UFF Spotlight: Diane Reichard

With nearly 40 years in the public finance profession, Diane Reichard brings seasoned insight to her role as chief financial officer for Plant City, Florida. Her work spans accounts receivable, customer service, business tax, utilities, capital projects, and financial reporting.

Reflecting on what sustains her after decades in the profession, Diane points to foundational values: transparency, accuracy, and preparedness. “When people ask you questions, you give them the answers...not just what they want to hear, but answers that are accurate.” For her, timeliness and proactivity go hand in hand with being prepared. “Even when they don’t want you to be [proactive], you still can… Then they just think you’re fast because you already had it in your pre-planning.”

Diane believes preparedness is especially crucial for asset management. “If you don’t manage [your assets] and you don’t put money aside, that’s when things start to break, and then you end up paying double,” she explains. For smaller cities like Plant City, staying ahead requires thoughtful financial planning and disciplined stewardship. Diane emphasizes the importance of regular rate studies and including automatic cost-of-living increases to avoid deferred maintenance and service disruptions. “If you delay replacing capital assets, you’ll pay more later, and you’ll have upset citizens too because their system is going to be broken down all the time,” she says. “Good asset management means setting funds aside on a cyclic basis so that you can be prepared to replace those assets and keep them upgraded.” She also advocates for system-wide evaluations to track the condition of existing infrastructure and schedule replacements strategically, regardless of whether a city serves 2,000 or 100,000 customers.

That kind of performance- and sustainability-oriented thinking is one reason Diane finds the Utility Finance Forum (UFF) so valuable. “When I used to go to GFOA and FGFOA [conferences], nobody ever taught you much about the finances for utilities,” she says. “You learned about the ACFR, but the business types were kind of left in the wind.” For Diane, utilities are like a business. “Whatever industry you have: solid waste, electric, or gas, you need to understand the industry, how to set rates, and how to manage capital assets so that you can have a good operating utility,” she explains. “That’s the whole reason I love the Utility Finance Forum… because it’s an opportunity for finance people to break away from their governmental side and get into the business -type side.” She also values the depth of expertise among participants: “The people that are participating in UFF have so much industry knowledge, and they’re helping us all understand these issues more. I thought I knew a lot, but UFF has been adding a lot of value to what I can learn.”

Through UFF, Diane has gained actionable insights on asset management, rate setting, and performance benchmarking. One key takeaway she’s implemented is linking capital project proposals to performance metrics and strategic goals. “When someone submits a capital project, we don’t just ask what it costs; we drill them on why. What kind of performance measure does this support? Which one of our strategic goals does this align with? Is it just something you want to do because it looks pretty, or is it something we really need to do to improve our performance?” She believes this approach helps them stay accountable.

Her advice to fellow public finance professionals? Get involved. “[UFF’s] one-hour sessions are very informative.” Whether a utility serves 2,000 or 100,000 customers, many of the core challenges are the same, and UFF offers a space to share knowledge and solutions.

A longtime GFOA member and frequent presenter at both UFF and GFOA conferences, Diane remains committed to learning and sharing as long as she can. “I think it makes me more knowledgeable and able to do a better job at what I do.”