Finance director is placed on leave

Costa Mesa’s top financial executive, Finance Director Marc Puckett, has been put on leave for an undisclosed reason.

Although privacy requirements prevent city officials from making public the exact cause of Puckett’s absence, City Manager Allan Roeder said it has nothing to do with financial malfeasance.

“We’re dealing with a personnel matter, but that matter is totally unrelated to anything relating to the city’s finances or budget or anything of that nature,” Roeder said.

Puckett has been gone for about two weeks. City officials declined to comment on whether he will return.

In the past months, Puckett has been at the forefront in City Hall as the point man on Costa Mesa’s biggest issue of late, balancing the budget while faced with a $20-million deficit.

He also gained national attention for forming a coalition of cities, counties and other local agencies that lost money when New York investment firm Lehman Brothers unexpectedly filed for bankruptcy in September.

Costa Mesa had $5 million invested in the bank, which the nationwide coalition is still trying to get the federal government to reimburse using bailout funds.