June 20, 2024 | From City of New Orleans
City of New Orleans Announces Confirmation of Romy Schofield-Samuel as Director of Finance
NEW ORLEANS — The City of New Orleans today announced the confirmation of Romy Schofield-Samuel as the Director of Finance. Schofield-Samuel has over two decades of government experience and has served the City as the interim Director of Finance since April.
"Her extensive experience and proven track record in revenue collection and financial management makes her the ideal candidate to lead our City's Finance Department.” said Mayor LaToya Cantrell. “Schofield-Samuel has worked through the ranks of City Hall for over 30 years, spending more than half of those years within this department. Her role will be crucial in ensuring our City continues to demonstrate fiscal responsibility and long-standing financial stability, especially as we move toward developing the 2025 budget. She is capable of continuing the success and innovation to our financial strategies."
Director Schofield-Samuel has been an integral part of the City's Finance Department, serving as a Revenue Collector since February 2006. During this time, Schofield-Samuel has managed annual tax collections exceeding $450 million across more than 25 tax types, consistently meeting or surpassing collection targets. Schofield-Samuel has also been instrumental in implementing new sales tax and occupational license collection systems, set to optimize revenue tracking and enhance the discovery and recovery of unreported sales tax, resulting in additional revenues.
“Our citizens deserve a city in stable financial position that will create a rich quality of life,” said Schoflield-Samuel. The business community as well as citizens create the culture that attracts and welcomes millions of visitors each year. With that in mind, revenue placed in this Administration’s care, addresses the matter of importance to citizens and business community effectively and makes City government work for all. Exceptional customer service to internal and external customers will be our focus for the immediate future. My goal is to rethink current processes in Finance that result in inefficiencies and slowed productivity.”
Prior to this role, Schofield-Samuel served as the Revenue Collections Supervisor and ABO Manager for the City of New Orleans from August 1997 to February 2006. In this capacity, Schofield-Samuel managed the issuance of approximately 3,500 alcoholic beverage permits and business occupational licenses annually and registered around 6,000 video poker machines each year. Schofield-Samuel also supervised a team of sales tax auditors responsible for compliance reviews on delinquent and non-compliant alcoholic beverage outlets, ensuring adherence to industry regulations.
Schofield-Samuel’s achievements include streamlining workflows, implementing comprehensive policies to ensure regulatory compliance, and developing strong relationships with both internal and external customers through excellent customer service.
She has worked closely with the Bureau of Accounting to distribute collections to partner agencies and has actively engaged with legislative matters impacting sales tax through collaborations with the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, the Louisiana Association of Tax Administrators, and the Louisiana Uniform Local Sales Tax Board.
Schofield-Samuel obtained a bachelor's degree in finance from Xavier University of Louisiana in 1991. She also serves as a member of the Saint Kathern Drexel Preparatory School Board.
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