When James Brigham decided to come out of retirement in early 2021, he was not without options.
On Tuesday, Brigham told the story of how he came to become chief financial officer for the city of Columbus during his appearance at the Columbus Rotary Club’s weekly luncheon at Lion Hills Center.
He said he was scheduled for five job interviews, one of which was the Columbus CFO job.
Brigham interviewed with the city first, then canceled the other interviews. Generally, job seekers look for the best pay and the best, most stable working environment. Not so with Brigham.
“Columbus offered the least pay and the most challenges,” Brigham told the Rotarians.
In explaining his choice, Brigham said he liked a challenge. No one even remotely aware of the city’s financial situation will dispute how big a challenge it was.
In the years preceding Brigham’s arrival as CFO eight months ago, the city had struggled to make sense of its finances, something that continued even after then-CFO Milton Rawle was discovered to have embezzled $288,000 in city funds between 2016 and 2018. State Auditor Shad White suggested that sum may only be the tip of the iceberg, suggesting the city would need to hire a forensic auditor to determine the full amount of missing funds.
A series of other financial missteps — some related to Rawle and some not — followed: Included were flawed budget calculations, delayed audit reports, lack of basic monthly reports for council members and generally poor record keeping.
All was evidence of just what a mess the city’s financial management was in. Even with Rawle in prison, the city’s finances were opaque.
Bank reconciliations were not completed properly in the past either, Brigham told Rotarians yesterday.
How’s that for a challenge?
“We are working through all these problems,” Brigham told the Rotarians. “These are all challenges I knew we would face. We’re getting those problems taken care of and we’re getting the records corrected, and they’re going to stay corrected.”
That can-do attitude isn’t limited to talks at Rotary. Brigham has displayed a calm demeanor and informed confidence at city council meetings, and he frequently offers to analyze decisions from a financial standpoint for department heads and councilmen. It’s a refreshing change.
In the months before Brigham was hired, we said that finding the right person for the CFO job would be the most important hire the current council would ever make.
We still believe that is true.
One could make a reasonable argument that the Columbus CFO position was not the right job for the man.
But it seems clear to us now that Brigham was the right man for the job.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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