City of Flint announces departure of CFO Robert Widigan

The City of Flint announced the departure of Chief Financial Officer Robert Widigan today. His resignation is effective April 6. Widigan provided the City of Flint with two weeks’ notice.

“I wish Mr. Widigan the very best in his new position and thank him for his service to the residents of Flint,” Mayor Sheldon Neeley said. “With every departure, I celebrate the growth of the talented individuals we’ve cultivated at the City of Flint, and I’m happy to see them advance. I’m confident that we will continue to attract top talent, based on the foundation of success laid by our current and former staff.”

During Widigan’s tenure as CFO, the City of Flint secured $170 million in state funding to shore up the City’s pension fund. Another $50 million is expected to be released to Flint as well. Widigan also shepherded the City’s budget to reduce the structural deficit by $12 million in fiscal year 2022-2023.

Widigan has also positioned Flint at the forefront of XBRL financial reporting development through participation in a pilot project with the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy. Flint is poised to be among the first local municipal governments to transition to machine-readable financial documents on XBRL—extensible business reporting language—versus the unwieldy standard PDF format.

In a resignation letter addressed to Mayor Neeley, Widigan wrote, “Under your leadership, we have accomplished great things for our residents. In addition, your determination to tackle decades-old structural problems that others failed to address will benefit this great city for decades.”

“I leave knowing that the City of Flint is on a corrective course to financial stability, which we have established together,” Widigan wrote. “I am confident that your administration will maintain the positive momentum and continued growth we have experienced as we progressed from crisis to recovery.”

Widigan’s new position and employer will be disclosed later this week.