The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted unanimously to appoint Budget Director Lunda Asmani as CFO for the town.
Hired in June 2018, Asmani will succeed Sandra Dennies in the role starting next week, and will continue to work as budget director, as well, officials said.
Lunda Asmani is to start as New Canaan’s new budget director. Contributed photo
“We are very sorry to see her [Dennies] go but are bittersweet to have a new CFO taking over on Friday,” First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said at the meeting, held at Town Hall.
Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the appointment.
Prior to coming to New Canaan, Asmani had served for two years as director of management and budgets for Norwalk, according to his resume. Prior to Norwalk, he worked as assistant city manager for budget and finance in Newtown, Kan. He holds a bachelor’s degree in urban planning and economics from the University of Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania and a master’s degree in public administration fro Wichita State University in Wichita, Kan.
Town Human Resources Director Cheryl Pickering-Jones, who participated in the selectmen meeting by phone, said he also holds a graduate certificate in public finance.
“As you can see from his resume, he has received many awards and honors, and I strongly recommend him as our new CFO,” she said.
Devereaux, who also participated in the meeting by phone, said, “The one thing I would like to say is that I am thrilled Lunda is going to come on board as the CFO. I think he’ll be wonderful.”
He takes the reins as New Canaan enters a challenging budget season. The Board of Finance has called for the town’s operating budget to decrease by 2% and the Board of Education’s operating budget to rise by no more than 1.5%.
Moynihan during the meeting asked Pickering-Jones whether Asmani would serve in his current capacity as budget director in addition to taking on the CFO job, and she said yes.
The town had announced Dennies’s end-of-year retirement in October. She had been in the job for about three years.