Tom Fernandez departs after just over 3 years as budget chief.
By P.C. Staff
JACL Director of Finance/CFO Thomas Fernandez has tendered his resignation, effective May 27.
Tom Fernandez at February’s National Board meeting at JACL Headquarters. (Photo: Gil Asakawa)
In an email to JACL’s National Board and staff, Fernandez wrote: “Today marks my last day as director of finance at the Japanese American Citizens League, and I wanted to take a moment to say a proper goodbye and express my heartfelt gratitude to each of you.”
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In a statement, JACL National President Larry Oda said, “Tom brought a level of financial expertise to JACL that we hadn’t had for awhile. He was able to determine the cause of our reporting anomalies and discovered errors in our accounting calculations from 10 years ago that have impacted our financial statements until now.”
Fernandez joined JACL in May 2023. During his time in that capacity, he helped to update the organization’s financial reporting systems, updated payment processing systems, transitioned to a new payroll processing system and updated the reimbursement procedure, among other accomplishments.
He also inherited major financial problems that predated his employment, the latest being a projected budgetary shortfall that has now reached $1 million. The financial crunch led to the departures of five JACL staffers in less than a 10-month period.
“I’m sorry to see him move on, and wish him well,” Oda continued. “We are thankful for the time he was here and his skill and tenacity to find all the errors and incorrect assumptions in our accounting systems that have been perpetuated for a dozen years.”
A new father as of November of last year, Fernandez will be employed by the city of Benecia, Calif., in a similar capacity of financial oversight.