WELLINGTON NORTH – After serving for over four years as this township’s finance director and treasurer, Adam McNabb is making his way down south – but not too far.
His new role as Centre Wellington’s treasurer and managing director of corporate services begins March 14, providing little time between the jump from Wellington North.
“Transition is never fun or easy,” he said, with a hint of c’est la vie in his voice.
McNabb’s name hits the pages of the Wellington Advertiser‘s sister publication, the North Wellington Community News, at budget time each year as wellington North council deliberates raising taxes to cover the range of services modern municipalities provide to residents.
Although decisions fall onto the shoulders of local politicians, it’s municipal staff members, like McNabb, who take council’s high-level direction and do the real nitty-gritty work, crunching numbers and determining what dollar will go where, and when, before bringing a budget back to council for approval.
It’s that work he’ll continue in Centre Wellington, but the fruits of his labour will bear out closer to his own backyard in the township, he said, explaining the decision to move jobs.
Adam McNabb
A steep learning curve awaits McNabb’s arrival at Centre Wellington – inner workings are different, a budget was passed last year, and different initiatives are already in motion – but he’s anxious to get in the door and meet challenges head-on.
“I’m trying to keep my finger close to the pulse in terms of what’s going on in Centre Wellington so I can effectively hit the ground running,” he said.
The job, according to McNabb, is a matter of spending public funds responsibility and “doing the best you can with the dollars you’ve got in play.”
“It’s going to be ‘wait and see’ for a lot of things,” he said, referencing prohibitively high material and energy costs for capital projects.
The challenge for McNabb will come in balancing that approach against work which can’t wait out market corrections.
Before managing Wellington North’s finances, McNabb worked at Crawford and Company, a global insurance claims management firm.
“I wanted to … start doing some good for the community,” he said of the move from private to public finance in 2017.
Having solid people in positions where financial decisions are made is “paramount,” McNabb said.
“More often than not in smaller townships, where you have council members from all different walks of life, there is a certain amount of reliance [on] the expertise of staff,” he said.
McNabb said he believes he’s leaving Wellington North in capable hands and expressed thanks and gratitude to Wellington North staff during his time with the township.
CAO Mike Givens said the township is now on the hunt for a new finance director.
“The senior management team, including the CAO, as well the remaining finance team will fill the gaps until a suitable successor is hired,” Givens stated in an email.
