My Career at MI Treasury: KATINA LITTERINI

Katina Litterini is the Director of the Collection Services Bureau where she guides staff and provides oversight for Administration, the Information Processing Division, and for the Service Management Division. The depth and breadth of the Collection Services Bureau is enormous, involving state of Michigan refunds, taxpayer accounts, litigation and bankruptcy, property seizures, tax collection from individuals and entities, and helping taxpayers with compliance through filing tax returns. It’s a position with thousands of moving parts and it rests on the shoulders of an extraordinarily capable woman who rose through Treasury’s ranks via her ground zero understanding of customer service and the intricacies of tax collection. Here’s how her Treasury career began…???

I was hired as a calculations assistant in September of 2000, and I've been with Treasury for over 23 years. Working my way up through Collections via numerous roles and responsibilities left me well-versed about our work areas -- what they do, how they connect to one another, and how every area impacts not only our work in Collections, but in Treasury as a whole.

By starting at entry level, I learned the strengths and weaknesses of the department’s operation and how it could be better. Time and experience were my steppingstones to new opportunities, along with the mentorship offered by Treasury’s supervisory employees along the way.

MY MENTORS

Robbie Harris was a supervisor when I was in the state agency collection unit, and she taught me how to effectively communicate verbally and in writing. We dealt with 23 agencies, 10 courts and 10 universities, and Robbie demonstrated how to identify each audience and clearly differentiate the information we needed to share. Robbie modeled how to be an effective leader, especially as a female. She recognized my talents and the knowledge I had gained from a previous collections job with GC Services and my experience within Collections and urged me to apply for an office supervisor position in Treasury’s Collection call center. She gave me the confidence to value my experience, step into a new role and to effectively manage a call center.

Wil Smalls was a State Administrator Manager with a very ‘assertive’ personality. He held people to a certain standard, and I appreciated his no-nonsense attitude. Wil demonstrated how to set boundaries, communicate rules and follow through with consequences. He led by example and showed me how to properly handle difficult situations.

Kavita Kale is Treasury’s new Deputy State Treasurer over Revenue Services. She called me three years ago, when we were in the middle of COVID-19. My role at that point had gone through several changes and I was a Departmental Manager overseeing three supervisors, and 30-plus call center employees. Overnight, the pandemic completely disrupted call center operations; we sent everyone home, got everyone set up with equipment, and within 24 hours we were taking calls from taxpayers.

Kavita needed help with processing our invoice for our third-party vendor, GC Services. I had acquired background information on how we pay them from my previous analyst role on the Systems team, so I was able to assist. Kavita is very strategic and really good at problem-solving. Her motto is “try, fail fast, then try again” – and she taught me that it’s okay to take risks.

During the challenges of COVID, while managing all the moving parts with my supervisors, I got a ‘thank you’ video from Treasurer Rachael Eubanks. She thanked me for me and my teams’ efforts in getting the call center transitioned and keeping it up and running, and something just clicked in my head -- like, you know what, I can do this! I realized that all the work and experience and mentorship had come together and that I was truly the best person for the job.

Looking back, I'm proud of all the professional relationships that I’ve had at Treasury. I’ve known some of my colleagues and staff for 20 years, and I need them as much as they hopefully need me! I appreciate the people I've worked with; not only do we have an established trusted relationship, I rely on them. And I like to think they rely on me to make Treasury a good place to come to work every day, and to feel comfortable and valued.

On a personal level, I am also very, very proud of my 15-year-old daughter who is a straight-A student and musically inclined. As a high school sophomore, she plays multiple instruments, including clarinet and guitar. Because of COVID, she spent middle school at home, so she taught herself Korean -- out of boredom and her love of K-pop music.

CHALLENGES

?One of the biggest challenges I’ve encountered at work is getting other individuals to understand the complexity of Collections. There are so many components: we collect taxes for all the different taxing divisions, State agencies, Universities and Courts. We need to understand the policies and be well-organized, we must communicate to staff, and we need to be able to explain tax information to our taxpayer customers. It’s important to me that our customers are being treated fairly, and that negative assumptions are not made based on non-payment of taxes.

Before my current role as Bureau Director, I worked my way up through Treasury in various roles: calculations assistant, office supervisor, departmental analyst, departmental manager, state assistant administrator and state administrative manager.

I do not have a college degree. My professional accomplishments rest on demonstrated leadership, technical expertise and my ability to facilitate change by building successful teams and growing strategic partnerships. It can be challenging to pursue success on an alternative educational path, but my career is proof it can be achieved at Treasury with dedication and hard work.

TREASURY SUCCESS SKILLS

TALK to people. As I moved through my roles at Treasury I would sometimes end up in a management position over colleagues, or employees who were previously at a level above my own. I knew there would be an adjustment period and that I needed to be conscious of how people were feeling, but at first it was very uncomfortable for me. I made it a point to reach out personally, beyond the standard group meeting, to talk face-to-face and immediately address issues as they came up. Deputy Treasurer Kale is a big proponent of just picking up the phone and calling someone directly, and I’ve learned that establishing a voice connection with a person leads to better understanding. This has helped me build a professional network outside the office, too – I am comfortable reaching out as I’ve worked on building a foundation of communication with others in my field.

ASK ‘why’. I’m a ‘why’ person and I ask ‘why’ questions to get the whole story. Because of my own longevity and experience, I may understand the impact of a decision down the road and maybe others working on the project don’t have that perspective yet. Or perhaps they don’t know the answer to ‘why’ because no one's ever told them! I want to share as much knowledge as I have when giving direction and allow my team to ask as many questions as they need to get the job done. It’s important to me to be as forthcoming and transparent as possible.

RESPECT everyone. You never know who you're going to work for or work with at Treasury! We need to treat everybody equally; from senior executives to new hires, everyone has something valuable to add to our workplace and every contribution deserves respect.

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My Career at MI Treasury is a series designed to highlight the many unique paths to professional success within the department. For current information about Treasury Careers, please visit our website!

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