President Elect Update
Hello CSMFO Membership. With Thanksgiving upon us, I wanted to express my thanks and gratitude for being a part of CSMFO and for the opportunity to serve as your President for 2023. I look forward to connecting with you all at the 2023 Annual Conference, through our various charitable giving opportunities, and/or at one of my holiday musical performances! Speaking of which…
2023 Annual Conference
The Host Committee and Program Committee are putting the finishing touches on the 2023 Annual Conference; scheduled from January 31 to February 3, 2023 in Sacramento, CA. If you haven’t registered yet for our 80’s inspired “Back to the Capital” event, early registration ends on Monday, December 5th. After December 5th, the registration rate will increase from $470 to $575 for government members and from $730 to $805 for commercial members.
Coinciding with the Annual Conference, The Day of Service at the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services is all set for Tuesday, January 31, 2023. CSMFO members from all walks of life will be donating their time to bag fresh produce and sorting non-perishable food times. All told, CSMFO participants will be donating nearly 100 hours of time for a great cause.
2022-23 Wellness Challenge
We are a little over one month into the 2022-23 Wellness Challenge. We have 50 active participants that have completed over 1,000 hours of exercise in aggregate. Through week five, Past President Laura Nomura from Eastern Municipal Water District is in the lead with 51.75 hours of exercise; Laura Labanieh, CEO of CalTRUST is in second with 46.85 hours; Victor Shin, Director, Senior Lead Government Relationship Manager from Bank of the West is in third with 46.55 hours. Keep up the great work!
As a reminder, to incentivize the Wellness Challenge participants, I am contributing $100 each to the top ten participants’ nonprofit of choice from our selected charitable organizations (Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services, Sacramento Loaves & Fishes, and My Sister’s House). Additionally, Chris Morrill, GFOA Executive Director, has also generously offered $100 each to the top three participants’ nonprofit of choice (from the three listed above). And last, but not least, the CSMFO Board has also generously agreed to provide a matching contribution of up to $25,000.
Personal/Professional/Potpourri
In case you missed it, I was fortunate to be interviewed for GFOA’s FINE(ance) Fridays podcast and kicked off Season Two. The podcast episode can be found here.
In addition to getting the ACFR out the door, spending time with my family, preparing for the CSMFO Annual Conference, and trying to get at least 1.5 hours of exercise a day for the Wellness Challenge, this holiday season will be even busier with an active performance calendar. In December, I’ll be returning to the music pit after a seven-year hiatus for Elf the Musical (yes, there is a musical!), two brass quartet performances, and two performances of Duke Ellington’s arrangement of The Nutcracker; the first of which will be at the venerable SF Jazz venue. If you happen to drop by one of the performances, come say hello! I’ll be the one playing the bass trombone.
Rich Lee has served local municipalities all throughout the San Francisco Peninsula over the past 17 years, including South San Francisco, Los Altos Hills, Millbrae, Foster City, and since January 2019, as the Finance Director for the City of San Mateo.
Rich was elected as President-Elect of CSMFO in October 2021. He has also served in other leadership roles, including Board Member, Chapter Chair, and Vice Chair of the Career Development Committee. In 2019, he was appointed to GFOA’s Ethics Committee.
Rich is also an active freelance bass trombonist and has performed with several artists, including Barbra Streisand, Peter Cetera, Gladys Knight, Bernadette Peters, and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. He has also performed and recorded several albums with local jazz big bands
During the pandemic, Rich developed audio and video engineering skills and received two awards from Music In Place, a non-profit organization providing support to San Francisco Bay Area musicians to continue creating music while sheltering in place. His various isolation music projects are available on YouTube.
