City of Topeka hires Kansas native as new finance director

Kansas native Jessica Lamendola was recently hired as the city of Topeka’s new administrative and financial services director. She starts work March 4.

Lamendola comes to Topeka from the city of North Hempstead, N.Y., where she has been finance director and acting comptroller since July 2016, the city of Topeka said in a news release Tuesday. North Hempstead’s population in the 2010 census was 226,332, compared to 127,473 for Topeka.

“Lamendola’s education, background and experiences will be very beneficial to the city of Topeka as we start work on the 2020 budget and CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) process,” city manager Brent Trout said in Tuesday’s release. Before taking her job at North Hempstead, Lamendola worked for the Nassau County, N.Y., Office of Management and Budget and spent more than three years with Moody’s Investor Services as a senior credit and financial analyst responsible for a large portfolio of municipal issuers, Tuesday’s news release said.