Lehner's own math: Abdo $200,000, a finance director $130,000. He picked Abdo.

Kenyon's finance director left on July 17, 2025. Less than four weeks later the council had a contract in front of it to replace her with a firm. The vote was easy. The number the administrator attached to it is the one to remember, because it is his, and because it did not survive the year.

The contract

Mary Bailey was absent on August 12, 2025, so the vote was among four. Under new business, City Administrator Scott Lehner "reviewed a new proposed Abdo contract that would supersede the old contract," and "recommended postponing the hire of a finance officer to allow Abdo time to get our accounting back on track. There is substantial clean up to be done from the past two years." Kim Helgeson moved, Elana Brunner seconded, and the contract for September 1, 2025 through December 31, 2026 carried 4-0-0. The packet priced it: finance director services at $7,675 a month, human resources at $2,500 to $4,500 a month as needed, and a one-time fee of at least $15,000 to review and reconcile the accounts from January through July, with Abdo to advise the city when it reached 80 percent of that amount.

The recording carries the same numbers in his own voice. At 40:21 he told the council, "if you want to put a number in your head, I would say why don't you put about $200,000 total." At 44:18 he priced the alternative: "130 to $135,000 a year is what that position is costing the city, all benefits and everything." The in-house figure he gave that night already included benefits.

Roughly, if you want to put a number in your head, I would say why don't you put about $200,000 total.Scott Lehner, August 12, 2025, recording at 40:21 (auto-captions), source

His own comparison

Andrew Deziel of the Kenyon Leader covered the meeting and put the administrator's arithmetic in print. Lehner "suggested the total cost could come in at around $200,000, compared to around $130,000 for the cost of having a full time finance director." He said contracts of this kind usually run three years but the city had negotiated a shorter one so it could decide at the end of 2026 "if it wants to hire a finance director or stick with Abdo."

If I thought for one second I could save the money and Sue and I with some help from Holly and Brittney could tackle this internally, by all means, I'm frugal like that, we'd be having that conversation. This is way over the top.Scott Lehner, as quoted by the Kenyon Leader, August 2025.

The Sue in that sentence is Sue Dodds, who retired in 2021 after 26 years as the city's finance clerk and had come back part time. Lehner told the Leader she had sat in the chair and said "I can't do this," and that the work was too much for her, the deputy clerk and himself. The case for the firm, in his own words, was not that it was cheaper. It was that it cost about $70,000 more and was worth it: "I think we need to clean house, level set everything, get a process in place that works for everybody."

I was able to come up with 130 to $135,000 a year is what that position is costing the city, all benefits and everything.Scott Lehner, August 12, 2025, recording at 44:18 (auto-captions), source

What the number became

Two weeks later, at the August 26 budget work session, Lehner opened by clarifying the Leader's account. He now said "city staff is capable of covering the finance director's duties, but with the high volume of rework necessary, Abdo's assistance is needed." The $70,000 gap was not revised. It simply stopped being mentioned.

On July 14, 2026, council member Deanna Gard asked whether hiring an internal finance person would cost less than Abdo. Lehner answered at 1:25:31 that "what we're getting out of Abdo or what we would do with a finance director in house is pretty much a wash," and at 1:27:24 that "I as your city administrator would like to see us stay with Abdo because I have worked with" them. On September 8, 2026 the staff report put Abdo's 2027 price at $164,800 and an in-house director at $167,100, the latter built on "approximately $90,000" in wages and $63,000 in family insurance. The in-house figure the same office had given the Leader in August 2025 was $130,000. Nobody had been hired in between. Abdo, meanwhile, billed the city $66,086 in 2025 and $94,372 from January through August 2026.

None of the three statements is a lie. Each is an estimate, given without a ledger, that happened to support the decision already made. The August 2025 version is the useful one because it is the only time the administrator conceded the firm cost more, and said the council should pay it anyway. That is a defensible position. It was never argued again.

Sources

1. Minutes of August 12, 2025, "Abdo Contract" and "Approval to Hire Full-time Office Staff," meeting page; recording.
2. Abdo contract pricing, August 12, 2025 packet.
3. Kenyon Leader, "Kenyon approves new contract with Abdo for finance, HR services," August 2025.
4. Minutes of the August 26, 2025 work session, meeting page.
5. City of Kenyon recording, July 14, 2026, 1:25:31 and 1:27:24.
6. Staff report "Abdo vs. Internal Finance Director," September 8, 2026 packet; Abdo payments from the check registers, contracts page.

More from the record

City Hall · July 8, 2025

Payroll goes to a vendor and the administrator gets a raise, backdated, on the same consent agenda.

City Hall · Aug. 26, 2025

Two weeks after the Leader printed his quote, Lehner "clarified" it. The levy still opened at 27 percent.

City Hall · June 10, 2025

Kyllo tried to take her resignation back. The council handed her letter to the boss she was leaving.

All 27, in order · The open letter · Every packet and recording