Michael Legarsky has resigned as finance director of Jefferson County Public Utility District effective Jan. 31.

Legarsky resigned Jan. 5 and indicated in a resignation letter he planned to work through Jan. 16 and prepare for the transition to another finance director while using the rest of his accumulated leave.

Reached last Friday, on his last official day, Legarsky said he wanted to do something different.

“I don't know yet. But it's expensive to keep up the CPA license,” he said.

Legarsky took the position with the PUD in April of 2013 and was earning $110,000 a year. He also received a medical, dental, vision and pension package.

Legarsky said he does not plan on moving from Jefferson County. “I'm planted here,” he said.

As for the financial shape of the PUD, Legarsky said a new financial management system is in process and a new billing system will be phased in this coming summer.

Before coming to the PUD, Legarsky was finance director of the City of Port Townsend for 16 years. He was laid off in March of 2013 when Port Townsend City Manager David Timmons consolidated two positions in the city. Legarsky had been on medical leave for a few months.

Legarsky became the PUD's second finance director. Dave Papendrew, a PUD auditor for Clallam County Public Utility District, had been hired for the financial director position initially. Papendrew quit in part because Jefferson's reporting requirements for a federal loan were different than what Papendrew was used to, PUD manager Jim Parker said last year.

In 2014, the Washington State Auditor's Office found that the PUD was 171 days late filing its 2012 financial statements. It was one of six accounting mistakes that led to the first finding in 20 years of state audits of PUD records.

The findings were from accounts between 2010 and 2012, before Legarsky took the helm.