The city of Jonesboro’s finances were in such bad shape that Benjamin Barylske never thought he would work for the northeast Arkansas city. As legislative auditor for Arkansas’ Division of Legislative Audit, Barylske had handled the audit for Jonesboro and knew what “an enormous mess they had,” he said.
But Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin’s persistence paid off. Beginning in early 2009, Perrin pushed Barylske to join the city. Perrin even arrived at Barylske’s house on a Friday evening in 2010 to woo him.
Finally, in November 2010, Barylske agreed.
The 45-year-old restored the city’s financial health and ended the revolving door of city treasurers. Now he has no intention of leaving. “Every day is a different job,” he said.
Growing up, the Granite City, Illinois, native said, he wanted to be a college basketball coach.
While Barylske was attending Arkansas State University at Jonesboro, a statistics professor suggested Barylske take an accounting class, so he did. He found he had an aptitude for the subject and enjoyed it.
After graduating with a degree in accounting in 1999, Barylske got a job with Moore Stephens Frost in Little Rock, which is now known as Frost PLLC, and then landed a job with the state of Arkansas as a legislative auditor.
After joining the city of Jonesboro, Barylske said, one of his greatest accomplishments was helping restructure the city’s police pension plan, which saved the city $500,000 annually.
Barylske is now preparing to deal with a half-percent sales tax that sunsets at the end of the year. That tax has generated about $7.5 million annually for the city. Barylske said that to handle the drop in revenue, the city asked voters to approve a measure in August to take restrictions off another existing half-cent tax. The voters agreed.
For 2013, the city’s total revenue was $64.1 million, down about 7.4 percent from the previous year.
But Barylske said the city’s revenue is rising because of economic development in the city, which includes the opening of NEA Baptist Health System of Jonesboro’s new medical campus, which features a 550,000-SF hospital.
The city of Jonesboro has about 550 full-time employees and a population of about 71,000.
Barylske’s management philosophy is to hire the right people, train them and “just let them do their jobs,” he said. “People want to do a good job typically.”
He said the secret to his success rests with the city’s employees. “I’ve got a good batch of people that work underneath me that make my job a whole lot easier,” he said.
Away from the city’s finances, Barylske volunteers at the Flo & Phil Jones Hospice House at St. Bernards in Jonesboro.
Benjamin Barylske
CFO and Treasurer
City of Jonesboro
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