The City of Yakima’s Finance & Budget Director, Cindy Epperson, has announced she will retire at the end of January. Epperson has worked for the City since 1990, including as Finance & Budget Director since 2012.
“I have genuinely enjoyed my employment in the Finance Department, from my start as an accountant to the last several years as Finance & Budget Director,” said Epperson in her retirement notice to City Manager Cliff Moore. “I will miss you and my coworkers when my retirement day comes.”
That day will be January 31st.
“Cindy has made tremendous contributions to the Finance Department and to the City as a whole during her nearly 27-year career with the City,” said Moore. “It will be a tough task replacing Cindy, particularly given the vast amount of institutional knowledge she has gained over more than two-and-a-half decades with the City. We have some big shoes to fill, indeed,” said Moore. “On behalf of the entire City family and the City Council, we wish Cindy all the best in her retirement.”
Epperson, a Yakima Valley native, earned an Associates of Arts degree in 1979 from Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri. In 1981, she graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Little Rock, Arkansas) with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting. Epperson spent a few years working as a Senior Accountant for Touche Ross & Company in St. Louis before returning to the Yakima Valley in 1985 to take a job as an Accounting Manager for Roy A. Sample & Associates. In 1987, she was hired to perform a similar job for Perham Fruit Corporation in Yakima.
Epperson was hired as an Accountant by the City of Yakima in 1990. Two years later, she was promoted to the position of Accounting Manager. In 2002, Epperson was again promoted, this time to the position of Financial Services Manager. Another promotion followed in 2008 when she was named to the fill the Deputy Director of Accounting & Budgeting position. Then, in April of 2012 after having served in an acting capacity since January of that year, Epperson was promoted to the position of Finance & Budget Director. In that role, she oversees a staff of 35 in the Finance Services Division, the Utility Services Division, and the Purchasing Division.
The City will begin the recruitment process for a new Finance & Budget Director in the near future.