POULSBO — After helping guide the Poulsbo City Council through its 2007 budget, Finance Director Nanci Lien announced her resignation Wednesday.

Lien’s last day with the city will be Jan. 31, and her decision has taken some city council members by surprise.

“It’s going to be a big loss for us,” Councilwoman Connie Lord said. “She’s done a fine, fine job.”

Lien had served as accounting manager, beginning her career with the city in 1989.She took the finance department’s reins April 7, 2004 after the retirement of former Finance Director Donna Bjorkman.

That decision was reaffirmed by the council at its April 14, 2004 meeting, when Councilman Dale Rudolph — who missed the April 7 meeting that year — asked for clarity on the previous vote to appoint Lien as the city’s finance director.

Lien was supported by then-Councilwoman Kathryn Quade and councilmen Ed Stern and Jim Henry in the April 7 vote, but councilmen Mike Regis and Jeff McGinty along with Lord voted to wait until Rudolph was in attendance. That tie was broken by then-Mayor Donna Jean Bruce.

For Lien, the decision to leave the place where she’s spent almost two decades, wasn’t easy.

“It’s always bittersweet,” she said Wednesday afternoon. “For me it’s an opportunity to go to Olympia, which is a city of 50,000 people.”

In Olympia, Lien said she will be working as that city’s public works finance manager.

“I’m going to be working in a department of 200 people, which has two times as many employees as the city of Poulsbo,” she said.

Even though Olympia is much larger than Poulsbo in terms of population, Lien said both cities have a similar feel in terms of community.

“They’re excited to have me, and we’ve built a team here that will carry the city through the transition,” Lien said.

Mayor Quade thanked Lien for her service as the city’s finance director and wished her well in her new position.

“Change can be hard, but it works out for the best,” Quade said.

The search for Lien’s replacement will begin shortly after the first of the year, but Quade said she didn’t anticipate any problems during the transition period.

“She stepped up to the plate after Donna Bjorkman retired, and she’s been someone we could depend on for sound advice,” Lord said.

Lien’s complete and vast knowledge of the city’s budget system and overall finances have helped guide the city through some difficult times, she added.

“She’s conservative and I appreciate that,” Lord said. “She was always very prudent with our finances.”

That prudence has allowed the city to upgrade its financial software and look to moving ahead with its new city hall project, she said.

“She’s left the city better than she found it,” Lord said. “I wish her well because I think she needs to be able to move on.”

For Councilman Regis, Lien will be missed for her high caliber of professionalism and her capabilities, which have greatly benefitted the city.

“She puts in a lot of work to help her city. She puts in more than she receives,” Regis said.

In addition to serving as the city’s finance director, Lord and Regis both agreed that Lien’s ties to Poulsbo run deeper than just the finance department.

“She has done a lot of things in the community,” Lord said, explaining that Lien has been active in the Poulsbo Historical Society among other organizations.

During Lien’s tenure as finance director, the finance department has won awards from the state’s Government Finance Officers’ Association for its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report each year.