Thursday, January 29, 2009

Centerville Finance Director Abruptly Retires Citing Health Issues

Yes, our finance director John Meyer retired this week. Mr. Meyer was paid at a Grade 12 step 9 which put his annual salary at $81,505.76
Council approved the replacement of his position during the last session 1/28/2009. The general consensus of our elected leaders was that the next finance director would have some very large shoes to fill. Tom Lee even joked that the City might want to add "walk on water" to the job description.
Although we wish John Meyer well and pray his health issues are not grave, we will save our assessment of his job performance until the State Audit is made public.

Exit question:
Does a City of our size need to pay a salary of $81,500 for a finance director?

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

So that is $6,792.15 a month we are saving on one salary.

Anonymous said...

May now the administrator will be too busy doing his job to make life miserable for our residents??

Anonymous said...

Of course we don't but when you have the crazies running the asylum what do you expect?
With the current state of the economy and the city debt the council should step back and reassess if this position needs to be filled right now.
Centerville survived many years without a "finance director" and maybe it's time to do so again.
I hope to God no corruption is exposed in the audit... The timing of the retirement is curious with the audit looming but as expected, that is lost on our Einsteins up at city hall!

Anonymous said...

"that is lost on our Einsteins up at city hall!"

Bravo! The lack of rational thought astounds! Full steam ahead, over the cliff we go!

Anonymous said...

Here's a comparison, sorta.

Job Title: Finance Director
Government: City of Apple Valley
Location: Apple Valley, Minnesota (Pop. 50,800)
Starting salary mid $90s to low $100s.
Copy and paste link:
http://www.govtjobs.com/cgi-bin/jobview.pl?finance/1231180398

WHAT IS OUR POPULATION? 3,800!
We DON'T NEED a finance director we need some common sense around here!!! What does the city administrator get paid 90k for anyway? WAKE UP CENTERVILLE!

Anonymous said...

They will probably hire a finance director that got fired from his last job that lives 50 miles away.
They like to do things like that.

Anonymous said...

Well, well, well. I will save my opinion til the audit comes out too.
When will it be? Does anyone know?

Anonymous said...

Finance Director
Apple Valley, Minnesota
Pop. 50,800
salary mid $90s to low $100s.

Centerville will NEVER get close to that population. This is a small town and we should have the government that reflects our size. No wonder we don't have money for road repair. We are busy paying salaries equal to other cities more than TEN TIMES Centerville which have a MUCH LARGER tax base.
Imagine what we could do with an extra 85 grand each year? At the very least, the money could be applied to our debt.

Anonymous said...

oops... I meant 81.5 grand.

Anonymous said...

to anonymous
January 29 10:42

Funny! You made my morning!
You also made me spit coffee all over myself laughing out loud!
Have to change my shirt now.
Happy Friday everyone!

Anonymous said...

Walk on water?

What a tool!
Can't wait for that state audit. I LOVE this blog!

Anonymous said...

Wow, this is interesting news! I wonder how many cities undergoing a state audit had something like this happen during the process?
God please don't strike me for having such thoughts but this information has my critical thought process into overdrive!

Anonymous said...

Do you think that he actually retired or the city asked him to leave in light of the audit?
You never know around here...

Anonymous said...

If the city asked him to leave and then perpetrated fraud against the citizens during the last council meeting by citing health issues...
That would be criminal.
Let's not get carried away.

Anonymous said...

"this information has my critical thought process into overdrive!"

Thank God you have a critical thought process. Maybe you should run for elected office.

Anonymous said...

If I ever get fired I will have to remember to retired first and use the excuse of health issues.

Cities our size don't have full time finance directors. The cities share with other small towns thus paying for only part time people.

BUT our city has to go hog wild and go the most expensive way.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 6:39 pm
THANK YOU!
The wasteful spending in Centerville is crazy! The ridiculous number of new lights on Main St. is a daily testament to that.
You know they are now spending another 3,500+ to put them on timers to save energy?

Anonymous said...

The lights are on but nobody's home!

"Cities our size don't have full time finance directors. The cities share with other small towns thus paying for only part time people"

I like this idea! It makes sense considering we already share the police with two other cities. How about that administrator position?
The population of Centerville, Circle Pines and Lexington does not come near that of Apple Valley.
Given that perspective, we are getting ripped off.

Anonymous said...

Does City Hall really think the citizens are that stupid? Do they really think a man who had been healthy going into December and January suddenly retires? WRONG, can you say Leave, so we don't have to MAKE you LEAVE - Oh I mean RESIGN!!

mmmm...THANKS TO ALL WHO SIGNED THE AUDIT PETITION!!!

Anonymous said...

The members of this blog do not have a position regarding the recent retirement of our finance director John Meyer.
This is a forum for our citizens to speak out and exercise their first amendment right of free speech.
We feel compelled to reiterate that we will wait until the State audit is complete before making a formal statement on this issue.

Thank you all for your support.

Anonymous said...

Someone needs to contact the media, annonymously, to find out the real reason Meyer's left so suddenly. It would have to be annonymous, because the City would have you on their radar for their next retaliation victim!!

Been there, done that...someone else's turn!!

Anonymous said...

I'll bet if we look hard enough, we will find he's working somewhere else...