Cookeville Taking Applications For Finance Director

Cookeville Finance Director Brenda Imel set to retire and the city is taking applications for a new finance director.

City Manager James Mills said they are looking at potential candidates from within Cookeville’s existing staff and from outside organizations. Mills said Imel will remain long in her role enough to assist the city with preparations for its next fiscal year.

“Ms. Imel’s agreed to stay around long enough to train her replacement,” Mills said. “There’s a lot to learn. It’s a very important position for the city and somebody that has the knowledge that Brenda currently has, she’s been with the city for twenty years and been finance director for more than ten years, and that’s difficult to replace.”

Mills said they hope to have the new director hired by the end of the calendar year. Mills said the decision of who to hire is ultimately up to him but he take input from Imel and other city officials.

“The finance director position’s one of the more important positions in the city,” Mills said. “It’s basically my right hand, the city manager’s right hand, so of course I’ll involve Ms. Imel. HR will also be involved and I’ll also seek the opinions of select department heads.”

Mills said he will also form a panel of those department heads to conduct interviews with the best candidates they find.

“We’re hopeful we can find somebody with a great deal of experience that will be able to step right in,” Mills said. “We’re specifically looking for people, number one: you must either be a certified municipal finance officer or CPA to even be eligible to apply for the position. And then second: I’m specifically looking for somebody who has experience in governmental budgeting. That’s a whole different animal than working for a company.”

Mills said they are in the third week of advertising for the position and will continue to take applicants for several more weeks to expand their pool of candidates.

Mills said they have yet to determine exactly how long Imel will stay to train the new finance director.