Q+A with Sandi Henley

Sandi Henley has been the town’s budget analyst since 2008 and an employee in the Longboat Key’s Finance Department for 20 years next month. As she prepares for another summer of scouring figures and budget workshops, Henley talks to the Longboat Observer about what brought her to the Key when she was 19 and how she jumpstarted her accounting career at the Longboat Key Holiday Inn. 

Q: Did you always know you wanted to work with numbers?

A: Yes, I’ve always been into numbers. Other girls played with Barbies while I operated a pretend grocery store with my toy cash register and an adding machine. I remember being so excited when I got one of the first Texas Instrument calculators that could do all the math. By the end of 10th grade, I was already done with algebra, geometry, trigonometry and pre-calculus. My husband knew what he was getting into years later, when I made him wait 13 years to get married until the Internal Revenue Service finally revised its joint filing deduction to make it more beneficial for us.

Q: How did you end up on Longboat Key? 

A: I grew up in and around Cadillac, Mich., and spent summers on the lake. I went to the University of Kentucky with the intent of getting degrees in accounting and computer science. But I missed being near the water, and I needed a change. In January 1986, I moved to Longboat Key to stay with my parents, who let me live with them as long as I earned my keep for room and board. I was 19 and got a job at the Holiday Inn as a front desk clerk on the night shift performing the night audit. I decided before I was 20 that Longboat Key was for me.

Q: What was life like at the Holiday Inn?

A: Everyone stopped at the Holiday Inn back in the day to have a drink by the pool. Manatee County Commissioner John Chappie worked with me as a bellboy. Sid Caesar stayed there once, and I made a copy of his registration card with his signature and had it framed at home. On Wednesday nights, Police Chief Wayne McCammon, pharmacist Doc Carter, of Marshall Pharmacy, and Tiny, of Tiny’s Bar, would talk about the week’s happenings at the bar, where the Lynch sisters handed them their drinks. Everybody knew everybody back then.

Q: How did your hospitality career lead to accounting? 

A: I owe my lessons learned in the hotel business to my career. When you’ve done night audit at a hotel, you learn a lot about accounting and can pretty much crunch anything. I went on to work at the Hilton, the Chart House and even had a part-time job at Shenkel’s, where I became friends with Edith Barr Dunn and Kenny Barr. Edith never sat down, and she taught me to always work as hard as everyone else on the team. She gave me an angel pin at the Kiwanis Club’s Gourmet Lawn Party years ago that I still wear every year when I’m serving beer.

Q: How did you become a budget analyst?

A: There was a utility clerk opening with the town in 1995, and I convinced Finance Director Terry Sullivan that my hotel number-crunching and customer service skills made me a good fit for the job. I’ll never forget that Terry taught me to watch what I leave out on my desk because reporters are trained to read upside down. I worked my way up to the accountant positions while starting to help Terry with budgeting personnel costs. I went to training seminars and in 2008 was promoted to budget analyst. I’ve done every job in the accounting department we have ... Here I sit, three town managers later. At Town Hall, only Steve Schield and Donna Chipman have been here longer than me. 

Q: How do you prepare for budget seasons?

A: I begin preparing in March, and it lasts all summer until the budget is approved in September. I spend the majority of my time meeting with department heads and going over their budget line items. This year, I started by giving them budgets based off their 2014 actual numbers spent instead of giving them what they had in the previous year’s budget. It fixes the accounts that are over and under each year. If they want more, they have to justify why they need it. 

Q: What’s the most difficult part of budget season?

A: The fact that the budget is a moving target all season long. We start early, but we don’t know what the property appraiser numbers are until later in the summer, so we have to guess and then put in new numbers when we get them. And 2008 to 2013 were tough years for balancing the budget while working to freeze a pension plan that I was also a part of. What’s neat about Longboat Key is we had citizens with budget experience coming in and helping us crunch the numbers and finding places to cut. During lean times, we took money away from everyone and learned to operate with less.

Q: What are the hottest budget topics typically discussed?

A: In public settings, the Public Tennis Center, depending on (the commissioners) at the time and how they believe it should be operated. Behind closed doors, health insurance and benefit discussions are difficult. Messing with people’s benefits is challenging. 

Q: What’s the best part of working for the town?

A: At the end of the day, we’re all a big family. And the town’s vision statement and core values guide us and remind us who we work for: the citizens of this island. I love that Town Hall still has a receptionist, and employees have real relationships with their citizens, unlike other places. You’ll never see an automated phone system pick up calls from residents here, and I think that’s pretty cool.