“Change crafted without collaboration and delivered by force.”
Grand Rapids City Comptroller Max Frantz says reducing his staff from 16 to 3 full time employees will make it more difficult for his office to oversee city accounts, monitor spending and conduct audits.
“I do not support changes such as this that concentrate and consolidate more in excessive power in the hands of a few people.”
But city attorney Anita Hitchcock says the 13 employees leaving the comptroller’s office should not be under his supervision. They are part of the city managers accounting staff:
“There seems to be some misunderstanding that because they are housed in that department, they are the staff of the city comptroller. They were always hired fired and paid by the city, so they are therefore under the purview of the city manager.”
And Hitchcock says the three-person comptroller office is still large enough to audit and oversee city spending:
“Allow the city comptroller to have more time to audit because he will not have to continue to manage city staff that performed tasks which are outside the functions required of him by the city charter.”
