Westwood CFO Leaving for Paramus

Westwood is going to need to find a new chief financial officer.

Raymond Herr, who has been Westwood's CFO since 1998, will start as the chief financial officer of Paramus 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.

Westwood Borough Administrator Robert Hoffmann credited Herr with helping keep Westwood's taxes to a 1 percent increase each year for the past four years and for helping improve the borough's bond rating.

"He's been wonderful to work with," Hoffmann said.

Unlike Westwood, Paramus has not yet adopted its annual budget. 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.

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

Westwood's 2012 salary schedule allows a maximum of $100,000 for the borough's CFO.

Westwood will now have to find a new CFO, but officials said it was too early to speak about the process.

"We're certainly going to miss Ray, his expertise and his guidance," Mayor John Birkner said.