New Quincy finance director looking to serve community

QUINCY — Carrie Lnenicka said her job as Quincy finance director gives her the chance to do what she really wants to do. 

“Serving the community in any way that I can is really my calling, I feel,” Lnenicka said. “I think for me, it’s serving – and not only serving, but serving in a way that is honorable and transparent, and with integrity to the community, who works really hard. I’m a taxpayer myself and I work really hard. Everybody does. I really want to be a transparent servant,” she said. 

Lnenicka’s is a new position for the city. Previously the city clerk was also the finance director, but Quincy City Administrator Pat Haley said the city has grown to the point that it made sense to split the job in two.  

“The finance department has a lot of responsibilities managing the growing customer base, along with our water and wastewater utilities that need upgrades and improvements,” Haley wrote in response to an email from the Columbia Basin Herald.   

Haley wrote that city officials decided to make the change after the retirement of former Clerk-Finance Director Nancy Schanze. Stephanie Boorman is the new Quincy city clerk. 

As the name implies, keeping track of city finances is the job of the finance director. 

“The finance director is essentially the position within a municipality that puts together the budget,” Lnenicka said. “It takes the (city) council’s goals and objectives for the following year, pieces together the different projects and requests, reviews revenues – basically, budget work. I oversee all of the financial operations, utility billing, accounts payable, accounts receivable, tax collection.”  

The finance director works to ensure the city stays in compliance with state regulations, she said, and is responsible for working with the Washington Auditor’s Office during the audit process.  

She said she was happy for the opportunity. 

“I have my (certified municipal clerk) designation, but I’m never complacent and content. I always want to go to the next step, so I saw this as my next opportunity. I don’t mean that in the way (that) I’m always looking for a new job, I’m always looking for greater responsibility, a greater way to serve however I can,” she said.  

Lnenicka has been working in municipal government since 2014, when she joined the Ephrata city staff as a utility billing clerk. The support of the staff helped her learn the job, she said. 

“I had an amazing administration there, with Leslie Trachsler and Wes Crago. And Sandi Grout,” she said.  

Trachsler is the current finance director, and Crago was the former city administrator. Grout was the deputy clerk-finance director and had decades of experience in Ephrata when Lnenicka joined the staff.  

“(Grout) transferred a lot of her knowledge to me, community knowledge, city of Ephrata knowledge. Sandi did a wonderful job in terms of operational training. Leslie really did a wonderful job of integrating me into the different associations and fed my appetite for knowledge – because I always wanted to know more, why, how. She was just a great mentor to work under,” she said.  

Crago provided valuable advice, and still does, she said. 

“I had a great experience and a great foundation there in Ephrata,” she said. 

A native of Oklahoma, Lnenicka said she served in the U.S. Army for 12 years, working in human resources. She said her military service served as the foundation of her subsequent career. She learned how to be adaptable, how to be flexible, how to drop one project and pick up another. 

“But the biggest takeaway is continuous improvement. Always looking and analyzing current processes and looking for opportunities to streamline and make them efficient both on our end and on the receiving end,” she said.  

She met her husband Isaac, an Ephrata native, through his brother, she said.  

“We knew when we wanted to start growing our family that we wanted to raise our family with family,” she said, and that brought them back to Ephrata.  

She said she’s looking forward to working in Quincy. 

“When I was contacted with (a job) offer, it felt right. It really felt like this organization is looking for someone with the strengths that I possess, and I’m looking for an organization that is open to a fresh face, fresh eyes, innovation, someone who’s a relationship builder,” she said. “I’m in the process of looking at why we do what we do, how we do it and how we can improve upon it to make a better customer experience and get the most of those dollars we’re getting from our taxpayers. Be a good steward of their money.”