Heather Garay, Hammond City Controller since 2014, will become director of financial operations for Chicago-based Leopardo Energy Division.
Mayor Thomas M. McDermott Jr. announced Garay’s departure to take a position in the private sector in a release Thursday.
Megan Flores, who has worked with Garay for the past three years, will take over as city controller next week.
“She has been working very closely with me on budgets, annual reports and auditing,” Garay said. “She has a master’s degree in accounting. I think she will do an excellent job.”
A 2002 graduate of Gavit High School, Garay, 36, holds degrees in political science and history from Valparaiso University earned in 2006 and a law degree from Northern Illinois University in 2009.
“Although Heather didn’t have an accounting background at the time, we knew her legal training would help her in her new position (as city controller), and she’s done an amazing job for the City of Hammond,” McDermott said in the release.
While in law school Garay began her career with the city interning with the late Hammond City Court Judge Jeffrey Harkin and then in McDermott’s office. She has served on the Hammond Human Relations Commission, the Hammond Water Works Department Board of Directors and currently serves as the president of the Board of Public Works.
One of Garay’s accomplishments with Hammond was spearheading the city’s energy efficiency program through Leopardo Energy, according to the release and confirmed by Garay.
That program allowed the city to accomplish a goal of having a green fleet of city vehicles, converting 75 percent of city-owned streetlights to new LED fixtures and upgrading building automation control and HVAC systems throughout a number of municipal facilities including the public works complex, the police station, fire stations and the Civic Center.
“We would like to thank Heather for all her efforts on behalf of the City and wish her well in her future endeavors,” McDermott said in the release.
Lu Ann Franklin is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.