Comments on: Oakland’s part-time CFO

By: Katy Murphy

Katy Murphy — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:44:24 +0000

Ken: OUSD actually does have a full-time CFO now. Vernon Hal started Dec. 1.

http://www.ibabuzz.com/education/2008/11/26/oaklands-new-cfo/

By: Ken Kaufman

Ken Kaufman — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 02:27:17 +0000

I am part of a company that places part-time CFOs in businesses. We usually find that once a company (in the for profit sector) hits $50-$75 million in sales they need a full-time CFO, of course in addition to the rest of the accounting and finance department fully functional.

I am not familar off-hand with the Oakland school district’s size, but i am positive it far exceeds the threshhold I described. In my opinion, they definitely need someone full time.

By: Oakland’s new CFO - The Education Report - Katy Murphy covers what’s going on in the Oakland schools

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:16:11 +0000

[...] Monday, Vernon E. Hal will replace Leon Glaster as the Oakland school district’s chief financial officer. Unlike many of the school [...]

By: John

John — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:58:22 +0000

I remember the OUSD board voting to eliminate the two internal district auditors. Later they abruptly learned about a gross budget deficiency triggering an OUSD state take-over.

Given the low priority the board places on mental fiscal muscle perhaps a (permanent) state administrator pent house should be constructed a top the central administration building. It could include a wet bar with plenty of ‘dejavu sour grape’ for vintage board members.

By: turner

turner — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:41:48 +0000

OUSD has a CFO and a Controller. The Controller monitors the current and past financial operations. The CFO manages the big picture and acts as the economist for the district. OUSD has the proper structure in the Financial area for a big company.

I just don’t get why the OUSD leadership thinks that an entity with a half-a-billion in transactions a year can get by with a part-time CFO. Are our problems part-time?

By: Nextset

Nextset — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:09:20 +0000

The CFO may just be an operations guy similar to a Controller who makes sure that the checking account is balanced, the bills are paid, and has the right meetings, negotiations and phone calls about contract issues. The Schools and municipalities also need an economist/planner so their boards are warned that the property tax revenue will tank and have a good forecast of what the likely income and expenses will be.

The cities are getting mid-budget surprises about revenue and such variable costs as fuel. These surprises which should have been forcasts much earlier are coming too late to smoothly adjust to them. So they abruptly “adjust” to them.

As volitility increases we see more sudden adjustments. That shouldn’t have to happen.