New Finance Director

From a press release sent out by the city:

City Manager Allen Gill has announced the appointment of Mr. Donald Ursini as Finance Director for the City of Carbondale.  Mr. Ursini will assume the position on May 16, 2011, replacing Ernest Tessone who is retiring as Finance Director after serving the City for over 11 years. 

Mr. Ursini has Bachelor of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees from Northern Illinois University, with a finance emphasis in both degrees.  He has held corporate financial management positions for over 30 years.  For 17 years, he held financial management positions with the Marmon Corporation, including most recently as Vice President of Finance of the Penn Aluminum Company in Murphysboro, Illinois.  City Manager Gill stated that Mr. Ursini’s strong background in corporate finance will transfer directly to managing the financial affairs of the City of Carbondale.  Governmental accounting has different rules than private sector accounting, which will take some time to learn, but accounting for City utility operations is much like private enterprises.

This appointment is the culmination of a lengthy search process, which included advertising in publications as well as professional association web sites.  An interview committee assisted in the process, including the City Manager, Director of Development Services Kevin Baity, Director of Administrative Services Deborah McCoy, and a representative of the City’s auditing Firm of Kerber Eck and Braeckel.