The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many governments to address their technology needs and look for alternatives to existing in person or paper based approaches for managing the treasury function. Citizens, vendors, and the government itself can benefit from online technology resources for making and receiving payments. Governments can also utilize broader technology infrastructure systems like enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to better manage and track various treasury functions. This session will discuss ERP implementation for the treasury function, GFOA best practices related to embracing technology solutions for all treasury operations, and lessons learned from practitioners who have implemented new technologies in the treasury department.

Jonathan Millard, Senior Vice President and Market Leader-Public Sector Banking, Bank of America

John M. Globensky, City Treasurer, City of Grand Rapids, MI

Andrew Durket, Debt Manager, City of Phoenix, AZ

When LIBOR ceases to exist, state and local governments need to be sure that their exposure to the reference rate is also gone. Where can you find your exposure? And when you find it, what should you do about it? This panel will discuss the tax and accounting methods to address eliminating LIBOR in your financial contracts and other places that LIBOR may currently be used.

Cindy Harris, Chief Financial Officer, Iowa Finance Authority

Barry Rothchild, Partner, Nixon Peabody LLP

Government is inherently political and with politics comes disagreement, uncertainty, and emotion. However, the nature of our politics has changed in recent years and, with it, the level of risk for government. Political conflict today is characterized by decreasing trust in institutions and deteriorating norms of governance. In this session we will explore how this risk threatens good public finance and what can be done about it.

Leslie Beauregard, Assistant City Manager, City of Staunton, VA

Caroline Mehl, Co-Founder & Executive Director, OpenMind

Pam Eckhardt, Elected Clerk, Bingham County, ID

Emily M. Zwetzig, Budget Director, Clark County, WA

2021 marks the beginning of the 117th Congress. Together with a new administration, there are many changes on the horizon for state and local governments related to tax and funding priorities at a federal level. In this session, speakers will provide an overview of current plans, which options are most likely to impact your government, and where finance officers can look for more information. Specific emphasis will be placed on exploring strategies for enhancing infrastructure in communities across the United States and how GFOA's advocacy efforts can keep you connected to the latest developments from Washington DC.

Michael Belarmino, Senior Policy Advisor, GFOA’s Federal Liaison Center

Charles Small, Deputy Assistant Secretary - Intergovernmental Affairs, U.S. Department of Transportation

Finance officers can often take comfort focusing on the detailed aspects of numbers, spreadsheets, financial statements, and accounting standards. Formal training to become a finance officer focuses on technical skills and organizations rely on application of those technical capabilities. However, to be truly effective and best serve our organizations and communities, finance officers needs to develop their leadership skills in the same way - training and practice. In this session, speakers will highlight essential leadership skills for finance officers and how you can build these skills through a combination of formal training, ongoing practice, and experience.

Jerri Jones, County Auditor, Williamson County, TX

Mallory Stribling, Budget Services Manager, County of Fauquier, VA

Stephanie D. Davis, Ph.D., Collegiate Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech

James Morani, Town Manager, Town of Abingdon, VA

Erin Kozanecki, Deputy County Administrator, Fauquier County, VA

The focus of GFOA's Women's Public Finance Network (WPFN) is to foster the careers of women in public finance through education, networking, and mentoring opportunities. Join WPFN for its annual business meeting as we celebrate on the past year, welcome the 2021-2022 officers, and meet fellow women and allies in public finance.

While the low interest rate environment is a tremendous help to many participants in the macro economy, government investment programs have suffered with very low returns on their public funds. While the return on investment is not the leading principle for government investment, it is important for governments to utilize relevant investment strategies for this continuing low rate environment. In this session, market experts will provide an outlook for government investing and discuss strategies that may suit a government’s varying investment goals now and into the future.

Jason Carini, Treasurer, Rogers County, OK

Shifat Hasan, Director, Investment Performance and Compliance, CalSTRS

Carlos Oblites, Senior Portfolio Strategist, Chandler Asset Management

Hubert R. White, CFA CTP, Investment Officer, City & County of San Francisco, CA

Within their organizations, GFOA believes finance officers should approach their jobs like chefs (innovating, experimenting, and strategizing), rather than like cooks, (following a strict protocol to produce a pre-determined outcome). A finance officer who operates like a chef is well-positioned to lead the organization through different types of challenges, serving as a problem solver to best apply a range of skills across a variety of current demands. In this session, learn how you can change your approach to "cooking,” better leverage your skills, and increase your value to the organization.

Stacey Teachey, Financial Strategy Manager, Town of Cary, NC

Scott Huizenga, Director of Management and Budget, City of San Antonio, TX

Tara Baker, City Treasurer, City of Guelph, ON

The acquisition cost of an asset is just a portion of the total cost of owning it. Ongoing maintenance significantly adds to that cost. Moreover, failure to keep up with asset maintenance can result in premature deterioration, an increased risk of failure, and higher total costs. Life cycle cost analysis helps guard against these risks by considering the entire cost of owning the asset over its entire life. In this session, you will see how lifecycle costing cab help governments make smarter, more cost-effective, and geographically equitable spending decisions, and how you can get started in implementing this approach in your organization.

Gregory Baird, President, Water Finance Research

Richard Dietz, Project Manager, District of Columbia

Join Greg Baird and Richard Dietz for a 30-minute “Meet the Speaker” event to continue the conversation about the advantages of implementing long-term thinking in asset maintenance.

Greg Baird, President, Water Finance Research

Richard Dietz, Project Manager, District of Columbia

The term "equity" continues to be mentioned often involving discussions on a host of topics in our society, communities, and governments. But what does equity actually mean in terms of provision of governmental services and how does this impact the budget? Equity-driven initiatives are and will be very different from one community and organization to the next. However, common themes have emerged in both the definition of equity and how to overcome common challenges. This session will focus on the finance officer's role in making more equitable financial decisions related to both revenues and expenses.

Glen Lee, Finance Director, Seattle, WA

David Schmiedicke, Finance Director, City of Madison, WI

Bertha Johnson, Budget Director, City of Durham, NC

Anjali Chainani, PhD, Senior Advisor, Results for America

While providing state and local governments with critical funding for COVID related expenditures and to offset revenue loss from the economic shutdown, the federal government has also created an evolving set of rules and regulations for recipients to follow. In this session, speakers will hopefully demystify available guidance on COVID-related grants to help you prepare financial statements, including the schedules of expenditures of federal awards (SEFA).

Melanie Keeton, Finance Director, City of San Antonio, TX

Amanda Ward, Partner, Plante Moran

Large urban governments are facing a new set of challenges, such as citizens raising questions on equity and businesses and residents exploring options outside the urban core in today’s evolving remote environment. These challenges have implications in how large governments operate. What’s a finance officer to do? During this networking event, attendees will have options to meet with fellow public finance officers and engage in a dialogue of the pressing issues they are facing and some potential solutions to take back to their communities.

Katie Ludwig, Director of Resource Development, GFOA

Kimberly Olivares, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, City of Austin, TX

Nancy Zielke, Senior Director, Alvarez & Marsal Public Sector Services

Lauren Warrem, CPA, Chief Deputy of Treasury, San Diego County, CA

Every government manages capital assets, but many governments inadequately fund their ongoing maintenance and lack the data needed to manage assets optimally. Failure to manage assets effectively can result in ballooning deferred maintenance backlogs at best and catastrophic asset failure at worst. This session describes how each community can take a more strategic approach to capital asset management, based on case study examples from local governments that are considered leaders in the field. The session will address how the finance department should work with other stakeholders, the key competencies you need to build in your organization, and how to remedy common capability gaps.

Iain Cranston, Director, Consultant, & Trainer, icInfrastrucutre

Margaret Moggia, Executive Manager of Finance, West Basin Municipal Water District, CA

Ashay Prabhu, Co-Founder Director, Assetic

Tarbet Ryen, Former Chair US Technical Advisory Group to ISO 55000, US Technical Advisory Group to International Standards Organization

Mildred M. Chua, Retired Head of Transformation Program Delivery and Asset Management, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Greg Chartier P.Eng, Msc., Owner, Greg Chartier Consulting

Municipal bond issuance remained strong throughout all of 2020 despite the pandemic. For example, the issuance of taxable bonds increased drastically in the last year due in large part to recent tax law changes and favorable market conditions. If you are considering accessing capital in the future, attend this session to hear from speakers what factors you would be considering to determine pricing, structure, and type of security. Speakers will also discuss their recent experience and share lessons learned for all state and local government issuers.

Michael Imhoff, Managing Director, Stifel

Tom Kozlik, Head of Strategy and Credit, HilltopSecurities

With a focus on tasks and transactions, it can be easy to get lost in financial reports, budget documents, cash receipts, and continuing disclosures and not see the larger impact that the finance office can have on the community. In this session speakers will explain the importance of seeing the big picture and understanding how to connect and define the role of finance with the purpose of government and the outcomes it works to achieve. From there, finance officers can emerge as a leader, better coordinate resources, and understand the implications of certain financial policies and actions on overall community values like trust, equity, and engagement.

Mark Anielski, Well-being Economist, Anielski Management Inc.

Siri Russell, Director of Equity and Inclusion, County of Albemarle

Robert Harrison, City Manager, City of Yakima, WA

If our goal is thriving communities, what are we doing to ensure that we are creating a thriving community for all our residents, particularly those that have been historically marginalized? Learn how Siri Russell, The Assoc. Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, University of VA, School of Data Science is using policies, data, and analysis to advance well-being for all residents in their community. Explore how they (and you too) can engage community stakeholders from under-represented population to identify, and improve upon, existing inequalities in your community.

Siri Russell, Director of Equity and Inclusion, County of Albemarle

Common challenges with the typical government process can be both frustrating and create a situation where budget “theory” differs from the practical reality that many governments experience. Whether dissatisfaction ensues from the length of the process, the level of effort, how decisions are actually made, or the fear of budget cuts, budgeting is one of the more maligned financial functions. But why? Obviously budgeting is more than a math exercise to get revenues to equal expenses. Budgeting drives funding, positions, projects, and more. Managing the budget process involves coordinating a diverse and often conflicting set of priorities, personalities, and politics. In this session, GFOA will invite speakers from different backgrounds to discuss budgeting from multiple perspectives and concentrate on the basics. Attend to learn how you can simplify the process, improve your technical budget skills, better involve your peers, and produce better outcomes.

Nicole Lee, Finance Director, City of Prairie Village, KS

John Gross, Finance Director/CFO, City of Long Beach, CA

Bradley Harris, Consultant, University of Tennessee Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS)

Julie Zolghadr, Budget Division Manager, City of Springfield, IL

Since the issuance of GASB Statement No. 14, The Financial Reporting Entity, approximately forty years ago, nineteen subsequent statements - up to and including GASB Statement No. 97 - have affected what legal entities compose a governmental financial reporting entity, and how each should be included. In this session speakers will explain the current authoritative guidance and share their practical experience about properly identifying and incorporating all kinds of component units (CUs), including fiduciary CUs and CUs with their own CUs into a primary government's financial reporting entity.

Christina Coyle, Finance Director, Village of Glen Ellyn, IL

Frederick Lantz, Director, Quality Control, Sikich LLP

An opportunity to meet or renew your acquaintance with Alan Skelton, GASB’s Director of Research and Technical Activities since April 2021.

Alan Skelton, Director of Research and Technical Activities, GASB

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis is the latest in a revolving door of events that have had significant impacts for governments and their ability to budget and provide for the continuity of services. Too often governments have relied upon staid long-term financial plans with minor incremental adjustments for annual growth/retraction for revenues and expenditures. With these regular challenges, how can governments better prepare to help identify their budget vulnerabilities and plan for addressing these gaps in order to build financial resiliency? This session will focus on the importance of stress tests, where to get started, how to choose scenarios, strategies for refining your approach and better using information to make decisions. Making stress tests a regular part of long-term financial planning will have impacts throughout your organization's financial and operational plans.

Jack A. Ryan-Feldman, Director, Baker Tilly Municipal Advisors

Noel Bernal, City Manager, City of Brownsville, TX

Over the past year, many governments were forced to make an abrupt transition to remote work and successfully implemented technology enabling electronic signatures, online payments, paperless workflows, remote meetings, and more. As governments work to plan for a return to "normal," what will that look like and how can we learn from the technology and process improvements to take the next step towards a more modern government. Speakers will look back and highlight major accomplishments, discuss what they would do differently given the chance, and what it could all mean for the future and our ability to react (or plan) for the next crisis.

Gregory Jenkins II, Assistant Director - Public Utilities, City of Raleigh, NC

Jeffrey Jackson, Director of Finance and Treasurer, City of Mississauga, ON

Charles Perl, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

The underlying premise of traditional economic development strategies is that subsidies incentivize firms to take actions that they wouldn’t have otherwise taken. For example, the incentive can initiate hiring new employees, locating a business in a particular area, or expanding production. However, research suggests that these incentives are often not as effective as they may seem and we may hope. Alternatively, incentives that are not effective are wasted resources that could have been used to support other public programs. In this session speakers will examine what makes incentives more or less likely to be effective, how to increase the odds that incentives will work, and which alternatives to traditional incentive-led approaches can better accomplish economic development goals.

Diana A. Ramirez, Director, Economic Development & Strategic Investments, Travis County, TX

Daniel Ainslie, City Manager, City of Sturgis, SD

You’re invited to speak with Diana Ramirez, the Director of Economic Development & Strategic Investments for Travis County (Austin), TX. Learn and ask questions about their work to improve affordability, bridge the infrastructure services gap in unincorporated areas, and create jobs. Travis County has also been a leader in considering equity from the start of projects and engaging historically marginalized community members in economic development agreements. Diana is also well versed in the analysis of economic development financing mechanisms and the role of the finance officer in development deals.

Diana A. Ramirez, Director, Economic Development & Strategic Investments, Travis County, TX

While governments are not always viewed as leaders when it comes to technology adoption, that is not always true. Over the past year, many have been able to quickly adapt to the changing landscape. Going forward, governments are presented with new opportunities for changing service delivery, modernizing operations, becoming more efficient, or delivering new ways to connect with citizens. In this session, speakers will share their insights on emerging technologies for the finance officer, strategies for moving forward, and how best to prepare the organization for adoption.

Rowan Miranda, Sr. Managing Partner for Government Strategy, Workday

Howard Osborne, Associate Partner, IBM

Conor Riffle, Vice President, Smart Cities, Rubicon

Jacquelyn Flickinger, CPA, Director, State & Local Strategy - ERP/EPM, Oracle

The Public Plans Data (PPD) began in 2007 as a tool to provide easy access to quick facts about public pensions at the national, state, system, and plan level. Now, in 2021, the PPD contains data from over ninety percent of pension assets and members in the United States. This session will provide an overview of the PPD, how finance officers can utilize the online tool, and highlight important research developed using the data.

Jean-Pierre (JP) Aubry, Assistant Director of Research, Center for Retirement Research, Boston College

Joshua Franzel, Managing Director, Center for State and Local Government Excellence, ICMA-RC

Just as the pandemic has exposed other weaknesses in government, it also left governments more vulnerable to cybersecurity threats. In this session, speakers will explore what governments should be aware of now for 2021 and into the future. In addition, speakers will discuss how to manage cyberthreats with remote workers, necessary policies that governments should have in place, and the role of cyber insurance and other external consultants and services in mitigating risks.

Phil Bertolini, Co-Director, Center for Digital Government, e.Republic

Jim St.Clair, Chief Trust Officer, Lumedic

Tom Ray, CISO, City of Berkeley, CA

Rick Simonds, VP & GM, Cybersecurity, Tyler Technologies, Inc

Finance officers are stewards of their community, helping to allocate resources and manage implementation of programs and services. Increasingly, conversations on results have included an equity lens. What is equity and what does it mean for public finance? In this session, hear from finance officers on how they have embraced equity into their operating vernacular, built and continue to build an awareness around implicit bias, and recognize the challenges in focusing on the topic. In addition, speakers will provide guidance to help you include an equity focus in your organization - when to introduce equity, how to best communicate equity issues, and why it matters.

Harpreet Hora, Executive Director, Budget Services,, Atlanta Public Schools

Lisa Marie Harris, Director of Finance/Treasurer, San Diego County Water Authority

Kecia Dougherty, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, Strategic Workforce Equity Coordinator, City of Dubuque, IA

Judy Archer, Director of Human Resources, Pierce County, WA

Compensation and benefits are seen as important considerations for recruitment and retention and for many local government personnel costs can exceed seventy to eight percent of the operating budget. This session will explore both current trends in public sector compensation and current challenges in administering payroll. Specifically, speakers will highlight how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed payroll administration and how to deal with remote employees, taxable benefits, grant reporting, and out-of-state employees.

Faith Smith, Finance Director, Town of Eaton, CO

Cara Woodson Welch, Esq., Executive Director, IPMA-HR

Marcus Wu, Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Susan Judah, Senior IT Systems Analyst, City and County of Denver - DoIT

In this rapidly changing environment, finance officers need to remain mindful about credit rating agency criteria for state and local governments. This session will present a panel of speakers who will discuss how credit rating agencies view issues facing governments, recent changes in rating methodology, and what your organization can do to adjust. Speakers will also review GFOA’s best practice on engaging with rating agencies and highlight other recommendations and lessons learned for improving your relationship with the rating agencies.

Karen Daly, Senior Managing Director: Head of Public Finance/Financial Guaranty, Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA)

Arlene Bohner, Managing Director/Head of US Public Finance, Fitch Ratings

Jane Ridley, Senior Director & Sector Leader, S&P Global

Jessica Lamendola, Director of Administrative and Financial Services, City of Topeka, KS

Leonard Jones, Managing Director, Moody's Corporation

Governments use a variety of external advisors and providers to help manage aspects of their investment program. In this session, speakers will discuss how to determine whether a government may need an investment adviser to assist with planning and portfolio management, how to use broker/dealers to buy and sell investments, and work with banks and other parties to purchase investment products. In this session governments will gain insights on the roles of these professionals and how, alongside finance officers, an entity’s investment program can be well managed.

Amy Davis, Finance Director, Chatham County, GA

Scott McIntyre, Senior Portfolio Manager, Hilltop Securities

Cory Kampf, CFO/Finance & Central Services Division Manager, Anoka County, MN

GFOA Virtual Conference Feedback Final Survey & Certificate