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SoWal Staff

Serving the Community!
Staff member
Apr 14, 2006
3,835
511
South Walon, FL
SoWal.com
As reported on WZEP AM 1460

After serving many years alongside former Chief Financial Officer Jim McCall, Mary Hobbs left the Walton School District after a series of events ended the fiscal year with a fund balance below the three percent the Board said it wants. This absence left the District without a CFO during the budget process. The state assisted with a temporary person and the District hired Jim Messer under contract. At their last meeting, the School Board agreed to a number of personnel recommendations, including Debra L. Noyes at the new CFO.


Noyes will not begin the job for 30 days and Superintendent Carlene Anderson told the Board Mr. Messer will continue with the budget process. She also said an experienced CFO from another district will assist Noyes as she begins the job, working as mentor.

Anderson also listed changes and policy recommendations she feels are needed as a result of the questions brought from the last minute drop in the fund balance. While the fund balance is below the 3% the Board and Superintendent said they wanted to maintain to keep a good credit rating, the fall is not to a level the district is in a financial emergency. Anderson explained in more detail how a series of financial events and a miscalculation during a time when the fund balance was already at an unusually low point caused the problem. She detailed a plan to get the balance back to 3% this fiscal year and says she wants to see it at 5% in the future. This on top of an additional 1%.

The new CFO, Debra Noyes, has been hired. Anderson said the Board could look at her application to see the qualifications. She told the Board there were six candidates and only two of them were Certified Public Accountants or CPA’s. She was hired under annual contract to replace the former CFO, Hobbs, and will be paid out of the General Operating Budget.

On her application, Noyes received her high school diploma from Walton High and a BA Degree from New York University and is a CPA. Her most recent and current job is as the CFO for LifePoint Hospital/Putnam Community Center. She says she considers it an honor to work in the community she has strong personal history with as well as respect and pride for.
 

Jdarg

SoWal Expert
Feb 15, 2005
18,068
1,973
WHO is she Related To?

I bet someone... :wave:

I heard Mark Davis.

As I said, as long as a person is qualified and was hired based on their merits, I'm OK with that. A small town will have a certain amount of relatives and friends and "networks" that get hired despite their qualifications not up to par. This doesn't seem to be the case, so maybe we should look at the bright side of this and not try to look for fault everywhere- there are many more places to look for real cases of nepotism and cronyism.:scratch:
 

John G

Beach Fanatic
Jul 16, 2014
1,803
553
I heard Mark Davis.

As I said, as long as a person is qualified and was hired based on their merits, I'm OK with that. A small town will have a certain amount of relatives and friends and "networks" that get hired despite their qualifications not up to par. This doesn't seem to be the case, so maybe we should look at the bright side of this and not try to look for fault everywhere- there are many more places to look for real cases of nepotism and cronyism.:scratch:

what the heck does Mark Davis have to do with this?

is the new hire somehow related to him?
 

John G

Beach Fanatic
Jul 16, 2014
1,803
553
OK so the County Attorney, elected school board member just had a relative put in as CFO of the school district?

Isn't his nice somehow also employed by Walton County in an important position????

Am I crazy or is this a case for nepotism?

I realize its a couple degrees of separation but his brother and sister are also reported to work for our $100+ million district.

Someone please correct me...
 

Matt J

SWGB
May 9, 2007
24,646
9,496
I think if you went with a no relatives working together policy in this county you'd have staffing problems overnight.
 

DaleDalbey

Beach Fanatic
Nov 1, 2011
281
152
Better yet, if we told candidates they could not get family or cronies jobs or contracts, no one in the current crop would ever run for office. Hey, there's an idea.
 
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