The city of Jonesboro’s head financial officer resigns

The city of Jonesboro’s CFO Suzanne Allen tendered her resignation Wednesday afternoon. She’s leaving the city to take a private sector job and her last day with the city will be Sept. 22.

“Suzanne has been critical to our mission the past two years, and while I am personally happy for her to have this opportunity, the city of Jonesboro will feel her loss,” Mayor Harold Perrin said. “She has played a vital role in not just running our finances, but explaining the city’s inner workings to council members, assisting department heads, and being my sounding board. Employees like here are hard to replace.”

Allen, who has been with the city two years, oversees an eight-member finance department that has received clean legislative audits the past two years while managing a $60 million budget, according to the city. She also managed other departments, including grants, human resources, information technologies, and worked closely with departmental directors as well as city council members on finance and budgeting issues. Prior to her employment with the city, Allen was the federal grants coordinator with the Hoxie School District.

Allen said the decision to leave was difficult because of her passion for Jonesboro and civil service.

“It is a bittersweet time for me, because I admire and respect Mayor Perrin and the people I work with in the city of Jonesboro,” Allen said. “But this is an opportunity for personal growth that I felt I couldn’t pass up. I’ve loved this job, so even though I am excited about moving to my new position, there is a sense of loss in saying goodbye to people I genuinely love.”

City officials remained mum Wednesday afternoon about the process to replace Allen and the timetable for the new hire.