LAKE PLACID — The town of North Elba has hired Amy Schuler, a Saranac Lake native, as its new finance officer. She will replace Catherine Edman, who is retiring this year after more than two decades in the role.
Schuler has roots in the Tri-Lakes area that go back at least five generations. A few years ago, she moved back to the area because she wanted her 9-year-old son to grow up in her hometown. Prior to that, she spent more than a decade in municipal government in Nashville, Tennessee.
As the finance officer for the department of public works and then the department of transportation in Nashville, she managed an operating budget of around $80 to $90 million with more than $100 million in capital.
At their August meeting, the town council voted unanimously to appoint Schuler. Town Supervisor Derek Doty noted that the Nashville department budgets Schuler was responsible for are about 10 times the size of the town’s budget.
“I was excited to sit in on the interview as well, to learn that we have someone that’s very competent in municipal law,” Doty said during that meeting. “I really think we found someone who’s not just competent, but she carries herself very well.”
happy for public role
Since returning to the area, Schuler has been working as a certified public accountant. However, she jumped at the chance to get back into municipal government.
“I’m looking forward to getting back involved in the community. I like that community connection,” she said. “(I’m) looking forward to hopefully making a difference, making sure that we’re getting the most we can get out of the money that we have available and making sure that everything is spent according to how the board designates it.”
The finance officer is a largely behind-the-scenes role, but it involves a lot of communication and collaboration with the town board and all of the departments. When Edman stepped down, Doty said that the inherent turnover in the board makes a steady presence of an experienced finance officer all the more important.
The main difference between this role and her work in Nashville was that Schuler is now in charge of coordinating multiple departments. However, she’s confident in her experience and has about six weeks to work with Edman to learn the particularities of the town’s system.
One of the challenges of this role is to balance the many needs of both departments and the public.
“You’ve got such a mixture of people, and with that comes a very large range of different priorities,” she said. “Everyone can’t get everything they want, and that’s, to me, one of the biggest challenges in government in general.”
Schuler said one of her priorities is transparency. She said people should be able to see exactly how money is spent and that the funds go to the places they were allocated for.
The best part of working in government, Schuler said, is the people. This is why she stayed in Nashville for 11 years, and it’s what excites her about the town of North Elba.
“I’m drawn to government work and public service work because I truly like to help. I like to be involved in making things as good as they can possibly be,” she said. “I think that a large number of government employees are that same way, so they tend to be good people to work with.”