Hired in late September, Peter Griffiths lasted barely over two months as the City of Thompson's chief financial officer (CFO) before resigning Dec. 4.
City manager Randy Patrick stated in a memo sent to council Dec. 10 that Griffiths left the city for personal reasons. As a result, the timetable for the city's 2009 financial statements to be audited and presented to council has been pushed back to Jan. 24.
It has been a run of mostly bad luck for the city and that position. Carol Taylor moved into the position in July 2007 when the CFO duties were re-separated from the city manager position. After over two years in that role, Taylor stepped down last May, moving to the newly-created position of accounting project specialist.
Local accountant Bob Wall has also been involved with the city's accounting, with the city utilizing his services during periods when there was no CFO in place. Last summer, for example, Wall's services were retained to help the city prepare for the audit and convert its accounting system to meet Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB) standards, Wall was retained at a cost of $60 per hour, or about $24,000 for a 10-week work term between July 19 and Sept. 24.
According to Patrick, though the city prefers CFO candidates to have an accounting designation such as a chartered accountant (CA) or certified management accountant (CMA), such qualifications are not strictly required. Griffiths' own designation had lapsed before he took the job with the city.
The delayed statements were an issue during the 2010 municipal election campaign, when mayoral challengers Ron Matechuk and Colleen Smook complained that they did not have access to the 2009 statements and suggested that this gave incumbent Mayor Tim Johnston an unfair advantage. Johnston replied that as the documents were not completed, he didn't have any access to them either, and that statements from 2008 and earlier were available to anyone wishing to see them.
