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Strategy, Innovation & Finance staff outline operations, challenges and priorities for county fiscal management
Summary
Jefferson County’s Strategy, Innovation & Finance (SIF) leadership briefed commissioners on the department’s structure, recent accomplishments, ongoing challenges (role clarity, standardization and staffing) and planned improvements including Power BI dashboards, grant life-cycle coordination and procurement process upgrades.
Jefferson County’s Strategy, Innovation & Finance department presented an overview of its work, recent accomplishments and planned priorities to the Board of County Commissioners on June 17.
Dan Conway, chief financial officer, opened the presentation and described SIF as the county’s business arm, responsible for finance, grants, procurement and strategic planning. Conway and division leads summarized recent accomplishments including: improvements to vendor and accounts-payable processes tied to the Workday conversion; managing multiple simultaneous budget development cycles during the ballot-measure and fiscal-year transitions; award-winning budget and financial reporting; creation and maturing of a grants-management function that handled CARES and ARPA funding; and strengthened internal-audit and payroll controls.
SIF staff also outlined persistent challenges: a lack of role clarity and standardization across decentralized financial functions (some accounting and budget functions remain in other departments), pay-equity and recruitment pressures, increased workload without commensurate new resources, and evolving accounting standards that require ongoing system and policy updates. Conway said the department has worked through leadership transitions while maintaining essential operations.
Planned improvements highlighted by staff include greater automation and dashboarding using Power BI, coordination of the county’s grant life-cycle management to pursue and manage more external funding, procurement process improvements and training, and continued policy-and-procedure updates to improve standardization and quality control. Staff said they will also explore revenue diversification strategies and improved integration between Workday and other county systems.
Commissioners thanked the SIF team for their work and noted the department’s importance to county operations. Staff did not request specific board action during the briefing; the presentation was informational and staff said they will continue to brief the board as projects and implementations progress.
