Wauconda hires consultant for finance director search
Wauconda trustees have hired a suburban firm to help them find a new finance director.
The village has been without a money manager for nearly a year. A pair of consultants have been filling in temporarily.
Village Administrator Doug Maxeiner has been handling many of the finance-related tasks, too, and he said it's been taking him away from other tasks.
"It's one of those things you can't do on a piecemeal basis," Maxeiner said.
Trustees had someone lined up for the post a few months ago, but the candidate withdrew from consideration after observing public strife during a board meeting, officials have said.
The board voted Tuesday night to hire a Northbrook firm called Vorhees Associates to recruit a new candidate. The company will be paid $10,000 plus up to $4,000 in expenses for its work.
Finding a new finance director is "incredibly important," Trustee Chuck Black said.
Black said he'd like the board to vote on a candidate within a month or two.
"The sooner the better," he said.
The village's last finance director, Zaida Torres, left the post July 30, 2013, under circumstances that were never explained publicly.
Torres had served as the village administrator, too.
Torres walked out of village hall a few hours after a meeting with Mayor Frank Bart and never returned.
She was replaced as village administrator by Maxeiner in November 2013.
Torres now works as the finance director for the Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency, a group that provides Lake Michigan drinking water to a dozen communities.