by Bob Gaetjens
Editor
Streetsboro -- Mayor Tom Wagner has promoted Assistant Finance Director Ted Gordon to serve "permanently" as the new head of the department.
Wagner said Gordon has served as Interim Finance Director since December 2007 when Finance Director Tanya Boyer had to go on medical leave. Boyer, whose leave is currently unpaid, is not expected to return soon, Wagner said.
"She's exhausted all her sick time and vacation wages," Wagner said. "Ted's been doing double duty in there. Last Saturday, he was in all day. I just can't allow him to do this on his own anymore."
Boyer said she was unaware of Gordon's promotion and has no plans to resign from her position.
"I do understand that the city needs a full-time finance director," she said.
Wagner said he may have to let her know she's being let go, adding it has nothing to do with her performance.
"It's not so much a firing as it is that we have move ahead," he said.
By Gordon's own calculations, he's averaged 60-hour weeks since Boyer became ill in December. Since the interim finance director position is salaried, he said he's cost the city no overtime.
Vacating the assistant finance director position, where Gordon has served since 2004, allows him hire a new assistant director, which Wagner stated would be Gordon's "first task" as director, according to an April 29 news release.
Gordon said he doesn't yet know when he will be able to hire a new assistant director, but he agreed with Wagner it's important.
"I will put a high priority on that," he said.
Since he began filling in as interim finance director, Gordon said he has been earning a salary of $71,877, which he'll continue to earn as finance director.
The assistant finance director will be paid $64,411 annually, said Gordon.
Gordon said, along with hiring an assistant director, he hopes to transition to new finance software, which will enable city department heads to track their accounts without having to manually calculate their expenditures between monthly finance reports, as they do now.
Gordon said he has served in the public sector since the late 1980s when he took a job with the state auditor's office, where he met Boyer.
Since then, he's served as a school treasurer in the Ravenna City Schools; worked in the Cleveland City Schools as a grant and student activity manager; audited public entities as a field auditor for the state; and served as Munroe Falls' finance director, ending in 2004, when he was hired by Boyer to come to Streetsboro.
He said he has earned a bachelor's degree in political science and master's degrees in history and political science, all from the University of Akron, he said.
Since then, he said he's taken courses and attended seminars offered by the state auditor and treasurer's offices, the Ohio School Boards Association, and a municipal finance program at Kent State University.
"I'm one of these lifelong learners, I guess," he said. "I never want to get to the point in my life where I feel like I have nothing else to learn."
E-mail: bgaetjens@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-686-3941