Carpentersville replacing finance director role with external firm

Instead of hiring a new finance director, Carpentersville officials have decided to contract accounting services in hopes of saving money and improving efficiency.

The village board recently supported hiring Lauterbach & Amen LLP, a Naperville-based firm, to manage the village's finance and accounting processes. Carpentersville will pay $117,000 annually for the company's services, which cost about $58,000 less than a full-time staff position for half the number of hours, interim Village Manager Marc Huber said.

"We were just looking at opportunities and ways to be more efficient and save a few bucks here and there where we can," he said. "We also just thought an outside look at operations would be healthy for the village."

Former Finance Director Hitesh Desai announced his resignation last spring, at which point the village posted a job opening and started exploring options for his replacement, Huber said. Desai held the position for nearly four years before taking a new job in April as the chief financial officer for Evanston.

Hiring an external consultant offered some flexibility in the village's staffing structure and proved to be more cost-effective than finding a new full-time department head, Huber said.

Lauterbach & Amen representatives, who will act under Huber's supervision, are going to be tasked with coordinating high-level financial projects and evaluating programs such as the village's capital planning process, he said. The company's responsibilities also include financial forecasting, utility billing, audit preparation, payroll management, tax levy preparation, maintaining financial statements and other administrative work.

The village's assistant finance director, Katrina Hanna, will continue overseeing the department's day-to-day operations.