AN INTERVIEW WITH Antonio Brown: Detroit Public Library CFO.

• Author: Fu, Elizabeth
• Position: IN PRACTICE

Antonio Brown, the chief finance officer of the Detroit Public Library, didn't initially plan to go into public finance. He started out with an accounting firm, doing governmental auditing and school district auditing. "One of the most interesting audits I probably worked on was with the State of Michigan lottery," Brown said. After getting his government auditing experience, he became a tax analyst--which is when a friend who was with the City of Flint, Michigan, called to let him know that the city was looking for a deputy finance director. Because Brown is from Flint, he decided to interview for the job.

When asked if that job was something of a homecoming, Brown said, "I was working in Ann Arbor, so I was traveling back and forth, still living in Flint but commuting back and forth." But while he now had a shorter commute, Brown was facing some major issues. "At that time, the City of Flint was under emergency management, so I was thrown into everything--union negotiations, emergency management, less than two months of cash on hand. It was really bad, and the financial struggles that Flint was under are well-documented. So, I took a huge chance. I left my career and a cushy job, making decent money, to come to Flint and try to help turn things around using my expertise."

Emergency management is a huge task to take on, but Brown was compelled to help his hometown recover. "Like I said, my goal wasn't to get into public finance, but I had some experience with fund accounting. One of my first tasks was to complete the CAFR for the City of Flint. So, that was my first job--'Oh, by the way, this is your introduction into public accounting, public finance. Your first task is to complete a CAFR.' I had never completed a CAFR and didn't know what it was. So, my boss actually sent me to Washington, D.C., because the GFOA was doing a training on CAFRs."

After that training session, Brown immediately started to work on the city's CAFR. "When I came back, I was into full audit mode and trying to get the CAFR completed. And because I was the deputy finance director, everybody was looking to me to know what I was doing--so I had to really pull the team together and utilize their expertise to help me identify the different areas. Auditors were instrumental as well. They helped guide me into what I needed to consider putting in and helped me with my management discussion analysis and so on." To make what was, at the time, a long story short, Brown aced...