Borough Hires New CFO

The Borough has hired a new man to manage its coffers.

Raymond Herr will start as the chief financial officer of the Borough on June 18.

Herr is a certified CFO with a master's degree in finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Bridgeport. He has served as the CFO for Westwood since 1998.

Unlike Paramus, Westwood has adopted its budget already. But Herr will preside over a much larger sum of money in Paramus.

The 2012 Westwood budget calls for $16.5 million in spending. The 2011 Paramus budget was smaller than that of the prior year, but still proposed $56.6 million in general appropriations.

Paramus has operated without a full-time CFO since September, when Joseph Citro retired. During the search, Thomas F. Kane has .

Having Kane on board allowed Joseph D'Arco, Borough Administrator, to take his time in finding a qualified candidate. CFOs are in high demand, D'Arco said, making the search difficult.

"It was daunting to say the least," D'Arco said.

At one point, the Borough had a candidate in mind who backed out just before they would have started. Councilman Tom Locicero joked at the Tuesday Mayor and Council meeting that he was reluctant to announce Herr's hiring before he was behind his desk.

"I hope I didn't jinx it," he said.

Herr will earn a salary of $125,000 a year. He was unavailable to comment for this article on Wednesday.

"The process went very well I thought," D'Arco said. "And we got an excellent candidate."