Buffalo Grove appoints temporary treasurer

Buffalo Grove Purchasing Manager Brett Robinson will serve as the village's interim treasurer, pending the hiring of a full-time finance director.

That position has remained vacant since June, when Finance Director Scott Anderson left to take the position of village manager in Barrington. After Anderson departed, Deputy Finance Director Andrew Brown assumed the role of treasurer and interim finance director. But now he is leaving to take a similar post in Tinley Park.

Robinson has been employed by the village since 1986, beginning as an engineering aide, then a maintenance worker, customer service supervisor, supervisory control and data acquisition technician, and technical services manager. He was appointed to the purchasing manager post in 2012.

"He has been everything," Village Manager Dane Bragg said.

Robinson downplayed his new role.

"There is some more responsibility, obviously, some commissions I have to attend to, but beyond that, it's just a little bit more work, that's all," he said.

Brown recently received praise from Bragg for playing "an integral role" in the village receiving the Certificate of Achievement in Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for the village's Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the 2018 fiscal year. It was the 37th straight year that Buffalo Grove earned the award.

"It was a fantastic place to work," Brown said of Buffalo Grove. "I got a ton of exposure to a lot of great projects and a wonderful village board that is easy to work with and really has the community's best interests at heart."

The exits of Anderson and Brown are among four recent departures from the finance department, Bragg said.

"We're sort of having to retool the whole department at this point," he said.