Employee of the Month - Dec '23
Kristen Racki, Chief Fiscal Officer for the Department of Support Services has been named the Shasta County Employee of the Month for December 2023!
Kristen provides support to both staff within the department as well as to other County Departments. Within Support Services, she assists employees with fiscal transactions, contract tracking, and IT/Facilities requests. She is a great communicator and helps to ensure that staff have the support they need and are clear on project timelines. Kristen is an organized and attentive employee who ensures timely completion of projects and tasks.
She has the opportunity in her role as CFO to communicate with various departments as it relates to their Risk Management rates and works closely with Auditor and CAO staff as needed through various fiscal processes such as Budget, Year End, Mid-Year and Rate Development. She is organized and prepared when working with other Departments, meets her deadlines, effectively communicates any questions, or concerns, and collaborates with others as needed to find solutions. Kristen promptly and accurately provides information to other Departments when there are changes that affect the entire County, such as when new rates were implemented for Risk Management and the Mail Room. She works well with all County staff and is considered an honest and open employee. She is very dedicated, hard-working, and understands how to ask for help when it is needed.
This past year has been full of change and full of projects which have placed high demands upon Kristen's workload. Most notably, Kristen oversaw the creation of the new mail services internal services fund in Fiscal Year 2023-24. In doing so, she created a new Budget, fund/cost centers/project/activity codes, established rates for the year to ensure cost recovery, transferred over postage, and worked with staff to ensure all equipment, assets and accounts are transferred to Support Services. During this same time period, carpet was replaced within the department and several staff transitioned from HHSA to Support Services. Kristen played a large role in facilitation with IT and Facilities, making sure equipment and furniture was moved/removed and rearranged properly, and all staff needs were met. Additionally, Kristen is a key member of our bargaining team, and costs out each proposal exchanged. Given the nature of negotiations in that it moves quickly, coupled with the fact that we were bargaining with multiple groups simultaneously, this created some demanding turnaround timeframes for Kristen, all whilst juggling the typical day to day or recurring fiscal tasks. Kristen has well exceeded expectations as it relates to the quantity of work she has been juggling over the past year.
Kristen displays outstanding work ethic, excellence in her quality of work and knowledge, and always has a positive attitude. She collaborates and works well with others both within and outside of the office, has great attention to detail and technical expertise, and a genuine interest and desire to do her best in service of Shasta County and its employees. Kristen is well respected both by the staff who have worked under her leadership, and by other managers in the office. She is a role model for other employees both in Support Services and across the County.
