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GFOAT President’s Message

January 2024

In the United States, few things are as sacred to us as “home.” The word holds a high place in our minds, invoking thoughts of family, safety, and the known. For each of us, the home is a sacred flame that lights our lives. As individuals, we work daily to return to our home to recharge and prepare for future days. However, those of us who serve as local government finance officers bear an additional task – the responsibility of lighting and fueling the fires that will maintain these sacred flames.

The budgets you build fund the services that make a community a home. Your budgets help keep homes safe, roads maintained, and parks clean. The purchasing card statements you reconcile provide goods and services for your residents. The payroll you process allows cash to be spent in support of your local businesses so that they stay open. Everything you do, no matter how small, is foundational to someone’s home.

You matter. What you do matters because you support life as we know it. Take time to go outside and experience the good you have put into your community. Walk to a local park, see the joy in a kid’s eyes, and know what your good works have wrought. Walk with your head high, you keeper of the sacred flame that is home.

Thank you for your time,

John Zagurski, MPA, CGFO

President, GFOAT

Finance Director, Town of Northlake