Langley is in search of a new finance director.

A recent report from a consultant recommends that the city hire someone to occupy the full-time position, which has been vacant since the former finance director’s resignation in April 2022.

The report also recommends splitting the clerk duties from the finance director duties altogether, creating two separate positions.

Chris Carlson, a member of Langley’s citizen-led Finance and Personnel Commission, presented these findings to the city council Monday night during a meeting.

As he pointed out, compounding issues with internal controls in the city’s finance department have led to discrepancies between the city’s fund balances and financial system and bank statements.

“There’s nothing surprising or earth-shattering in his report, but it does reinforce the scope of the problem and provide some recommendations related to how to address the discrepancies,” Carlson said.

He also highlighted the consultant’s request to split the finance director and clerk duties.

“It became very clear that in today’s regulatory environment and the complexity of the financial systems that the city needs to have in place in order to get things right, we need somebody who is specialized, that has technical expertise in finances,” he said, “and having somebody who can split both of those functional areas is practically impossible.”

The council was receptive to the recommendations outlined in the report.

Councilmember Thomas Gill said he was a little “flabbergasted” since a previous council had put the “kibosh” on these plans before.

“I’m happy to see we’re actually finally moving forward, actually doing what we’ve been trying to do in the city for five years,” he said.

Councilmember Rhonda Salerno urged that the clerk position should be created as soon as possible, in order to take some of the burden off of the current interim city clerk.

In the end, the council unanimously agreed to move ahead with beginning to establish a finance director position.