Top row, from left: Accounting Operations Manager Reese Chavarria-Quam, Chief Financial Officer Helen Perraglio, Payroll Coordinator Nicol Avila, Payroll Manager Sonya Ortiz, AP and PCard Administrator Nicholle Cordova. Middle row, from left: Senior Budget Analyst Yvette Atencio, Senior Management Analyst David Griego, AP Coordinator Rebecca Andrus and Senior Accountant Trina Suazo-Martinez. Bottom row, from left: Accounting Operations Manager Beatrice Odezulu, Senior Accountant Zhengyan Liu and Deputy Chief Financial Officer Melissa Dadzie. Not Pictured Budget & Performance Manager Monther Jubran. Courtesy/LAC

By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

The Los Alamos County Finance Department has done it again. During a recent Los Alamos County Council meeting, County Chief Financial Officer Helen Perraglio reported that her team has received more awards to add to their extensive collection.

These new awards include:

• Government Finance Officers Association’s (GFOA) Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting;
• GFOA’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for FY2021 Budget;
• GFOA’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Financial Reporting; and
• New Mexico Counties and Office of the State Auditor FY2020 Audit and Accountability Award – Certificate of Continued Excellence.

As a result of winning all three GFOA awards, Perraglio reported that the department was recognized as the GFOA’s Triple Crown Winner.

This is far from the first time the Finance Department earned these awards. In fact, this is the 29th year it has received the budget presentation award and the 30th year the department has received the award for financial reporting. Plus, of the five years the GFOA has awarded the outstanding achievement for popular annual financial reporting, the County Finance Department has won it five times. Finally, it has won the New Mexico Counties’ and Office of the State Auditor’s Audit and Accountability Award for six years.

“The County’s Finance Department awards and recognitions shows the ongoing commitment to quality,” Los Alamos County Council Chair Randall Ryti said. “This continued excellence has real impacts on maintaining the County’s credit rating. I congratulate Chief Financial Officer Helen Perraglio and her team for these achievements.”

During an interview with the Los Alamos Daily Post, Perraglio credited her team for achieving so many accolades and awards.

“I’d say it’s definitely the dedication of the team, that goes into making it actually come together and to do it so professionally,” she said. “Because it is no small feat; it is a tremendous push, a ton of effort and it’s just constant collaboration.”

For instance, Perraglio said to receive the GFOA’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award, there is specific criteria to follow. This includes specific industry-formatting, a message of fiscal policy to present as well as making sure the presentation is readable and has all the components that show financial accounting and budget best practices. It is not just about the report, she explained; it’s about how the Finance Department and County Management follows strict budgetary and governmental accounting standards to build the County’s budget.

This requires teamwork, not just in the Finance Department but in all the County departments, Perraglio said.

“There’s definitely a group effort across all departments,” she said. “We are an incredibly engaged team at Los Alamos County. It takes collaborating among every single department and division to build that budget … in a timely manner. It’s just a tremendous amount of effort and dedication to working some extreme hours. We pretty much work from December to March 31 nonstop, to get it done.”

The real point of pride with this year’s awards, Perraglio said, is that they were achieved while the Finance Department was working remotely due to COVID. She said this is a testament to not only the effort that goes into earning these awards but also how the department leveraged prior investments in technology. These awards are more than just additions to the trophy case. Perraglio said they do benefit the County.

“It definitely benefits Los Alamos County as a whole,” she said. “It puts us on the national map of recognition. It puts us at the top of our colleagues and of the nation-wide industry of public sector finance … It means even though it is a small town we can compete with the best of them. We don’t sacrifice on excellence in any way so it’s really beneficial in that regard.”

The other benefit is it makes the County appealing to come and work with and to do audits, to get grants – federal grants, state grants – any of those types of other sources of funding to run specific programs, Perraglio said.

“If you have a clean audit and you are a part of the GOFA recognition … it really stands to help get more funding for the County,” she said. “It gives us more opportunity because it says we have strong internal controls. We account for things properly … it really benefits any of our programs and things we want to try to do.”

Additionally, it does help with the County’s bond ratings, Perraglio said. There’s a lot of factors to rating bonds but it helps the County get lower financing costs.

“It’s showing you have a very clean internal control structure – that’s very appealing to be able to get more funding, have great bond ratings and to get some of the best auditors to come and do our audit as well,” she said. “They really want to work with us.”

“It really benefits the community, too,” Perraglio said. “Because there are a lot of times that you really need a grant … and the best way to do that is to have strong controls, accountability and the ability to receive the money and account for the money as well.”

She explained for the County to earn any grant, it needs to go through a rigorous process.

For instance, the Atomic City Transit is funded through the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Transportation Department is heavily audited and Perraglio said the County got a “gleaming” report. She noted that Los Alamos Fire Department’s cooperative agreement to provide fire services to Los Alamos National Laboratory is funded by a $24 million federal grant. Plus, the County is pursuing $11 million from the Federal Aviation Administration for capital outlay at its airport. There are smaller grants, too, for state-run programs such as the DWI program.

The most significant accomplishment, however, is getting a clean audit.

“The audit is the most significant achievement because … basically it stands as the test of all the planning we do to build a budget … the audit tells us did we do that, did we do it correctly, did we use those funds properly, did we account for them correctly,” Perraglio said. “So having a clean audit is really the most significant measure of showing we have a great system and a great team.”

As far as the finance department team, it is small but mighty. Perraglio said it consists of 12 people and these individuals oversee all the financial components in the County: revenues, expenditures, payroll, disbursements, receivables, grant funds, property taxes, etc.
Having a positive audit means that this team, and really the entire team at the County, has strong controls from the top on down, she said. It also helps with different department’s accreditations such as the Fire and Police Departments. The Community Services Department also is beginning its accreditation process.

Looking to the future, Perraglio said her goal is “to maintain the bar.”

“The bar has been set high for Los Alamos,” she added. “It’s always just as much work to be able to maintain the bar. But what I really focus on for the future is the development of the staff, the development of the team and making sure we have a good succession plan. Because the things that you learn and what we do – they take years to really understand them thoroughly and be able to have the subject matter expertise needed to follow through. We work very heavily on staff development in finance. It’s constantly changing. We’re governed by the GASB (Governmental Accounting Standards Board), they come up with pronouncements every year that have an impact on us … it takes a tremendous amount of thought and foresight to analyze how this is going to impact our financial statements. That is the constant challenge in our team … keeping up with the GASB standards.”

Perraglio added she works to keep her staff apprised, educated, motivated and engaged in the work and the hours it takes. She pointed out her team dedicates a tremendous part of their lives to maintaining the department’s high standards.

“If we didn’t have this type of dedication, we wouldn’t be on the map,” she said.

To have that dedication, Perraglio said they thought outside the box and allowed the team to continue working in a hybrid model. She thinks the key to future success is to continue to retain and attract talent while adapting to the new telework paradigm or a hybrid of flexibility, to achieve a real work-life balance and continue to maintain excellence investing in staff development.

Perraglio emphasized how much her team is appreciated and what they have accomplished is a win for everyone – the County and the community.