Wayne County hires private accounting firm to build 2022 budget
Detroit — Wayne County will contract with the Rehmann Group, a Troy-based financial services firm, to prepare the county's 2022 budget.
The $350,000, six-month contract was approved unanimously Thursday by the Wayne County Commission, meaning a private firm will oversee the $1.5 billion budget of Michigan's most populous county.
The position of budget director has been vacant since January 2020, when then-director Kevin Haney retired.
Haney returned to get the county through the 2020-21 budget cycle after the pandemic began but has officially retired now.
The county has "had some swings and misses" on prospective budget directors, leaving the position unfilled going into budget season, Chief Financial Officer Hughey Newsome told a commission committee in March.