CHICAGO -- Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr said Thursday he tapped John Hill as the city’s new chief financial officer.
Hill served as executive director of the District of Columbia Financial Control Board in the 1990s.
He was a key figure in the district’s restructuring, overseeing the board from 1995 to 1999 as the district struggled to find its financial footing.
More recently, Hill was the CEO of the Federal City Council, a nonprofit dedicated to improving Washington DC. Before that, Hill led Arthur Andersen LLP’s government consulting practice.
As director of the Financial Control Board, Hill worked with board members to develop and implement a restructuring plan and to improve services in DC, Detroit officials said in a release.
“John Hill brings a wealth of municipal finance and restructuring experience to Detroit,” the city’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, said in a statement. “John’s similar service in our nation’s capital will help move Detroit forward.”
Orr worked with Detroit’s Mayor Elect Mike Duggan in selecting Hill, the city said.
The city’s last CFO, Jim Bonsall, stepped down last month after apologizing for making a racially controversial remark in a meeting. Bonsall, in a meeting with city officials, reportedly joked about whether he could shoot anybody in a hoodie if he took place in the city’s pre-Halloween arson patrols, apparently a reference to Florida teen Trayvon Martin.
