DERBY — A state panel keeping a close eye on Derby’s troubled financial recording practices likes the fact that the city is hiring qualified personnel to run its finance department.
Outgoing interim finance director David Taylor and Mayor Rich Dziekan’s Chief of Staff Andrew Baklik appeared virtually June 30 in front of the Municipal Finance Advisory Commission.
The eight-person commission is working with Derby to improve the city’s fiscal condition. The commission gets involved with local governments after the state’s Office of Policy and Management makes the recommendation. An audio recording of the meeting is embedded as a podcast at the top of this page.
Derby’s financial recording practices have been weak for years, according to a “corrective action plan” from the city on file with the state. Some of the weaknesses have spanned several mayoral administrations.
Audio from the meeting is below:
The situation boiled over in May 2019, when members of the Derby Board of Apportionment and Taxation were finalizing a 2019 – 2020 budget. At the time, Keith McLiverty, then the city’s longtime treasurer, reviewed a series of mistakes.
One of the errors eventually explained to the public was the fact Derby’s finance department had mistakenly budgeted some $2.3 million in school grant money it was not scheduled to receive.
The problems resulted in a tax increase that year.
McLiverty came up with a “recovery plan” that included the restructuring of debt, contributing less to pensions for one year, and selling city assets to clean up the mess.
More recently, the state panel pointed out Derby is constantly late with filing audits with the state, an issue pointed out in a previous Valley Indy article.
During the June 30 meeting with the Municipal Finance Advisory Commission, members seemed pleased that Derby hired Agata Herasimowicz, a person with relevant job experience, as the city’s new, permanent finance director.
Derby government has not had a ‘permanent’ finance director since November 2019.
The first interim was McLiverty, who was brought on as a temporary finance director after losing reelection as treasurer. Taylor was hired earlier this year after McLiverty took another job. Taylor’s last day was scheduled to be July 13.
Baklik told the advisory commission Derby government also plans to hire an assistant finance director to further professionalize the department.
“We also have a new, second-tier position within the finance office that will ensure that some of the issues we’ve been having from a timing perspective with deliverables will no longer be in place,” Baklik said.
A member of the advisory commission credited Derby for working to straightening out its finance department but noted the city still has a long way to go, referring to the city’s long “corrective action report.”
Please click play to listen to the entire meeting from June 30.
