CFO Awards: Lunda Asmani opened the books for his taxpayers

Lunda Asmani has brought a level of transparency and clarity to city finances that was well-timed in this era of heightened public scrutiny of government spending around the country.

“... We really needed somebody that had that skill set that Lunda has ... that can turn a complex system of dollars and cents into understandable policies that the governing body has adopted and ... make it easy for citizens to access information that may not have been available in previous years,” Newton City Manager Randy Riggs says.

Working with city staff, Asmani set out in 2010 to find ways to be more transparent in sharing city finances, reassuring citizens the city was well-managed, while also being open about challenges.

“My approach has been to take a broader view,” says Asmani, 41, who previously spent nine years at Sedgwick County, as a business analyst and principal budget analyst, and was a Wichita Business Journal 40 Under 40 winner in 2011.

That view includes implementing five-year forecasting. Also, he began quarterly financial reports, highlighting performance versus budget and where the city expects to be at year end. The city’s annual budget is about $45 million.

Asmani expanded financial reports in a 200-plus page Budget Book with operational and financial information for all city departments. It’s published online and in print.

Riggs says Asmani “really did take (the Budget Book) to a new level in terms of the different types of reports it contains and how it can be used by anyone to better understand the way municipal finances work and specifically those here.”

Asmani says the book is a communications tool with citizens.

“It is user-friendly,” he says. “We use pictures and charts and graphs ... because not everybody is going to wake up and get excited about reading a finance document — and this is a way to do that.”

The book has won awards from the Government Finance Officers Association since Asmani’s arrival.

Working with the city’s public information officer, Asmani also created a condensed version of the book called the Popular Annual Finance Report. The full-color, easy-to-read document is nine pages online.

Also, Standard & Poor’s recently upgraded the city’s bond rating to AA-, indicating the city’s strong capacity to meet its financial commitments. The city attributed the upgrade to the city’s fund balances, responsible financial policies and changes in rating criteria. The rating is the city’s highest ever.

Asmani says being a CFO isn’t just about balancing the books.

“... It’s more about managing and budgeting the resources that the city has in its entirety,” he says. “I define resources not just as financial, but human resources, the capital, the infrastructure that we have, the tools that we need to provide the service. And it’s about stewardship, being a good steward of public resources, because at the end of the day, that’s what we are, it’s stewardship of public resources.”

Asmani, born in Tanzania, comes from a public-service family. His father was charge d’affaire at the Tanzanian Embassy in Rome when he retired. That offered Asmani a global experience growing up, from elementary school in New York, to middle and high school in Europe to undergraduate studies in Africa before returning to the U.S. for grad school at Wichita State University

His mother worked for the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

“It’s almost like it’s the family business,” he says. “I grew up in a household that valued public service.”

Asmani says the environment in Newton created by its appointed and elected leadership makes his job easy and fun.

“All the department heads ... it’s an awesome team to work with and ... you’re not going up against brick walls to propose ideas to do things,” he says. “I would be remiss if I said that this is all me. There’s no way that you can have these .... successes without a good team and good leadership to get you there.”

Title: Assistant city manager, city of Newton.

Education: Master’s in public administration, Wichita State University;Graduate certificate in public finance; Graduate certificate in economic development; Certified public finance officer.

Experience: 2010-present, assistant city manager for budget and finance, city of Newton; 2003-present, adjunct instructor of economics, Butler Community College;2002-2005, principal budget analyst, Sedgwick County; 2005-2010, business systems analyst, Sedgwick County.

Family: Wife, Katina; children Isaiah, 11, Kristina, 7.

Source:Wichita Business Journal