Framingham's chief financial officer is resigning from her post effective Dec. 31

FRAMINGHAM — The city's chief financial officer has resigned, following a series of contentious City Council meetings where members questioned the transparency of the city government’s budget process.

Louise Miller is resigning effective Dec. 31, according to a letter that Mayor Charlie Sisitsky sent to city councilors and an unknown number of other officials. In the letter, a copy of which was provided to the Daily News by Public Information Officer Susan Petroni, the mayor noted that he had accepted the resignation.

In the letter, Sisitsky indicated he learned of Miller's intent to resign "earlier this week."

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Miller, who could not be reached for comment, has been under fire in recent weeks due to concerns raised by some city councilors about the city's budget process. During a meeting of the City Council’s Finance Subcommittee last month, member councilors expressed frustration with the city’s budgeting process. They requested the annual report from the city, something they've been doing since July.

According to Miller at the time, the root of the problem was that no city employee knew how to create the reports using the Munis software program, a standard software program used by municipalities throughout the state. She also said there was also an issue involving a software license that had originally been implemented under the Spicer administration that would allow residents to view every facet of the city budget through the city website. But that license had expired, Miller said, and was not been renewed by the Sisitsky administration, in part because the system, OpenGov, was plagued with bugs and issues when it was operating.

Finance Subcommittee members frustrated over inability to gauge city finances

Finance subcommittee members, including Councilors John Stefanini and Michael Cannon, expressed frustration with what they termed a lack of transparency coming from City Hall.

“If the Finance Subcommittee of the City Council — which is charged by the charter to handle stewardship of the finances in the city — can’t get this basic information about how we spend our money, that isn’t transparent,” Cannon declared during the Nov. 21 meeting.

The city has also been criticized in recent weeks for not having a city accountant, nor an assistant accountant, since July. In recent months, Miller has been tasked with handling accounting duties.

Miller had stated during a City Council meeting in November that in general there was a shortage of civic accountants, and that the city had not been competitive in offering a salary to available candidates.

Part-time accountant spots error in Framingham revenue estimate

That lack of an accountant was exposed during a council meeting on Dec. 5, when the panel was notified that a part-time accountant had been hired and started the day before. The part-time accountant had identified an issue with the city overestimating new growth revenue for the fiscal 2025 budget, which ended up with taxes needing to be raised a considerable amount from what was originally proposed.

According to the budget, the original estimate had the city gaining $3.5 million in new growth, which has since been adjusted to $1.8 million. That led to an increase in the tax levy in order to offset the overestimated growth.

Stefanini told the Daily News that the Finance Subcommittee was notified at the last minute of the incorrect estimate, forcing it to put the burden of making up the difference on the tax base.

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"We had a $2 million calculation error in setting our tax rate this year, resulting in residents paying an additional $60, on average," Stefanini said. "Our new growth was half what it had been previously, and taxpayers had to make up the difference. If that information had been made available to the Finance Subcommittee in a timely fashion, we might have very well made adjustments to the budget, rather than increasing taxes. At 4:30 p.m. at the day of the hearing, we were given an updated number with no explanation."

Sisitsky was not available Friday for comment.

Stefanini told the Daily News that the city has a lot of work to do to restore confidence in transparency and budgeting.

"It starts by opening up the books of the city for public review and providing consistency to the accounting practices of the community," he said.

Miller was hired two years ago to be Sisitsky's chief financial officer. She was previously Wayland’s town administrator from 2018-22. Prior to that, she was budget manager for the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority, as well as for the City of Medford.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Framingham chief financial officer Louise Miller resigning on Dec. 31