Professional Experience
Edward has over 31 years of experience as a municipal Chief Financial Officer (CFO); having worked as the CFO for three suburban communities. The communities Edward served range in size from 4,700 residents to 22,000 residents; with annual budgets ranging from 4 million dollars to 74 million dollars. During his tenure as CFO, Edward duties included a wide range of fiscal, administrative, and project management responsibilities. He provided leadership for all financial operations to include financial planning, reporting, auditing, debt issuance, and purchasing; while working to ensure the adoption of best practices and superior customer service. He diligently worked to improve the capital planning process by establishing the use of Citizen Advisory Committees to evaluate and prioritize allocation of limited financial resources. He was responsible for overseeing the work of investment managers for assets up to 100 million dollars. He routinely worked on economic development issues, to include Tax Increment Financing and sales tax sharing arrangements.
In his capacity as CFO, Edward assisted with the implementation processes to make internal and external information sharing more efficient overseeing many hardware, software, and office automation improvements. He was the financial lead on a Computer Aided Dispatch system study for Winnetka and four other North Shore communities.
Edward served as Treasurer of two insurance pools, The Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency (IRMA) and the High Excess Liability Pool; revising asset allocations to match project needs and evaluating claims management. Edward was also a delegate to the Intergovernmental Personnel Benefits Cooperative health insurance pool. Edward assisted in administering a seven city water agency; performed accounting and grants management for a regional police task force, reviewed and updated mutual aid agreements, and negotiated contracts to provide services outside of municipal borders.
Post-retirement, Edward has volunteered his expertise to assist numerous municipal governments to adopt and maintain sound financial management practices. Examples of his volunteerism include assisting with the recruitment of a finance director; advising police departments on extraterritorial service contract pricing and staffing changes; and working with the Illinois Mutual Aid Box Alarm System to advise fire and EMS agencies on financial best practices and creating capital improvement plans for vehicle and special operation team equipment purchases.
Working with the Northern Illinois Public Safety Training Academy, Edward developed and presented the fire finance and budgeting program for fire officers. Edward also developed training modules including: Introduction to Local Government Revenues; Pension Fund Responsibilities; Worker’s Compensation; Red Flag Rules; and Pension Funds and Capital Markets.
Education and Training
Edward earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance with a minor in Economics from Northern Illinois University and a has completed master’s level accounting courses at DePaul University and Roosevelt University. He has also attended the Government Finance Officers’ Association’s Advance Finance Institute in Madison, Wisconsin. Edward is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the State of Illinois. He is also received certification from the Intergovernmental Risk Management Agency as a Basic Risk Manager.
Committees and Professional Organizations
Edward was a 30+ year member of the Government Finance Officers’ Association and is currently a 34+ year member of the Illinois Government Finance Officers’ Association.