APPT-2024-30 : Appointment of Kerriann Golden to the position of CFO / City Auditor

Transcript (~9 min @ 52:35)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 52:33 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you. Good evening everyone. I am deeply pleased to be here tonight presenting Carrie Ann Golden. As my appointee to the role of city CFO slash auditor, um, you all have a copy of Ms. Golden's resume, which highlights her over 20 years experience in finance, both in the private sector as well as the public. She's been working for the city of Melrose, um, for many years. She has managed payroll. She has worked on the finance side and police and fire, which are both, you know, complex departments from a payroll perspective. And she's been in the auditor's office since 2016. Um, what is not on her resume that I wanna talk a little bit about, and I'm gonna g I'm sorry, is, um, the incredible integrity that she brings to her work. I really did not have the opportunity to work very closely with Ms. Golden while I was on the council. She was largely behind the scenes and over the past six months have gotten to work with her on a daily basis and am constantly impressed with her skills. Um, she has a near encyclopedic knowledge of every collective bargaining agreement in both the city side and the school side. Um, she knows every enterprise fund, um, stabilization account, every budget line item. Um, it is a constant path to her desk because she is a problem solver and that is what we need in city government. And she's very solutions focused and always willing to collaborate with whatever department is needing assistance. Um, I believe she does what is right, what is not, not necessarily what is easy or convenient. And she has been very open to having some very challenging conversations in what has been a really tough budget cycle. So I am so thrilled that she's willing to take this next step and continue to serve our community, and I'm really happy to have her here tonight.

▶ 54:15 Robb Stewart: Thank you Madam Mayor. Welcome Ms. Golden. Great. Great.

▶ 54:17 Speaker 4: Uh, thank you Chair Stewart and City Councilors for this opportunity tonight. Um, thank you Mayor Jen for this opportunity. Um, I came to the city of Melrose, by chance in 2013. It, it filled a personal need. I was in a personal transition and I kind of thought that it would be, you know, a quick, quick little gig. Um, but I soon realized that there was a significant transition that was gonna happen in the auditor's office. So at the time, three out of four employees were going to retire within a year, and they had over 75 years of combined experience between the three of them. Um, and so they brought me in as part of their succession plan when they learned that I was looking to go full time again. Um, and so that really been instrumental in my success. I came in, I learned payroll from the ground up. I learned accounts payable from the ground up. Um, and, you know, I had taken a step back because by the time I left my previous job in the private sector, I had a team reporting to me. Um, so, you know, here I was coming in and building from the ground up and, um, and I thought that that was important because it was my first exposure to municipal government. Um, so I was able to do that with payroll, um, accounts payable, and then eventually budgeting. Um, and so, um, I live in Melrose. I've lived here for the past 18 years. Um, I take a lot of pride in what we do in our office, um, whether it be for constituents or, um, for our employees, and trying to always do right by them, have an answer, um, have a proactive conversation. Um, so I look forward to serving the city of Melrose, um, in this opportunity. And, um, I'd like to say thank you to Patrick LaRusso, who's been instrumental. Um, he was the, the one fourth that didn't retire in 2015. Um, but you know, he has this institutional knowledge as well. And he came to the city of Melrose when the city of Melrose was in the worst fiscal shape. And he's through the work of the city council, previous administrations, the current administrations. He has helped, um, make the city what it is today. So thank you for your consideration.

▶ 56:42 Robb Stewart: Thank you Ms. Golden. Questions from the committee. Council che,

▶ 56:47 Manjula Karamcheti: Uh, first thank you for putting this candidate forward. Um, I first wanna just say hearing the mayor's introduction, uh, was pretty inspiring to me. I know she's a tough cookie and doesn't speak like that lightly, so that gets me really excited about your candidacy. Um, and that historical knowledge, particularly where we are as the city of Melrose and what we're trying to do as we grow and expand, um, and how we might do that with your role is so important. So I'm just curious, given you've been around for quite a while, sort of as you take on this role, what are the things that you feel like are a critical priority for us?

▶ 57:30 Speaker 4: So, I mean, right now for our office, um, we've had a significant transition. So first I wanna work on getting our office stable. Um, but I do think that, you know, financial transparency, all of those things to help educate residents as to what's going on fiscally in the city. Um, I think that that's, that's, um, the second priority to try to build our, our website and, um, our fiscal presence and get before, um, you all and provide more frequent updates as to what's kind of going on so you can make informed decisions.

▶ 58:08 Manjula Karamcheti: Yeah, that's great. I love that you said that because I do think that transparency and understanding how the city is working and how money is being spent is something that we, we get feedback on a lot in terms of like that accessibility. So I really appreciate both those priorities. Thank you.

▶ 58:24 Speaker 2: Thank you. Council Williams.

▶ 58:29 Ryan Williams: Um, I just wanted to say thank you both and I'm sorry that we made you wait 45 minutes to come up here and talk. It's great to see you here. It's great to have, have somebody with a long track record of experience in the city as Councilor Kim Chase said, we really need it. Um, the continuity is fantastic, so thank you very much and I'm happy to support.

▶ 58:49 Robb Stewart: Thank you President Elli. Thank

▶ 58:50 Leila Migliorelli: You. Thank you. Um, both for being here tonight. Um, I just wanna know if you wanted to talk maybe a little bit about a little bit of a version of counselor crime Judy's question, but more specific on how I think a lot of people have, um, maybe a, you know, a conception of what the, the CFO's responsibility is in terms of, you know, financial planning and forecasting, which is also overlaps with the mayor's focus and drive. Right. Is there anything you would wanna comment on how you see your role here, um, maybe differently than Mr. LaRusso or, you know, and how you plan to work in the mayor? Maybe just drawing a little bit of a finer line about those types of like financial projections versus, you know, fiscal planning and how you fit into that. Sure.

▶ 59:33 Speaker 4: Um, Sue, yes, I would look to do more of fiscal planning, put that out there, um, and really try to develop a three to five year plan. So we're always looking ahead so we can, um, be proactive about decision making versus reactive. Um, and you know, there's some communities that have done a really well, a really good job. Um, they have more resources, um, than we do, but I would hope to work to, you know, like town of Brookline, you go on their website and it's really robust. Um, and they have, uh, financial plans, capital plans, so to kind of work through that and, um, not only provide a one year snapshot, but really, um, a three to five year snapshot of what's going on and where we expect we're gonna be.

▶ 1:00:23 Speaker 6: That's great. Thank you. Looking forward to supporting your nomination. Thank You.

▶ 1:00:29 Robb Stewart: Thank you. Anybody else? Vice Chair Vandiver,

▶ 1:00:34 Kimberly Vandiver: Just chime in very that I'm very excited, uh, that you are, uh, interested in this position and, and despite only working through one budget season, I've, you know, been very impressed by, um, the way that, um, you've presented and, and shared information and answered questions for us so far. So I'm very excited to, uh, support your candidacy as well. Thank you

▶ 1:00:57 Robb Stewart: For the second time, council Williams motion to recommend to the full counsel. Second, we have a, uh, we have a motion to recommend to the full counsel by Const Williams, seconded by Council Caram Chetty under discussion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. So this will be brought to the full council. You do not need to be there. Um, we'll be voting again on this. Um, and thank you for being here this evening. Thank