Longtime Washtenaw County, Michigan treasurer Catherine McClary, who died Dec. 2, was well-known in Midwest public finance circles for her activism and skill to pilot progressive policies later adopted by other counties.
Washtenaw County, Mich.
Longtime Washtenaw County, Michigan treasurer Catherine McClary was remembered this week as a trailblazer, role model and outstanding voice for social issues whose influence carried across Midwest public finance circles. McClary died suddenly Monday. She was 72.
McClary died just weeks before she was set to retire from an office that she held for nearly three a long time, where she became known for piloting progressive, equity-based public finance and anti-foreclosure programs. She won honors and awards from many government and nonprofit organizations, including the Government Finance Officers Association and National Association of Counties.
McClary was a co-founder of Michigan Women in Finance, a sister organization to Women in Public Finance. The Michigan group was prompted by her attendance at a Chicago Women in Public Finance meeting in 1999, where she recognized the advantage of connecting with women in the identical industry, she said in a March interview with Michigan Women in Finance member Tamara Flake.
McClary said she founded the group in 2002 with “the savviest, most completed women I knew on the time.” They included Suzanne Shank, CEO of Siebert Williams Shank & Co., LLC, Sarah Ward Eubanks, former director of the Michigan Municipal Bond Authority, and Carol Walters, former president of Walters & Associates Inc. and member of the Detroit Land Bank Authority.
“Women don’t at all times get the respect within the business world that men routinely are entitled to, and for girls of color it’s a good tougher situation, so this can be a really good approach to find role models, to seek out pockets of influence and to enhance your profession and friendships,” she said.
McClary began her public service profession in 1974 when at age 22 she became the youngest person elected Washtenaw County commissioner. That was at a time when about 2% of elected officials nationally were women, McClary said in a recent podcast by the Ann Arbor District Library. “I’m talking library boards and faculty boards as much as the presidency. There have been 2% of us,” she said.
She served on the county board for 14 years and was first elected treasurer in 1997. McClary earlier this yr announced she wouldn’t run for re-election and would retire at the tip of the yr. A celebration was planned for Dec. 19.
The Washtenaw County board Thursday evening introduced a resolution honoring her 41 years of service — a resolution the board had planned to present to her in two weeks.
“She was the one female elected official who reached out to me once I won my election,” County Commissioner Caroline Sanders said in the course of the meeting. “I’ll call her the GOAT because she opened doors for girls,” Sanders said. “She was a gangster for good and for those individuals who needed some advocacy and I feel it’s quite impressive that we, because of this of her work, are nationally known for our miniscule foreclosure rates.”
McClary diligently encouraged the careers of girls making their way in public finance, said Tahsha Dent, a senior managing consultant at PFM Asset Management.
“After I was brand recent to the business she was considered one of the primary treasurers to embrace me,” Dent said. “Generally in municipal finance you may have to know anyone who knows anyone to do business. She introduced me to a variety of her friends, and for my profession that was very impactful.”
McClary also sponsored Dent to get on the board of Michigan Women in Finance, advocating for her to current and past presidents.
Dent said she emailed McClary the day before Thanksgiving to inform her that “she was considered one of the people I’m most grateful for.” McClary phoned her back as a substitute of just emailing, and so they chatted about McClary’s post-retirement plans in what would prove to be their last conversation.
“She paved the best way for a variety of women in finance,” Dent said. “She’s going to be greatly missed.”
As county treasurer, McClary crafted programs that gained national attention, like a first-of-its-kind housing program called Home for Generations that helped establish clear home ownership titles for black and brown residents who had lived for years in homes without clear titles or deeds.
“After we dug a bit deeper, we found the properties were within the name of an estate, or the name of grandma and grandpa,” McClary told the National Association of Counties in an interview in regards to the program. “The property had oftentimes been purchased during segregation when black families would have a white family ‘front’ for them and buy it informally.”
Washtenaw County has the bottom foreclosure rate within the state resulting from McClary’s creation of a program that connects struggling homeowners to assistance and helps them pay delinquent taxes, in response to MLive.
Each programs have since been adopted by other counties in Michigan.
Michigan Treasurer Rachael Eubanks said McClary leaves an “incredible legacy” of public service.
“She was a creative and progressive thinker, at all times coming up with ways to enhance how the county operated,” Eubanks said in an email. “She is the one debt issuer I ever knew who found out learn how to underwrite her own competitive sales, to the advantage of lowering costs for taxpayers. She also worked incredibly hard to maintain as many residents of their homes as possible as a substitute of pursuing infinite tax foreclosures in the course of the depths of the Financial Crisis,” she said.
“I’ll miss riding on her pontoon boat. I’ll miss seeing her along with her young granddaughter at networking receptions, providing exposure for one more generation of girls. I’ll miss her celebration each time a glass ceiling was cracked or broken.”
Washtenaw County Treasurer Catherine McClary pioneered the Home for Generations program, which helped establish home ownership titles for black and brown residents.
Doug Combe
McClary helped establish the primary publicly funded domestic violence shelter within the country, co-created the Women’s Crisis Center for rape victims, co-authored the publication “Freedom From Rape,” and was involved in Michigan’s landmark 1974 Criminal Sexual Conduct Act.
“She was before her time,” said Jennifer Fredericks, president of Women in Public Finance. “The social construct was at all times in her deal fundings — it wasn’t political, it was just the approach to do things.”
McClary was a “good friend and colleague to most of us within the industry for a lot of, a few years,” said Phoebe Selden, senior vice chairman at Acacia Financial Group, Inc.
“A lot of us will miss her quiet and impactful leadership, but what distinguished her in my mind was how friendly and inclusive she was, especially to folks who had questions and valued her opinions — unusual traits amongst elected officials of her prominence,” Selden said.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., said in a press release that McClary was “a lifelong advocate for a lot of causes including protecting women and families, ensuring justice and equity, protecting public health and safety, and easily doing every thing she could to make people’s lives higher.”
McClary was a member of the Government Finance Officer Association’s Treasury Investment Management Committee and a former member of the GFOA Executive Board. The GFOA in 2021 awarded McClary its “hero award,” which recognizes finance officers who’ve “demonstrated extraordinary actions during a time of health, financial, natural or human-made crisis.”
The GFOA lauded McClary for her work in the course of the pandemic, noting she led efforts to implement secure online payments for delinquent taxes amongst other safety measures. “Catherine worked to motivate Washtenaw County Treasury staff to proceed the equity work begun prior to the pandemic by re-focusing efforts on two major equity projects–Bridge Loans for Affordability and Home for Generations,” the GFOA said.
As a longtime member of the Michigan Association of County Treasurers, McClary shared her work with treasurers across the state. “After I will sign a contract to pay for software modification, for instance, I write within the contract that if one other county treasurer in Michigan wants to make use of that code, they’ve a right to it for free of charge since it’s already being paid for with public funds,” she said within the Ann Arbor Library podcast.
“My entire profession has been spent attempting to help other women get a seat on the table,” McClary said later the podcast. “I hope that telling our story is one approach to preserve women’s history and to encourage other women. You haven’t got to know things. You only must do things. Then you definately’ll learn what you do not know.”
Services are expected to be private. The county plans to honor her in a ceremony early next yr.