Urban Futures Inc. — the municipal advisory firm that aided San Bernardino through its bankruptcy — has partnered with Julia Erdkamp's Coxswain Consulting to expand its offerings.
UFI has two financial advisory groups, Isom Advisors and Public Finance Group, under its umbrella. Erdkamp’s firm will work with Public Finance Group.
The strategic partnership announced Monday emerged “through extensive discussions and a shared vision for the challenges public agencies are facing,” Coxswain CEO Erdkamp and Michael Busch, chief executive and strategy officer for UFI, said in a joint statement.
“Government needs more than siloed fixes to organizational and financial challenges,” Busch said. “UFI has worked with hundreds of agencies on financial plans, but once you have a plan, it is the implementation within the organization that becomes the barrier to success.”
The partnership will align UFI’s strength in financial analytics with Erdkamp’s expertise in assisting public agencies with the organizational improvement and culture innovations needed to help local government leaders go from plan to implementation, according to the announcement.
If public agencies are going to be ready to face the challenges of tomorrow — pensions, emerging markets, evolving economic bases, multigenerational workplaces, technology shifts — they have to think strategically, Erdkamp said.
Before founding Coxswain in 2017, Erdkamp worked as a manager in clients services for Muniservices LLC. She also worked as a manager for Orange County Waste & Recycling and for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at John Wayne Airport in Orange County.
She has been a speaker at events organized by the League of California Cities, California State Association of Counties, California Society of Municipal Financial Officers, and the Municipal Management Association of Southern California. She has pioneered several leadership and training programs, including the Municipal Financial Management Program, and been a consultant to over 70 public agencies in California, according to the announcement.
UFI was founded in 1972 and has been headed by Busch for the past five years. The firm ranked fourth in 2018 among financial advisors in California, credited with advising on $2.9 billion in bond sales, according to Refinitiv data. It has more than 20 municipal and financial advisors who work with cities, counties, school districts, and special districts.
