Young Named Costa Mesa Finance Director
Costa Mesa Interim Communication Director Bill Lobdell announced in a Press Release today that Budget and Research Officer Bobby Young has been promoted to the position of Finance Director, filling the vacancy created with his predecessor, Marc Puckett, departed nearly two years ago. The text of that Press Release is provided for your reading pleasure below.AN EXCELLENT MOVE
In my view, this is an excellent move by Chief Executive Officer Tom Hatch. In many ways, since Puckett's departure under curious circumstances, Young has performed many of the duties normally expected of a Finance Director. He and Assistant Finance Director Colleen O'Donoghue keep things moving in a very stressful time. Earlier this year Larry Hurst, a long-time Municipal Finance guru, was hired as the Interim Finance Director to help with what was going to be a prodigious effort to produce a balanced budget under the constraints of a completely new way of looking at our finances by the new City Council.
YOUNG DESERVES THIS POSITION
Since Puckett's departure Young has performed with distinction - something almost impossible to ignore since so much time and energy was focused on financial matters. Not only has he done a great job under the most trying of circumstances, but he has maintained the highest levels of professionalism while doing it.
CONGRATS AND KUDOS
Congratulations to Bobby Young, and to Tom Hatch for this excellent move.COSTA MESA, CALIF.— Chief Executive Officer Tom Hatch today promoted Bobby Young, the City’s budget and research officer, to the position of finance director.
Young had been performing most of the duties of the finance director—including preparing the City’s annual budget and negotiating with employee associations—since September 2009, when the position was left vacant because of budget challenges.
“We’re very pleased Bobby accepted the position,” Hatch said. “He’s done excellent work for the City and earned respect both inside City Hall and in the community. We interviewed many quality candidates, but Bobby’s knowledge of the City and his track record of excellence made him my top choice.”
Young, a Costa Mesa resident, has worked in government finance for 15 years, starting as an auditor of local government and nonprofit agencies. He was hired by the City of Costa Mesa in 2001 as the accounting supervisor and was promoted in 2007 to budget and research officer.
In 2005, Young was named the City’s Employee of the Month for his contributions to revamping Costa Mesa’s annual audit and Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR).
He’s also involved in community organizations, serving currently chief financial officer and board member of Leadership Tomorrow, a local nonprofit, and often volunteering as a team leader for Neighbor for Neighbor events.
Young received a Bachelor of Arts degree in accounting from Cal State Fullerton. He and his wife, Kathleen, have two children.
Labels: Bill Lobdell, Bobby Young, Larry Hurst, Marc Puckett, Tom Hatch
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 8/04/2011 08:02:00 PM
5 Comments:
I don't know if Young is the person for the job or not. We will never know since no one else outside the city was given the opportunity to apply and give us their qualifications. However, I do know Young was complicit in Righeimer's attempt to Jedi Mind Trick us into believing Righeimer's PERS numbers during that one council meeting. Young at least honestly admitted the numbers were assumptions lacking employee contributions and the numbers were just as likely to go down as go up.
I am intrigued that no one is holding the unfab four's feet to the fire on this. Why are we hiring another city employee when they also want to outsource? Why not outsource this to an accounting firm or some other private company that could handle the work? Of yea, that would very likely mean a loss control and the ability to fudge numbers.
Well Pot Stirrer, I do not think that Young was the right person for the job. Wasn't it Young who fabricated the PERS numbers so that Righeimer can claim fiscal insolvency unless the employees are eliminated. Young later admitted his numbers were not based on any factual information. The damaged had been done by then. They way it looks to me is that if you are a yes man and do what ever these four tools on the City Council say, even if it means you make up numbers without any factual basis, you will be rewarded, kind of like Starns.
OK, guys, let's sort this out. Young provided numbers to the council with the best information available to him at the time. He HAD to make some assumptions for the out-years because there were no hard statistics he could use - and he said that at the time. ANYONE else in his job at that time being asked for the same kind of projections would have to do EXACTLY the same thing.
He is a smart, honest, ethical guy who is NOT in the business of "fudging" the numbers. The city will be well-served with him in this job.
And, by the way, the City did interview MANY other candidates from outside the company for this job. He was the best of the bunch - which doesn't surprise me at all.
With all the bad press CM has been getting lately, why would anyone even apply for a position with our city… well, anyone with more than half-a- brain?
We should feel lucky that… One - Young even considered staying. Two - We don't have to go through a long training period. Three - He's not coming from one of the Boy's defunct companies.
Remember the immortal words of Rodney King:
“Ouch, oooooh, stop, stop, HELP ME, HELP ME, STOP.”... Sorry, wrong side...
"Can't we all just get along?"
I'm certain that after a short time of actual Finance Director experience Mr. Young will head out the door and use his talents and experience to benefit some other city where the council is made up of reasonable and competent members.
I'd love to see the numbers of how many employees have resigned or retired in the past 6 months.
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