Yakima City Manager Bob Harrison has announced that Mark Roberts has been appointed as the City’s finance and budget director. Roberts replaces Jennifer Ferrer-Santa Ines, who resigned from the City earlier this year to become the finance director for the City of Marysville. Ferrer-Santa Ines was hired by the City of Yakima in 2021.
“The City is fortunate to have Mark as part of its senior management team,” said Harrison. “He has a broad range of finance experience in the public sector. He has helped the organizations he’s worked for modernize and enhance their finance and budget operations,” said Harrison. “Mark is an outstanding addition to the City’s senior management team.”
Roberts, who began his tenure with the City of Yakima on November 8th, most recently served as the director of finance for the City of Salinas, California. Before being hired by the City of Salinas in 2021, he had worked as the finance director for the City of National City, California since 2012. Before that, Roberts was a cash & investments manager/analyst for the City of Norfolk, Virginia from 2008 to 2012 and a controller for Fayette County, Pennsylvania from 2000 to 2008. He was a business analyst/systems engineer-client services team leader for UPMC Health System in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1997 to 1999 and was the assistant director of the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania from 1994 to 1997.
Roberts earned a bachelor of science in business management from The Pennsylvania State University in 1990.
Roberts is a member of the Government Finance Officers’ Association, the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers, and American Mensa, Ltd.
As Yakima’s finance and budget director, Roberts will oversee a staff of about 30 employees in the Financial Services, Purchasing, and Utility Services divisions. The total budget for the City’s Finance and Budget Department in 2023 is about $5.6 million.
