At the end of April Bob Mittet will be leaving his Maplewood position of Director of Finance for new challenges. Mr. Mittet submitted his resignation at the end of January. He is scheduled to work until the end of April of this year.
Mr. Mittet first came to Maplewood in March of 2007 which was chronicled in the Maplewood Review . As indicated in the story, Mr. Mittet joined the city at a pretty crazy time. As you may recall Greg Copeland was the City Manager and the council was Longrie, Hjelle, Cave, Juenemann and myself. Many city employees had left or had been "reorganized" out of a job. Bob came into a bad situation in the Finance Department. All but two of the previous employees had left, so Bob was pretty much on his own to figure things out.
Mr. Mittet first came to Maplewood in March of 2007 which was chronicled in the Maplewood Review . As indicated in the story, Mr. Mittet joined the city at a pretty crazy time. As you may recall Greg Copeland was the City Manager and the council was Longrie, Hjelle, Cave, Juenemann and myself. Many city employees had left or had been "reorganized" out of a job. Bob came into a bad situation in the Finance Department. All but two of the previous employees had left, so Bob was pretty much on his own to figure things out.
I have to tell you that I was impressed then and now with Bob's attitude and dedication to the job. He was continually putting in extra hours to try to get the department back on line and to have the work done on time. Mr. Antonen expressed similar feelings in the letter he sent to the staff letting them know of Bob's departure, "Bob's kind demeanor and work ethic will be missed".
Due to the difficult position that Mr. Mittet stepped into, each step along the way was a struggle. It was difficult to get the yearly budgets done in the time frame that we were hoping for. The yearly city audits were particularly difficult. Imagine the frustration you would feel if you had to account for the actions and procedures of people who were there before you, knowing the information was there but not having the benefit of being able to just ask someone where the information was , or what procedure had been followed booking the information. I would have to think that the first year would have been especially bad since I was told that Mr. Copeland would not allow Bob to contact the previous staff to ask for some help. After Mr. Copeland was gone Bob was able to have Dan Faust and Gayle Bowman come back as consultants to help with some training and knowledge transfer.
2007 and 2008 were tough years for the Maplewood Finance Department due to the whole restaffing of the department, but Bob hung in there and did his best to bring the department back on line. During that time Chuck Ahl commented on the state of Maplewood's finances to reassure the public.
The good news is that his hard work paid off. Each year since Bob took over the Finance Department was able to improve on their performance. In the early years the department required some additional help to prepare the audit and budget information. This year they have been able to operate on their own. Some additional training was needed to bring everyone back up to speed on the computer software programs and procedures we use to track all of our financial information. This has allowed the staff to return to more of a "normal operating" mode. In a normal mode our financial staff is able to provide all the information requested by the external auditing firm that the city hires to perform the annual audit. During the last three years we had to hire additional help to provide this information. Every few years we bring in a different auditing company to insure that fresh eyes are reviewing our finances. It is also worth noting that even with the difficulties that we have had to work through, the Finance Department has continued Maplewood's over thirty year record of being awarded a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. Click here to view the 2007 certificate.
The last odd item was that the staff could not track down a $93,000.00 balance deficit. They finally were able to locate some expense items from electric franchise fees that had been booked twice. This made it appear that we were missing the $93000.00 when it was there all along.
The last odd item was that the staff could not track down a $93,000.00 balance deficit. They finally were able to locate some expense items from electric franchise fees that had been booked twice. This made it appear that we were missing the $93000.00 when it was there all along.
The posting for a new Director of Finance has closed as of last Friday. I of course am hoping that we have received some good applicants for the job. Only time will tell, but I want to thank Mr. Mittet for all that he has done to help us stabilize the situation and bring us back to a functional state. I wish the best for Bob in whatever he does next.
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