The City of New Westminster didn’t have to go too far to find its next director of finance.
Colleen Ponzini, who has been working in the city’s finance department since 2007, has been named as the city’s new finance director. She has been serving as the city’s acting director of finance since Gary Holowatiuk retired in early 2018.
“Colleen is a certified general accountant and a certified professional accountant,” said a statement from the city. “Her experience, expertise and commitment to New Westminster make her an ideal choice for this senior management position.”
According to the City of New Westminster, the city retained the services of an executive search firm and engaged in a comprehensive recruitment and selection process for the position. City council approved Ponzini’s appointment as the city’s new director of finance at its April 29 meeting.
Lisa Spitale, the city’s chief administrative officer, said the city’s policy is that all directors’ and the chief administrative officer’s positions are posted nationally. She couldn’t say how many people applied for the job but was told the response was high.
“We interviewed several candidates, and Colleen did really well,” she said. “For council, Colleen has a real technical rigour about the budget. She understands it, she understands the numbers behind it. That gives council a high degree of confidence. I think that was the biggest one from a council perspective. From my own perspective, she is technically proficient. What I really value about Colleen is she is unapologetic when it comes to financial rigour. She is thorough that way. You get the sense that she has a very, very good handle on all the budgets. I think that gives a lot of us confidence and comfort because you know she knows what’s behind the numbers, she knows the assumptions behind the numbers, all of that.”
Ponzini takes on the role at a time when the city is contemplating borrowing funds for major infrastructure projects, including the New Westminster Aquatic and Community Centre and a new electrical substation in Queensborough.
“I think council also appreciates the fact that we are going through an historic period of looking at some of the debt with these larger projects. When that happens, council and the community need to know that the director of finance really understands the financial systems behind it, understands the level of debt, understands how to manage it for us. It’s important, especially right now with the kind of projects that we are looking at,” Spitale said. “With that, there is debt behind that. You need your treasurer to really understand how that works for the city and also explain it in a way that council understands the choices behind that.”
Ponzini joined the city in September 2007 as manager of financial services and was later promoted to senior manager of financial services. Before working for the City of New Westminster, she served in senior roles at the City of Prince George and in financial accounting positions at Metro Vancouver.
“We are a small city. Opportunities don’t come up very often, and so we understand some of the challenges around that,” Spitale said. “Staff need to see that people from within can work hard and get the recognition and then are eventually able to go after these promotions and succeed in them.”
While Holowatiuk served as the city’s director of finance and information technology, Spitale said the city has removed the IT function from the position for the time being.
“We are doing an internal review on IT, especially in the context of the work we are doing with Intelligent City, the work we are doing around innovation and BridgeNet, all those bigger initiatives,” she said. “Council thought it would be a really good time to get a better understanding of where is IT and IT services and technology going. So, that is what we are doing right now.”
