Anthony Turley

Anthony Turley is a public sector finance leader with 22 years of experience in city government, along with experience in school district finance, airport authority operations and financial reporting. Throughout his career, he has worked across diverse public finance environments, building expertise in financial planning, reporting, budgeting and debt financing.

From Industry to Public Finance

Turley’s career began in the Arizona Auditor General’s Office after college, but auditing was not the direction he wanted to pursue. He moved into industry before joining the City of Sparks, Nevada, in 2004, marking the beginning of his government accounting career.

He later became director of fiscal services for the Carson City School District in 2010, where he gained experience in public finance and first exposure to debt financing. After returning to Arizona in 2013, Turley worked for a small city and an airport authority before becoming financial reporting manager for the City of Salem, Oregon, in 2016. He then became finance director at the City of Woodburn in 2020.

Planning beyond the Current Budget

Turley enhanced the five-year forecast at Woodburn by adding capital expenditures and related transfers to the existing view of operating revenues and expenditures. It covers the city’s major operating funds and gives a view of fund balance, revenues, expenditures and capital needs. Revenue forecasts remain conservative. Because the city cannot know in advance which grants it will receive, the budget includes offsetting grant revenue and expenditure capacity, reducing the need for supplemental budgets when grants are awarded.

“What has allowed me to be successful is building relationships. I’ve been told many times that I’m not a normal accountant, that I’m very collaborative.”

The five-year forecast also guides decisions on new positions, which are evaluated against projected operating revenues. When revenue is uncertain, the city can hold positions open until funding supports them. In Turley’s six years at Woodburn, the city has not had an over-appropriation or an imbalanced budget.

Aligning Priorities through the Budget

Turley’s philosophy is to find ways to meet legitimate business needs within the city’s financial constraints, whether through a supplemental budget or by planning for the next fiscal year.

Each January, Turley and his team present the five-year forecast and financial plan to the council and gather its goals and priorities. Finance then works with department heads on their needs. The proposed budget goes through a committee of council members and community members before reaching the council for adoption in June. Financial policies are reviewed annually, and Woodburn maintains at least a 20 percent reserve and contingency line item in every budget.

At Woodburn, departments view finance as a partner in serving citizens. When emergency expenditures arise, they contact finance for help coding and handling them instead of working around the finance office. Turley connects this openness with clean audits. He notes that a controlling finance function makes departments feel they must fight to get things done.

Improving through Incremental Changes

Turley also stresses continual improvement within the finance team. Woodburn implemented a wholesale lockbox for utility payments, reducing the need for revenue staff and cashiers to process daily mail while serving customers at the counter. The city also implemented an online payment portal supporting credit card and electronic payments, e-billing and automatic payments.

These changes have helped the finance team support a growing population without increasing staff. For Turley, improvement does not always require major initiatives, but small changes that improve productivity, reduce pressure on staff and show employees that their needs are being heard can add up over time.

Turley credits his success to building relationships, developing his finance team and working with the broader leadership team. He encourages public-sector finance professionals to be collaborative and keep looking for small improvements that make the finance team more effective.