Hyattsville treasurer temporarily remains on payroll following resignation announcement

Hyattsville’s treasurer has remained on the city payroll following an announcement two weeks ago that he had resigned.

During a virtual City Council meeting Monday — the first in two months — members of the public and council members sought clarity about the terms of the resignation.

The treasurer, Ronald Brooks, has been working from his home in Ohio to help city staff members transfer his responsibilities, including oversight of payroll, bank and investment information, procurements and audits.

City Administrator Tracey Douglas said during the meeting that she expects Brooks to remain on the payroll through the end of the week to help with the transition.

“We left him on for the transition purposes because his name was still on a lot of things,” she said.

Douglas said in a statement to The Banner that Brooks preceded her in the city government and that, after she was hired as his boss, she agreed to an arrangement that allowed him to commute from Ohio, “presuming it did not affect his ability to perform his duties.”

Brooks worked in city offices Monday through Thursday and remotely on Fridays, according to the city administrator’s office.

The city administrator added, “During the last 13 years he has regularly been in the City offices during the work week and I have been able to reach him when needed.”

Brooks couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

The treasurer resigned in the wake of an audit showing that the balance of the city’s general fund — the primary account for covering operations and services — dropped 71%, from $24.5 million to less than $7 million, from fiscal year 2023 to 2024.

The audit reignited tensions over the city’s bookkeeping and transparency about finances, and it prompted scrutiny of Mayor Robert Croslin, Douglas and Brooks in community listservs and during Monday’s council meeting.

The city administrator announced Sept. 2 that she had accepted Brooks’ resignation and the deputy budget director and deputy finance manager would share the responsibilities of the treasurer while the city searches for a permanent replacement.

Douglas wrote in an email to City Council members about a week later that Brooks “is working offsite but has been online with the finance staff in an effort to transition the majority of his responsibilities.”

The matter of Brooks’ employment status resurfaced during Monday’s council meeting.

“If he’s still employed, why isn’t he listed on the agenda to answer questions from residents and council publicly?” Ward 5 resident Monica Gorman said during the meeting.

Douglas has said Brooks inherited a backlog of financial audits that didn’t properly reflect the city’s account balances when he was hired and he planned to reconcile the balances when the city cleared the backlog.

Douglas added that auditing firms with which the city previously contracted agreed with the approach.

But the city didn’t catch up on its audits in the 13 years Brooks was in the role.

“It’s now evident that [Brooks’ approach] did not provide the mayor and council with the most accurate and current information and year-end projections so that they could make informed budget decisions,” Douglas said.

She said Brooks’ resignation was effective Sept. 1, and the next day she named an interim treasurer.

She said, while Brooks remains employed “in a transition capacity,” he no longer has access to bank accounts or responsibility over financial transactions.

Douglas is also on her way out of city government. She announced this year that she plans to retire around the time of the city’s next election in May 2027.

“I feel strongly that the incoming mayor and council should select their next chief administrator,” she said.

The city is expected to contract search firms to help officials hire an administrator and a treasurer.

Douglas wrote in her email to council members that the estimated cost to hire the two firms is $50,000, “but I hope we will get strong candidates from our internal recruitment and not have to use the full amount.”