Robert Kennick (file photo)
Harrisburg’s former finance director was fired last week, a development coming just days after the city’s communications director also was dismissed.
On Tuesday, Robert Kennick, the former finance director, told City Council that he was abruptly fired, suggesting that the action may have had to do with an ethical concern he had raised in recent months.
Just last week, Mischelle Moyer was fired as the city’s communications director. Though the city declined to comment on the termination, several news outlets said that anonymous sources linked Moyer’s firing to an anonymous letter City Council received that was critical of some city officials.
On Tuesday, Kennick told TheBurg that he was shocked that he was fired last Tuesday, as he had just participated in a “great” 2027 budget meeting with the city business administrator and finance team that day.
According to Kennick, the city only said that his termination was related to some errors in the 2026 budgeting process. Kennick admitted that last year’s budget process did face some challenges, especially due to “deficiencies” with computer software used and the fact that the budget manager had resigned during budget season.
“We knew that there were issues,” he said. “That was really nothing that was new.”
Kennick said that the administration never shared any concerns that they had with his performance previously.
Kennick speculated that the firing had to do with an ethical concern he had raised in recent months. He said that, when several mid-year salary raise proposals came across his desk to sign, he didn’t see enough justification to grant his approval with “a clean conscience.”
“These increases seem to me to be problematic, inequitable and arbitrary, but most likely took effect without my signature on the personnel action forms that would have authorized them,” he said.
Kennick said that he reached out to the ethics board of the American Institute of CPAs, which said that if there’s a precedent, the raises may be fine. Kenneck said he then was told that there was precedent, but Business Administrator Antonio Megna said that he didn’t need his signature anymore.
When asked for comment on Kennick’s termination, Megna declined to comment, saying that it was a personnel matter.
While Kennick said that the city didn’t list his concern around the pay raises as a reason for termination, he believes it may have played a role.
Kennick had served in the role since January 2025, stating, when he was hired, that this was his first time working in government, as he had previously worked as a certified public accountant in the commercial realm.
During his confirmation hearing in front of City Council, vice president Lamont Jones asked about integrity and cautioned doing the job ethically could potentially cost him the job. Kennick said that he would speak up about anything unethical.
“Maybe it was a prophecy, I don’t know,” he said.
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