BARBARA DUNPHEY
Bar Harbor Warrant Committee Candidate
BARBARA DUNPHEY
THE BIO:
Born in New Jersey and raised in Maryland, I attended college in Philadelphia where I earned degrees in accounting and finance. During my time in Philadelphia, I always felt pulled to the New England states.
Soon after college, I met my husband, Guy. Our first year together, we drove the New England coastline, found Maine, and we fell in love with MDI. There we found the beauty of MDI’s forests, mountains, lakes and the ocean. We were immediately hooked, if only for an annual camping trip in the beginning.
In the blink of an eye, Guy and I were married with two children. Whenever we had a long weekend, we tried to find our way to Bar Harbor. After camping for 24 years, we were able to purchase a small home in 2006. In 2017, at a crossroad in our life, we chose to move permanently to Bar Harbor, never doubting our decision.
Prior to our move, I secured a project management job at EMHS, now Northern Light. I later joined Harbor House Community Center where I worked until the pandemic. At that point, I retired to help with my grandson.
Professionally, I’ve spent 40 years in financial management, internal auditing, and information systems software. I am a certified project management professional (PMP) with 20+ years’ experience leading financial and healthcare systems implementations. My in-depth understanding of these subjects and a natural attention to detail provides a unique vantage point when budgeting, analyzing expense data, and evaluating the associated data.
THE QUESTIONS:
Why are you running for Warrant Committee? How does your why for running delve into your bigger life purpose?
My reasons for running are twofold. The first relates to giving back to the Bar Harbor community as others have done before me. The second relates to my professional experience in accounting, financial management, and internal auditing.
Throughout my youth, many people volunteered time and skills which gave me a wider view of the world and made me a better human. Whether it was Girl Scouts, Junior Achievement, intramural basketball, or a neighbor teaching me to sew; these individuals left a profound feeling of wanting to give back. Volunteering for the Warrant Committee seems to be a good fit for my skills.
With 40 years of professional experience in accounting/financial management, project management and internal auditing I’ve developed skills for:
building, assessing, and maintaining capital and operating budgets,
analyzing and assessing financial documents,
analyzing data and making sense of it,
developing procedures and evaluating existing procedures for control weaknesses.
reformatting financial data for easier analysis.
The last year or so the news has been full of cruise ships, short-term rentals, and affordable housing. This isn’t saying that those aren’t all, but what are some of the things that we might not be focusing on as a town that needs to be focused on instead?
The current the number of town initiatives appear unending, too many to easily track. Without an inventory and their attributes, it makes it near impossible to weight their town-wide priority for implementing and allocating the financial/personnel resources required. Posting the inventory on the town website would provide awareness for residents of how tax dollars are utilized.
Some examples of the items to be included are:
municipal waste solution
cruise ship disembarkation procedures,
pending changes to land use ordinances,
pending [non-executive] legal actions,
individual infrastructure projects,
resolution to Higgins Solar Array,
repairs to Glen Mary Pool,
evaluation of Pay-to-Throw for implementation,
Conners Emerson School.
What are your thoughts on how the Town Council, the Warrant Committee, the town, and Conners Emerson School Board can work together to lessen the tax implication for the residents?
Never being a member of the town operating structure, it appears the town committees/boards/councils would benefit from a more cohesive spending plan. With increasing tax burdens, consideration should be given to prioritizing fiscal responsibility.
The creation of an assessment checklist would help ensure that spending considerations are addressed before approval. This process has the ability to increase better financial outcomes for town residents.
This method could include defined criteria such as:
removal of budgeted operating expenses that are no longer relevant,
a “needs” based spending assessment for purchases and resources, for example:
“required” - compliance issue, equipment end-of-life, single vendor
“workarounds exist” - repair existing equipment, basic vs premium goods/services, use of existing resources,
“nice to have” - makes life easier
minimum data requirements for capital project assessment before approval,
project purpose
project goals and specifications
submission of multiple vendor-qualified proposals
implementation timeline
source of subject-matter-resources require [contracted and Town]
hardware / software / equipment costs
annual maintenance costs at completion.
What have you done for yourself that you’re the most proud of?
I would need to rule out raising two children with my husband, because they are my proudest accomplishment. Putting that aside, my ability to self-teach skills would be number one. At the age of seven, it started with potholders; then moved on to sewing clothing, placemats and quilts. Right before the pandemic, I turned to weaving on a table loom. It’s been a journey I’ve enjoyed throughout my life and provides confidence to try new things.
What have you done for the community that you’re the most proud of?
I was fortunate to be able to help relocate some families who were displaced due to the war in the Ukraine. While it was a very small part in their journey, being hands on in the process meant a lot to me.
The Warrant Committee considers, investigates, and reports on all of the election warrant articles except for the candidates for Town Meeting. What particular skills do you have that you think will help you perform that role?
Throughout my career, I developed hands-on expertise in accounting and financial management, project management, internal auditing, and implementing information systems software.
This experience positions me well to implement Warrant Committee responsibilities. For areas without direct experience, such as municipalities, I am a quick learner and not afraid to research information.
My most important skills for this position include:
building / analyzing / maintaining multi-million dollar capital and operating budgets,
reviewing capital proposals to identify missing or insufficient information,
analyzing data and making sense of it,
extracting financial data for analysis,
reviewing operational procedures to determine points of failure.