Julie Buelt
Senior Financial Analyst, City of Chandler

Each year, GFOA conducts the Advanced Government Finance Institute (AGFI), an intensive week-long program providing an opportunity to enhance leadership skills and focus on emerging trends within the public finance community. The five-day program provides up to 50 qualified attendees a unique opportunity to address big picture issues facing public finance today. This year I was the recipient of the GFOAz scholarship to attend the AGFI from July 29th through August 3rd in Madison, WI. The GFOAz scholarship covered the tuition, lodging and all meals that were part of the program. Read more

Craig Clifford, the Financial Services Director for the City of Scottsdale has been nominated for the CFO of the Year Award by the Arizona Chapter of Financial Executives International (FEIAz). The CFO of the Year Award is presented to financial professionals for excellence in their field. Congratulations Craig on your nomination! Read more

John E. Petersen

Reprinted with permission from the July 2007 issue of Governing magazine.

For more than a year now, the municipal bond market has been dealing with a small fire in the legal oven. An appellate court decision in Kentucky (Davis et. al. v. Department of Revenue) held that the state could not exempt investors from state taxes on the interest income from its bonds while denying the same exemption on muni bonds issued by other states. Read more

Marnie Green
Principal Consultant and President
Management Education Group

If you establish performance goals during the annual performance evaluation process and have often wondered where to start, here is a little guidance. I work with many supervisors and employees who see goal setting as the opportunity to list the classes the employee will attend for the coming year. And, while learning goals are appropriate, the goal setting process can be much more meaningful. Here are four kinds of goals that you might consider when setting annual performance goals. Read more

The GFOA Executive Board has approved 12 new and revised recommended practices (RPs) that were developed by the GFOA's standing committees. The GFOA's RPs are intended to identify issues important to GFOA members and provide information about effective strategies for state and local governments. You may read the new RPs by navigating here.

Applications for the Government Finance Officers Association Annual Awards for Excellence in Government Finance are now available on the GFOA Web site (www.gfoa.org). Complete applications must be postmarked by January 15, 2008. There is no application fee. Read more

Finance Director
City of Casa Grande

Where are you originally from?
I was born in Silver City, New Mexico. I consider myself a native of Arizona having lived the majority of my life in Eastern Arizona.

Why did you decide to pursue a career in local government?
While pursuing my accounting degree, I took a governmental accounting course that I found very interesting. I happened to be working at a CPA firm preparing tax returns at that time. I volunteered to assist an audit team in the firm with field work on one of the municipal audits. I found that I enjoyed fund accounting and municipal operations much more than tax preparation. It was easy to narrow my focus when searching for full time work. Read more