Fulton County Ohio Media

On Friday evening, the Swanton Village Council held a special meeting inside the Fire Department Building to discuss ways to relieve the Village Administrator, Shannon Shulters, from the burden of having to fulfill the responsibilities of the Fiscal Officer position while simultaneously doing her own job.  The reason for the meeting arose when Ms. Shulters announced her resignation, effective September 14^th, 2026, at another special Council meeting the previous Monday.  In that Monday meeting, Ms. Shulters informed the Council she could no longer do both jobs as she had been doing for approximately four months following the resignation of then Fiscal Officer, Holden Benfield. 

Present at the Friday meeting were two representatives from the Robert Half Human Resource Consulting Firm, Talent Manager Ryan Larzelere and Senior Accountant Joyce Marie Elmore.  The company offered to contract out Ms. Elmore at a rate of $91.00 per hour with a minimum of 37.5 hours per week and a contract of no less than six weeks or a total of $20,475.  Her qualifications provided by Robert Half were as follows:

Joyce Marie is a highly skilled Senior Accountant with a strong knowledge of full-cycle accounting. She has experience with AP/AR, general ledger, journal entries, month-end & year-end close reconciliations, fixed assets, payroll, financial analysis, Sales & Use Tax, reconciliations and creating SOPs. Joyce Marie is a hard worker with an incredible drive and a wonderful personality!

Proficiencies – AP/AR, Cash applications, Collections (consumer & B2B), Journal Entries, Reconciliations, General Ledger, Sales & Use Tax, Payroll, Creating SOPs, Month-end Journal Entries   Industry Experience – Manufacturing, Non-Profit, Automotive, Restaurant, Agriculture   Software Knowledge – SAP, QuickBooks, Excel, Great Plains, JD Edwards, Kronos, AS400, Adobe, QAD, Atlas, CorelDraw, Publisher Education: BA in Accounting, University of Toledo

The two representatives fielded a number of questions from the Mayor and the Council members and also offered to help train any incoming individuals hired for the Fiscal Officer position. Robert Half does conduct employee searches with a one-time charge of 25% of the offered salary.

Following the question-and-answer period, the representatives left the room and Council members discussed a variety of options including the Robert Hall offer.  Councilwoman Diane Westhoven related her conversation with another temporary agency, explaining she was told there were far less expensive alternatives that would come with far less, if any, experience.  Ms. Westhoven was also informed that the salary range being offered by the Village would be an entry-level salary and would only attract recent college graduates or those with little experience. 

Another option that was discussed was the raising of the offered salary range.  Mayor Neil Toeppe mentioned that strategy had been successful before.  Since the departure of Mr. Benfield, applicants for the position were determined not to be qualified or offers that were made were rejected.  Councilman Noah Kreuz suggested the investigation of more information along with further discussion before making any decisions.  Councilman Deacon Dzierzawski reminded everyone that a State of Ohio audit on Village finances was coming very soon.  All Council members agreed to prioritize getting Ms. Shulters help as soon as possible.  Currently, there is one active application.

The next Village Council meeting is tonight at 7:00 PM in the Beauty Salon on Main Street.

Photo: Talent Manager Ryan Larzelere and Senior Accountant Joyce Marie Elmore of Robert Half Consulting