ORANGE — The Selectboard has opted to hire a professional services advising firm with a Greenfield office to handle the town’s accounting responsibilities.
CBIZ, formerly Marcum LLP, will replace Amber Dupell, who resigned effective Aug. 21 and was then hired on a per diem basis at $45 an hour to assist with onboarding and training her successor. Dupell also served on a screening committee that recommended CBIZ.
“I think that they screened very well with our committee,” Town Administrator Matthew Fortier — who along with Selectboard Chair Tom Smith, rounded out the committee — said at Wednesday’s meeting. “All three of us — Tom and Amber and I — were very impressed with how they composed themselves. They were extremely knowledgeable on accounting practices and they have a good team on board.”
Fortier said the committee also interviewed the municipal finance consulting services firm Aponte & Aponte, which he described as a father-and-son team. He said the firm was qualified, but CBIZ is a larger organization with more resources. Fortier also mentioned that the screening committee reviewed the applications of individuals who applied for the job, but found no qualified candidate among this group.
“And we don’t think that there’s enough time and capacity to train somebody, essentially off the street, to do the job. We’re behind on closing the books. The state has already notified us that if we don’t have the books closed in the next three weeks, they’re going to start withholding state aid,” he said. “And we’re in a situation now that we really just need to get a professional in here to clean up the books and to continue the job as the town accountant.”
The town administrator said CBIZ can start as soon as a contract “gets buttoned up.” He said the town will pay the firm $94,000 a year, which is 10% more than Aponte & Aponte would have charged. Fortier said the contract will have to be revisited every year.
According to CBIZ’s website, it has at least 160 offices, 10,000 team members and 135,000 clients. The Greenfield office is located on Munson Street. Fortier said CBIZ will operate remotely and visit Orange Town Hall once a month.
A phone call to CBIZ was not returned by press time.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the Selectboard also thanked Dupell for, as Selectboard member Jane Peirce put it, “holding us together this long.”
Dupell now works as Templeton’s town accountant. In August, she said that the town had approached her with offers of higher pay and a better work-life balance.
“I’ve enjoyed it,” she said of the Orange job she took in 2022. “There’s definitely pluses and minuses, as there is with most jobs. I’ve learned a lot and met a lot of great people.”