallam County has made a conditional offer of employment for its new chief financial officer position, Interim County Administrator Rich Sill told the county commissioners.
Sill said he could not say who was offered the job, but said there were five applicants from within and without the state. None of the applicants were county employees.
He said Monday that the county is conducting its background check process and that the final decision could be made within a week.
“We’re pretty close,” Sill said. “Any delays we’re looking at at this point go back to … the holiday season is really hard to bring someone on board.”
Hiring a chief financial officer is part of the county’s plans to create a finance department, which officials have said would streamline the county’s finances and remove the financial responsibilities from the county administrator position.
The county had offered the county administrator position in September, but rescinded its offer when the county discovered information that showed the candidate was not the “right fit” for the county.
The commissioners decided in October to move ahead on hiring a chief financial officer before hiring a new county administrator to replace former County Administrator Jim Jones. They directed Sill to work with Strategic Government Resources (SGR) to find a candidate.
Sill said the hope is that the candidate could begin work Dec. 15 and begin working with Auditor’s Chief Accountant Stan Creasey before he retires at the end of February. Starting earlier would require a budget emergency.
The idea is that January and February would function as a transition period, Sill said.
“That job is significantly complex and so a person coming in is going to receive a lot of data in a period of time that’s very short,” Sill said. “We want to be mindful to do the best we can in that transition.”
Creasey said he is optimistic with the direction the county is going in how it addresses its finances.
“I feel very positive about the direction we’re going with respect to our finance information plans,” Creasey said. “I think it’s a very good thing we’re going to be putting more emphasis on planning ahead and planning more aggressively, beefing up our ability to get good finance information earlier.”
Sill said the county used SGR’s list serves and resources to find the applicants but conducted much of the hiring process in-house.
The county had attempted to ask voters to decide whether there should be a change to the county charter to create a finance department, but due to a paperwork error the measure never appeared on the ballot.
Officials have said the county can create a finance department without changing the county charter so long as the department does not affect the statutory duties of elected officials.
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
