Staying Engaged with CSMFO after Retirement (Part II)
This is part two in a four-part series and will spotlight Joan Michaels Aguilar, CSMFO Past President (2019) and former Director of Finance for the City of King City and Deputy City Manager – Administrative Services for the City of Dixon.
Joan Michaels Aguilar, Principal HdL Companies
Pre-retirement career in CSMFO:
A long time ago, in a galaxy…I started out in Burbank part-time in a high school working in the library, which morphed to full time in a film-tv research library that was part of the city. Fast forward and I found my passion in finance in 1997, helping reconcile FEMA records while working in another department, before being hired as an analyst for budget/debt.
I first got involved in CSMFO back when the conference was in Burbank and there were room monitors! Burbank’s Finance Director, Derek Hanway, saw how the industry was evolving and wanted to have more women involved in leadership/committees and recommended me to the Budget Committee when Bill Statler was President. I was fortunate to be appointed, as I was an Administrative Analyst working on budgets at the time and it was generally frowned upon to not be a director or assistant for committee work. It was a great opportunity, and I got to work on a variety of committees from Administration to Membership to Conference Host. I also believe it helped my career, as I moved to Budget Manager in Burbank and eventually to a Finance Director job in King City, plus roles as Finance Manager in Covina and Controller in Azusa. After moving to Northern California, I put my name forward for consideration for President-Elect and am proud to have served as President in 2019. In each organization, I did make it clear to my respective bosses that involvement to CSMFO was important to me and tried to encourage others to join or participate in training/conferences or leadership openings.
Staying engaged after retirement:
I retired from CalPERS during the pandemic while working at a law firm and unfortunately had to give up my role of Past President due to CSMFO by-laws. I was, however, appointed to be on the 2021 Host Committee which wound up being a virtual conference, as well as being very active on the Communications Committee in 2021 and still attending Board meetings. I took an opportunity to work at HdL as a Principal starting in the spring of 2021, and it has been tremendous as I know the company is very supportive of CSMFO. I worked as part of ad hoc committee to review commercial member involvement in CSMFO and am one of the two Senior Advisors of the newly established committee.
Why opted to contribute to local government finance:
For myself, I see it as giving back and encouraging others to either continue in the municipal finance profession or get involved in a leadership capacity within CSMFO. I will sometimes comment during a client meeting to give props to members on committees to thank them for their involvement. With many people retiring from government in general, there is a critical need to maintain excellence through education, networking, and mentoring in order to provide the tools for the leaders of the future.
Joan Michaels Aguilar has over 41 years public sector experience, most recently as the Deputy City Manager – Administrative Services for the City of Dixon. In this role, she managed annual budget operations, debt administration and technology aspects including website management and social media. Joan began her career in Burbank working in a variety of departments in her 23 years with the city. She has also worked in King City, Azusa and Covina, and did consulting work for the cities of Colton and Stockton. She recently worked at a legal firm in Sacramento assisting public sector clients with special district administration review, COVID-19 matters and municipal code updates. Joan became active with CSMFO in 1981 while with the City of Burbank. While with the City of Dixon, Ms. Aguilar became a CSMFO Northern California Board Member and in 2019, she became CSMFO President. She remains active in CSMFO on the Communications Committee. She holds a Master of Public Administration from California State University, Northridge and a Bachelor of Arts in Management from the University of Phoenix.
