Finance
director joins city staff
By Advocate
Staff
Anees Azad, the City of Fort Bragg's new finance director, says one of his first priorities is to complete the city's audit process for the 2000-2001 fiscal year.
Azad, who most recently served as the chief financial officer for North Coast Opportunities, Inc., was hired following a nine-month search and began work last Thursday at City Hall. His resume includes financial work for Brookside Hospital in San Pablo and Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley.
A graduate of Cal-Poly Pomona in San Luis Obispo, with a bachelor of science degree in economics, Anees and his wife, Barbara, have owned a vacation home just north of Fort Bragg for 15 years. The couple, whose three children are "grown, educated and gone," he says, have been permanent residents for the past three years.
"I've been to one staff meeting and I'm on a pretty steep learning curve to meet all the department heads and to get in concert with their priorities," Anees said. "Essentially, I see the Finance Department as a support department. We want to help make all the other departments look good."
Anees predicts that work on next year's budget will begin in February. "I'll try to stay away from pure numbers and focus on narratives to help show the public what's going on," he adds.
City Manager Connie Jackson said Azad will be an asset to the city. "He comes on board with a great deal of financial management experience and he's already familiar with our community. I'm pleased to have him here, he's going to be a real asset to City Hall," she added.