By Noah Alatza
The City of Westfield financial strategist and a senior advisor to Mayor Andy Cook has filed to run for clerk-treasurer in the 2019 Republican primary.
Westfield resident Tammy Havard, who has lived in the city since 2008, started in local government as the town transitioned into a city on Jan. 1, 2008.
She said she wants to modernize and make the processes and systems more efficient.
“I work a lot with the departments as well as initiatives on the state level and I go to educational conferences and other places where I hear of lot of great ideas,” Havard said. “I want to have the ability to implement those ideas in a community that is growing.”
She said if elected, she would work for more transparency and open communication.
“Communication with residents is important to me,” Havard said.
Havard started the Westfield Community Association Network with Cook and managed it for several years.
“Just getting to know the residents and information they seek to help their neighborhood residents, I loved it,” she said.
Havard recently oversaw the implementation of Westfield’s online fiscal transparency portal, OpenGov.
“(OpenGov) was right up my alley with the public,” she said. “We can inform residents on some of the things the city does and through a municipal finance theme explain things to a resident.”
Havard has a master’s degree in public policy and management from Carnegie Mellon
University and is an alumna of the Harvard Executive Education Program. She also is a graduate of the Hamilton County Leadership Academy.
“I want to see positive change for (the clerk-treasurer’s) office,” Havard said. “The main point is Westfield has a lot of potential as we’re growing, and we need to be able to take advantage of that potential.”
Current Clerk-Treasurer Cindy Gossard, who has been with city since 1993, has filed for re-election.
For more, visit tammyhavard.com or facebook.com/TammyHavardforClerkTreasurer.
