For the third time in the past four years, the Village of Walden is in search of a new treasurer.

Village Manager John Revella confirmed last week that Kelly A. Kelly, who has twice held the position, will soon be departing again. Her resignation is effective January 31.

Neither Revella nor Mayor John Ramos would go into details about the resignation, but the mayor did express his hope that the position can be filled as soon as possible.
Kelly had initially resigned the position in July of 2021 to accept a higher-paying position. At the time, her Walden salary was listed at $72,000 per year.

Her replacement, Elizabeth Skinner served for eight months, but resigned in April of 2022 after the village board failed to re-appoint her at the annual reorganization meeting. Skinner’s appointment was controversial from the start. It was made by the mayor and did not sit well with a number of residents who complained that it should have been a village board appointment and that the board needed to set the salary. Finally, in December of 2022, the village board voted to set the treasurer’s salary at $71,500 annually, $500 less than Kelly received in the final year.

In April 2022, a motion to re-appoint Skinner was deadlocked at 3-3. She resigned two days later.

One month later, Kelly was re-appointed to her old position, this time with a salary of $92,500, which caused the board to adjust its newly-adopted village budget.

During her years as treasurer, Kelly was credited with transitioning two different billing and accounting software systems to integrate all departments within the village. Kelly also implemented online bill pay for water/sewer and commercial garbage billing. In her current role, she was able to move the village off the Susceptible to Fiscal stress designation which had previously triggered an Office of the State Comptroller audit.

Attempts to reach Kelly for comment were unsuccessful.

The village, last week, posted the position on social media.

Once appointed, the new treasurer will immediately become immersed in budget preparation for the 2024-25 fiscal year which begins June 1. Budget review and hearings normally take place in early spring.