By Elizabeth Cloutman

The Los Altos Hills town staff is once again in transition with the resignation of Finance Director Carol Ferrell and the hiring of Min-Tze Cheng to the newly created position of city engineer/public works director.

After serving Los Altos Hills for 5 1/2 years, Ferrell resigned, effective Aug. 10, to become finance director for the city of Cupertino.

Ferrell came to Los Altos Hills from Palo Alto, where she was also finance director.

In addition, she served as interim city manager for a month in February, covering the brief period between the expiration of Bob Quinlan’s contract as interim city manager and Maureen Cassingham’s tenure as permanent city manager.

“We appreciate all your hard work over the years,” Mayor Toni Casey told Ferrell at Thursday’s city council meeting, “You will be missed.”

Ferrell said she had decided to remain through Aug. 10 in order wrap up the details of the past fiscal year, which ended June 30 and to prepare the city’s annual financial report.

Cheng began work Monday as city engineer/public works director.

She comes to Los Altos Hills from San Mateo, where she was the city’s senior engineer for 11 years.

The Foster City resident also served as a transportation engineer for CalTrans from 1986-91.

Cheng has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the National University of Taiwan, a masters in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.