Karen Cares about Hot Springs. 
Welcome
I am Karen Garcia and I am a candidate for
City Director, District 5.
The City of Hot Springs has a council/manager plan of government. The City Board of Directors is the City’s legislative and executive body. It sets policy, approves the budget and adopts ordinances and resolutions. The city board also appoints a manager to implement policy, hire and supervise staff, manage city departments and funds and run the city’s day-to-day operations.
I am a person that is qualified for City Director, Cares about Hot Springs, and Can Get the Job done.
I have a Masters Degree in Business Administration and a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration degree with a major in Accounting. I am a licensed Certified Public Accountant with CPA, financial and managerial experience of over 25 years.
I have been employed with Weyerhaeuser Company for 23 years and was employed with a local CPA firm prior to Weyerhaeuser. While employed in public accounting, I helped perform the audits for the City of Hot Springs as well as other government agencies.
I have managed Capitol Budgets of $10,000 to over $490 million and operating budgets of $20,000 to over $ 1 Billion and everything in between. This extensive experience with my employer as well as with the many civic and community organizations that I have volunteered in Hot Springs for many years will benefit Hot Springs. I have personally prepared the grant requests or I have assisted with obtaining grants for the Hot Springs community exceeding $1.5 million. The City Director position is a volunteer position and I am stepping up to transition my professional and volunteer experiences and skill set to another level of volunteerism and public service for the City of Hot Springs and the citizens of Hot Springs.
CPAs and financial experts are needed on boards of non-profit and for-profit organizations. At the current time, a CPA will be a benefit to the Hot Springs City Board. Karen Garcia, CPA is the right person for the Hot Springs City Board of Directors.
I have the leadership, financial, and managerial experience, as well as community service. I have integrity, honesty, objectivity, ethics, common sense, commitment, accountability, and I am a team player. I still believe that Together Everyone Achieves More.
I further pledge to be accessable to citizens and will hold regular town hall meetings or public forums with updates from the City Board as well as seek feedback from the people. I have begun this process during this race with neighborhood community meetings. Through surveys distributed to and received back from the citizens in each of the District neighborhoods, I am obtaining the feedback identifying the people’s priorities and expectations of their City Director. I am committed to continuing these two way communications meetings. Together we can make improvements.
Please remember Karen has a Can-do attitude. Karen can get the job done. Karen can be a citizen’s liaison to the City. Karen can review the budget in detail and can make the necessary inquiries and can seek all options to be considered before decisions are made and Karen can make recommendations for improvement.
Karen Garcia, CPA is the right person with the right experience to serve at this time for Hot Springs.
I, Karen Garcia promise to work to the best of my ability for the city of Hot Springs and uphold the principles and values of and for the Citizens of Hot Springs.