The City of Troy is once again without a comptroller.
Less than thre e months after Mayor Carmella Mantello appointed him to serve as city comptroller, Jack Krokos has resigned. In a statement Wednesday, Mantello cited “family obligation[s]” for Krokos’ departure.
The Republican says her administration has already begun searching for a replacement. The job has not yet been posted to the city’s website.
While searching for a new comptroller twice last year, Mantello said one of the largest challenges was finding someone willing to work with the city’s outdated accounting system. The city is implementing a new accounting system, Tyler Technologies, to bring it into the 21st century with its accounting and IT.
Council President Pro Tem. Tom Casey from District 6 says he’s confident in the city’s ability to find a qualified comptroller who can work with the current system for now.
“A lot of young people aren’t really looking at Troy because we have outdated infrastructure in our accounting systems,” Casey said. “So, I think that that’s not a good thing. But our pay is on par now. It’s competitive pay. I’ve asked professionals. Troy’s a good city to work for. So, I’m confident that we’re going to find somebody, just unfortunately we haven’t found the right person yet.”
Deputy Mayor Seamus Donnelly said in December that the new system would take 18 months to 2 years to implement.
Council President Sue Steele thanked Krokos for his time with the city. Krokos was asked to deliver 2025’s first quarter financial reports at the council’s latest meeting.
The Democrat said Krokos confirmed he would present the numbers, but then failed to show up after taking a personal day.
“Looking forward, a qualified successor must be named immediately,” Steele said. “There remain real questions about the city’s finances and spending. Hiring a new city comptroller is critical to restore public trust in the city’s trust to manage taxpayer dollars.”
Before Krokos’ arrival, the city had been without a comptroller since July when Dylan Spring resigned after nearly five months while under pressure from the city council to deliver quarterly financial reports.
Krokos is a former Republican town councilman in Sand Lake and senior portfolio manager at the Bank of Greene County.
While undergoing questioning by the city council in February, he said he has no direct municipal accounting experience, but he was leaning on BST Co., the outside accounting firm hired by the city.
Casey, a Republican, says while Krokos lacked some municipal accounting skills, he was willing to learn.
“There’s definitely a need for municipal comptrollers,” Casey said. “So, I just thought it was a great opportunity for someone young to learn the game and make this what would be a very successful career seeing no one can find a municipal comptroller.”
Casey said despite Krokos’ departure, the city is getting its finances and reporting back on track.
“With the last two comptrollers and the staff I think we’re getting very close to making sure we have all of the accurate numbers,” Casey said. “It’s been quite a process. It’s almost been like hieroglyphics to figure it out.”
The administration projected in this year’s budget to keep BST. & Co. on until the city caught up on financial reports.
In February, the council received the 2023 financial statement audit, which was submitted late. The audit was delayed as the city struggled to reconcile accounts and close that year’s books because of accounting errors made by two previous comptrollers and an outside accounting firm that submitted incorrect information to the state in 2024.
Steele says she and the Democratic minority are displeased with the administration’s inability to deliver those quarterly financial reports.
“We’ve not received any financial reports from this administration,” Steele said. “This just sets us back even further.”
Mantello maintains the council received reports in October when she announced her budget proposal.
Mantello’s office did not respond to a request for further comment. The issue is likely to be raised at Thursday night’s meeting.
