Finance

Newton Finance Committee Allocates $300,000 For New Management Positions in Mayor’s Office

Published

6 months ago

January 18, 2026

Newton Finance Committee Allocates 0,000 For New Management Positions in Mayor’s Office

The Newton Finance Committee gathered on Monday to discuss the allocation of a $300,000 transfer to two new management positions in the mayor’s office, chief of community services and chief of staff.

Chief Operating Officer (COO) Josh Morse, explained that these two new positions are aimed at both supporting the ongoing work and reducing the amount of work that comes to the COO’s table.

“It’s a growth period—more of an institutional growth, not necessarily budget growth,” Morse said.

Maureen Lemieux, chief financial officer (CFO) for the mayor’s office, emphasized that the funding request relies on repurposing existing salary funds that will not be used this fiscal year, rather than drawing from reserves or new revenue sources.

“We didn’t want to ask to take money from free cash or even the budget reserve,” Lemieux said. “We wanted to repurpose funds that had already been budgeted this year for salaries for these couple of positions.”

Instead of drawing smaller amounts of funds from several different departments, they decided to draw greater amounts from fewer departments to make the process simpler, explained Lemieux.

“We’re asking to take the money from three different departments,” Lemieux said.

Morse has worked for the city for the past 18 years, five of which he’s spent in the executive office, and he explained how past COOs have been trampled by their workload.

“It was always one single person managing all of the departments, supporting all of our city councilors, supporting 88,000 residents and 13 villages,” Morse said. “There were so many things that those incredible employees wanted to accomplish, but they just struggled to even get away from their desk because they were triple, quadruple booked every hour of the day.”

Morse also believes that working directly with people and stepping into the community is more important than looking at paperwork all day.

“Opportunities to really discuss what we can do as a city to help improve working conditions or just make sure that we’re adequately supporting and maximizing efficiencies with our frontline staff are important,” Morse said. “And conveying, you know, the message, about how much we support them and how much we really appreciate the work that they do and listening, really listening to them.”

This $300,000 transfer will not only benefit Morse and his ability to remain in close contact with the city, but it will also allow Lemieux to step down for retirement and train the new CFO, Lemieux explained.

“In addition to that, what we’re asking for is funding to allow me to retire in about 6 months, for us to be able to search for and bring on a new CFO before I go, so that we can have some time for an overlap between my tenure and when the new CFO would take over,” Lemieux said.

Although the committee ultimately agreed to the $300,000 budget transfer, they raised concerns about whether the vacant positions from which the funds were reallocated could be filled.

“We are absolutely not putting those positions on hold … there is absolutely no intent to be shorting that department,” Lemieux said.

Lemieux reiterated that the funds would be taken out of practicality rather than necessity, meaning that those departments could still hire if needed.

Morse then emphasized that these positions would provide needed growth to Newton by allowing the Mayor’s office to continue working efficiently and growing.

“If people see that upward mobility and support, they’re more likely to stick around, and it’s better for us because it makes us more resilient as a city,” Morse said.

Finance

Low-income Chinese girl aces gaokao, inspires live-streamers offering help

Published

53 minutes ago

July 7, 2026

Press Room

Low-income Chinese girl aces gaokao, inspires live-streamers offering help

A girl from a disadvantaged rural family in central China topped this year’s gaokao, attracting numerous live-streamers eager to finance her education, which she declined.

The home of 18-year-old secondary school graduate Han Yaping in a Henan province village was recently bustling with live-streamers.

This attention came after Han achieved an impressive score of 699 out of 750 in the gaokao, China’s national college entrance exam.

She has received offers from China’s two leading universities, Tsinghua University and Peking University.

Han’s accomplishment is particularly remarkable given her family’s impoverished circumstances.

Her mother suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory arthritis affecting the spine, preventing her from working. Her father, who earns a living through farming and odd jobs, serves as the family’s sole provider. Han also has a younger sister.

Finance

UK financial regulator publishes landmark AI review

Published

11 hours ago

July 7, 2026

Press Room

UK financial regulator publishes landmark AI review

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a landmark review on Monday that proposes recommendations to regulate the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the financial decisions made by consumers.

The review, titled the Mills Review, anticipates that both consumers and firms will start delegating “more financial decision-making to AI systems,” including for agreements, initiating transactions, and executing decisions “within agreed parameters.” One of the key findings of the review outlined that while AI can help bridge advice gaps and “support growth,” there remain risks “associated with fraud, cyber security, and consumer harm.” Conducting the review, Sheldon Mills highlighted that “AI can also amplify risks: bias, discrimination, exclusion, opaque decision-making (particularly when multiple AI models interact), misleading or hallucinatory advice and erosion of consumer trust.”

The review stated that presently, one in five adults in the UK are “already open to AI making decisions for them,” particularly when decisions feel “complex or high stakes.” It found that roughly 26 percent of the population “trust general-purpose tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini for financial advice” with little awareness that such platforms provide no “formal routes to recourse” or protections.

Overall, the Mills Review identified four areas that it anticipates will be impacted by AI in the financial sector: “the transformation of firms,” “new consumer journeys,” “a reshaped competition landscape,” and “amplified financial crime and cyber risk.” The FCA projected the shift in how consumers and firms consult AI to take place by 2030.

The Mills Review put forth seven “priority” recommendations to be considered by the FCA Board. It recommended that any transitions to autonomous AI models be monitored and that regulatory frameworks and perimeters be adapted and secured. The review called for the strengthening of “system-wide coordination and oversight,” the scaling up of the FCA’s AI Lab to enable it to support AI models and innovation for agentic finance, and an “AI-enabled agentic supervisory model” to be built and adopted. Finally, it recommended that a trusted “public-interest AI-enabled financial capability service” be developed.

The FCA announced, in the press release, that it will launch an AI “good and poor practice publication” in late 2026.

Finance

Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approves audit contract, new finance director position

Published

21 hours ago

July 7, 2026

Press Room

Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approves audit contract, new finance director position

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – The Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approved a one-year audit contract capped at $131,750 plus $225 per hour during a virtual meeting Monday, along with a new finance director job description.

The contract is with Mauldin & Jenkins Certified Public Accountants, an Atlanta-based firm, and covers the 2025-26 fiscal year and the restatement of the 2024-25 fiscal year and ancillary services through FY 2029-2030. The work is set to be completed by Nov. 15.

The board approved the contract in a 5-0 vote.

Audit contract details

Interim Chief Financial Officer Kyna Koch said the cost is already accounted for in the district’s budget.

“And is actually less than we expected given our current situation — we were thrilled with the bid,” Koch said.

Koch said she believes this is Mauldin & Jenkins’ first school district audit in Kentucky, but that the firm works with school districts of more than 100,000 students throughout the Southeast.

“Quite frankly when I spoke to the folks at KDE they were thrilled because we’re running kind of short of auditors who want to do school district audits — so all around I think this was a win-win for everyone,” Koch said.

New finance director position

The board also approved a new job description for the position of Director of Finance. Acting Superintendent Dr. Bill Bradford said the title will replace two associate director positions.

“Which will not only save the school district money but it’s also going to streamline our work and align internal controls to make room for a more efficient unit,” Bradford said.

Koch said the position will be posted as soon as possible following the board’s approval.

Closed session

The board went into closed session for more than an hour to discuss pending investigations that could lead to employee discipline. When the board returned, it took no action and adjourned the meeting.