Disappointment hit me when I read the Oct. 15 Herald editorial stating that Morrissey’s vast financial experience in financial management in Fortune 100 companies was not relevant to the job of county treasurer. Our governmental levels must be run like businesses to cope with the current revenue shortfalls – especially in our county.
My late father was a vice president and the CFO of a Fortune 500 company (Noble Affiliates) and he, of course, had an accounting background, even though his job no longer included making entries on a ledger. He was regularly called upon to analyze the numbers on those ledgers, which required more accounting savvy than entering the numbers.
He was allowed great influence over the selection of his corporation’s treasurer and always chose a person with an accounting background strong enough to do such analysis.
I think the Herald meant that the county treasurer job was not a bookkeeping job because the high-level accounting experience she has requires much, much more ability in the way of financial management than possessed by a bookkeeper. Morrissey is far more than a bookkeeper. She has the proven skills in high-level accounting, auditing and financial management that our county desperately needs in these times of declining revenues to avoid service cuts that we all will feel and dislike.
On the other hand, from what I have been able to determine about Bobby Lieb’s private sector experience, it consists of a series of business failures and closings. In the public sector, his work to get a commercial district near the airport stalled, and as county commissioner, he made some decisions that (to put it as politely as I can) remain highly controversial and apparently costly.
Bottom line, our county can’t afford to proceed without the high level and totally relevant experience Allison Morrissey would bring to the job. Similarly, our county can’t afford to put Lieb in this position, given his business and governmental track record and given the financial stress on the county treasurer’s office by declining county revenue.
Richard Ruth
Durango
