Finance Director

The mission of the Director of Finance is to lead the Department and to provide courteous and expeditious customer service to the City, department staff, and the general public. The Director works under the general direction of the Deputy City Manager. The Director plans, directs, and administers all activities in the Finance Department such as planning, directing, organizing, and implementing comprehensive City-wide financial management, and complex analytical tasks in support of a financial management function in the system areas of revenue assessment and collection, investment and bond management, accounting and purchasing functions and risk management initiatives. The position serves as the City’s liaison to bond rating agencies, investment bankers, commercial banks, outside auditors and institutional investors.

The Director must be collaborative with the employee groups and other senior management when financial management decisions and positions are being formulated, but be committed to making difficult decisions, including situations when consensus is not achievable. The selected candidate will need to be skilled in delegating responsibility and in managing through others, for the broad range and volume of issues this position entails. He/she will need to be a clear communicator and able to comprehend complex matters and articulate to different audiences: what the issues are, the thought process that went into a decision, and the implications for the community and employee for any proposed recommendations. The individual hired for this position will need to be candid and willing to speak their thoughts even when the prevailing opinion seems to be counter to those thoughts. The successful candidate will need to have a flexible schedule since this position requires the ability to be available for some City Council and community meetings that occur primarily in the evening. She/he must have a great deal of political savvy and sensitivity, and a hands-on approach and willingness to lead by example are required.