Yakima City Manager Bob Harrison has announced that Jennifer Ferrer-Santa Ines has been appointed as the City’s Finance and Budget Director. Ferrer-Santa Ines replaces Steve Groom, who resigned from the City in mid-July to become the finance director for the City of Federal Way. Groom was hired by the City of Yakima in 2018.
“The City is fortunate to have Jennifer as part of its senior management team,” said Harrison. “She has a broad range of finance experience in the public sector. She has helped the organizations she’s worked for modernize and enhance their finance and budget operations,” said Harrison. “Jennifer is an outstanding addition to the City’s senior management team.”
Ferrer-Santa Ines, who began her tenure with the City of Yakima on July 26th, most recently served as the finance director for the City of Normandy Park, Washington. She had worked for the City of Normandy Park since February 2015. Before that, Ferrer-Santa Ines was a senior fiscal coordinator for the City of Tukwila from 2009 to 2015 and a fiscal coordinator for Tukwila from February to October 2009. She was an accountant for the City of Burien from 2003 to 2009 and was an accountant for the Highline Water District in Kent from 1999 to 2003.
Ferrer-Santa Ines earned a bachelor of science in accounting degree from Central Washington University in 2002 and a master in accounting/finance degree from City University in 2006.
Ferrer-Santa Ines is the past president of the Puget Sound Finance Officers Association, a member of the Local Government Investment Pool Advisory Board, and a member the StART Federal Policy Working Group. She earned an International City/County Management Association certificate in 2020 and is a 2021 graduate of the Northwest Women’s Leadership Academy, a program of the Washington City/County Management Association.
As Yakima’s finance and budget director, Ferrer-Santa Ines will oversee a staff of about 35 employees in the Financial Services, Purchasing, and Utility Services divisions. The total budget for the City’s Finance and Budget Department in 2021 is about $4,200,000.
Ferrer-Santa Ines’ starting salary will be about $144,000 a year, plus benefits.