About Rebekka

Rebekka joined Raftelis in 2020 with 16 years of direct service to local governments and 10 years of management consulting experience. As an experienced consultant, Rebekka has led organizational assessments for a broad range of operating departments and offices in cities, counties, universities, and special districts, including community development, public works, police, administration, and city attorney departments. With direct operational experience in municipal administration, public works, and finance departments, Rebekka’s breadth of knowledge makes her skillful in quickly identifying organizational strengths and opportunities, analyzing operations through creation of process maps and workflows, preparing actionable recommendations for improvement, and communicating findings to a wide variety of audiences. She has consulted for over 100 clients, including Boston, Massachusetts; Daly City, California; Surprise, Arizona; Shoreline, Washington; North Las Vegas, Nevada; and Long Beach, California.

Rebekka served as finance director for the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, a contract city north of Los Angeles. She prepared the annual budget and financial audit, as well as managed daily accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, and financial planning functions. As the City’s second finance director, she automated several previously manual operations, including business licensing and payroll processing, coordinated acceptance of credit cards from customers for the first time, and managed the implementation of a new financial software system. During her tenure, she identified and successfully obtained a State loan for the financing of the City’s new city hall and played a key leadership role in successfully moving all operations and staff, as well as communicating all financial impacts of the project to management and City Council.

Previously, Rebekka was the budget officer for the City of Simi Valley, California, a full-service community in the Los Angeles region. She prepared the City’s $196 million annual budget and $160 million capital improvement program, as well as the City’s cost allocation plan. She managed the budget and capital projects module training and setup for a comprehensive citywide enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementation across nine operating departments. To assess where the City got the most financial value, she led a team review of all City programs and services against a matrix of numerous specific criteria.

Rebekka earned a master’s degree in Business Administration with a Certificate in Local Government and Non-Profit Management from Boston University, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. She has published articles in Public Management magazine and served as a trainer in sessions at International City/County Management Association (ICMA) conferences.