Warnke named new finance director in St. Clair Shores

ST. CLAIR SHORES — At their June 19 meeting, the St. Clair Shores City Council appointed Renae Warnke as the new finance director in a 7-0 vote.

Warnke was named interim finance director/treasurer in early April when the finance director, Laura Stowell, left. Warnke said she had previous experience with the position in 2021 when Stowell left for the first time. She had left for another job and decided she didn’t like it so she came back, Warnke said.

“I’m kind of like the next in line after the finance director, so it’s kind of the logical choice, and I do have experience, and so they chose me,” Warnke said.

When she first became the interim director, Warnke said she didn’t apply immediately for the job of finance director because she didn’t think she was ready for the position. However, she did like the job. When Stowell came back, there was no animosity between the two, but Warnke felt ready for the next thing.

“I could just tell,” Warnke said. “You know, I got to a certain point on a job, it’s like, ‘OK, I’m ready to learn a new thing and try something different.’”

Warnke worked in the city of Marysville for 13 years where she did a variety of different jobs, she said, before she was approached in 2019 for a job in St. Clair Shores.

“I decided it was time for a change, so I came here as the controller,” Warnke said.

St. Clair Shores is a lot bigger than Marysville, Warnke said; there are about 10,000 residents in Marysville, compared to about 60,000 residents in St. Clair Shores. She said there are a lot of differences in St. Clair Shores.

“It’s quite a bit of (a difference) as far as there’s always stuff going on and there’s a lot of committees and just a lot of different happenings,” Warnke said.

There’s some overlap between the controller and finance director jobs, but there are specific things that just the finance director does.

“More reporting and working with the city manager and stuff, more on that end for the finance director position,” Warnke said.

Assistant City Manager Michael Greene said the search for the new finance director started two to three months ago when they advertised the position. Warnke applied as well as others.

“Really over the past month and throughout the budget process, it became clear that Miss Renae was a top candidate for us to decide,” Greene said. “Seeing her go through that budget process and everything that goes along with it, especially on an interim basis, really proved to us that she can handle this position.”

Greene said there was a learning curve when it came to the budget because she had minimal involvement in it over the past couple years.

“Additionally, it was Dustin’s (City Manager Dustin Lent), also (his) first budget with the city, so it was a learning curve for him, too, to really get his hand on the numbers here,” Greene said. “So for both of them it was a big learning process and they did a very good job putting this together over the past three, four months.”

Warnke said she thinks the budget went well.

“I worked a lot with the city manager for it because he knew that I was doing two jobs and it was pretty tight, and the timing of when she left, we had to hit the ground running,” Warnke said.

Greene said he thinks the attention to detail learned from Warnke’s controller position helped her put together the budget. Part of the controller’s job is working on the audit for the city.

“Knowing what she was looking for throughout the audit process gives her a different viewpoint while doing the budget,” Greene said. “They are two different documents and there are two different approaches to those documents but just having that detail-oriented mindset was very useful.”

Greene said Warnke as well as the city is excited for this new position.

“From our standpoint, especially throughout this interim process, we’ve seen her confidence grow and we believe she’s going to be a great fit in this role and we’re excited to see what she can do,” Greene said.