At the Jan. 21 City Council meeting, councilmembers — along with friends and family in the chamber and via Zoom — paid tribute to retiring Finance Director Mike Szczech, whose last day with the city was Jan. 24. Mayor Betsy Smegal Andersen issued a Proclamation declaring Friday, Jan. 24 as “Michael Szczech Day.”
Mike Szczech moved out to the Bay Area from Chicago in the fall of 1989. A couple of weeks later, he was at Candlestick Park watching his beloved Cubs take on the Giants in the National League Championship Series. Shortly after that, a big ol’ earthquake rocked the Bay Area.
“I had no idea what an earthquake was,” Szczech said.
Did it send him scurrying back to Chicago? No.
“I came out here because of the weather,” he said. “I had relatives who lived up in Sonoma. When I had an opportunity to come out here I jumped at it. This was the place to go.”
Szczech spent many years in the private finance sector. But in 2017, he went public, taking over as the finance director in Piedmont. The 67-year old retired from that position on January 24.
Szczech already was a Piedmont resident – he has lived here for 27 years. He said he intends to stick around town.
“We have all our friends here,” Szczech said. “Can’t beat the weather.”
So he’s not moving back to Chicago?
“Zero percent chance of that,” he said.
Szczech lived in Chicago for 32 years. He studied finance and accounting at DePaul University and later earned a CPA. He lost his job in 1989 due to a merger and that’s when he started looking west.
Szczech worked for Carter Hawley Hale, which owned the Emporium among other stores. He was stationed in the Emporium building in San Francisco. He worked for Gymboree for a decade and Cafe Press.
After the latter moved its headquarters to Louisville, Szczech decided he wanted to stay in California. He knew Bob McBain, a former mayor and city council member, and McBain suggested Szczech move to the public sector.
“I had known him for 20 years,” Szczech said. “He introduced me to the job. He knew I was looking for work. And I did. I liked it. It was close to home, it was a different opportunity. I had never worked in government.”
Szczech said much of the work is similar to the private sector.
“The only thing that’s really different is you don’t have that profit motive,” he said. “In corporate-land, everything’s all geared to profit. Here the job is central to budgeting. That was the central part of the job, you’re budgeting, staying on budget. As opposed to trying to increase your revenues and keeping your investors happy.”
Szczech was 60 when he took the position.
“My original plan was to work five years til I was 65,” he said. “I liked the job and the commute was nice.”
He said the office was about 0.4 miles from his house.
Szczech said two things were his biggest accomplishments: putting in a new computer finance system and working on stabilizing the finances of the city’s pension program.
The old finance system was still paper-based.
“The new finance system almost totally eliminates paper-processing,” Szczech said. “Everything is digital, everything is approved digitally. We did a lot of work up front looking for systems and demo-ing systems. We got all the departments involved. We’re a small city. We got a good lower-range software. And we got one that was easy to use.”
Pensions have been an issue for several local and statewide governments as funding can be a struggle.
“I learned about pensions pretty quickly,” Szczech said. “How messed up it is and how underfunded it is. I dove into that.”
Szczech contracted Public Agency Retirement Services as a supplement to the existing system.
He said he thinks his replacement will step into a good situation. Lisa Malek-Zadeh has been appointed interim finance director.
“I think were in a pretty good place,” Szczech said. “There’s always stuff you can improve upon. You have to keep your eyes on the pension costs, the infrastructure costs and get into the details.
“The thing I’m going to miss is the people. I can’t say enough about the people who work for the city. The most conscientious group of workers I’ve ever worked with.”
Szczech said it’ll be nice to break away from the grind.
“I’ve been doing 9-5 since I was 10 years old,” he said. “I’ve been on a schedule since I was in kindergarten. I play a little golf. Have a couple of trips planned. I have two hound dogs that I take for walks. They’ll be expecting more walks.
“It’s just time to kick back for a while.”
Szczech will spend time with his wife Wendy, who works for the Exedra. They have two grown daughters.
Mike Szczech 
Former mayor Bob McBain congratulates friend and colleague Mike Szczech as friends and family look on
Way to go Mike. You are great coworker and will be missed.