Bloomington city controller retires

Mike Trexler isn’t sure where he’s going or what he’s doing once he leaves his spot as the City of Bloomington controller, and he’s OK with that.

“I’ve been at the city for about 10 years now,” Trexler said. “I’ve just gotten to a point in my life where I’m looking for something different.”

His tenure of four years as head of the controller’s office was marked by his modernized approach, Mayor Mark Kruzan said. Trexler introduced a new financial software system to the city that unified the financial languages of different departments to better monitor recordkeeping.

Trexler is also credited with going beyond the status quo by actively seeking to review city spending for waste and analyzing city bonds for possible refinancing options.

Before serving as controller, Trexler was a student at IU. He earned his undergraduate degree from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs in 2003 and went to graduate school also in SPEA studying public finance and policy analysis. While still a student, he began interning with the city’s utilities department through the SPEA
Service Corps program.

“He was our wunderkind,” Kruzan said. “I kept hearing about how remarkable this kid was.”

When previous controller Susan Clark announced her intention to leave the office in 2008, Trexler put in his application alongside others. Kruzan said Trexler was the clear choice from the beginning.

Announced in May, the decision to step down was both a personal and professional loss, Kruzan said.

“It’s a lot of pressure to manage public monies,” Kruzan said. “I know how incredibly seriously he took that to heart. In fact, I think that contributed to his decision to leave.
It’s a tremendous amount of pressure knowing your decision impacts other people’s money and city jobs.”

Trexler said he most enjoyed training new employees, but there were times he felt like the bad guy.

“It’s also not fun to be the finance guy at the table,” he said. “It’s not fun being the guy listening to all these wonderful ideas and saying ‘We don’t have the money.’ It was a chore.”

The city is into its second hiring attempt after a first round in September failed to replace Trexler. In total, about 25 applicants have applied for the position.

“We’re finding he’s proving hard to replace,” Kruzan said. “The CFO would be making considerably more than a city government who employs the same number of people would pay. We’re at a competitive disadvantage. You need someone who is interested in public service. And that’s what we found in Mike.”

Trexler agreed to stay on past his original September departure date to see the city through its budget proceedings and will stay on to help train once a new hire is announced.

“It’s exactly why I don’t want him to leave,” Kruzan said. “It’s the spirit in which he tries to help people. He would have preferred to move on already.”

Though Trexler said his presence in the office has been greatly diminished, he hopes to be mostly out the door by the beginning of the year.

Once he leaves the city, he plans to spend a month travelling up north and out west. He said he might finally entertain pleas from friends in Seattle for him to join them. But nothing’s for sure yet. He may remain in Bloomington, with some reservations.
“I’ve always said Bloomington is perfect except we don’t have a mountain or an
ocean,” he said.

By Matthew Glowicki
He’s also just wrapped up his final lecture as an adjunct professor in SPEA. He uses a rigorous book in class, Fiscal Administration by SPEA professor John Mikesell, which he’s both learned from as a student and now teaches.
“After taking the class twice and then doing it for 10 years and then teaching the class, I think I finally understand the whole book,” he said.