CSMFO promotes excellence in financial management through innovation, continuing education, and the professional development of members. To this end, the Annual Conference provides all members with education and skills necessary to carry out a high level of professionalism in the field of municipal finance.

 

Please note: the Pre-Conference Training is on Wednesday morning and requires an additional registration fee of $100. You may only sign up for one training since they are being offered concurrently.

 

Pre-Conference Training A

Budget Development – Best Practices

Presenter: Mike Mucha, Senior Manager, GFOA

The session will cover tools and techniques to coordinate and manage the operating and capital budget process. Participants will analyze the key elements of the budget development process, such as: obtaining public input, coordinating departmental budget submissions, and communicating key budget messages to the governing body and public. Focus will be on using budgeting best practices related to performance management, transparency, and accountability to facilitate a budget process and encourage decision making that is aligned with the organization's goals and the community's expectations.

Seminar Topics:

• Identifying priorities
• Developing an effective budget process
• Roles and responsibilities for key stakeholders
• Prioritization of services
• Determining appropriate service levels
• Integration of performance management and budgeting
• Communicating budget decisions
• Developing the budget document
• Role of technology in the budget process

Pre-Conference Training B

Presented by: California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission

STEPPING FORWARD: THE ROLE OF THE FINANCE OFFICER IN TODAYS CHANGING MARKET

This session is being co-sponsored by CSMFO and CMTA

As if public finance wasn't already challenging enough, the last several years have combined worldwide recession, financial market collapse, and major individual issuer headline events in a way that inevitably affects how public agencies, their outside finance professionals, and their lenders interact and do business.

In this constantly changing world of public finance, the public official can become a change agent in an effort to Take Leadership of their financial affairs. This pre-conference program addresses what industry professionals have learned during these past few years and serves as a reminder of how public agencies can better serve their constituencies.

AGENDA:

8:00 AM Welcome

Mark Campbell, Executive Director, CDIAC

8:05 AM The Game has Changed - Fiscal Stress and Personal Liability for Local Government Officials

Public finance is no longer a routine process. Local governments beset with fiscal stress are simultaneously dealing with greater market scrutiny, the expanding roles of regulatory agencies, declining staff and institutional capacity, the realization that public officials may be held personally liable for public transactions, and the tension between existing program and financial commitments and the inability to pay for them. This panel addresses why, more than ever before, public officials must take control of their finances.

9:00 AM Break

9:15 AM The Economics of Good Decision Making

With the decline in credit enhancement, the transformation of the ratings industry, and the public's declining appetite for debt financing, issuers will need to develop the capacity to evaluate financing options. This session integrates financial and economic concepts to help address the timing, structure and approach to borrowing in the bond markets today. In addition, it considers the selection and composition of the financing team.

10:30 AM Transparency and an Issuer's Commitment to Reporting and Disclosure

The SEC has now issued two cease-and-desist actions for the failure to provide adequate securities disclosure of public pension liabilities and obligations. With this increasing scrutiny, local issuers need to think more than ever before about the disclosures they make in bond offering documents. This session uses the example of pension disclosure to consider: How do local issuers know if their pension obligations represent important considerations for investors? What facts about local pension obligations do investors care about and expect to be in the offering document? This session provides a discussion of what local issuers should consider when evaluating and disclosing their pension obligations to the investment community and will consider the evolving best practices for public pension disclosure.

11:30 AM Close of Pre-Conference Program