“When are some council members going to wake up and realize that this city is in total shutdown?”

That was the question asked by Ironton Councilman Bob Cleary Tuesday after the city received the resignation of assistant finance director Karol Moore.

Moore submitted her resignation to the council on Tuesday, which will be effective on Friday.

The city is now without not only Moore but also a finance director after Michael Keeney, who was given the job at the council’s last meeting in late April, declined it on Friday.

“After a lot of thought, he felt as if he just couldn’t do it. I thought he could,” council chairman Chuck O’Leary said. “He was one of the brightest young men I’ve ever talked to.”

Cleary said that he was pushing for the return of former director Cindy Anderson to the position. She left the job in March after being chastised by the council for missing a meeting.

The job was actually filled once before by Robin Robinson, who similarly declined the job after she had been appointed to the finance director spot by council.

The council had received a letter from Anderson saying that she would be willing to return to her spot as city finance director.

“She has said she would like to come back if we can run the program professionally,” Cleary said.

Councilmen O’Leary, Rich Blankenship, Rick Meeks and Ralph Huff accepted Anderson’s recognition with Cleary, Richard Price and Leo Johnson voting to not accept.

But for now, O’Leary said that the city would probably begin accepting applications again for the position.

“Through this transitional period there have been people that have inquired, but we thought we already had the position filled,” O’Leary said. “Well, I’m going to go back and revisit those people, too. There have been several good people who didn’t know the job was vacant.”

O’Leary has called a special meeting for 6 p.m. tonight to “possible hiring of an assistant finance director and authorizing a temporary accounting clerk to help catch up on the clerical functions in the department.”

The city finance department will have some help. Robert Delawder, C.P.H. agreed to assess the city’s finances and advise council about a permanent solution. He will be volunteering in his time.