Rochelle held a retirement celebration and open house Thursday, Oct. 23, for Finance Director Chris Cardott, who will retire at the end of the year after 20 years with the city.

After graduating from the University of Illinois with an accounting degree, Cardott worked at a bank in that area before moving back home and serving as president of the Northern Illinois University Credit Union for nine years. She then worked at Resource Bank in DeKalb as assistant controller from 2002-2005.

Cardott was hired by the city of Rochelle as an accountant in August 2005 and was later promoted to accounting supervisor before replacing Bob Withrow as finance director in 2008.

“I take pride in my work and anything I can make more efficient,” Cardott said. “It’s taxpayer money, and I treat it as if it were my own. There are great people here. My job changed over the years. I was in charge of human resources and risk management in the past. I worked under different city managers and with people from all of the different departments. It’s nice to get to know new people and see what their strengths are and to be able to help them succeed.”

Under Cardott’s leadership, the city’s finance department has received the Government Finance Officers Association Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for 10 straight years and the GFOA Distinguished Budget Award for the past six years.

Cardott has been tasked with managing Rochelle’s budget for the past 20 years. The city’s most recent budget was $133 million.

“You really need to break it down by department, or else it’s just too overwhelming,” Cardott said. “You have to dig into line items and what amounts were and look at what they should be in the future. You have to work with departments when they turn in their budgets and make sure everything is reasonable. We’re heavily involved in things like grants. When you work behind the scenes, you get to see a different side of all the improvements that get made around town. It’s definitely a different place than it was in 2005.”

Cardott said she’s enjoyed working with department heads, city managers and city council members over the years to meet their finance needs and get projects done. City departments range from police and fire to the Rochelle Municipal Utilities electric department to the airport to advanced communications.

The longtime city finance director’s plans for retirement include traveling and spending time with family.

“I have full faith that the finance department will succeed going forward,” Cardott said. “It will definitely be strange not looking at my emails or answering calls or working on projects. I’ll continue to be excited for what the city has to come.

“The people are what I will miss most.”