A large part of the weight of the responsibility of being a Finance Director is that the one commonality across the diverse set of services that your agency provides is that they all require funding to operate. As such, when issues arise, they often revolve around money.  When this is the case, the Finance Director is often looked to for solutions, and the most successful Finance Directors are the ones who focus on getting problems solved. Those who lean on saying things like, “That’s not in the budget” or “We can’t afford that” are likely going to be cut out of the conversation over time, as City Managers/General Managers and your colleagues at the department head level are going to find a way with or without your input.

The best way not to lose your seat at the table is to be someone who can find creative solutions, even in the most difficult of budget times. Based on personal experience, consider the following:

When you focus on finding solutions, you are making yourself a valuable resource to your City Manager/General Manager, and you are also helping to ensure the solution is the best for the agency financially, which is a big part of your role. You are also putting your City Manager/General Manager in a position where they can fully evaluate the options, priorities, and tradeoffs and make the best decision for the agency. When your answer is simply ‘no,’ this evaluation is limited and may result in an outcome that is not in the agency’s best interests because you were left out of the rest of the conversation.

There is no question that the job of the Finance Director is a hard one, seemingly harder with each day that passes. The demands on your time and your agency’s resources are unrelenting. When financial needs arise that have not been budgeted, it is tempting to take the short-term approach of just saying no, but that approach can be costly for you and your department in the long term if you are no longer invited to the conversation when these issues arise. The better alternative is to be someone who can find solutions, identify tradeoffs, and help determine the most advantageous path forward.

Drew Corbett is the Principal of DKG Consultants, a firm he started in 2023 upon retirement after nearly 20 years in local government. Drew started his municipal government career in Sunnyvale in 2005 as a budget analyst, and later became the budget manager/assistant finance director.  In 2013, Drew was hired by the city of Menlo Park to be its finance director, and in 2015, Drew left Menlo Park to join the city of San Mateo as its finance director. In 2016, Drew retained his title of finance director while adding the title of assistant city manager. In his new capacity, Drew took on oversight of the information technology department and managed special projects on behalf of the city manager.

 

In late 2018, the San Mateo City Council appointed Drew as the city manager, where he served through June 2023. In this role, Drew led the operations of a full-service city with over 600 full-time equivalent employees and over 105,000 residents. During his time as city manager, Drew also served as the chief administrative officer of the San Mateo Consolidated Fire Department, a Joint Powers Authority that provides fire protection and prevention services to the cities of San Mateo, Belmont, and Foster City.

 

Drew earned his Master of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of the South. Prior to entering the public sector, Drew spent two years as an elementary school teacher in Compton, CA as part of the Teach For America program, and five years as a senior analyst/project manager with the Intel Corporation in Santa Clara, CA.

 

Drew has served on the Board of Directors for the California Society of Municipal Finance Directors and was the organization’s President in 2017.