Since the beginning of 2011 when Milwaukie began contracting with West Linn for the joint Finance Director services of Casey Camors and Richard Seals, Milwaukie’s Finance Department has been undergoing a series of changes aiming to better enable the Finance Department to truly support the City’s other departments and the City as a whole, as well as increase fiscal transparency and internal control over financial transactions.
The Finance Department now consists of six positions, up from five a year ago and aided by a transfer of a position from another department.
In the early part of 2011 Rina Byrne was hired to fill the Assistant Finance Director position. This position offers support to outside departments and oversight of day-to-day financial activities.
Judy Serio remains as the City’s accountant and has been with the City for ten years. She continues to be mostly responsible for overall accounting, reporting and intradepartmental support.
Joe Gardner was brought on to conduct the utility billing audit in 2010. When that work was completed, he was internally recruited to become the primary utility billing Accounting Technician.
Vivian Palm was hired on May 31st and serves as the City’s Payroll Specialist – the individual responsible for payroll processing and accompanying duties.
Kelli Tucker was promoted from within on May 9th to the Accounting Technician position that is responsible for the accounts payable function including purchasing card administration.
Finally, Judy Ohl was hired on in early 2012 to be City Hall’s first contact and to serve the cash receipting function - an integral function in maintaining segregated duties for the purposes of safeguarding City assets and identifying errors and/or omissions.
In the short-run these changes ensure the proper segregation of duties, safeguarding of the City’s assets, allow individuals the time to perform more duties in relation to their function giving them a more over-arching view of their area of expertise, and allow more time for individuals in the Finance Department to offer excellent customer service to our citizens and other City Departments.
In the long-run these changes offer the opportunity to cultivate and train the Department’s personnel allowing further job opportunities and job security and focus on long-term financial strategies that strengthen the economic status of the City.
