In assuming the role of the city of Butler’s director of accounts and finance, Councilwoman Cheri Scott will have the responsibility of keeping the council focused on the municipality’s financial status.

The city’s money situation has been deteriorating for years, and Butler, without a major financial turnaround, could be facing the prospect of state distressed status or bankruptcy in fewer than five years.

How the contracts with police and firefighters ultimately pan out could create the first 2012 major money dilemma for the newly reorganized council, which also includes new Councilwoman Lisa Guard.

Both pacts currently are in binding arbitration.

On the basis of the reorganization, Guard was named to oversee the city’s parks and recreation department.

Guard will have to balance the necessity to save money with the need to provide positive recreational opportunities for city residents, both children and adults.

Some might say that the city currently is anemic in terms of such activities.

Some residents still cling to the hope that someday the swimming pool at Butler Memorial Park can be repaired and reopened, to provide a big boost to the recreational options in the city.

But for Scott, the task is much more formidable than what Guard faces. As finance director, it must be Scott’s commitment to lead public discussion regarding the city’s financial challenges, not only occasionally at council meetings but at virtually all meetings — by way of clear, concise updates that spawn comments and ideas from other council members.

During his tenure in what now is Scott’s position, former Councilman Joseph Bratkovich, while himself having a firm handle on the city’s money problems, had only limited success in encouraging the kind of productive discussion among council members that is necessary to deal effectively with the money issue.

Scott must be persistent in pushing other council members to face the fact that tough decisions are necessary to keep the city budget from plunging into the red. For two decades or more, councils of the past have clung to the hope that money woes would somehow disappear without taking difficult steps.

Unfortunately, that kick-the-can-down-the-road stance accomplished nothing for the city’s financial health but instead made the job of this new council more difficult.

Scott and Guard knew that service as a member of the council would not be easy. They obviously believe they have the ability to make the kind of difference that the city needs.

City residents should give this new council a 90-day honeymoon to gets its feet planted firmly regarding the various aspects of the city’s operation. Beyond that, meetings should be something much more substantive than merely poring over routine agenda items.

The financial challenges that the city faces are anything but routine, and they must be attacked with the urgency that they demand.

For Scott and her four council colleagues, the fact at the forefront must be that there’s no window for inaction if the city is to escape the dire consequences currently looming.