photos by jon styer
Grads Strive for Spirit of the Law
Jill Goyette Head '02
JILL GOYETTE HEAD ’02 stumbled into public finance as an intern in the city office in Hiram, Georgia, fulfilling a requirement for a master’s in public administration degree from Kennesaw State University. It was 2006, and the City of Hiram, a bedroom community west of Atlanta, was in a desperate position. After the death of a longserving mayor and the departure of several staff members, city affairs were in some disarray. Water bills and checks were still being prepared by typewriter. The city had just one computer in the office and no formal accounting system. Though she had no training in accounting, nor was she particularly good with numbers, Head was bright and motivated. Before long, they’d hired her on full-time as the city treasurer, in charge of a $2.2 million budget and about $8 million in savings the city had 28 | crossroads | spring 2013
tucked away in various bank accounts. “Ethics was always a major focus in my studies at EMU,” says Head, who majored in sociology and earned an associate’s degree in biblical studies. “Many of the early projects that I worked with
“Ethics was always a major focus in my studies." focused on making the financial management and procurement practices for the city more ethical and fiscally responsible.” It wasn’t always an easy task; working in the city office threw Head into smalltown politics at its tawdry, cronyistic worst. Things got even more difficult when the recession hit hard in Hiram, which relied almost entirely on business tax revenue. As staff wages were frozen
and infrastructure and other community projects went unfunded, Head helped organize an economic development group with neighboring localities and worked with a healthcare company on the construction on a new hospital in Hiram. Though her work dealt with numbers, Head discovered that effective teamwork and honest communication – skills that she’d acquired during her undergraduate studies at EMU – were among the most important ones she needed as city treasurer. That’s also been the experience of CAROLYN DULL ’97, the vice-mayor for the City of Staunton, Virginia. While a grasp of basic math is important when working on budgets, she said, an ability to translate those figures into something people can understand is a key skill. “It’s always been important to communicate what the numbers mean without