Jennifer Calvert has served as the finance director for the city of Shenandoah for four years, and she has helped that role change.

Calvert has a bachelor's degree in political science from Texas A&M University as well as a master's degree in public administration from Sam Houston State University.

When Calvert spoke with Community Impact Newspaper in July, the city was in the process of formulating its budget. Calvert said she hoped the city would be able to finalize the budget to be approved by the City Council by mid-August.

To help council and community members digest the information and compare it to the recent past, Calvert said she and her staff presented current budget numbers and historical data next to the proposed budget.

"That really gives them a good view of how our budget has changed over the course of several years or how it has not changed," she said.

Calvert said that the city has been careful to ensure its purchases are beneficial for the community.

"I say that, with 100 percent confidence, that we try very hard to make sure that we are good stewards of public funds," Calvert said.

How did you become interested in finance?

It's in my nature to serve, and I really like just providing, I'm here to provide a customer service. Government doesn't generally operate under the customer service mentality, but I think here at [city of] Shenandoah we really try to treat everyone as a customer.

What does your job as the finance director entail?

It has evolved somewhat since I took the position. The position–before I took it–was considered a city treasurer, and it was changed to the finance director. I do all the finances, I monitor the budget, I monitor the expenses, I'm over the accounts. My department consists of the accounts payable clerk, the accountant, and I also oversee the court, the municipal court, as well as the front desk.

How does Shenandoah's budget compare to other cities its size?

We actually have very low property taxes, and our budget—50 percent of our revenue—is based on sales tax. We have a huge sales tax base. In the Portofino Shopping Center we have over 40 restaurants, so we're very fortunate that city operations are funded by sales tax dollars.

What is your favorite aspect

of this job?

My favorite aspect is dealing with our customers. We really enjoy when a customer comes in and they have a problem and we can fix it. We've created a one-stop shop [at the front desk] where it doesn't matter what problem you have. We try to make sure that the front desk is capable of solving that problem, and if they're not, they're going to find someone to help resolve that problem for you. We enjoy talking with our residents. We enjoy talking with our business owners.

What part of your job causes the most difficulties for you?

We had a council member, and I think he was quoting someone else, but he always said, 'Trust, but verify,' and that's really what we're doing. I trust that people are doing their jobs. But it's my job to make sure that city employees are doing their job and spending funds ethically, and so that's probably the most difficult part. It's hard to kind of question somebody and say, you know, 'What was this purchase for?' or 'Why did you do this process this way?'

How does Shenandoah's budget process work?

We just really try to scrutinize our purchases and make sure that they are necessary going forward. Just because we did it last year doesn't mean it's feasible to do it this year. So really it's just scrutinizing our expenditures and trying to minimize our expenses as much as possible, trying not to increase our expenditures from last year. It's a necessary evil; some things are going to go up, such as personnel costs. And when your budget equals revenue, you want to be realistic, but you don't want to be too conservative or too liberal.

What should residents know about the city's budget that they might not realize?

It's available to everyone to see. I think that there are a lot of people who think that, 'Well, I pay taxes, but I don't really know what they do.' Everything that we do is available to the public. Taxpayers can see our budget any time. It's available on the website. They can see our expense reports on the website. That's part of the transparency process: is making sure that anybody who has questions can see that, and they can ask [for an explanation]. Our budget is presented at a council meeting, so they can come up and hear what our council members have to say about the budget.