From Crisis to Continuity: How Minnesota Cities Can Transform Their Finance Functions After Losing Key Staff

It often begins with a simple announcement at a city council meeting.

"After 25 years of service, I'll be retiring this June." 

The city’s Finance Director—the person who has guided your municipality through economic downturns, balanced countless budgets, and managed complex financial compliance for decades—is leaving. In that moment, what seemed like a personal milestone suddenly becomes an organizational emergency.

A steady retirement wave of long-tenured finance professionals across the Twin Cities isn't just creating staffing gaps. It's threatening financial stability for residents and elected officials. It’s not as simple as losing a staff member. Often, these are the people who hold all the passwords, understand every line item in the budget, and know exactly which reports go to which agencies. Now they’re walking out the door, and taking far more than their nameplate with them.

Mayors and city managers are then left wondering: Who will make sure we don't miss critical compliance deadlines? How will we navigate the upcoming audit? Will our bond rating suffer? The questions multiply—and the timeline to find solutions shrinks.

The Dangers of Financial Leadership Gaps

It takes more than hiring a new person to fill knowledge gaps from a seasoned employee’s departure. You’ll need to address some immediate and short-term risks to your city’s financial management.

• Audit and compliance timing: Missing deadlines can delay funding, damage bond ratings, and create public trust issues. When the person who has managed these processes for years departs, critical compliance knowledge may leave with them.

• Budget cycle disruptions: A leadership transition during the budgeting process can create inefficiencies, delays, or errors that affect service delivery and public perception.

• Loss of historical context: Departing employees take valuable historical knowledge with them, especially about past financial decisions, fund allocations, and the reasoning behind existing systems.

• Recruitment challenges: The municipal finance talent pool might be shallow. According to government employment data, finance positions in the public sector are among the hardest to fill, with searches often taking 6-12 months—time most municipalities simply don't have.

Rethinking the Traditional Approach

For decades, municipalities have approached Finance Director positions as singular roles filled by one experienced professional. This model worked when career trajectories typically involved 30+ years of service to a single employer. Municipal finance requirements were more straightforward back then, compliance standards were less complex, and technology changed infrequently.

That’s not the case today, and it’s forcing cities to reconsider whether the traditional "one Finance Director" model still serves their communities effectively.

A New Partnership Model for Municipal Finance

Rather than scrambling to replace departing Finance Directors with similarly experienced individuals (who are increasingly difficult to find), municipalities could explore partnership models that provide greater flexibility, depth of expertise, and continuity.

By partnering with a firm that specializes in government accounting, municipalities can:

• Preserve institutional knowledge through systematic documentation and process improvement
• Access specialized expertise across multiple areas of municipal finance
• Ensure continuity regardless of individual personnel changes
• Modernize systems with access to current best practices
• Provide elected officials with greater financial visibility and strategic insights
• Maintain compliance through teams familiar with changing regulations

Prepared for Finance Leadership Transitions?

As more long-term Finance Directors approach retirement age, municipalities should proactively assess their vulnerability to leadership transitions:

• How much of your financial knowledge resides with a single individual?
• Are your processes thoroughly documented and understood by multiple team members?
• Would your municipality be able to meet compliance requirements if your Finance Director left unexpectedly?
• Have you explored alternative staffing models that provide greater resilience and depth of expertise?

Whether your Finance Director has already announced retirement or you're planning for potential transitions in the future, Redpath can help you ensure continuity and modernize your financial operations.

Our deep understanding of Minnesota municipal requirements, combined with decades of experience serving government entities, makes us uniquely qualified to support communities through these transitions.

Contact the Redpath government team today to schedule a consultation about your municipality's financial leadership needs and explore how our team can help you transform potential challenges into opportunities for improvement.