WESTFIELD–City auditor Debbie Strycharz is retiring after 22 years in the position, and with her departure comes a possible change in how the city runs its budget.
Strycharz, who first joined the city as an employee in 1976, takes with her many years of experience and close relationships with city officials. Mayor Brian Sullivan though, sees this as an ability for the city to move in a different direction with the way finances are handled.
Even if there is a change though, Sullivan knows how valuable Strycharz has been to the city.
“She has well over 30 years experience in city hall, so it’s going to be a big job to fill her shoes,” he said. “If nothing else then because of the longevity she brings to that position and the ability to answer questions for me.”
City auditor Debbie Strycharz.
Strycharz officially leaves Nov. 26 and said that even though she loved her job, she felt it was time to move on.
“I’ve been here 40 years and I’m at my maximum retirement, and I want to spend time with my two daughters who each have kids,” she said.
She said that the job was great for her, affording her a variety of responsibilities and tasks on a daily basis, like no two days were the same. Still, there were difficult parts to the job.
“The hard part is being the person who always had to say no,” Strycharz said. This could happen often, especially when budgets were close and limited at times during her career.
It didn’t change her desire to do the job, though.
“I just really loved what I did and when the city changed, so did we,” she said.
That change now may mean changing the city auditor position altogether.
Mayor Brian Sullivan
“We are actually looking at a potential restructuring of the finance department’s auditor, collector, treasurer and accessors,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan suggested a possible chief financial officer (CFO) to oversee the four departments, which would streamline the way finances are dealt with in the city. This would ease the duties of the mayor’s office, the city council and the city as a whole.
Strycharz agreed with the idea of having a CFO for the city. As the city has grown, there have been cases of misspending, whether intentional or not, and a CFO may have greater authority over this issue, along with other expenditure problems within the city.
Sullivan has not made any official statement about creating a new position.
