EWEB hires schools’ CFO

The financially struggling Eugene School District has yet another issue related to finances to deal with these days: replacing its own chief financial officer.

Susan Fahey, a district employee for 20 years, has accepted a job with the Eugene Water & Electric Board as its fiscal services supervisor.

“It was a really difficult decision for me to make,” Fahey said. “I love 4J and the children we serve.”

Fahey’s last full-time day with the school district will be Aug. 12. She starts with EWEB on Aug. 15. But she will continue with the school district in a part-time role through August to help the district prepare for the 2011-12 school year. She also plans to attend the district’s Aug. 31 bargaining session with the Eugene Education Association as the district tries to obtain a deal with the teacher’s union on concessions, in the form of unpaid furlough days and pay and benefit freezes, after talks fell through in the spring.

Fahey, 51, made a base salary of $106,421 during a furlough-shortened 2010-11 school year. She has agreed to a salary of $116,668 with EWEB, spokesman Joe Harwood said. However, Fahey said she also earned a tax-sheltered annuity, or TSA, of $6,840 with the school district in 2011-12, bringing her total compensation to $113,261. She will not receive a TSA with EWEB, she said.

EWEB doesn’t offer its employees TSAs, and so compensated her in salary so she would not have to take a pay cut, Harwood said.

“I think she is an exceptional finance director,” said Eugene School District Superintendent Sheldon Berman, who has been at the district for just a month, having replaced George Russell on July 1. “We’re very sad to see her go.”

Working in school district finance in recent years has been a challenging job, to say the least, Berman said. Fahey began with the district in 1991, just months after Oregon voters passed the landmark Measure 5 legislation that limited the amount of property tax school districts could collect to $5 per $1,000 of assessed value.

The Eugene School District’s budget woes have grown worse in recent years. Fiscal year 2011-12 will be the fourth straight year the district has dealt with a significant budget shortfall, and at $21.7 million, it is a record shortfall.

“It’s very discouraging,” Berman said. “And her staff has been impacted significantly.”

It doesn’t feel good to be leaving the district at such a critical time, with such significant budget problems, Fahey said.

“I hope I can say I helped them through the worst years,” she said.

But Fahey says the EWEB opportunity is one she can’t pass up at this point in her career, and she’s looking forward to a new challenge.

“Susan has done a great job guiding the 4J school district through several financial storms over many years,” said Cathy Bloom, EWEB’s financial services manager, who will be Fahey’s boss at the public utility. “She brings a wealth of experience, a proven track record and a can-do attitude to her job.”

Fahey’s position with EWEB will include organizing and supervising financial planning, budget and control functions, rate development and power-risk management.

Berman said he is working on reconfiguring the school district’s central office administrative staff in the face of budget cuts, and in addition to replacing Fahey through a national search, hopes to add an employee to the finance department to ease the burden on the staff.

“She has been an extremely strong leader, and we will miss her tremendously,” said Caroline Passerotti, the school district’s budget manager, who has been with the district for 21 years. Passerotti said she has not decided whether she will apply for the chief financial officer position.