PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

President’s message 8 Welcome!

By Scott Catlett, 2022 CSMFO President

As we all left Disneyland in January 2020, none of us expected it to be two years before we were together again at a CSMFO conference. Due to the pandemic, CSMFO’s 2021 conference went virtual and was a great success. Soon after the virtual conference concluded, the Conference Host Committee met to begin planning CSMFO’s 2022 conference. The first question on the table was whether this would be a virtual or in person conference. With vaccine distribution on the horizon and a spirit of optimism, we pushed ahead with planning an in-person conference in San Diego. Those plans moved along well and were finalized ahead of schedule. As the conference dates approached, the Omicron variant emerged, and we found ourselves meeting in December to discuss whether there would be an in-person conference at all. We also wondered whether if we continued ahead with the in-person conference, would there be enough people who showed up to avoid a financial disaster? We pushed forward, and as luck would have it, the surge subsided and we had nearly 1,200 people in San Diego; far below the 2,000 in Anaheim in 2020, but a strong showing under the circumstances. It turned out to be one of our best conferences, and an emotional moment for a lot of people to return to fellowship with colleagues they had not seen in two years. Being selected to be CSMFO’s 2022 President will be a highlight of my career in government Finance, but I value the people I’ve met along the way so much more. This organization is about training, and it’s about building a professional network, but most of all it’s about friendships – many of which will last a lifetime. We got plenty of training in San Diego, with three days of breakout sessions, four amazing featured speakers, and three preconference sessions on Tuesday. And let’s not forget the sold-out golf and pickleball tournaments that were a great success. But more importantly, the heartbeat of CSMFO was back with hugs, handshakes, and renewed friendships seen throughout the Town & Country Resort. I want to say thank you to the CSMFO staff, and most of all to our conference host - David Garrison and our conference planners – Janet Salvetti, Marisa Anticevich, and Teri Anticevich. They made the conference possible with their guidance and amazing ability to make almost anything we could think of a reality. I also want to say a big thank you to the 2022 Conference Host Committee, and in particular the commercial members of the Committee – Lily Ng from Bank of the West, Terry Shea from RAMS, and Sarah Meacham from PFM. Having their perspectives as vendors to help guide us through the conference planning process was invaluable. I also owe a special thank you to all of our conference sponsors and exhibitors, whose participation in the conference is critical to its success. Their commitment to CSMFO and to returning to exhibit at an in-person conference was very much appreciated.

If you’ve never been involved in CSMFO beyond attending our conferences, training sessions, and chapter meetings, I invite you to find out more about participating in CSMFO’s many volunteer opportunities. We have standing committees covering a wide variety of topics, from career development to membership to student engagement to planning the annual conference. There are also opportunities to join the leadership of your chapter, or to become a CSMFO appointee to one of the Cal Cities standing committees. Commercial members can become engaged through the Commercial Roundtable, or participate in a number of CSMFO’s standing committees as a member. Reach out to me directly or to the CSMFO office if you’d like to find out more about becoming a volunteer leader. By the time this edition of the CSMFO News is published, our virtual sessions will have concluded or be well under way, and I have no doubt that it will be a great success. We hope to have the virtual sessions become a regular part of CSMFO’s training calendar in future years, bringing the conference experience to a wider number of our members. For those of you with larger staffs, I encourage you to consider the virtual sessions next year as a valuable training opportunity for your staff members who are unable to attend the conference. As you read the rest of this conference edition of the CSMFO News, I hope that it furthers your interest in and excitement about attending our next annual conference in Sacramento. CSMFO was unable to hold a northern California conference in 2019 due to scheduling issues, and our 2021 conference was virtual, so this will be our first northern California conference since 2017. I am very much looking forward to returning to the awesome downtown Sacramento location on February 1, 2023. I will see you all there! Scott Catlett is the Finance Director and City Treasurer for the City of Yorba Linda. Prior to joining the staff in Yorba Linda, he was a Principal Budget Analyst, Budget & Debt Manager, and most recently Assistant Finance Director for the City of Riverside. Earlier in his career, he worked for several firms providing financial consulting services to state governments, municipalities, and large commercial airports. Scott has a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Tulane University and a Master of Public Administration degree from California State University, San Bernardino. Scott recently completed serving a three-year term as an elected Board Member of CSMFO, and currently serves as chair of the Administration Committee. He is also a past Chair of the Career Development Committee, Professional Standards and Recognition Committee, and Inland Empire Chapter.