The municipality’s hiring process is under fire from a concerned resident who feels the town’s new director of finance is unqualified to be the keeper of the community's coffers.
As a taxpayer, Ginette Marcoux said she is “highly concerned” the director of finance position was given to a candidate that isn’t a certified accountant, especially considering the municipality’s job posting stated it “is looking for an individual with a CGA, CMA or CA designation.”
In layman’s terms, the municipality was looking for a candidate with an accounting designation, whether they’re a certified general accountant, a certified management accountant or a chartered accountant.
“That position is an advisory position that oversees budgets, leads budget discussions, talks about tax increases, does all these things—you have to have schooling for that,” said Marcoux, who wrote a letter to the town’s chief administrative officer, as well as the mayor and council, expressing her concern.
“The director of finance is kind of the watchdog of public monies. So to put someone in a position like that without any background or schooling in it—formal education—has me highly concerned.”
After receiving 31 applications for the job, in June, the municipality announced it hired Natasha Malenchak.
Malenchak was most recently the municipality’s fitness and aquatic centre manager. In a press release, the municipality said she “brings forward 18 years of public service and extensive knowledge of the Municipality of Jasper’s financial software, budgeting processes, collective agreement, bylaws and policies, making her an excellent fit for the position.”
Malenchak replaced Alice Lettner, the former director of finance.
Lettner declined to comment for this story, beyond saying she was terminated without cause on March 18 after being the director of finance for six and a half years.
Lettner came to Jasper from Fairview, Alta. in 2008 with more than 15 years of experience as a certified accountant—13.5 years with Credit Union and 3.5 years with the municipality of Fairview.
The Fitzhugh contacted Malenchak numerous times after she was hired, requesting an interview, but she failed to respond.
In an emailed statement last week, Chief Administrative Officer Mark Fercho explained that human resource matters in both public and private organizations are guided by law, and as such there are many legal considerations when releasing information about an employee.
He then provided an approved statement, explaining the municipality’s hiring process.
“Supporting mayor and council’s strategic priority of organizational health, the Municipality of Jasper is working to become an employer of choice where the team is developed through hiring from outside the organization and promoting from within,” he wrote.
“The municipality conducts open and fair job competitions to ensure we employ a strong and accountable staff team committed to improving services to the community.”
According to the June press release, Malenchak will receive training and mentorship from Lavinia Henderson, who has been providing the municipality with interim finance and administration services since March.
“Mrs. Henderson was retained by the municipality to provide continuity through staffing changes in finance and administration earlier in 2015 as part of an overall restructuring of the finance and administration department,” wrote Fercho, noting that the arrangement “does not increase costs to the taxpayer.”
“Mrs. Malenchak will lead the reorganization of this department through 2015 and 2016 with the goals to become more aggressive in obtaining grant funding, to ensure funds we do have are generating maximum returns, improve financial services between departments, and to improve customer services to our community.”
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
