MRSC has joined with Toni Nelson, Small Cities Specialist, State Auditor's Office, Tracey Dunlap, Director of Finance & Administration at the City of Kirkland, and Mike Bailey, Finance Director, City of Redmond, to bring you the "Finance Advisor" column. The "Finance Advisor" will feature a new article each month with timely local government finance information and advice you can use.*

This page contains the current and all previous Finance Advisor articles:

• Fiscal First Aid – Financial Planning has Never Been More Important, December 2008
• Long-Term Budget Strategy Considerations, November 2008
• Budgeting Issues - Red Flags You Should Think About, October 2008
• Budgeting for Capital Improvements, July 2008
• Why Internal Controls are Everyone’s Job, June 2008
• Internal Controls over the Preparation of the Annual Financial Report, Arpil 2008
• Year-End is a good time to get a financial “checkup”, December 2007
• Does a new law allow code cities to credit all interest earnings to the general fund?, October 2007
• Finance 101, By Toni Nelson, Small Cities Specialist, State Auditors Office, June 2007
• Strategic Planning, By Gayla Gjertsen, Finance Director, City of Tumwater, May 2007
• Technology - Good or Bad?, By Mike Bailey, Finance Director, City of Redmond, April 2007
• Annual Financial Report, By Toni Nelson, Small Cities Specialist, State Auditors Office, March 2007
• Where Eagles Dare, By Gayla Gjertsen, Finance Director, City of Tumwater, February 2007
• A Primer on Performance Audits, By Mike Bailey, Finance Director, City of Redmond, January 2007
• Year End Financial Issues, By Toni Nelson, Small Cities Specialist, State Auditors Office, December 2006
• Financial Analysis at Your Fingertips!, By Mike Bailey, Finance Director, City of Redmond, October 2006
• Budgeting, By Toni Nelson, Small Cities Specialist, State Auditors Office, September 2006
• Internal Controls, By Gayla Gjertsen, Finance Director, City of Tumwater, August 2006
• How Sales Taxes are Catching up to the Internet, Mike Bailey, Finance Director, City of Redmond, July 2006
• Second Quarter Financial Review, By Toni Nelson, Small Cities Specialist, State Auditors Office, June 2006
• Whoa! Budget Again... or Still??, By Gayla Gjertsen, Finance Director, City of Tumwater, May 2006
• Centralized Purchasing or Decentralized Purchasing, Mike Bailey, Finance Director, City of Redmond, April 2006
• Check Fraud Risks, Toni Nelson, Small Cities Specialist and Joe Dervaes, Fraud Specialist, State Auditors Office, March 2006
• Monitoring the Budget, Gayla Gjertsen, Finance Director, City of Tumwater, MRSC, January 2006
• Biennial Budgets in Washington’s Cities and Counties, Mike Bailey, City of Renton and Judy Cox, MRSC, December 2005
• What are Fund Balances and Why do we need them?, Toni Nelson, Small Cities Specialist, State Auditor's Office, November 2005
• Seeing Red?, Gayla Gjertsen, Finance Director, City of Tumwater, October 2005
• Who Makes the City and County Accounting Rules We Must Follow?, Mike Bailey Finance Director, City of Lynnwood, August 2005

Toni Nelson is the "Small Cities Specialist" for the Washington State Auditor's Office, providing both on and off site financial training and assistance to smaller cities and towns throughout the state. Ms. Nelson has been working with the Auditors office for 6 years and prior to that was the Clerk/Treasurer for a small town for 9 years. She has co-authored the "Small Cities Manual" a detailed reference guide for new clerk/treasurers on governmental accounting procedures and presents numerous training workshops throughout the state for AWC, WFOA, WMTA, WMCA and local/regional organizations such as EWFOA and SCWMCA. Ms. Nelson is also a member of and conference track coordinator for the WFOA Education Committee.

Mike Bailey is currently the Finance Director for the city of Redmond. Previously he worked as Administrator of Finance and Information Services for the city of Renton and as the Director of Finance for the city of Lynnwood. Mr. Bailey also served as president of the Washington Finance Officers Association and is the Vice Chair of the GFOA Budget Committee. An experienced CPA and GFOA budget reviewer, Mr. Bailey co-founded the annual Budget and Fiscal Management Workshops held each summer. Mr. Bailey conducts numerous workshops and has authored various articles on local government finance, including Effective Budgeting in Washington State Cities published by the Association of Washington Cities.

Tracey Dunlap, P.E. is the Director of Finance & Administration at the City of Kirkland. Prior to joining Kirkland in 2006, she was a principal and shareholder in FCS Group, a regional financial and management consulting firm (14 years). An industrial engineer registered in the state of Washington, she has worked with jurisdictions throughout the Northwest to develop and implement cost recovery and fee strategies, set utility rates, and improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Tracey's experience also includes working for a large defense contractor (5 years) and a major financial institution (3 years). She has presented on a wide array of topics for organizations including WFOA, APWA, APA, WABO, and AWC.

*The Articles appearing in the "Finance Advisor" column represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Municipal Research & Services Center.