Columbia Association | Eur Ing Dr James P. Howard II Columbia Association | Eur Ing Dr James P. Howard II

Dr James P. Howard, II
A Mathematician, a Different Kind of Mathematician, and a Statistician

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Columbia Association

In August, 2004, I was appointed to the Budget Committee. This committee of five was charged with reviewing the pilot two-year budget process, making a five-year analysis of the internal economic model, and to examine the long-term debt management policy of the corporation.

Over the years, I was reappointed in 2005 through 2008 and after that, to the Financial Advisory Committee until 2010. In 2005, I was elected chairman by the committee, a position I held until 2009. The committees were asked to look at long term debt management, review the allocation formulae, review the budget format several times, financial projections, and look at the effects of redeveloping downtown Columbia. The committees were asked to start keeping minutes in 2007 and those should all be linked in the related posts, below.

As an aside, it was my experience on the Budget Committee that spurred me into studying public financial management. I had even wanted to write my dissertation on predicting municipal bankruptcy, a project that grew straight out of our 2005 charge, where board member Phil Marcus had asked us to look at the Altman’s Z-score.

Image by Scott Saghirian / Wikimedia.