Saturday, January 3, 2015

City building a competent, key position staff, Assistant City Manager


Lorenzo Hines, Jr.,
Lynnwood, WA Finance Director (2011-14)
"Pacifica Tribune/Jane Northrop, Staff Writer, 12/30/14.  "Meet the new assistant city manager."  

....  "Replacing the position of director of administrative service, the new assistant city manager will oversee finance, human resources and information technology as well as risk management and garbage franchise administration.

Lorenzo Hines, Jr., 50, came from the state of Washington where he held several key financial positions for municipalities. Most recently, he was finance director for the cities of Edmonds and Lynnwood. Before that, he served as chief financial officer for public health in Seattle and Kings County.  .... He is also a certified public accountant."   Read article.

Related  - The Weekly Herald/Mina Williams, 9/14/11, "Residents speak out on budget." "LYNNWOOD, WA — Programs that attract new business and engage residents were cited by residents as vital despite Lynnwood’s budget woes, according to the 25 residents attending a Sept. 10 Town Hall meeting at Edmonds Community College. .... City Finance Director Lorenzo Hines showcased the economic context that the city is operating under."  Linked In: Lorenzo Hines, Jr. - Education/professional background.  Prior Fix Pacifica new City Manager reprint articles:  Pacifica Tribune/Jane Northrop, 7/29/14, and Lorie Tinfow Press Release, 11/10/14.

Referenced Press Release - City of Pacifica/Lorie Tinfow, City Manager, 11/10/14, pdf pages 2. "City of Pacifica welcomes Lorenzo Hines, Jr., as Assistant City Manager." "One of the reasons I chose Lorenzo for the Assistant City Manager position is his reputation for being able to translate complex financial information into easily understandable language,” said City Manager Lorie Tinfow. “Lorenzo’s skills will help us move toward the goals articulated by the City Council. I look forward to working with him.” Hines has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. He is also a Certified Public Accountant. Additionally, Hines has served as a faculty member/lecturer for Becker Professional Education, where he conducted review courses for the financial and business sections of the Certified Public Accountants examination. Hines is a member of the International City/County Management Association and the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada." 

Note photograph by Annie Mulligan from The Weekly Herald article. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this the guy who is going to do the audit to find where the 4 million bucks went?

Tom Clifford said...

No,that work will be done by an outside consultant.

Anonymous said...

You mean there's been no audit of that mess? Haha, time is definitely the sleaze politicians' best friend. I don't expect they'd find outright malfeasance, or tell us if they did, but the entire thing becomes more malodorous every day. Mr. Hines better wear his hip-waders, rubber gloves and face mask on this job.

Tom Clifford said...


The consultant was hired but due to a lack of staff in the finance Dept. (Retirement,sick time and people moving on to other jobs) there was no one to pull up the data for them.

Now that Mr. Hines has been hired maybe Someone can be freed up from the day to day business of the City and work with the consultant.

It is past time for the public to be informed about what happen to the money intrusted to the City & Staff.

I don't believe that any malfeasance took place but the only way to know for sure is to have the audit done and made public.

Anonymous said...

Oh good grief. LMAO. That's one way to keep it hidden. You think a consultant with any experience in these types of fiscal furkups would know how to get at those records? You betcha. They run into these situations all the time. Is it
stone-walling at city hall or would council rather spend money on their other priorities? The 4 million is destined to become Pacifica's own unsolved mystery and as time goes on, pretty much forgotten. High Fives to past and present Council Alphas that pulled this off! Hey, Keener, get to work and air out the place or you'll stink, too.

Anonymous said...

This city and the city finances are really Fubar!

Anonymous said...

Maybe it really should be a criminal investigation? Either someone at city hall knows enough about where the 4 million was spent/lost to dismiss this as a low-priority, in which case they should immediately make public whatever they know, or this really is a cover-up. Of course we do always have the third "sunshine" option of total incompetence and stupidity among council and staff. DA's office? State? FBI? I dunno, but this ain't right!

Anonymous said...

Maybe they had a "behind closed doors" shredding party of all suspect documents that might be incriminating.

enough is enough said...

$4,000,000 is a shit load of money especially for a flunky little town like Pacifica.
This is either due to criminality or incompetence beyond belief.
we citizens must demand accountability. Until then no pay raises, no fee hikes, no taxes, no nothing.

Anonymous said...

A report on $4,000,000 audit was supposed to be completed a few months ago.Financial documentation is probably lacking.

Anonymous said...

Oh dream on 827. This is an old story. Plenty of scapegoats past and present. And if you think this was just discovered when the new CM arrived, uh, yeah sure. Dream on. Mighty convenient. They're still doing inter-fund lending because all cities do. Completely legal. Hope they're keeping better track of it, but who knows? The last highly-skilled finance director to object to playing fast and loose with inter-fund lending lost her job to an HR Director with very little accounting expertise under her large, pointy, black hat. I'd love to see a history of fund transfers from one year prior to that job consolidation through the last fiscal year-end. IMHO, no need to go back any farther than that because we had competent accounting until then. Note to self...dream on.

enough is enough said...

By no means was the missing $4,000,000 just discovered by the new CM.
What actually happened was the Vreeland, Lancelle, deJarnutt afterglow finally faded to black leaving this big pile of shit in plain sight.

Anonymous said...

Everybody's played in that pile of shit. Start about the time we lost Maureen Lemon and roll it right up to today. Council and staff tell the public (as well as each other) what they want them to know when it's advantageous for council and staff to do so. Or when it can no longer be hidden from view. Time is on their side.

Anonymous said...

Heard a rumor the other day. Seems like Harmony is running way over budget and they are down to a skeleton crew.

Trouble brewing at Harmony? The owners are in the dirt for over 9 million bucks.

Anonymous said...

Oh Todd.
You must be so happy.
A rich guy losing money.
Whoopie!!

Anonymous said...

Money problems or just the usual winter slow-down for excavation and outside work?

Steve Sinai said...

I drove by Harmony@1 this afternoon, and it looked like there was plenty of activity going on.