WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — The City of Warner Robins has a few positions ready to be filled, including finance director.
The city has been working to fill the role since before Mayor LaRhonda Patrick took office.
The reason why Patrick says it's taking so long is because there aren't enough applicants with government accounting experience on their resume.
"We don't care much about them being a CPA. All of our research and the correspondence and recommendations we've received from our current auditors also support that we don't have to have a CPA, but government experience in accounting and financial duties is of our utmost importance," Patrick said.
The Middle Georgia Regional Commission has been vetting applicants.
So far, they've sent about 16 applications to Patrick's office.
"Our focus is on a finance director opposed to a city administrator, because not having the city administrator currently is not interrupting our operations, not having a finance director, is," Patrick said.
Warner Robins Mayor LaRhonda Patrick says it's vital they fill the position.
"They will be our go-to person when it's dealing with an issues with payroll, taxes, budgeting, so having that one person that spearheads those types of decisions, that type of transparency that we are going to be asking for, you really have to have a strong candidate with that government background experience," Patrick said.
She says it's also important to her because of last year's tax problems that led to the IRS placing a lien on the city.
"That does not happen often. There are very limited number of examples of when another municipality has received a lien from the Federal Government. That hurt us financially. It hurt our reputation, but we are here now to restore that reputation; and to make sure we are complying to all federal guidelines when it comes to the federal government and state government," Patrick said.
"Right now, the mayor has placed it as the highest priority in the city," Mack said.
Councilman Derek Mack says he's confident in the hiring process.
"It's just a lack of communication. We need someone who is going to be communicable with the subject matter, who knows exactly what they're doing; so that we can do a look ahead and ensure that those kinds of mistakes don't happen within our city again," Mack said.
"I am very hopeful that we will have an idea of who our candidates maybe, or at least our top picks, before the end of this next month," Patrick said.
Mayor Patrick says, next week, she has a meeting with Assistant Finance Director Holly Gross.
Once they have three, qualified applicants then they will start the interview process.
"We understand the importance of having a finance director, the importance of having a very strong finance department in general; and that's why council and I, along with our finance committee, put emphasize and importance on finding a very strong candidate who has a background in government accounting," Patrick said.
The salary is about $117,000.
Mayor Patrick says the salary is negotiable.
As far as the city administrator role, they're still working on filling that job, too.
"For City Administrator for the City of Warner Robins, they are more of a Chief of Staff. They are over our departments. They handle the personnel matters. Everything else is reserved for me. Just the way history has it, the City of Warner Robins did not receive a City Administrator until what two or three years ago; and our department directors have been moving, rocking and rolling when it comes to personnel matters the majority of their tenure. And, that only shows how strong our department directors are and how strong we operate, even with not having that person in place. So, that person is a priority for the year, but top priority and first thing when it comes to making sure that our city is strong and that we have that transparency for our constituents is having a strong finance director," Patrick said.
They are also looking to fill the Director of Building and Transportation role.