'Hang in there': Marine City officials sign off on new treasurer — their fourth in a year

Moments before officials OK’d a contract for Marine City's new treasurer Thursday, Commissioner Wendy Kellehan added a simple message: “Hang in there.”

It echoed the sentiment of multiple city staff and elected officials during the meeting after the community’s loss of three treasurers over the last year.

In the end, the employment agreement for Nichole Lasecki, a Shelby Township resident and St. Clair native with a background in corporate accounts, didn’t look all that different than the others with a salary of $65,000.

But after a few residents alleged an issue with the work environment at the city office, Marine City Mayor Cheryl Vercammen and City Manager Holly Tatman were quick to refute rumors about the sudden exits of past treasurers.

“We know how difficult it is in this day and age — as an employer, I can speak to that — it has nothing to do with you, them, the job,” Vercammen, owner of the Little Bar, said motioning to Tatman.

“There was a derogatory comment, and I wanted to clarify that. It had nothing to do with personalities in the office,” she said. “The previous people just decided it just wasn’t for them. And this happens now. I was speaking to someone that has a fairly large industrial business. He’s going through HR people like crazy. I mean like four in six months. This is not anything that is new here. It’s just, unfortunately, what is happening in the job market.”

Instead, officials reiterated a past point — the job of treasurer, overseeing city finances, is tough.

Tatman said city staff have been collaborative and helpful in helping individuals get acclimated to treasurer duties, admitting city finances can be challenging to newcomers who may not be mentally prepared for what they’re walking into.

Other officials agreed. Commissioner Bill Klaassen said, “It’s a big job, and you’re going to get overwhelmed right away.”

“I was very brutally honest with Nichole about the things that she was dealing with,” Tatman said. “There’s not a lot of downtime because there is constantly something, whether it’s weekly, daily, quarterly, bi-annually, annually.”

Still, the city manager said she was comfortable with Lasecki’s background — she has a master’s in business administration and has worked as a credit underwriter and financial cost analyst — and believed she could handle the stress.

“I don’t want to sound so scary that this job isn’t possible. I mean, Mary Ellen did this job for 35-plus years,” Tatman said, referring to former treasurer and finance director Mary Ellen McDonald. “It’s just a matter of getting in, getting it under your belt.”

Pending completion of an ongoing background check, Tatman said Lasecki would start next Wednesday. On Thursday, Lasecki said she was excited about the job, referring additional inquiries to Tatman.

The new treasurer’s contract was just completed this week before Thursday’s meeting, which Tatman told the City Commission was to help avoid delaying a decision on a new treasurer another month after former official Tiffany Weatherly left in July.

It would also help lessen the city’s costs, she said, particularly in what the city racked for accounting help from UHY Advisors with monthly invoices of more than $11,700 and $8,900 for June and July.

UHY first stepped in to assist, along with some help from McDonald, at the end of 2021 after the departure of former treasurer Meagan Pearce, who’d been put on leave that fall amid an ongoing debate among commissioners about issues communicated out of office during the hiring process for Tatman as the new city manager.

Weatherly, who declined comment earlier this week, was hired in June, replacing Rachel Gottler, who was hired in April.

The decision to hire Lasecki was a 5-1 vote among commissioners Thursday with Commissioner John Kreidler absent. Commissioner Lisa Hendrick voted against the decision, she said, “since there are other resumes more qualified.”

Hendrick had earlier questioned whether appointed candidates have met the minimum three to five years of accounting experience required in the treasurer job posting, adding, “We’ve hired three people that don’t.”

However, Tatman replied, “That’s not accurate.”

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Marine City officials sign off on new treasurer — their fourth in a year