As Caryn Riggs, assistant city manager and chief financial officer since 2022, moves into the private sector, two other experienced local government employees will take over her titles.
Riggs is heading to ZacTax, a financial analysis firm for Texas cities, in early April. Bedford’s new assistant city manager is Mark Long and its new chief financial officer is Brady Olsen. Long and Olsen stepped into their new roles mid-March.
Riggs previously worked for city governments in Denton, Corinth, Flower Mound and Grand Prairie. She said she was brought into Bedford government first as chief financial officer in March of 2022, then promoted to assistant city manager in August of the same year.
In a press release, City Manager Andrea Roy said, "Caryn Riggs has been an exceptional leader for the City of Bedford, and we are grateful for the professionalism, financial expertise, and dedication she has brought to our organization."
"While we will certainly miss her leadership, we are fortunate to have a strong team in place. Mark Long and Brady Olsen are both experienced and respected leaders, and I am confident they will continue building on the strong foundation Caryn helped establish while moving Bedford forward," Roy added.
When it came to managing the two roles at the same time, Riggs said Bedford had the right staff to support her work.
“You surround yourself with good people, and that's how you balance the job,” Riggs told KERA.
Long, fresh from his tenure as Bedford’s director of parks and recreation, will now oversee more departments and work with the directors of each.
“I basically work with each director on their goals and what they want to accomplish,” Long said. “I'm there to support them in that, and I'm also there to lead where I need to lead.”
He noted that he’s excited to work closely with the public works department, with a focus on aging infrastructure and wastewater and water line replacements.
Long said he’s spent more than 25 years working in municipal governments in their parks and recreation or community services departments. He now reports to Andrea Roy, the city manager.
He said of Riggs’ work, “She was an incredible leader, very financially savvy. I learned a lot of the financial aspects of my job from Caryn herself.”
Olsen, who most recently served as Bedford's director of finance, said he’s now responsible for “basically all things finance in the city,” including budget, accounting, audit, bills, debt and investments.
“We have a lot of great directors and department heads, and I'm really excited to be more involved in helping them get the resources they need to do a great job,” Olsen said.
Riggs noted that she’d worked previously with Long and Olsen in other city governments and is excited to see them tackle new roles in Bedford.
“I think they're both going to do phenomenal in their next roles and it's just going to be so exciting to see what they can bring to the table,” she said. “This is going to be so good for Bedford.”
Got a tip? Email Andy Lusk at alusk@kera.org.
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