Chapter Roundup - Channel Counties
Tuesday, April 22, 2025
CSMFO News HTML for YM 4.23.25
|
Authors: Debbie Rosales, Financial Analyst, Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, and Carrie Matson, Deputy Finance Director, City of Thousand Oaks
|
|
|
The Channel Counties Chapter met in March at Dave & Buster’s for another education-filled meeting. We didn’t have to look far to find a talented presenter as Carrie Matson, Deputy
Finance Director with the City of Thousand Oaks, shared the City’s journey with Financial Strategic Plans and introduced us to "the power of powers."
Carrie emphasized the importance of understanding your agency’s trajectory when creating or updating a Financial Strategic Plan — whether you are in a period of growth,
maintenance, or decline. She also shared practical tips for avoiding timeline creep, leveraging lessons learned from your agency’s past, and focusing on solutions rather than
just highlighting challenges.
Carrie also demonstrated how Microsoft’s Power tools — Power Query, Power Pivot, and Power BI — have helped the City create an agile and dynamic Financial Strategic Plan.
- Power Query supercharges Excel by enabling you to easily connect, transform, and automate data from multiple sources — creating dynamic, refreshable datasets without the need
for complex coding or formatting the same report repeatedly.
- Power Pivot expands the capabilities of Excel by allowing you to create sophisticated data models, build powerful relationships across large datasets, and perform advanced
calculations.
- Power BI extends the power of Excel by enabling finance professionals to transform data into interactive dashboards and visual reports — delivering real-time insights, streamlined
analysis, and smarter decision-making across the organization.
- What does all this mean? Less time spent gathering and formatting information and more time focused on high-value analysis and strategic decision-making. Who doesn’t want
that! Everyone left the meeting excited to explore the “powers” further.
Our next meeting is scheduled for June 26, 2025, and will focus on internal controls and audit preparation. We’ll also feature the City of Ojai, with Norma Cervantes sharing more
about their city.
|
|
Debbie Rosales is the Financial Analyst with Las Virgenes Municipal Water District. She has over 20 years of professional government and non-profit experience in finance. Debbie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Management from Webster University, a
Master of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Redlands, and a Certificate in Accounting for Governmental and Nonprofit Organizations from UC Riverside. Debbie
currently serves on the CSMFO Board of Directors and chairs the Channel Counties Chapter. She is passionate about continuing education and staff development and serves on the
Membership subcommittee for the mentorship program. Debbie and her husband Mark are avid Disney fans who enjoy traveling, visiting family, and doting on their granddaughter.
Carrie Matson brings over twenty years of local government experience to her role as Deputy Finance Director for the City of Thousand Oaks. In this capacity, she oversees
the City's Accounting, Revenue Operations, Information Technology, Facilities Maintenance, Budget, Purchasing, Audit, and Treasury functions. Prior to this, she spent eighteen
years with the City of Burbank, where she held various positions in the Community Development, Parks and Recreation, and Financial Services Departments. Carrie holds a Bachelor
of Science in Business Administration, a Master of Public Administration, and an Executive Master of Urban Planning, all from the University of Southern California. Her career
has included a wide range of initiatives including system implementations, budget development, long-term strategic planning, labor negotiations, pension sustainability, and data
visualization and transparency.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Email to a Friend
