Vicki Rauser For Mayor
Author: Vicki Rauser, City Council
Vickie Rauser has announced her candidacy for the position of Mayor of the city of Townsend and would be honored to serve the residents of Townsend in that capacity.
She is running because she believes her background and experience lend themselves well to meeting challenges facing our community over the next several years; rapid population growth and economic development in the county, along with the increases in traffic as people commute both north and south, are creating pressures in the community. “As we welcome new friends and neighbors, we want to retain and maintain the friendly, small-town personality that draws people to us. The demand for services is immediate, while the ability to fund and provide those services can take time due to state statutes governing local governments, which can be frustrating. We also don’t want to be any more of a bottleneck for the through-commuters than we have to.”
Vickie is currently serving her second term on the City Council and has been the Council President since joining the Council. In that time, she’s also been the City’s representative to the Montana Business Assistance Connection, this year serving as President of its Board of Directors. Vickie has participated in four interviewing committees for staff vacancies and suggested the use of a structured interview process to provide a better basis for hiring recommendations and decisions.
She also suggested the City go to bid for audit services after learning the same sole proprietor had been the City’s auditor for a significant number of years. Her committee assignments include Law enforcement, among others.
Vickie worked for the Legislative Audit Division for over 30 years, progressing from Staff Auditor to Audit Manager within the financial-compliance audit staff. She has been a licensed CPA since 1982, having passed the CPA exam on her first attempt. “Yes, I’m still proud of that.”
During her tenure with the Division, she audited most, if not all, the state agencies and the public colleges and universities. These audits involved financial records and reports along with a determination of the agency’s compliance with state and federal laws and regulations. “No one likes to have their work criticized and auditing former colleagues could be most challenging. Communication is at the heart of keeping an audit progressing. While the auditor and auditee might ultimately agree to disagree, the disagreement shouldn’t be because of poor communication.”
In addition to her audit assignments, Vickie represented the Division at national conferences and trainings, also serving several years on a professional committee tasked with evaluating CPA exam questions. She developed in-house training for staff; participated in writing audit policies and procedures; assisted with staff recruiting, retention, and professional development decisions; responded to legislators’ questions; and led several inter-state External Quality Control Review teams. “The external quality control review, simply put, is where auditors audit the work of auditors to determine whether those auditor’s audits comply with auditing standards.”
Vickie is one of the Home Team members for the Broadwater County Community Review that began during the Summer of 2022; it is sponsored by Broadwater County Development Corporation, KLJ Engineering, Montana Business Assistance Connection, Montana Economic Developers Association, and the University of Idaho (through the USDA’s Agriculture & Food Research Initiative Foundational program). One of the teams resulting from Phase II of the review (which took place March 8-9, 2023) is Housing and Planning; both JB Howick and Vickie are part of this team. The team is looking at options for creating sustainable, affordable housing in Broadwater County.
Vickie was born in Townsend and educated in the Toston and Townsend school districts. She has a B.S. in Business (Accounting emphasis) from MSU-Bozeman. While in college, she was a member of Circle K, a Kiwanis-supported service club. Vickie is a 44-year member of the Order of the Eastern Star, a fraternal service organization, to which both men and women belong, that has adopted Service Dogs as its primary philanthropy; and she is a 22-year member of the Daughters of the Nile, which has as its sole philanthropy supporting Shriners Hospitals for Children®. Vickie also serves as an adult leader for the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls in Montana.
In the Fall of 2016, Vickie found the timing right to make Townsend her home and settled in over the next year. “I’m happy to be back home, making myself useful by putting my governmental experience and knowledge to work for Townsend now and into the future. We have large projects ahead of us – we’re moving forward with a new water system; we have a large subdivision in development; I expect some action soon on the White’s annexation; several agreements and contracts need review and update; there’s an on-going need for ordinance review and update; and, of course, there are the day-to-day city operations.
As I look to the future, I see a need for succession planning; few people work forever and having a plan makes staffing changes easier. I intend to review the Council’s committees; we may not need all of them in their current form.
It’s an exciting time to be involved in City government. I’m up to the task and would be honored to serve as the Mayor of Townsend.
Please reach out to me with questions, either by email at VRauser4Mayor@gmail.com or by phone at 406.266.3936.”
Vicki Rauser
City Council
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Photo Credits: Vicki Rauser
