Harmon moving on to CFO position
City of Lindsay in search of new finance director
Bret Harmon, who currently serves as the finance director for the City of Lindsay, will be leaving his position to become the court financial officer for the Tulare County Superior Court in Visalia on March 1.
“It has been a wonderful growing experience for me,” said Harmon about working as both the finance director and city clerk for the City of Lindsay.
Harmon, who grew up in Oregon, started working in Lindsay on Jan. 1, 2017. He has done a lot for the city since then such as putting together Measure O, the city’s onepercent sales tax measure that was passed last year, putting together the city’s operating budget for fiscal year 2017-18, and, under the mentorship of Eric Frost, the former deputy city manager for the City of Visalia, has delved into Lindsay’s finances.
“He [Eric Frost] was a huge help,” Harmon said. “It was great to learn from him.”
City Manager Bill Zigler said Harmon and Frost specifically looked into the city’s finances from the early 2000s through about 2006 and determined where money had been pulled to fund the Mcdermont Field House.
“He had been able to do finance projections for us to show us where Mcdermont needed to be to be self funding, and we put Mcdermont on a path to do that,” Zigler said, adding that Harmon has also been involved with labor negotiations, helped the city’s fire department purchase a new fire truck and has provided invaluable information to the Lindsay City Council so they can make informed decisions. “He has just done so many things.”
Before he was the head of Lindsay’s finance department, Harmon worked as the vice president of client relations for Muniservices, LLC, a company based in Fresno that specializes in revenue enhancement services for municipalities. He worked there from 2003 to the end of 2016.
As far as his new position, Harmon said it was an opportunity that he didn’t want to pass up, especially as it will bring him closer to his family in Visalia.
“It is a good opportunity, one that also has some good growth opportunities in the future so I thought I would give it a try,” Harmon said.
In the meantime, the City of Lindsay will try to find a new finance director to take the place of Harmon, a task Zigler said won’t be easy.
“He will leave some big shoes to be filled,” Zigler said, adding, “But fortunately I think a lot of, I call it peeling the onion to get to the core to see what is there, I think that is done, I think we know what happened, we know why it happened, we know when it happened regarding our financial world.”
Zigler said the city is looking for someone with a strong accounting background to ensure the city doesn’t make the same kinds of financial mistakes it made in the past. He said the city will work at educating the new director through conferences and coursework.
Although the city hasn’t found anyone yet, Zigler said he already has several offers. He said he will conduct interviews probably at the beginning of March.
“If we have a qualified candidate, great,” Zigler said, adding, “If not, “I’ve got no problem with extending it because we want to make sure that we get a solid player in here to be our finance director.”
As for Harmon, Zigler said he is going to miss him and wishes him all the best.
“We wish he were staying, but the new job is closer to home and it does a lot of the things that he is interested in,” Zigler said.
Harmon said he will definitely miss the City of Lindsay and the people he worked with day in and day out.
“I’ve got a great staff here,” Harmon said. “This community is a wonderful community. I am going to miss everyone here.”