Hanover is grappling with severe staffing shortages in its finance department, with key positions unfilled and remaining staff stretched thin handling critical financial operations.
"We're barely treading water at this point," Town Manager Joseph Colangelo told the Select Board at their January 6 meeting. The department is currently operating without a finance director, town accountant, and treasurer collector.
The finance director position is being temporarily filled by the town assessor, while accounting functions are being handled by a part-time contractor. "We have one person who does five, ten roles in town hall," Colangelo explained. "When one person leaves... the results are fairly devastating in terms of our ability to continue a work product and keep delivering services."
James Hoyes, an Advisory Committee member assisting with budget planning, emphasized the severity of the situation. "The staff that we have... are really dedicated and they're working hard to get through the tasks that are sitting on their desk, but there's no backup. People are working late into the night on holidays just trying to tread water."
The staffing crisis has impacted the department's ability to perform beyond basic operations. "We're trying to make sure payroll's cut, invoices are paid and we get things that we need to certified by the state and that's really what we are focused on right now, not on any of these value add type activities," Hoyes said.
In response to the crisis, the town manager is recommending increased finance department staffing in both base and override budget scenarios for the upcoming fiscal year. The proposal includes adding a full-time position focused solely on budget management for the town and its enterprise funds.
The situation highlights broader challenges facing the town after a failed override vote last year. "These things were going to suffer, these functions were going to suffer," Colangelo noted, referring to warnings given during previous budget discussions. "Then we start losing staff and it suffers even more and it's even a bigger hit to the organization."