Mr. Chilberg served as an advisor on local and national government issues to the Republic of Georgia for over two years on an intermittent basis. As a consultant for the U.S. Treasury Department, he made presentations in several training seminars for leaders of Parliament, staff of the Ministry of Finance, local elected officials, and NGO's. His extensive experience in State and local government, both elected and appointed positions, provides a broad basis for assisting the Georgians in developing local government systems. As a former State Budget Director, his advise on drafting a local government budget law had been requested by members of the Georgian Parliament. He has assisted attempts to establish a formula-based financial transfer system to fund local government in Georgia, and reviewed and advised on many drafts of legislation affecting local government operations. He has also hosted two delegations of Georgians, including several members of Parliament and Ministry of Finance officials, who traveled to Spokane, Washington for training on local governance presented by Mr. Chilberg.

Mr. Chilberg's experience as an elected County Treasurer and County Commissioner provide him with a foundation for advising on a wide range of local government issues in the developing democracies, including taxing authority, property tax systems, National government oversight of local government finances, separation of duties between legislative and executive functions, interjurisdictional functions and relations, performance measurement, internal controls and accountability, to mention a few.
Mr. Chilberg has advised the Republic of Srpska on the establishment of their budget office, and on budget systems. He has also conducted an evaluation of local government development needs in Armenia.

Selected Experience

Consultant, U.S. Treasury Department. June, 1998 - September, 2000. As a consultant, Mr. Chilberg; has served on short term projects up to one month duration advising on budgetary and local government issues. His assignments have been principally in the Republic of Georgia, but also include Bosnia and Armenia.

County Commissioner, Spokane County, Washington, January 1993 - June 1995. In this elected position for a county of 400,000, Mr. Chilberg served in both a legislative and executive role. The County Commission considers legislative and budgetary issues, and administers many of the functions of county government, including transportation and roads, public health, public safety, and land use planning. Mr. Chilberg served on several regional, State, and national bodies, including: Chairman, Washington State Housing Finance Commission; National Advisory Board, Fanny Mae; Chairman, Regional Transportation Planning Council; Chairman, Spokane Transit Authority; Secretary, Spokane International Airport Board; Chairman, Spokane Regional Air Pollution Control Authority; and member, Spokane District Health Board.

Treasurer, Spokane County, Washington 1983--1993. In this elected position Mr. Chilberg was responsible for all tax collection and cash management functions for Spokane County. This responsibility encompassed collecting property taxes for approximately 150,000 parcels, as well as several other local government taxes. His staff included approximately 25 persons. He supervised management of an investment portfolio in excess of $300 million, and was responsible for debt issuance and management for Spokane and 67 independent taxing districts.
He was instrumental in securing approval of legislation affecting local government treasury and tax collection operations.  He was elected President of his State Association of County Treasurers.

Member, Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board, June 1995-October, 2004.In this position, appointed by the Governor for a six-year term, Mr. Chilberg served with two others in a quasi-judicial capacity reviewing challenges to land-use actions taken by local government. Mr. Chilberg wrote decisions on cases where he served as presiding officer. Those decisions have the authority of law.

Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Officer, AmericanWest Bank, December 2004 -present.As CRA Officer, Mr. Chilberg oversees the Bank's efforts to comply with the Community Reinvestment Act, a National law requiring Banks to serve low and moderate income individuals and organizations whose services are directed toward those individuals.  In performing this work, Mr. Chilberg is charged with selecting organizations worthy of support, and arranging for the necessary technical assistance or financial assistance to ensure the organization's success.  He serves as an advisor to "Common Ground" a non-profit housing developer, and on the Capacity Committee of Impact Capital, a non-profit community development corporation funded by banks. Impact Capital assists other non-profit organizations to improve their capacity to become self-sufficient. At AmericanWest Bank, Mr. Chilberg chairs the CRA Committee, a committee comprising the executive management of the Bank. The Committee oversees all the philanthropy of the Bank, as well as all lending and investment activity directed toward community development activities.