After 20 years with the town of Derby, Director of Finance Jean Epperson is now counting down the times to her last price range workshop – set to formally enter retirement in mid-June.
Epperson joined metropolis employees in January 2000 after a number of years working within the personal sector (Rohm and Haas, J.I. Case) and being an adjunct finance professor for native universities. She admitted the tight-knit nature of the division offered her.
“I might’ve gone to work for what was Boeing on the time, but it surely’s such an enormous firm. What I like in regards to the dimension of Derby was you’re taking a challenge from begin to end and I actually benefit from the folks I work with; it’s my work household,” Epperson mentioned. “There’s a crew environment right here and also you develop to essentially care about these folks.”
Previous to Derby, Epperson labored for the town of Wichita and her first job after incomes her diploma from Kansas State College was as Metropolis Clerk/Finance Director in Atchison, the place she met her husband. They later moved to the Wichita space so Epperson might end her Masters of Enterprise Administration at Wichita State College.
The Bennington native admitted it was a professor at Kansas State that helped forge that profession path she has adopted.
“We had an exquisite professor who made finance enjoyable, which not very many individuals consider finance as being enjoyable. That lit the hearth,” Epperson mentioned.
Among the many accomplishments Epperson has achieved in her time as Derby Director of Finance is upgrading the town’s bond ranking to AA, with metropolis administration noting her sound fiscal administration and police practices go away Derby in wonderful monetary form.
Respecting the laborious work of her fellow metropolis employees, Epperson mentioned all of them are dedicated to seeing their tasks via. For her which means ensuring the town is insured, it has its property invested, isn’t being focused for fraud, and so on., in order that nothing unhealthy occurs on her watch. Most significantly, maybe, she mentioned any budgetary poll points are taken critically to honor the financing requests voted upon by Derby residents and guarantee correct funding strategies.
“I’ve at all times seen my function as a protector of the neighborhood property; that’s a part of what finance does,” Epperson mentioned. “You attempt to be good stewards of the general public cash as a result of people have entrusted you with it, and when you break that belief it’s very troublesome to achieve that belief again.”
Getting into retirement, Epperson mentioned she plans to spend extra time in her backyard, on the Derby Recreation Heart and expects her new standing will result in extra volunteer work along with her church.
Over time, Epperson mentioned she has been proud to see the transformation of Derby and the town’s funding in public infrastructure mirrored in services like Metropolis Corridor, the library, Warren Riverview Park and extra. She mentioned she is going to miss the folks most upon leaving, given the dedication to the neighborhood, however she feels assured in her work in addition to the capabilities of these left in cost – like Megan Sneller, a present metropolis finance worker set to take over Epperson’s function.
“What I wish to do is go away her in the very best place and know Derby’s a vibrant, rising metropolis and we wish to do the very best we will with what we’ve been entrusted. There are some challenges down the street because the price range legislation adjustments. We don’t know what the longer term holds for inflation. My hope is that we’re positioned as greatest as we will proper now and we will meet these challenges,” Epperson mentioned. “I’m glad there’s any individual arising behind me that may are available in with a brand new set of eyes, and he or she’s received that angle.”
“Jean is one-of-a sort and can be tremendously missed,” mentioned Metropolis Supervisor Kiel Mangus. “We have now valued not solely her data and experience, but in addition her pleasant, affected person demeanor. She has been an amazing asset to the Derby neighborhood and I’m glad for her and need nothing however the very best as she begins the subsequent chapter of her life.”