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September 14, 2019
Koff & Associates
Berkeley, CA
Dear Koff & Associates:
I am applying for the position of Assistant Director of Finance for the City of San Jose for which you are
currently recruiting.
Presently I am the Finance Director for Highland City in Utah. Highland is a city of 18,000 residents with
a general fund budget of $9,000,000 and an overall budget of $18,000,000 when including the
enterprise funds. I supervise and evaluate the performance of the Treasurer, Accounts Payable/HR
assistant and the Utility Billing Clerk. The city’s budget process begins in February and culminates in June
when the final budget is approved by the city council. I perform the budgeting, revenue and expense
forecasting, variance analysis, cash flow forecasting, all accounting functions including fixed assets and
closing the books monthly. In addition, I manage our relationships with our bank, insurance brokers and
outside auditors including coordinating the city’s year-end close.
I have two Master’s degrees, one in taxation and one in business. In addition, I am a CCM (Certified Cash
Manager), CMA (Certified Management Accountant) and I have earned the ARM-P (Associate in Risk
Management for Public Entities) designation.
When I worked at Tri-Valley Growers I was the Accounts Payable Project Lead in converting from Oracle
to SAP. At Lawrence Livermore lab I was the Accounts Payable Manager Lead for upgrading from Oracle
version 10.7 to 11.5 and converting to using Oracle Project Accounting. At Art.com I was the Senior
Manager of Accounts Payable and the Project Lead for AP in an ERP implementation from Great Plains
version 10 to Oracle Financials. In all these opportunities, I learned the importance of team building,
that users should drive the system requirements and not the IT department, having a detailed testing
plan and the importance of communicating issues to the project manager in a timely manner.
When I started with Highland City, the budget was done with a lot of paper going back and forth
between departments and most communication with the City Council was done late in the budget
process. I moved the budget to a master spreadsheet and implemented a budget work session with the
City Council earlier in the budget calendar to go over in detail the budget priorities before any public
budget meeting was required. It made the process smoother and easier.
In addition, I was the lead in a project at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to improve the invoice
workflow approval process between accounts payable and purchasing. At Art.com, I was the lead on an
automatic invoice matching process project. The Livermore project saved an estimated 100 man-hours
per month. The Art.com project was never completed due to a change in budget priorities.
In addition, I have worked with consultants to update the city’s impact fees, utility rates and forecasting
the general fund balance for the next five years.
I believe my background fits very well the requirements and desired traits for the Assistant Director of
Finance position. I would enjoy speaking with you about my qualifications for the job.
Sincerely,
R. Gary LeCheminant.