Columbus City Council members officially established a new position to assist the city’s fiscal officer.
Council members on Tuesday passed the second reading of an ordinance 8-0 to establish the position of deputy controller. Councilman Jay Foyst, R-District 6, was absent. Council members passed the first reading during their meeting on Aug. 19.
Ben Reinhart was a senior accounting specialist with the city, and will now become deputy controller.
Regina McIntyre, city controller, said under Indiana Law, there are some duties encompassed in her role that Reinhart was unable to do under the title of senior accounting specialist.
“Given the fact that as the fiscal officer of the city, a lot of my duties are completely spelled out in state statute and they’re basically limited to only the fiscal officer to perform those duties, McIntyre said on Aug. 19. “There’s also an additional statute within the state code that allows you as the legislative body to create an ordinance locally that allows me to delegate and appoint a deputy controller and perform those duties on my behalf.”
Columbus transitioned to a second class city at the start of 2024 based on its population size, and with that came a couple of changes to city structure.
The city council, for example, had just seven members before last year and grew to nine with the addition of a sixth district representative and another at-large position.
In addition, state code specifies that while third class cities elect a clerk-treasurer, second class cities elect a clerk.
Both positions fill the role of city clerk; however, the clerk-treasurer also serves as the city’s fiscal officer. In a second class city, the fiscal officer is a city controller appointed by the mayor.
