Saratoga News

Headed for Belmont: Thomas Fil

Interim director may have been found to replace Fil

By Sarah Lombardo

Saratoga city officials may have found an interim administrative services director to replace the void left by Thomas Fil, who turned in his resignation to the city Oct. 16. Deborah Larson was interviewed last week and received glowing reports from Interim City Manager Larry Perlin. Perlin offered Larson the position late last week. The terms of her employment, Perlin said, have not yet been discussed.

"She has, I believe, impeccable credentials," Perlin said.

Larson, whose husband is the recently hired city manager for Milpitas, is "between jobs right now," Perlin said. Most recently she was part of a U.S. group in Bosnia helping cities and counties in that region develop financial systems and practices. Before that, she worked in Maricopa County in Arizona, serving as the chief financial officer and spearheading a restructuring of that county after it suffered financial troubles.

According to Perlin, Larson has a history of working in problem areas.

"Much of her experience has been coming into and joining organizations where there has been considerable change for one reason or another," he said. "And she has been able to come in and manage things during and after these major changes, and that fits very nicely with what is going on here in Saratoga"

Larson is not new to the Bay Area, having worked for the city of San Jose beginning in 1985. Larson was recruited to San Jose from Ann Arbor, Mich., and was brought in to be the chief of the treasury after San Jose suffered a $60 million investment loss and lost many of its managers.

She eventually became San Jose's finance director in 1989.

Perlin said it was not his impression that Larson was interested in a permanent position with the city of Saratoga.

Jokingly citing "the lure of the big bucks" after making his resignation public, Fil said he decided to take a job offered to him as the finance director of Belmont because the compensation package was better and it was closer to his home. Fil came to Saratoga in 1995 to replace former finance director Patricia Shriver, who was asked to resign amid allegations of misappropriating $6,500 in city funds.

Fil's last day was scheduled to be Oct. 24, but he has agreed to stay on with the city for another week to help train his replacement.

Perlin said there is no timeline established right now for finding a permanent replacement for Fil.

"Obviously, the timeline is as soon as it is possible that we can find a qualified candidate," he said.

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