In August, Delaware officials praised the hiring of their next city finance director as a key member of the city's leadership team.
"We are extremely excited to have Dawn join our team,” Delaware City Manager Tom Homan said at the time of Dawn Bennett. “Her experience and knowledge will be instrumental in helping ensure the City of Delaware remains on sound financial footing." Within a month of her arrival from Springfield, where she held similar positions for school districts, however, Homan and others found her absent from meetings and unreachable by staff.
Bennett's Sept. 16 termination letter cites"inconsistent and unreliable attendance, failure to attend meetings and lack of responsiveness and communication with your staff" among other issues."We are handling the duties of the office internally," said Lee Yoakum, city spokesman."We want to get through our budget season and circle back to it after the first of the year.