Director's Notes Finance Officers’ School always reminds me how lucky South Dakota is to have fantastic municipal officials. It is amazing how much public service we get from our finance officers.
I don’t say it often enough and am willing to bet you don’t either – but THANK YOU to our finance officers. What a job! In a larger city, they might have the ability to focus on complicated finances – but so many of them are also doing other work, from collecting garbage (true story!) to building inspection, to planning and zoning, to animal control. It is far more than a bookkeeping job for all our finance officers. In addition, they are the front line for your city, responding to citizens who don’t often drop by city hall to spread compliments.
Yet the talk in the halls during Finance Officers’ School was not grousing – it was ‘how can I do my job better, what do you do in your town, how can we share
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information and make our cities better?’ It is humbling to be around a group of true public servants – what an asset you cities have in these fine people.
We honored one such public servant this year. The winner of the Finance Officer of the Year Award was Sheila Coss of Miller. Sheila was nominated by her city for her countless contributions to Miller, including implementation of new software resulting in great improvements in efficiency and accuracy, and overseeing a number of major city projects. Sheila’s positive, calm attitude were noted multiple times, especially amazing in light of her personal difficulty with a medical diagnosis. Unphased, she took steps to manage her diagnosis, and became dedicated to helping others deal with their own health challenges. Congratulations to Sheila on this welldeserved award.
What an uplifting week, what great people there are in this organization – it is amazing.
Until next month, please remember we are always available at 1800-658-3633 or at yvonne@sdmunicipalleague.org.
Yvonne Taylor Executive Director
SOUTH DAKOTA MUNICIPALITIES
