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This article was updated Jan. 23 to include the addition of Erin Monroe to the panel.
Edmonds Mayor Mike Rosen on Tuesday said he has appointed a new member to his blue-ribbon panel of experts designed to help the city achieve financial resiliency and instill confidence and trust among community members.
The newest panel member — Erin Monroe, CPA — is a former state auditor.
The mayor’s announcement comes after some questioned why Rosen didn’t include a woman as part of the advisory group.
“I had hoped to add someone who had worked as a state auditor to the panel but hadn’t had any luck,” Rosen said Tuesday. “Fortunately, I received a referral to Ms. Monroe this morning, and she has graciously accepted the offer to join the panel. She brings decades of experience and she will be a real asset to the city in this work.”
The panel will utilize the Government Finance Officers Association “Fiscal First Aid” methodology, according to a city news release.
The 12 steps of the process fall into three core stages, the release said: bridge, reform and transform. In bridge, the goal is to avert immediate crises. In reform, the goal is to balance the budget without making things worse in the long run. And in transform, the goal is to come back better, stronger and more resilient than before. This process will include a review of how the city arrived at fiscal distress to help ensure it doesn’t repeat any missteps that were made.
“Ultimately the group will provide actionable recommendations for the recovery and resilience of our finances and help ensure that future decisions are grounded in the use of best practices,” Rosen said. “I look forward to working with this panel as they undergo this unprecedented review, help us rebuild and where necessary reinvent how we generate and spend our precious financial resources on critical, and basic community services.”
The City of Edmonds had a much-smaller-than-anticipated ending fund balance for 2023, which prompted the council to declare a fiscal emergency in October. The challenges are anticipated to continue into 2024 and 2025,
The six-member blue-ribbon panel will report directly to Rosen. Updates and recommendations will be delivered to the Edmonds City Council, with key findings and recommendations shared publicly.
The panel will be led by Mike Bailey, former finance director for the cities of Everett, Redmond, Lynnwood and Renton, among others. He is a former member of the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) board of directors and a national trainer and consultant for the GFOA. He has successfully guided cities across the U.S. through this process, the city said.
Bailey has also been a facilitator at several Edmonds City Council retreats, sharing budgeting best practices.
Bailey has been contracted to lead the panel for a $10,000 fee. The remaining panelists will serve as volunteers.
Other members of the panel include:
Troy Rector, CPA, CGMA
A Clark Nuber shareholder in the firm’s Not-for-Profit and Public Sector Service Groups, Troy Rector has led financial statement audits of some of the firm’s largest government entities. He leads single audit engagements covering a range of federal agencies and programs including the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act and ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act). In addition, Rector advises organizations concerning compliance with federal grant requirements, including compliance gap analysis, procurement systems, subrecipient monitoring and indirect cost rate proposals.
Scott James, CPA
Scott James served as the City of Edmonds finance director from 2014 to 2020. When he left the city, Edmonds was in a strong financial position and had earned an AAA long-term rating from Standard & Poors. James has also been the finance director for the cities of Mukilteo, Sunnyside, Snohomish and Stanwood. He now serves as the finance director for Edmonds Waterfront Center.
Rick Canning
Rick Canning has 35-plus years as a chief financial officer, leading finances and budgeting at hospitals and health care systems. He has also led the preparation and implementation of many financial turn-around plans. More recently, he was the CFO/COO at Stevens Hospital, a governmental district hospital, including during the hospital’s transition to Swedish Edmonds.
Carl Zapora
Carl Zapora is the former CEO of Verdant Health, where he was responsible for the 200-bed hospital district entity, financial and capital assets. He oversaw a $10 million annual budget and $70 million in assets. Previously, Zapora served as president and CEO of United Way of Snohomish County and vice president and mid-America regional director for United Way of America, with responsibility for 600 United Ways in 20 states.
Darrol Haug
While working for AT&T, Darrol Haug did long-range planning for the Bell System, including long-range revenue forecasting for the local Bell affiliate US West. He has served on several school district committees developing long-range enrollment studies, new school construction, and other levy issues. For Edmonds, he has served on three Economic Development Commissions, two levy committees, and helped develop the Edmonds Strategic Action Plan.
Erin Monroe, CPA
Erin Monroe is a certified public accountant with over 25 years of experience in the private and public sectors and over 14 years in executive management. She is currently the president of Monroe & Associates, dba Ultralign, LLC and either provides professional financial consulting to organizations or acts as their interim CEO or CFO. Monroe’s experience includes serving as an assistant audit manager for the State of Washington and an internal auditor for PEMCO, CFO/CEO/president at Workforce Snohomish. She also served as an accountant at the City of Edmonds.
The work of the panel will begin immediately and is expected to conclude mid-year. “I express my deep gratitude to these distinguished individuals for the work they are about to do by sharing their exceptional expertise, experience and vision to our critical need,” Rosen said.
Unfortunate that there are no women on this panel…
Good 1st step, Mr Mayor, in solving some of Edmonds fiscal issues. With cooperation with City Council members, I am optimistic.
I admit I’m disappointed that there aren’t any women on this panel. Id be curious to know if Mayor Rosen reached out to any to be a part of it.
This is literally all old men…
I’m offended. What’s wrong with being old and experienced, Luke?
Come on Luke – a cheap agist and sexist comment from you? You can (and usually) do better. Just because they are older, perhaps have assigned male gender, and (although I do not know) are Caucasian, does not mean they are useless or do not provide value. I am not sure what you are implying here but seems to be a rhetoric loaded cheap shot.
I am happy that there are 6 folks willing to volunteer with the needed expertise and glad to see that a sense of urgency has been placed on the fiscal matters. I do also agree that some “diversity of age” to some degree could be refreshing, but again, I would suspect that additional work from the panel (and knowing Darol) would include some outreach to the various groups that need to be represented in the City.
I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth – even an old one – because it is the most pro-active solution to a real issue in a while…
We have a budget problem and this is a step to correct that. Thank you Mayor Rosen. The best minds with experience to back it up are the goal here, so sex, race, sexual preference, political affiliation are irrevelant.. Question: This group is identified as a “Blue Ribbon Panel” and I’m not sure what that means. Yes, the best of the best, but Is this a consultant that the city is paying? If so, what is the cost?
Here’s some background on the concept of a blue-ribbon panel:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-ribbon_committee#:~:text=The%20%22blue%2Dribbon%22%20aspect,process%20for%20study%20and%20decisions.
I believe everyone participating is a volunteer but I could be wrong about that. — Teresa
Editor, can you update your article with the facts on compensation for this committee? That would be a fact that your readers are interest in. When Shoreline did a very similar effort, they convened a volunteer group.
Here are the details: Mr. Bailey is doing the work as a consultant for $10k. Everyone else is a volunteer.
Bravo to Mayor Rosen for reading comments on MEN or listening to those of us that said a task force is needed (like Finch LLC is looking at our Fire Services). This task force will be very helpful for Council and the Citizens of Edmonds as Mike Bailey and Scott James have a superior grasp of municipal finance and are very communicative professionals that don’t hide behind deflection. I certainly hope that Council does not solely rely on this group to provide all the answers and will still request of the Administration to work collaboratively with Council on all the financial policies we tried to edit or “tweak” for the past three years.
Tonight, Council will receive Ordinance 3789 which former attorney Scott Snyder and I wrote in 2010 creating a new chapter for “Financial Reporting” which is now needed. The City’s Quarterly Financial Reports fell by the wayside in 2022 regardless if Councilmembers or Citizens requested them over the past year. In hindsight, Council should have edited the Ordinance rather than repealing it. But hindsight is 20/20; and CouncilMember Chen knows he has many supporting him as Finance Chair on these policy needs or changes.
Citizens have to realize that the Titanic is sinking fast and that drastic measures will be needed so this group will be very helpful mechanics.
An excellent group! The work to be done requires the backgrounds that this group possess; diversity isn’t needed.
Yikes. Some of these comments really are inappropriate, talk about sour grapes from a bunch of losers. The days of identity politics are hopefully fading fast. We should be thanking this group for coming forward and helping the city in a moment of financial crisis. I’m sure they were selected based on their knowledge, skills, experience, and commitment to the community. I would like to thank Mayor Rosen and wish this group the best.
This move by Mayor Rosen is like a breath of fresh air. Finally, the City is ‘tapping into’ the volunteered expertise of local folks (including Edmonds residents), well-experienced in areas relative to the need, and hopefully much more open and realistic in dealing with our citizenry as opposed to some ‘off the shelf’ overly-paid outside consultant.
I, for one, am looking forward to the process.
This is excellent.
Thanks to Will Chen, the financial problems of the city finally came to light.
It’s a truly desperate situation.
Now, tapping into our pool of talented and experienced volunteers, Mayor Rosen is working aggressively on solving our immediate dilemma and preparing us for future security.
Rosen is more than living up to his campaign promises.
The New Mayor is off to a good start. It sounds like a superb team and my hats off to them for stepping into the spotlight — !!
At the very least, it would be nice to see some diversity of age. I appreciate the sentiment of age = wisdom, but at what age will my generation (or honestly, at this point, the millennials behind me) get to take up the mantle and work on the issues that will affect us and ultimately, our children? I feel like the older generations have had lots of time and say and it would behoove the entire community to bring in different perspectives. Here, we’re simply sliding back to status quo where we might have a big slush fund, but we’re not providing needed services and updating infrastructure. We just lived through a pandemic and the whole sky is falling narrative about the budget is a little dramatic. We added necessary things, like human services, that kept our most vulnerable afloat. That is important too. The City is not a bank, it is a public service.
The members of this group have the expertise to competently deal with this issue today. Time is of the essence; there is no time available to accommodate trainees. Additionally, younger people are very likely employed and therefore not available when this group is likely to be working.
This is the best news article and comments I’ve read in MEN for months. Great job and approach, new Mayor Rosen! Buckshnis is back on the record with all her great insight and financial expertise. And Distelhorst’s comment proves the voters were right when they said thanks for your service; but don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Hint, Luke: ageist comments don’t come across well when made by overly Liberal zealots like yourself. People like you are one of the big reasons, I’ve become an Independent “old man,” politically speaking.
Liberal zealots??? MEN : Are we really going to allow direct name calling. Conservative has-beens?
Let’s roll. Subscription donations….. Will dry up because of minds like this.
And they are, “literally all old men” is not direct name calling toward the good folks on this panel?
I like Luke. I have always found him upfront, honest, and when he served on council, one of the few that responded thoughtfully and in a timely manner. I did find the comment a little childish at a minimum and certainly agist and sexist on the face – but I am giving Luke the benefit of the doubt, and assuming that both age and gender identity have nothing to do with the ability of the panel to complete the task at hand.
We should drop the labeling – including the labels Luke assigned and the derogatory Zealots, Fascists and other crap that gets slung around these days. What happened to Conservative or Progressive ideas – wait, those are still here and usually met in the middle through collaboration.
Nonetheless, bravo to the Mayor for putting together a group of knowledgeable individuals who are willing to volunteer their time to assist in any way they can.
The only person I know well, or at all really, on this commission is Mr. Haug and I can absolutely assure everyone that this man belongs on this commission. Darrol is not only an expert on many city issues (especially the Fire Service taxation question) , he has also been very active with ESD 15 for many years and is a friend and advocate for our young people. If you are relatively Young or very young; this is a guy who will listen to your input and try to give you facts and not just opinions; so the truth is; you do have some representation here. As to the not having female representation, I would agree that this is a bit of a negative, and I’d like to have seen Diane B. and Teresa Hollis a part of it. But, trust me, these ladies will not be shy about inserting their comments and opinions whenever and wherever needed. Strong women ROCK and will be a part of this, whether officially members or not.
Funny the people using DEI as a complaint against a volunteer panel are all people associated with folks that were voted out of office or not elected to office. Remember you can’t always get what you want. Try again next election cycle. Or volunteer.
For the record “Liberal zealots” is admittedly just my opinion of what I think Mr. Distelhorst and his three lock step voting partners were on the City Council he was appointed to. This is the group that gave us the 9th. Ave. Bike Lane debacle and supported the then Mayor’s hate portal. Both rather bad ideas if you ask me. I very much try not to attack people for things they have no control over and virtually nothing to do with the conversation, like gender, skin color, who their parents were or weren’t and AGE, for example. Mr. Distelhorst made a blatantly biased and ageist comment and I defend my right to call him on it. I think he owes everyone on this panel and MEN readers an apology for his comment.
I vouch for the one volunteer member of the Panel I know, Mr. Darrol Haug. Darrol has extensive experience in Edmonds and I’m certain his knowledge of Edmonds city governance equals or exceeds that of Council members, past and present. He is a man of integrity who has no personal goals by serving on this committee, only advocacy for what’s best for the citizens of Edmonds. I applaud Mayor Rosen’s choice of Darrol Haug for this crucially important role.
Wow, this is a lot of work for volunteers to do! I’m that there’s a paid facilitator. I wonder how citizens will be able to follow along/contribute to the process. Also glad a woman was added. Kinda weird that wasn’t done in the first place. It’s really important for citizen groups to reflect the community they serve!