St. Clair Shores City Council approves finance director appointment

ST. CLAIR SHORES — At its meeting on Feb. 18, the St. Clair Shores City Council approved the appointment of a new city finance director and treasurer in a 5-2 vote.

John Walters was appointed by the council. He currently works as the controller for Roseville, a position he’s held for 11 years. He also runs his own business.

St. Clair Shores City Manager Dustin Lent explained that Walters will split his time between Roseville and St. Clair Shores, with two days in the Roseville office and three days in the St. Clair Shores office.

“But the days he will be working in Roseville, he will have access to our computers, he’ll be able to answer phone calls and take any information related to us,” Lent said.

Walters will be making $115,000 a year with full benefits. The previous finance director and treasurer, Renae Warnke, who retired in January, made $126,000 a year not including benefits. Walters will also be making his own salary in Roseville.

Councilman John Caron and Councilwoman Candice Rusie cast the opposing votes against the appointment.

Council approval of the appointment was required because the position also includes the duties of city treasurer.

Caron said the situation isn’t normal and he called Walters a part-time employee. Caron also had issues with a comment on Walters’ resume. According to Caron, Walters used numbers from this year that were not finalized yet instead of using numbers that were audited from the previous year.

“Just not comfortable with that response,” Caron said.

Walters will also keep his own business while working in Roseville and St. Clair Shores.

“I understand hiring is tough, hiring for this position is tough, but it’s also very critical with all the filings, all the data and the multiple issues I keep pointing out,” Caron said.

Caron went on to say they need a full-time director, and it isn’t fair to employees to have a part-time director.

Councilman Dave Rubello said he previously called Walters with questions he said the people will want answers for.

“If there’s a problem of some kind, OK, and he’s not technically in St. Clair Shores, he’s still doing business here if we call him,” Rubello said.

Walters is also an at-will employee and if it is not working out, they can fire him.

“There’s off ramps for us as well for him,” Lent said. “I mean, taking on two city’s finance director positions, if at any time he does feel it’s overwhelming and he is not able to spend the quality time with his family and be able to balance the work-life balance, there’ll be the same thing where he will help us facilitate into the next area.”

Rusie said she shared Caron’s “hesitancy.”

“In terms of going forward, I do have a lot of concerns with sharing a finance director with Roseville, especially while he has a third gig on the side,” Rusie said.

She went on to say she knows he was also taking on large contractors while with the city of Roseville.

Lent said Walters will keep his company but that it will be put on the back burner. He reiterated that there are “off ramps” for both the city and Walters and said if they say “short term” it means they think he is going to fail.

“I would not be making this recommendation if I think he’s going to fail,” Lent said. “I’m saying this is going to be a long-term (appointment) because I think he will succeed.”

Rusie said she’d be fine with the recommendation if this was an interim appointment.

Walters said he’s heard of cases where a director splits time between different municipalities. He said he worked with a man who is the finance director for Novi and other places.

“There’s been articles about him in the past, so he’s been doing that for a number of years,” Walters said.

Walters said it will be a little challenging but that he thinks he can handle it. He said most of it will fall to him.

“They’re going to get everything that they need. It’s just, am I going to be able to have my work-life balance I want and manage it all?” Walters said. “And if I can’t, I’ll give it a solid run and if it doesn’t work out and I can’t handle it then they’ll be the first to know and I’ll help them find a replacement.”

Walters is a St. Clair Shores resident and said he has a vested interest in the city.

“That’s part of the reason why I offered to do this is because I don’t want them to get somebody in there that’s not qualified and then have things be inaccurate or anything like that,” Walters said.