The first three weeks have been busy in the Butler County Commission office with office shuffling, employee shifting and a new commissioner sworn in.

The commission approved last week the terms of a contract to hire Susanna Merlone as the county’s new finance manager, replacing Pete Landrum who took a position in Delhi Twp.

Merlone, 41, of Avon Lake, the former director of business service and human resources for Lorain County JVS, lost her job in November due to the district’s reduction in force cuts.

She has also worked as operations budget manager/coordinator of financial systems and budgets for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority in Cleveland and controller/financial analyst/financial systems administrator for the Cuyahoga County Office of Budget and Management.

Merlone is in the office on a 30-day trial basis before the employment is finalized. Her salary is set at 93,000 annually.

“It very exciting,” Merlone said, looking around her new office. She grew up in the Mason and West Chester Twp. areas and said the job provided a way to get a little closer to her extended family.

Merlone also has two daughters attending Miami University in Oxford.

She is not the first to tryout the position in the past month. The first, a man from out of state, was in the office two days and his hiring was set to be approved by the commission when an extensive background check turned up a problem, according to commissioners and Gary Sheets, county human resources director.

Sheets said there was noting criminal in the man’s history, but he was less than truthful about some issues at his last job.

“He claimed he got caught up in something political,” Sheets said.

All three commissioners said that employment just didn’t work out.

“We had tentatively brought someone down and based on a background check it didn’t work out,” Commissioner T.C. Rogers said. “We are going to be overly cautious. We want a super clean administration.”

The commission, county administrator Charles Young and Merlone are also in the process of replacing finance department assistant Tonyia Burnett, who accepted a position in the city of Hamilton last month, and Gina Rosmarin, office manager and finance clerk, who is now employed by the county auditor’s office.

Burnett has been hired to work about six hours a week to orient Merlone with the county’s accounting process, and Denise Dooley is “on loan” from the water and sewer department to fill in until permanent hires are made.

Offices on the sixth floor have also been moved so departments, such as human resources, information technology and finance, are grouped together. The moves will improve the work flow, according to commission president Cindy Carpenter.

“It is evolving,” Carpenter said, noting there has been a lot of change, but there is more communication between the commissioners and the administrator.

“We are all talking about the issues we face. There is not a situation where someone is being obstinate and it works well,” Carpenter said.

Dixon said there does seem to be a sense of cooperation.

“Sometimes change is good,” he said.