CSMFO Board Interview with Richard Lee

What are your 2019 goals as CSMFO Board Member?

For 2019, my top priority is to bring the CSMFO App to fruition. As CSMFO continues to grow, so does our need to provide the means for members to collaborate, learn, and engage with one other. The goal of the CSMFO App is to harvest the wealth of current mobile application technology to bring CSMFO’s resources to our members’ fingertips.

What 2019 CSMFO events are you really excited about?

While the annual conference is the pinnacle of the year for most of our members, the need for ongoing professional development and collaboration with our colleagues doesn’t end with the conference. Local chapters fulfill this need, and serve as the lifeblood of CSMFO. As board liaison to the Northeast Counties, Peninsula, and Monterey Bay chapters, I enjoy meetings members all throughout the state. I’ve found that we have a lot in common, including a passion for public service and a love for CSMFO.

I really enjoy the annual strategic planning session, where CSMFO leadership evaluates progress on our organizational goals, the near-term and long-term direction of CSMFO, and ultimately, how to best serve our members.

What were early obstacles in your career…and how did you overcome them?

Early on in my career, the finance department was faced with low morale, high turnover, and a resultant loss of institutional knowledge. Being one of the willing and able staff members that remained, I was faced with primary responsibility for tasks that I had previously played a minor role in before, such as bank reconciliation, budget preparation, year-end close, and preparing the CAFR. While I lacked the relevant experience and requisite knowledge, the opportunity afforded the unique chance to review the City’s various processes, identify efficiencies, and leverage business intelligence technology to drastically improve financial reporting, budgeting, labor costing, and communication between financial systems. In hindsight, I recognize that the obstacles were inflection points where I could have avoided the adversity and conflict by just keeping my head down. Instead, I chose to accept the challenge by addressing the obstacles head on, and in the process, built a foundation of critical skills and established a reputation for achieving success in the face of adversity.

Looking back at your career thus far, who would you like to thank for being there for you?

I have been fortunate to have good people in my corner for many years.

My mother, Dale Lee, served the South San Francisco Unified School District for nearly 25 years, and taught me the value of public service. My father, Francis Lee, espoused the dedicated work ethic of his father and that of the Chinese immigrants in the early part of the 20th century.

Very early in my career, Ricardo Santiago and Lin-lin Cheng from the City of Foster City gave a complete neophyte the opportunity to build a core understanding of municipal finance operations.

Christine Ma from the City of Millbrae was my first career mentor. She was the first person that recognized my potential, and encouraged me to pursue municipal finance as a career. She told me very early on that I would be a finance director someday. I didn’t believe her at the time, because I was still pursuing a career in music and taking orchestral auditions all over the country. She was the first person I called when I was first appointed a finance director in 2015.

Nick Pegueros and Carl Cahill from the Town of Los Altos Hills took a chance on me. I was very inexperienced, and yet, they gave me my first management role, which served as the impetus for believing that I might have the capacity to be a finance director someday.

Jim Steele took me under his wing in South San Francisco, and always made time to show me the insights of what a good Finance Director would do. During my first couple of months of being a director, John DeRussy, CSMFO Past President, was a sage mentor. He encouraged me to get involved with CSMFO leadership – specifically with the Career Development Committee. Drew Corbett, also CSMFO Past President, provided me with the opportunity to take the helm of the Peninsula Chapter. All of which has culminated in my current role as a Board Member.

Within CSMFO leadership, there are two colleagues that I am honored to call my closest friends – Will Fuentes and Grace Castaneda. They define and personify exemplary leadership qualities – authenticity, altruism, and dedication.

Throughout my adult life, my wife has been my number one fan, my partner, and ardent supporter, no matter the hair-brained idea; whether auditioning for the President’s Own Marine Band in Washington D.C. or taking on the challenge of being a finance director.

What led you to your first government job?

I was home for the summer after my first year of grad school, seeking any work that I could find to earn some income. My girlfriend’s father (now my father-in-law) asked if I was good with computers. He asked if I would be interested in working part time. I had no idea what he did for a living. He mentioned that he worked for a local city. Being a poor college student, I happily accepted. I soon discovered that he was the finance director, and that I was going to learn accounts payable so that a staff member could take some time off during the summer. I had no idea that what began as a means to pay the bills would become my life’s purpose and calling.

What is your favorite food and why?

Before July 2017, I would have said sushi. Since that time, I’ve been on the Keto diet to improve my health and lose weight. By February 2018, I reached my goal of losing 40 pounds, and have maintained my weight by sticking to the diet. As such, cobb salad is a staple for me. You can’t go wrong with a diet that allows bacon, right?

What super power would you like and why?

One of my favorite movies is The Green Mile with Tom Hanks. One of the primary protagonists, John Coffey, played by Michael Clarke Duncan (RIP), could heal illness and disease by laying his hands on the afflicted. At salient times during our lives, we are all touched by illness, disease, and death. It’s intriguing to fathom how a power like that would completely shift the landscape of the world we live in. Actuarial mortality assumptions would get completely obliterated!

What soft skills and technical skills really impress you when you are interviewing candidates?

I prefer the term interpersonal skills rather than soft skills (tip of the hat to Neil Kupchin). The adjective implies that they are less valuable than technical skills. The desired balance of both is dependent upon the position. If the role is managerial, while I expect the candidate to possess a commensurate amount of technical experience and ability, I focus is on their ability to effectively lead and mentor their staff members. I enjoy hearing from candidates that share examples of working with underperforming staff members, emphasizing the importance of accountability, establishing expectations, and guiding them toward the best possible version of themselves.

If the role is more technical, I’m more interested in candidates’ capacity to learn and effectively execute to expectations. I value candidates that have successfully led major organizational changes, especially to peers that oppose change, and demonstrate the interpersonal and technical skills that were needed to complete the effort.

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