Lisbon Town Councilors on Monday appointed newly hired Finance Director Elizabeth “Beth” Deveraux as tax collector and treasurer, according to interim Town Manager Jim Bennett.

Before taking the position in Lisbon last month, she worked at CBIZ CPAs, a national accounting firm, as an audit manager, according to her cover letter.

She has worked for various auditing services firms for the past 15 years working for governmental clients, according to her cover letter. She has previously worked for Powers and Sullivan LLC, and Melanson Health. As an auditor she has developed experience working within various cities’ finance departments, helping them with budgets and cash reconciliations.

“For the last 15 years I’ve been in and out of town halls working with finance directors and various parts of municipal government to get their audit done, get their financial statements put together and that’s been really the majority of my auditing career, has been focusing on municipalities,” she said.

After college she took some time off to become a white-water raft guide in The Forks, according to Bennett. 

“I think this is the absolute right candidate to join the other additions that we’ve done in finance and I think we’re going to be very well served under her adept leadership,” he said. 

Though she was not born in Maine, since moving to the state six years ago she feels she has been fully immersed in the state’s culture, she said at a March 9 council meeting. 

“We’re really happy to be in this part of the state and raising our kids here,” she said.

Deveraux has started working for the town, filling a position left vacant last year when previous Finance Director Samantha Bryant left. It was during a time when town staff and officials were getting a lot of public backlash for previous years’ budgeting errors that led to steep property tax increases.

Councilors are developing next year’s budget. Current town staff has proposed a modest municipal budget but it is still unclear exactly how much property taxes will increase this year.