(Submitted photo/Trevor Wowk)

By Ben Tompkins

Replacement Needed

Melfort CFO to serve final day on Friday

Oct 31, 2023 | 4:02 PM

The City of Melfort will soon be without a chief financial officer.

Their current CFO, Trevor Wowk, is set to work his final day with the city on Friday (Nov. 3).

Wowk has been in Melfort for the past 18 months, in what was his first-ever role as a CFO, within a municipality.

“The first year was a very heavy learning year, as my predecessor left before I started so that kind of made it an additional challenge,” Wowk told northeastNOW. “Thanks to my team and thanks to just a lot of figuring out how to do things by looking at how they did it before, we added some improvements.”

As the CFO, Wowk administered, managed, and provided oversight over the city’s financial resources and its finance reporting on those resources, as well as providing tools for directors and managers to get better decision-making information when it comes to the day-to-day management of their resources.

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He also improved the efficiency and effectiveness of financial reporting and management, along with the enhancement of policies.

“The accomplishment I’m most proud of is our budget development models, whereby individual managers can input what they are needing to spend and what they expect to earn in their specific operating areas,” Wowk added.

“Those reports upload up to a City of Melfort overall budget model, which enabled us to do a lot of what-if analysis, specifically in the area of bill rate calculations… so it’s a total line of sight, as far as what we’re doing for our investments and how it ties to our strategic plan.”

Wowk will now head to the Rural Municipality of Minitonas-Bowsman in Manitoba to become their new chief administrative officer.

That will be a step up for him as it’s the equivalent of a city manager, but in a rural setting.

Wowk explained his role as CFO in Melfort will greatly help him with his new role as CAO.

“In this role, I’ll be able to see all the financial happenings, and quite often, whether it’s community services, public works, or protective services if you’re following the money, you’ve got an awareness of what’s going on because dollars make things happen,” he said.

“Being a CFO here, it’s going to be an invaluable experience going there, and I think that it’s just going to be a good skill to have because I’ve got a very good awareness… it’s gonna be a good experience and I’m looking forward to it.”

Wowk is expecting to work on the municipality’s 2024 budget when he arrives, as well as eventually developing a strategic plan.

As for Melfort, according to City Manager Adam Homes, they have enough resources in the interim to complete the work in the absence of a CFO, and their 2024 budget is on schedule.

They will also soon be posting the position, in hopes of acquiring a new chief financial officer.

“I’ll be honest, the finance team that I had here is probably one of the best teams I’ve ever worked for in my career,” Wowk concluded in his reflection about the City of Melfort.

“I’m very grateful for this team, the knowledge, the experience, and the willingness to share that knowledge and experience has been invaluable and I’m very appreciative of the managers and directors here as well.”

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