Susan Rizzo was born and raised in the City of Albany. She attended SUNY Plattsburgh and earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Accounting. Susan began her career in the private sector and has more than 30 years professional accounting and financial experience.

Prior to her election as Albany County Comptroller, Ms. Rizzo was the Vice President of Real Estate Investments for Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors, a subsidiary of Mass Mutual Life Insurance. Ms. Rizzo specialized in hotel property investments. Her last assignment, prior to public service, was as the Portfolio Asset Manager for the Los Angeles County Firemen Pension Fund. She managed over $300 million in hotel real estate assets for the pension fund. Throughout her career, Ms. Rizzo specialized in luxury and boutique hotel assets.

Additionally, as an Investments Manager for MetLife Real Estate Investments, Ms. Rizzo was in charge of originating, underwriting, and closing commercial real estate mortgages. She managed a $1.5 billion portfolio of equity owned hotels, including hotel mortgage production and hotel sales, positioning properties to sell, re-negotiating management agreements, developing exit strategies, reviewing and approving budgets, and developing valuation procedures. Ms. Rizzo also coordinated investments, valued properties via the income, market, and physical cost approach, and developed annual property information packages. Susan created strategies to maximize value, including sub-dividing mixed-use properties, pursued tax appeals, positioned hotels to sell, successfully sold these hotels or utilized a long-term investment approach to maximize the return on investment.

Ms. Rizzo began her career in public service as a member of the City of Albany’s Assessment Board, where she successfully assisted City residents with residential and commercial assessment grievances. Shortly thereafter she became the Chief Financial Manager for the City of Albany’s Department of General Services. In 2017 she was elected as the Chief City Auditor for the City of Albany. As Chief City Auditor, she conducted more audits than any of her predecessors to help the City identify over $1 million in expense savings and additional revenue opportunities.

Since January of 2020, the County Comptroller has worked diligently to professionalize the Comptroller’s Office and ensure a smooth transition. Her priorities as a manager have been focused on creating individual career development plans for her staff to increase their aptitude and ability to best serve county residents. She has prioritized staff development by providing staff with opportunities to attend related seminars, achieve industry related certifications and join sector specific membership affiliations. This staff development initiative has cultivated an environment of learning and growth that will continue to pay dividends in the future.

Under her leadership as the Albany County Comptroller, the County has maintained a strong credit rating and reputation in the municipal bond market, which has resulted in an impressive savings for Albany County taxpayers. Despite the COVID-19 Pandemic, S&P Global Ratings reaffirmed the County’s overall long-term credit rating as AA with a stable outlook. This strong credit rating ensures a lower interest rate for the County while other municipalities have been downgraded during the pandemic.

Beginning in 2020, the Comptroller led a team that completed an audit of time and attendance, which identified several areas to improve policies and procedures related to tracking and recording of Albany County employees’ time and attendance. The recommendations from this audit substantially reduced the risk that inappropriate or erroneous payroll time records would go undetected.

In June 2020, Department of Audit & Control completed a refinancing of a portion of the County’s outstanding debt that saved Albany County taxpayers over $1 million at a 0.598% interest rate. Later in 2020, the Comptroller’s office completed a preemptive short-term cash flow borrowing of $40 million, which has since been repaid, to provide much needed relief to navigate cash shortfalls at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021. This short term borrowing gave the County the ability to take advantage of the NYS Retirement early payment program, resulting in $168,606 in countywide savings.

In 2021 the Comptroller’s office completed a thorough and exhaustive analysis of the County’s Debt Service Fund. This analysis resulted in the identification of $6.7 million in available state/federal funding that allowed the County to contribute this previously earmarked $6.7 million towards 2022 debt service payments. Furthermore, this analysis also located capital that has subsequently been used towards the creation of two separate reserve funds, one being a Capital Reserve fund that is expected to be used to fund projects traditionally paid for from bonding, and a Retirement Contribution Reserve that has resulted in reductions in annual retirement related payments for the next 10 years.

In 2022, Ms. Rizzo’s office issued $23.2 million in bonds while maintaining a high-grade municipal bond rating (AA with stable outlook) and attracting 12 bidders at a favorable interest rate (3.07%). Further, her office collaborated with Management & Budget and the County Legislature to update the County’s Debt Policy and achieve a strong credit rating for Albany County. She also collaborated with Human Resources to lower a post-employment liability by $180 million (a 26% reduction), improving the County’s fiscal position.

In 2023, Susan worked closely with the Department of Management & Budget to strategically invest County surplus funds to maximize investment returns. Total 2023 year-end projected investment income is estimated to be nearly $15 million, which will exceed budget by over $13.5 million. This increase in investment revenue, along with the prior year operating surplus, has allowed the county to avoid the issuance of bonds in 2023, which are traditionally used to pay for the County’s capital improvements.

Entering her second term, Ms. Rizzo currently is a member of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Executive Committee, where she has worked collaboratively with the other Committee members, sub-committees and county staff to ensure that compliance processes, policies, and procedures were both effective and easily implemented. Also recently, the office conducted asset forfeiture audits of the District Attorney and County Sheriff. Moving forward both claim approval and determination of the permissibility of the spending of forfeiture funds will be determined by the Department of Audit & Control.

Aside from her duties as County Comptroller, she also serves as Albany County’s Public Administrator. A public administrator is the government official tasked with representing the estates of county residents who died intestate (without a will), or if a decedent has no one to unravel their estate. The public administrator has the legal authority to take protective custody of the property of a decedent, and to investigate the decedent’s assets, obligations, and locate the decedent’s heirs for distribution of remaining assets.

Assisting in this area allows her to help address blight in the community while also bolstering the County’s tax rolls. The Public Administrator paid from the estates nearly $70,000 in past due taxes in 2022 and $80,000 to date in 2023.

Comptroller Rizzo will continue to draw upon her extensive accounting and financial experience to professionally execute her responsibilities as County Comptroller.