The important work of the finance officer.

AuthorGonzales, Marc
PositionPresident's address

My work for Clackamas County in Oregon began as an accountant and led me to the position of chief financial officer. Along that path, over more than 31 years, I've come to understand that the role of the finance professional in the public sector is crucial to the success of a civil society

I live and work in the state of Oregon--I'm a Portlander and a proud native of the Beaver State. Oregon is famous for many things--natural beauty, with mountains as well as high deserts, and a long and rugged Pacific coastline. It is also famous for its rainy season, which normally only lasts about ten months a year. There's a rumor that true "Portlandians" don't use umbrellas, we just get used to wearing waterproof layers. Well, I live there, I was born there, and I use an umbrella.

One day this spring I opened my umbrella to find that one of the supports--the spokes--had snapped, so I applied some thread and tape and made it work again. I was pretty proud of my ingenuity. The very next time I opened it, the rest of the umbrella system broke apart. It simply had to have a functioning and integrated support system or it would, and did, fail.

Government, like that umbrella, protects and serves the people in a city, a county, a province or state, and in a nation. We hear a lot of commentary about government rules, regulations, taxes, and fees. To paraphrase a favorite song of mine, "we hear the rich man grumble, we hear the poor man cry". We also hear a lot about differing views of the role of governments at each level. But we step up in our role as stewards of the public's funds, to guide and counsel the leaders of our jurisdictions, and to monitor and account for--and to apply wisely--the dollars entrusted to us. We are a critical part of the support structure for the umbrella of services and protections all citizens depend on.

Our responsibilities are large and they are wide. Most units of government are not in a single line of business; they fulfill multiple concurrent ones, including serving our neighborhoods, expanding business opportunity through economic development, assisting the vulnerable, protecting the elderly, and educating the young and those seeking a better life through expansion of their skills. The lifeblood of those activities flows through our offices in the form of the public's money. And so we involve our residents in the opportunity to decide how our budgets will be structured and targeted. The outcome of that financial plan is...

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