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Town CFO Departs After Reshaping the Position

Updated: Oct 17, 2024

It’s been over a year since Stafford Free Press launched, and a lot has changed in that time. Much of that change is due to a newly defined partnership between the first selectman, the town’s chief financial officer, and, to some degree, the Board of Finance (BOF). It’s important to note that change as current CFO, John Lund, leaves for a job he says fell into his lap.


For the past few months, I have been visiting the town hall a few days after a BOF meeting so Lund can explain the many complicated details of the town’s finances to me. Sometimes, First Selectman Bill Morrison is able to join us, and last week, Chair of the BOF Steve Geryk was also there. Fresh off of interviews with candidates for the CFO position, everyone was eager to talk about the changing nature of the CFO role. 


Lund says it was a difficult decision to accept his new job as a Stafford resident who expected to retire from this position. Still, he came from the banking industry and will be returning to it to work with a team he is already familiar with. He stressed how much he likes his team here in town and working with Morrison (who has an incredible knack for calling Lund while he is trying to enjoy a round of golf on his day off), but he says he just could not pass up this new opportunity.


Former interim CFO Lynn Nenni has returned to help shepherd the town’s audit through the rest of the process. “You don’t know what you don’t know,” says Lund, but he is pleased with where the audit currently stands and is hopeful it will be submitted on time. 


When he started the job last year, “a lot of the work had to be done from a fire drill perspective,” he says. Now, the CFO position is more of a strategic position in partnership with the First Selectman. 


“It’s morphed into something beyond the job description,” he says. That’s been possible because of the addition of Carole LaRochelle, an accountant, to the staff. He is the first to say he was not the ideal candidate for the CFO position, partly because of his lack of municipal and accounting experience. Adding an accountant has freed him and any future CFOs up to think about the bigger picture and work alongside Morrison and the BOF to identify and address problems. 


Morrison says that Lund has repeatedly advised him to focus on hiring the right person, not just rushing to get someone into the position. “Hire for culture, train for talent,” Lund says. He has also rewritten the job description, making it a more appealing, challenging, and strategic role that entices the right kinds of candidates. 


Whoever is hired will have to hit the ground running. Budgets from town departments are due to the selectman on November 14, even earlier than last year. It’s an aggressive schedule with an unofficial mandate to keep increases as close to zero as possible. 


Geryk says the BOF did not understand the power they had in the past. “This year, we had a lot more information,” says Geryk. An obvious example is the discussion around the school district’s self-insurance fund. Additionally, Morrison and Lund have worked closely with the town ambulance to find creative ways to improve service while hopefully decreasing its deficit.  


Lund says one of the guiding principles he has used in his brief stint in municipal finances is “Tell me what I need to know without asking.” Lund says he hopes to participate in BOF meetings again once settled in his new position. He feels good about the changes that have already been instituted as a resident as well as the CFO. 


Both Morrison and Geryk say they hope to continue evolving this position. Morrison says they have a model in place that is “started but not perfected,” and the next CFO will help improve on what Lund is leaving behind.

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