Hawthorne’s finances still hazy

HAWTHORNE – Three months into the job, Hawthorne City Manager Ed Smyth is finding no shortage of work, and he’s fine with that.

“This is what I got into this profession to do – come be a service to a community and not just fight fires, but to go in and actually do something, go in and take on a problem and fix it.”

The biggest of those problems is the city’s finances, which will be the focus of an upcoming commission workshop.

The commission didn’t decide on a date but agreed to hold a workshop by the end of the month to discuss several financial policy suggestions Smyth made in his quarterly report.

One thing the quarterly report, which was issued on Dec. 30, did not include was a budget summary. Smyth said he didn’t have sufficient financial information to even put together a budget summary.

At the commission meeting Tuesday, he said he was still a few weeks away from completing a detailed document.

In September, prior to Smyth’s appointment as city manager, the commissioners approved a budget which, according to Smith, does not break down spending into detailed categories, leaving a lot of guesswork as to where the money is supposed to go.

“I’m trying to get a detailed line-item budget out so these guys [the commission] know where the money is going,” Smyth said.

In the meantime, he said he’s using his instincts to make financial decisions.

“Sometimes it’s a gut feeling,” Smyth said. “You just look at things, and you get a good feeling or a bad feeling.”

Smyth has made several financial policy recommendations, including creating a cash reserve policy, auditing of each city department and creating a fund-transfer policy.

He wrote in the report, “An analysis of the policies, ordinances and charter revealed that Hawthorne was lacking firm codified financial principles.”

Mayor Eleanor Randall said the workshop will help the city improve.

“This will give us a good idea of where we are and what it will take to get us to the next level,” said Randall.

Before becoming Hawthorne’s city manager, Smyth served as deputy city manager of Leesburg, a city of nearly 16,000 residents in Lake County.  He said the Hawthorne job has been much more demanding.

“I had too many days in Leesburg where I’d sit there, and I’d be returning e-mails or doing research on the computer,” Smyth said. “I’d be sitting there. I’d be nodding off. I don’t have to nod off here. I’m way too busy. I like this.”