The Three Rivers City Commission appointed Bobbi Schoon as the city’s new finance director/treasurer in a unanimous vote Tuesday evening. Currently serving as the Three Rivers Public Library (TRPL) Director, Schoon must now acquire additional municipal accounting skills for her new position, and has already met the prerequisites to be accepted into those training programs. 

TRPL Board President Julie Keefer described Schoon as an “exemplary leader” as she kicked off the public comments regarding the potential appointment. “She has not only physically moved our library, but she has moved the programming, the content, the passion, and the visibility of it into the limelight and she makes it shine,” Keefer said.

“She is a phenomenal employee and director and friend, and I would never want to get in the way of anyone’s career advancements. If this is what she desires and feels a passion toward I never want to get in the way of that.”

Keefer ended by saying, “I just want to praise her for being who she is as a strong, professional woman who I know will be a wonderful asset to the community in this role as finance director, if you so choose. I wanted to be here and say that I support her and support her decision.”

Commissioner Pat Dane was next to speak saying Schoon had done a great job at the library, and is “very capable” of taking the additional training required. “She flew through the library when she had to have extra training, and I just really think she would be such a good asset to the city as the treasurer — as much as I hate to see her leave the library,” Dane said.

The question of whether Schoon’s contract stated her training must be completed successfully within a certain timeline was raised by Commissioner Chris Abel, and City Manager Joe Bippus confirmed the contract does contain that language. 

Before the official vote was cast, Mayor Tom Lowry gave his own perspective on Schoon taking the position. “I worked with Bobbi at Three Rivers Area Mentoring and she was great,” he said. “She’s been great at the library. I’m confident you will do well. I also don’t want to lose you at the library. I look forward to your years here.”

In a unanimous 6-0 vote, Schoon was appointed the city’s new finance director/treasurer. Bippus said the city is aiming for her start date to be August 1 saying, “We were being careful with the library because we didn’t want to mess anything up with that. We are going to let her go back and forth as needed, and just be flexible because we don’t want to hurt the library either.”

Schoon’s appointment comes after the departure of former-Finance Director Cathy Lawson in April of this year. City Clerk Leslie Wilson took on the role of deputy finance director in the interim, and assumed some of Lawson’s former responsibilities. The city has also used an accounting firm to assist with those duties. 

Beca Welty is a staff writer and columnist for Watershed Voice.