New finance director brings array of experience to Cape city government

Lisa Mills is relatively new to her position with the City of Cape Girardeau but not the area.

The longtime resident of Cape Girardeau joined the municipality in the role of finance director midway through October.

She first arrived with her family in the Cape Girardeau area as a freshman in high school. Before coming to Southeast Missouri, Mills's family moved around a lot before her father's retirement from the Air Force.

She graduated from Cape Girardeau Central High School and went on to attend Southeast Missouri State University while also working full time. Mills would then become a certified public accountant. She's now the first CPA to serve as the city's finance director, according to a news release from the city when she was hired.

The now-finance director's professional life has been a mix of public and private industry work but it's always been in the same place — here. Mills said she has had opportunities to live and work elsewhere but has declined them.

"I love the Cape area and I never have wanted to leave," Mills said.

It's the small-town feel of Cape Girardeau with the amenities of a larger city that Mills cherishes, she said. She likes that there is enough family-friendly entertainment to keep her and her family busy and that she can walk into the grocery store and see someone she knows.

When she's not at the office, Mills said she enjoys spending time with her family — her husband, Lynn, a daughter, Kali, a stepdaughter, Jill, and a granddaughter, Emma.

She enjoys relaxing, but she's not much of a hiker, Mills said with laugh. Cape Girardeau provides her with plenty of things to do and also plenty of space to relax, she said.

Mills was the chief finance officer for RM COCO Decor Ltd., a decorative fabrics wholesaler based in Cape Girardeau, before taking over as finance director. She said the positions of finance director and CFO have some differences but are also similar. Both are about managing money, forecasting the future and creating a plan. She said that oftentimes government operations are more structured than private ones.

The finance director is responsible for the fiscal management of the city. Mills said proper management is reliant on city officials having accurate information.

"I think that information is a tool, and if the departments have good information they will make wiser decisions," Mills said.

Initially, when she arrived at City Hall, Mills said she wanted to try to know everything that was going on.

"That was just not feasible," Mills said.

She has transitioned her approach to understanding each project and department as she gets introduced to it, a more healthy and manageable way to get a scope of city operations, she said. Mills will also get plenty of experience in dealing with every department as the city begins its annual budget process soon.

"My challenge right now is, I've got a lot of pieces and I just don't have them all put together yet. The budget is the final puzzle," she said.