Budget manager put on leave by city

City officials are gearing up to work on a budget for the 2009 fiscal year, but they’ll have to do so without the services of Maricopa’s budget manager for the next few weeks, as Corrine Wilcox-Cornn has been placed on paid administrative leave by the city.

The leave took effect April 24 and will last until May 11, with a decision on her future coming at that point. Neither city officials nor Wilcox-Cornn would comment on the reason behind the leave. However, City Manager Kevin Evans did say it was not purely a personnel issue.

Wilcox-Cornn, who has been a city employee since 2005, was presented with an award in January from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for her work in helping craft a clear and concise city budget.

In her absence, city finance director Cynthia Sneed will take over the primary responsibilities of crafting a budget.

Currently, city staff members are in the initial stages of preparing a first draft of the upcoming fiscal year’s budget to take before the City Council.

This fiscal year ends June and a new budget needs to be adopted by May at the latest, according to Evans.

“In the end I think this puts us two weeks back on our budgeting process,” Evans said.