Old Lyme ― Officials Wednesday said a temporary finance director is being hired on a part-time basis after the town’s elected treasurer publicly called on the first selectman to fill the position “immediately.”

Selectman Matt Ward and Selectwoman Martha Shoemaker said the unnamed candidate has agreed to start next week, though paperwork has not been finalized. Ward said the candidate with experience in municipal accounting agreed to work 16-20 hours a week.

Town Treasurer Michael Reiter, a Democrat, sent a press release Tuesday to say he and Shoemaker, also a Democrat, had identified the “qualified candidate” to fill in for Finance Director Nicole Leger who has been on medical leave since the end of February.

Leger left Feb. 27 under the Family and Medical Leave Act, according to Shoemaker. The program protects the jobs of those who must take extended absences for medical reasons or to care for a family member, with a maximum leave of 12 weeks per year.

The finance department currently consists of one assistant finance director.

Reiter in a phone interview said he was concerned he didn’t find out about Leger’s status until a town check bounced on March 23. That’s when First Selectman Tim Griswold called him to ask for money to be transferred into the town checking account. That’s also when Griswold told him Leger was out on extended medical leave.

Reiter has been treasurer since the 2019 municipal election and is up for reelection this year.

The finance director and treasurer are the only people in town with the authority to access the town’s bank accounts and transfer money, according to Reiter.

“My concern is that without a financial director under employment of the town, that we’ll find ourselves missing other issues that could come up and could cost the town,” he said.

He called it a critical position for the town, especially during budget season.

Griswold Wednesday morning said he didn’t see it as his responsibility to inform Reiter about Leger’s status.

“We didn’t put a press release out that she’s out on medical leave,” he observed.

He said he would have expected the treasurer to have more communication with the finance director.

The treasurer is charged with overseeing money management and investment, while the director is responsible for the town’s day-to-day financial operations.

“I didn't specifically call him about it, but one would think that it wouldn't take a long time for him to be aware of it,” he said.

The first selectmen expressed surprise that the treasurer and selectwoman would address the issue through a press release.

“I guess it is election time,” he said.

Shoemaker said she’s been looking for a qualified person to fill in for Leger since the check bounced almost two weeks ago.

“We cannot be reactive, we need to find someone,” she said. “Because we just need someone in there looking at the books every day.

‘Financial risk’

Griswold acknowledged that somebody needs to fill in while Leger is away.

In the meantime, he said he asked Ward, the unaffiliated selectman who won election under the Republican banner, to help with data entry and report production related to the ongoing annual budget planning process.

Ward also works part-time in the Deep River finance department. Among other part-time jobs he’s taken on after his retirement from the Connecticut State Police, he is a part-time officer with the Old Lyme Police Department.

Ward told The Day he is not paid for the work he does for the Old Lyme finance department. But he is paid for the roughly 6-10 hours a week he spent in the tax collector’s office helping reconcile the numbers after an assistant hired in January became overwhelmed by the job.

“There’s some human error there when you have new people doing new things,” he said.

Shoemaker said the tax collection issue revolved around about $47,000 in tax payments that had been cashed but not applied to the taxpayers account.

Reiter said a temporary finance director would help ensure important reporting is done on time. He pointed to the April 30 deadline to submit expenditure reports on the town’s $2.16 million allocation under the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

He said he and Shoemaker learned of the deadline during an initial interview with the candidate who is now set to start next week.

“She asked if we had submitted our ARPA report yet, and we said ‘what’s that?’,” he recounted. “And that’s when we found out we had a huge financial risk coming up if we didn’t submit that report. And I don’t know what other things are out there like that.”

e.regan@theday.com