Hudson hires new treasurer with one dissenting vote
Hudson town council approved the appointment of a new treasurer on a permanent basis May 16, ending more than six months of interim assignments to the position. Claudia Ouellette took on the job this week replacing assistant treasurer Ashley Diszhazy, who filled the position on an interim basis since February, Hudson director general Jean-Pierre Roy told the Montreal Gazette. The town’s last permanent treasurer, Serge Raymond, left the job last October. Ouellette takes on a position that has seen frequent turnover under the current council, whose mandate started in November 2013. Four appointees who served the position under fixed-term or permanent contracts either resigned or were terminated since 2013. Councillors approved Oullette’s appointment, four votes to one, on the advice of town administration. Councillor Ron Goldenberg, who chairs the town’s finance committee, cast the only vote against, pointing out he believes Ouellette lacks certain “minimum qualifications” for the role. “I believe that a position such as that, in a town such as ours with a population of over 5,000 people should have someone with minimum qualifications,” he told the Montreal Gazette, namely “an undergraduate business degree” and certification as a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA). “I believe that the CPA should be a minimum requirement for the job,” he added. “I’m a CPA, and I know what it takes to get the degree.” Ouellette is a Dollard-des-Ormeaux resident who has served as treasurer of the Town of Otterburn Park, assistant treasurer for the Montreal borough of Côte-St-Luc, and secretary-treasurer for the Régie intermunicipale de police de la Vallée du Richelieu, Roy said. Located 30 kilometres east of Montreal, Otterburn Park has about 8,500 residents. Council met and interviewed the candidate, “and she’s got quite a background of experience,” Mayor Ed Prévost said. “She’s totally bilingual and knows her stuff. “Some people will say she doesn’t have a CPA (designation). But that’s here and there,” the mayor said. “I know a lot of people who don’t have degrees who are absolutely fantastic at what they do, and vice-versa. “I’m satisfied that we have a person that’s capable of managing this function extremely well,” he added. Hudson’s council has had to set straight several decades of neglect and mismanagement in the town’s finances, the mayor said, which led to staffing changes in the last four years. Investigations of Hudson’s administration by Quebec’s anticorruption agency UPAC in 2014 uncovered longtime town employee Louise Leger-Villandré had misappropriated $1 million from the municipality over a 17year period, during which she served as director general. The former director general, who also served as treasurer and town clerk in her 43-year career with the town, was sentenced in February 2016 to 30 months in jail on charges of fraud and breach of public trust. The challenges town administration faced since 2013 due to mismanagement “were very great,” said Roy, who started his position with the town in 2015. The demands of the treasurer’s position led to high turnover since 2014, leading some appointees to quit, and others being “asked to quit,” he said. The town’s recent history of mismanagement is all the more reason why Goldenberg believes council should set “a higher standard” for new administrative employees such as the treasurer, he said. “But that’s only one opinion out of council,” Goldenberg said.
I believe that a position such as that, in a town such as ours with a population of over 5,000 people should have someone with minimum qualifications ... I believe that the CPA should be a minimum requirement for the job. Ron Goldenberg, Hudson councillor