Leesburg creates new city office manager post

LEESBURG — When longtime city of Leesburg employee Karen Collins recently accepted a new position as the city’s office manager, she didn’t just take on a new set of duties. She assumed a new role within the city’s occupational hierarchy.

Following the late August departure of Leesburg Finance Manager JoEllen Brophy, who held that position for roughly one year, the Leesburg City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to allow City Manager Bob Alexander to create the new office manager position and have it added to the city’s Compensation and Classification Study, which is essentially a list of all the city positions and their corresponding pay scales.

Alexander said the impetus for the addition of the new position was a desire to create a cost savings for the city by not hiring a new finance director, but rather promoting someone from within who could take on some of the finance duties.

“We won’t be advertising for a new finance director, we will be promoting from within,” Alexander said. “Karen Collins will be our office manager. She’s been with the city for 15 years. She kind of grew up with the system, and now that we’ve made it more efficient and expanded it and made the processes better, to some degree, she has been there every step of the way. So she’s the logical person to step into this role.”

The system Alexander is referring to is the city’s accounting system, which Brophy designed to help the city improve its financial practices. In fact, the need to create a better accounting system was the driving force behind Brophy becoming the city’s full-time finance director in September of 2015.

“She started as a consultant for us for several months, then it worked out that she came on board full-time with us,” Alexander said of Brophy. “We needed somebody to come in and fix things and right the ship, so to speak, on a financial basis, and make it more efficient. And she’s really brought our system along.”

That efficiency, Alexander said, was realized by Brophy transitioning the county to a zero-based budget that is more closely aligned with actuals, and by creating budget worksheets and models that are now used by the various city departments to ensure that daily, monthly, quarterly and annual accounting is being done properly.

“She was able to develop a zero-based budget and set up internal financial controls that were needed and set up accounting interfaces,” Alexander said. “There was a lot of accounting issues, I guess, that had not been addressed that needed to be addressed — clearing up some of the old accounting issues that were there and being able to set up modules to the general ledger to monitor deposits that are made on a daily basis.”

Additionally, Brophy was able to achieve some of those goals by better utilizing the city’s accounting software, which Alexander said was already in place but was not being maximized.

“We have what they call the QS1 software system that really wasn’t being fully utilized,” the city manager said. “She actually went to school for a couple of weeks up in South Carolina to learn more about QS1 and how it could improve our system. She brought it back and was able to implement a lot of that which is saving a lot of time and is a lot more efficient and has better controls.”

Alexander said Brophy also took the time to train other city associates, including Collins, on how to work the accounting software and how to manage the accounting process, which ultimately came in handy when Brophy made the decision to leave her position.

“She’s been very helpful in staff development, bringing other folks along so that they can use the system efficiently,” Alexander said. “She’s really brought our system along and made it more efficient. I think now that the system has been set up and you have somebody who knows how to use the system in-house, then we can do that. It will be a cost-saving to the city in the long run. Being able to utilize our existing staff in a more efficient manner.”

Of course, the need to create a new job and ultimately promote Collins would not have been needed, Alexander said, if Brophy had not made the decision to leave the finance director position.

According to Alexander, Brophy made the decision to leave to pursue another job, although he did not say what that job was. He did say, however, that he thinks part of the reason that Brophy made the decision to leave was that she had already completed the challenge she had set out to accomplish. Plus, she is going to remain as a consultant for the city for the next six months to ensure a smooth transition.

“She’s a professional and the challenge was there, and I think a lot of times professionals like challenges, and she had, I think, accomplished a lot of what she set out to do,” Alexander said. “I think there’s probably still more, but I think she’s been very willing to mentor Karen Collins and bring her along to continue her vision of how to bring the financial system forward. We have her under contract again to assist us with the transition.”

Collins said she feels good about the change and firmly believes that Brophy left her in a position to be successful.

“It’s been good,” Collins said of her first few days in the new role. “We’ve had a lot of changes, but I’ve made it through them all. I think Ms. Jo left me in a good spot to start doing what we have to do. She taught me how to do the things that need to be done to move the city of Leesburg forward.”

In addition to her confidence about being prepared to tackle the new role, the area native, whose only daughter is nearing the end of her Lee County High tenure, said she’s excited about having the new opportunity and being able to help the community she loves.

“I’m very excited,” she said. “I’m going to do my best to keep moving Leesburg forward.”

And Alexander has the utmost confidence in her as well.

“I’m excited, too,” he said. “I think she’s going to do a good job, and I think we’re going to make a good team.”

Collins was already serving as the city’s senior administrative assistant, and some of those duties she will retain. Others in the office, including Cathy Daniels, will pick up additional duties. Also, Alexander said the city recently hired Robin McDade to take on additional duties as well.

“She had come in and had taken over a lot of the functions of the front desk,” Alexander said of McDade. “She’s going to take on a lot of the utility service work that Karen was doing (as the utility service clerk), to free her up to do the overall management of the finances and assist me with the finances. I’m responsible for the budget, but I need assistance from my folks to make it work. I think with these changes, we’re in a good position.”