Glendale Fills Finance Vacancy

DALLAS — Glendale, Ariz., has replaced a financial services director who resigned in the wake of an outside audit that detailed a series of financial irregularities, officials said.

Tom Duensing, former assistant city manager for Maricopa, Ariz., will take over preparation of the budget and other financial matters when he assumes the post Oct. 15, officials said.

Duensing fills the vacancy left by Sherry Schurhammer, who resigned as financial services director in August after Glendale City Manager Brenda Fischer placed her on administrative leave.

Fischer, who worked as city manager of Maricopa until she was hired by Glendale this summer, placed Schurhammer and three other top administrators on leave after an external audit linked her and other city employees to the mismanagement of funds.

Schurhammer and chief financial officer Diane Goke resigned, but assistant city manager Horatio Skeete and chief budget officer Don Bolton were fired, according to news reports. The two have appealed their firings and are preparing for hearings.

Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers earlier this month called for a city council executive session after an article in The Arizona Republic reported details of a city-funded legal analysis that found several former employees may have been involved in financial mismanagement.

The legal analysis discussed in the Republic article is part of a larger audit that concludes that six former administrators improperly shifted more than $6 million in city funds during a three-year span to hide growing costs of an early-retirement program from council members.

In the wake of the audit, Moody's Investors Service downgraded Glendale's general obligation bond rating to A3 from A2 and retained a negative outlook.

Standard & Poor's lowered Glendale's rating on Dec. 12 to A-minus from A-plus while maintaining a negative outlook.

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Arizona
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