By Harry Gatjens

The Edmonds City Council Tuesday evening interviewed the two finalists for the position of permanent Finance Director. This person will replace interim finance director Ron Cones, who has been filling in for the former director Shawn Hunstock, who left in February.

Mayor Dave Earling started the proceedings by explaining that the city had received 14 applicants for the position. Those 14 were reduced to a total of four, each of whom had three interview sessions with representatives of the city. The two before the council were finalists: Roger Neumaier, Finance Director for Snohomish County and Scott James, Finance Director for the City of Mukilteo. Each were asked the same questions by the seven City Councilmembers.

Adrienne Fraley-Monillas started by asking each candidate if they were willing to sign a contract to commit to staying at least four years. She brought this up because the city has had four Finance Directors in the past two years, causing a disruption in the efficiency of the department. Both candidates indicated that that would not be a problem.

Joan Bloom then asked each about their experience in running an IT department. Again, both had some experience in working in planning with these departments though neither would the described themselves as a technology expert. James offered that Mukilteo had subcontracted this position out.

Strom Peterson then asked about experience with the Budget by Priorities System. Neumaier pointed out that Snohomish County had been one of the first government organizations to utilize this system. He felt very confident with it. James said he had no actual experience with the system but had studied up on it while working in Mukilteo.

Peterson also asked if the candidates had any experience in working with Public Facilities Districts (PFD). Both said yes and had specifically been involved with the type of PFD that is set up for the Edmonds Center for the Arts.

Council President Lora Petso questioned the candidates about whether they had received any negative findings in audits of their respective organizations. Neither had any significant findings since they had in their positions.

Petso also asked what traits the candidates could bring to Edmonds from their previous positions. Neumaier brought out his work in budgeting and James talked about the similarities between the two cities, needing to deal with dwindling revenues and searching for efficiencies in operations.

Councilmember Frank Yamamoto asked what would be each candidate’s first order of business on assuming the job. Both said they would not implement immediate changes, but would interview the current staff and department heads to evaluate the most important needs, then focus on those needs.

For Councilmember Buckshnis, the question was the candidates’ position on the city’s reserve policy. Both said that reserves are very important as it is very difficult to accurately predict the financial future for cities given the current economic situation.

There were several additional questions asked by the Councilmembers. A complete audio recording of the interviews will be available on the city’s website soon. We will post a link as soon as that is online.

The councilmembers were asked to send their thoughts to the Mayor, who will make the final determination and submit an employment offer to one of the two candidates. That decision will be then be brought back to the Council.