Interview with Steve Thacker, City Manager of Centerville, Utah

Editor’s note: This interview is the third in a series of conversations I had with managers at the ICMA Annual Conference in Milwaukee. Each of these managers represents a city or county that has offered or is currently offering Management Internships – one- to two-year postgraduate work and mentoring experiences that help new MPAs and MPPs get their feet wet in city management.

City Profile:

Centerville City has approximately 16,000 people and only 51 full time employees. It has a number of part time and limited employees, as we call them. [They are] seasonal employees in our Parks and Recreation department.

The total budget is about $16 million. The largest source of sales tax revenue is Wal-Mart. The Wal-Mart came to town in 2007. Just before the recession hit. We are very grateful to have had the Wal-Mart sales tax to prop us up.

Steve Thacker

Where did you start your career and how did you become a city manager?

Well, I was in the MPA program at BYU. Between my first and second year of graduate school I did an internship in the city of Mesa, Arizona. Mesa is where I grew up. I did settle on a specialty of city management; however, upon graduation I took a job as a performance auditor for the State of Arizona for the legislative branch. They were beginning a performance audit division in their Auditor General’s office. I took that opportunity and did that for five years. It was excellent experience in building the skills that became very useful and valuable later on as a city manager. After five years of doing that I had my first opportunity in city management – the town manager, the first town manager – in Snowflake, Arizona. After six years there, I became the city administrator in Cañon City, Colorado, which is at the mouth of the Royal Gorge. I stayed there eight and a half years and then took the job in Centerville. I began that job in February of 1998.

My career has spanned 33 years in public service; 28 years in city government at this point.

What is the greatest issue facing your city?

We have several land use planning initiatives. They are probably our hot-button issues.

They’re probably the greatest issues because any time you alter a general land use plan you have folks who may perceive that as detrimental. For example, we have adopted a plan for the redevelopment of the commercial part of Main Street. Some sections of Main Street are residential but we have a section that is commercial. It has not been a vibrant part of our community and the council wanted to create a plan that would bring redevelopment to that corridor, including some enhanced public transit. What that means, bottom line, is higher density and mixed use development that includes multi-family units. Then there would be commercial developments and also the possibility of more intense public transit, whether it’s bus rapid transit or a streetcar type thing as part of the South Davis Transit Initiative. So the combination of some higher residential density along the Main Street Corridor and the more intense public transit really alarmed a lot of people. We’ve had a lot of controversy on that. The City Council has gone back and revisited that plan and tweaked it in response to that: reducing the height of the buildings and the numbers of units in them and has taken out any reference to light rail specifically. Although it still refers to public transit generally until further studies are done to find out what else might be feasible.

And then we have a foothills management plan. The area on the east side on the mountainside is largely undeveloped. It’s mostly outside city limits. We want to control what happens to that land so we have developed a management plan expressing the potential uses of the mountainside, the constraints on development, and what the guiding values should be for the development of that land.

We’re also putting in a fiber optic network – Utopia – and they’re finally getting around to building the network in Centerville. That’s a high-profile subject right now. There are 11 cities that actually pledged funds for Utopia, that have an obligation to pay a yearly assessment. We are one of those cities.

How do you avoid pigeon-holing yourself in one particular department or specialty in city management?

It would be best to have some strengths in specialty areas...more in-depth experience. But you’d also need some exposure to many other areas. If you just know a little bit about a lot of things, that might work too if you can convince them that you have the skill set that will serve you well [in that position]. City managers can move up specializing in finance or personnel or planning or even public works for example. But if you have some exposure to a number of different areas that just broadens your appeal.

What’s the most awkward interview question you’ve ever asked or been asked?

That’s a tough one. I remember many years ago when I was trying to find my first city management job. They asked me how I felt about receiving grants. I suspected that the person asking the question was an ultra-conservative who didn’t like the idea of the strings that come attached with receiving grants. I think the question was “Would you seek and accept grants on behalf of the city?” and guessing the motives and philosophy of the person asking the question I took the safe route and said, “Well, you know it depends upon the position of the city council. Do they want to seek and use grants or not?” That’s a pretty safe answer.

Let’s talk a little about your management internship. Given that many cities are cutting these types of jobs, was it difficult to fund this position and “sell” it to your council?

It was not. No, it wasn’t difficult. It is a year-by-year budget decision. As I anticipate whether I have the collection of projects or accumulation of projects that would justify an intern I make that decision when I prepare the annual budget. Then I put those amounts in. If I think I may want one, I put that amount in. The council has been supportive; they’ve never turned me down when I requested it. But as you know we only have 51 full-time employees…it’s a pretty skimpy staff. That includes police and public works and parks maintenance people and all that so we don’t have a lot of bodies available to do special projects and assignments. The council understands that so they’ve always been supportive when I’ve asked for that funding.

How many times have you offered a position similar to this one?

Let me just talk about the last six years. I’ve had five interns in the last six years. I missed last year. Other than that I’ve had one every year. One year I did share the intern with the city of Bountiful. We split it half and half, twenty hours a week for each city. But it didn’t work so well. I don’t think there is enough accountability with the intern split between two employers. I feel like I didn’t have as much control over it. One year, I had a three way internship with three cities. That one worked ok because I actually had the intern for six weeks, somebody else had him for six weeks, and another city had him for six weeks. As opposed to trying to split their time every week, that type of sharing seemed to work better, although we only had him for six weeks.

As a member of the ICMA Task Force on Internship Guidelines, we’ve discussed changing the stigma of internships from “coffee and copies” to an “apprenticeship.” How would your management intern fit into that category?

I like that. That is really how I’ve been thinking about the intern. I’ve had interns not simply because I think they can give us some value for the relatively low wage we pay them but because I am committed to preparing the next generation of city managers. I have a lot of passion for this profession and I want to give that future generation of city managers a good start. The way I’ve looked at it is: “This is an apprenticeship. I want to give that intern as much insight into the challenges of being a city manager as possible and allow them to learn those things that they’re not going to learn in a classroom.” Because of that, one of the regular parts of my internships or apprenticeships is I have a weekly time set with my intern throughout the four-month period…an established block of time where the intern not only reports on the assignments but also can ask questions about anything that they’ve observed while they’re on the job. If they’ve observed something at a council meeting, interaction between the council members, the dynamics of the meeting, if they’ve observed something in the departments they’ve been working in…Anything at all. The issues facing the community, some of the public reaction at public hearings, they can ask about anything. There is nothing off-limits. And that’s how I think they’re going to gain the insights that they’re not going to gain in the classroom. It’s by seeing those things in real life and having the chance to talk about them.

I think that’s in line with the idea that this is an apprenticeship… a way for someone to really become a city manager someday.

What trends, positive or negative, do you see from recent MPA grads?

I don’t know if there are any negatives that I can think of offhand, and I see a lot of positives. They’re coming out of the BYU program with great quantitative skills, the use of technology and software, in order to document and analyze data is really amazing. My current intern, Ben, has an amazing ability to analyze data by the use of Excel and other software, some of it I wasn’t familiar with. That’s one of the advances, obviously, since my time in grad school. I’m a technology dinosaur! But I can appreciate the value of it.

They’re probably better writers. The BYU program has a heavy emphasis on writing and that seems to be the case with the interns I’ve had. For the most part, they’re pretty good writers. They have a desire for public service. That’s always been there for those that go into an MPA program.

Negative trends? I don’t know. I can’t think of any off the top of my head. Regarding the interns I have had from BYU, the values they come out with are really well placed for public service.

Do you have any last thoughts for someone seeking their first job?

I had an inquiry from a student the other day. He was faced with the choice of continuing to be an intern with [another city] or taking an internal audit position with the [State] Department of Corrections. He was wondering “Which one will serve me best?” I didn’t give him an answer specifically, but [I said] “Here are the things you need to think about:

1. What kind of assignments will you get in that position which will relate to your future goal of city management?

2. Are you going to be exposed to subject matter that will be relevant?

3. Are you going to be able to use and refine skills that will be relevant to city management?”

If you can get all of those, that’s best. I was a performance auditor for the first five years of my career and I was exposed to some of the subject matter that I was ultimately going to see in city management. The assignments that I had included the Department of Administration and the Department of Transportation. But the skills I was required to use were even more valuable for later use in city management.

Someone looking for their first job – if they want to be a city manager – then they need to be thinking about those things: The assignments, the subject matter, and the skill set and are those going to be relevant to city management. You could get that kind of experience in many different positions. If you don’t have many choices, that’s a different situation. You may even try the private sector. Any job that helps you build your interpersonal skills, your conceptual skills, and your analytical skills…you can transfer those to [any job] in the private or public sector.

New entry-level jobs!

Check out these new jobs in

Lawrence, KS - Management Intern

Mesa, AZ - Budget Associate I

Baltimore, MD - Budget Analyst I

Mesa, AZ - Management Assistant II

Provo, UT - Graduate Intern

Fort Collins Management Assistantship

I received this information from Josh Jones, a friend of mine in the city of Fort Collins, Colorado.

The City of Fort Collins Management Assistant Program allows current Master of Public Administration students and recent graduates the opportunity to gain valuable career related experience in a wide variety of areas of municipal operations. This position provides future municipal leaders with the opportunity to learn from seasoned professionals in a community consistently rated as one of the best places to live in the country. As a stand-alone municipality of over 140,000 residents, interns have the opportunity to learn about the inner-workings of a full-service city.

The intern will be provided the opportunity to work on projects based in a variety of City departments while maintaining a “home base” in the City Manager’s Office. Interns will be involved in research, analytical work, and managing special projects. This position represents a one-year internship.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
Assist the City Manager’s Office in researching high-level issues of concern as they arise. Performs entry level program analysis, organizational and administrative field studies, and statistical analysis of research data. Reports findings of research or study to the City Manager or other executive staff and elected officials in writing and in person. Plan and coordinate various meetings and internal training opportunities. Participate in the City Budget and Capital Improvement Program process.

EDUCATION and EXPERIENCE:
Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university with major course work in a field related to Public or Business Administration, Political Science, urban planning or closely related field. Applicants must have completed or substantially completed coursework toward a Master of Public Administration or closely related degree by June 2012.

Application deadline is February 21, 2012.

Applicants will submit the following by e-mail,jjones@fcgov.com to Josh Jones:
1) A cover letter stating interest and intent; 2) A current resume listing education, university(ies) attended, degree and completion dates, and professional work experience.

Sedgwick County, KS Management Internship

Sedgwick County has announced their management internship for 2012-2013. They will be hiring up to three positions. Sedgwick County serves the city of Wichita, and through an interesting financing program aided in part by Wichita State University they are some of the most regular recruiters of MPA grads for fellowships.

More information is on the employment page.

City of Wichita Management Fellowship

Wichita has posted an announcement about their Management Fellow position for 2012-2013. Find the basic details on the Employment page.

Olathe, Kansas Management Internship

About the

Management Internship

The Internship The City of Olathe has a great opportunity for a committed, team oriented, and highly motivated MPA graduate (or student who has completed all MPA coursework) to join the City Manager’s Office as a Management Intern. The duties and responsibilities of the Management Intern are designed to further prepare the incumbent for a successful career in local government. This is a full-time paid position.

Position Summary. The selected candidate will perform a variety of entry level professional administrative work, research, and analysis in support of the City Manager’s Office. The work performed by the Management Intern will be highly visible and have a direct impact on the organization. Typical assignments/projects will involve public relations, civic education programs, internal/external committees, the operating and capital budget, legislative activities, and a good balance of administrative and operational responsibilities. The intern will gain exposure to innovative best practices in our award-winning organization, through your rotations in the City Manager’s Office and a department that provides a very well rounded experience.

Requirements Requires a Master of Public Administration (or student who has completed all MPA coursework) or equivalent degree by July 1 and at least 6 months of related work experience. Applicable Internships (paid or non-paid) will satisfy the experience requirement. The ideal candidate will have a general knowledge of municipal government operations and be proficient with Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point and related applications.

PREAMBLE: By embracing these core values, employees of the City of Olathe are committed to serving the community with respect, accountability, initiative and integrity.

Customer Service: We value a friendly attitude that delivers timely, competent, and responsible service to all of our customers.

Teamwork: We value cooperation with others to achieve the best for our organization and community.

Learning: We value an innovative environment that challenges us to continuously seek ways to improve our organization and our community.

Communication: We value open discussion with others as the basis for decision-making and action.

Leadership through Service: We value an organization in which each of us is a leader focused on serving people through listening to, caring for, supporting, and developing others.

About the position of

Management Intern

Job Description Under the direction of the Assistant City Manager, performs entry level professional work for the City Manager’s Office. Participates in and/or leads a variety of projects contributing to the continued success of various organization-wide initiatives. Duties and responsibilities are designed to further prepare the incumbent for a successful career in local government.

Routine Job Duties/Responsibilities

· Perform entry level professional administrative work, research, and analysis in support of the City Manager’s office and the Mayor and Council as directed.

· Interact regularly with personnel from each department to ensure effective interdepartmental communication and maximize operational effectiveness.

· Responds to citizen inquiries/requests and resolves all issues within assigned scope of responsibility in a timely manner. Refers more complex issues to the Assistant City Manager for resolution.

· Assist with developing and implementing projects and/or programs impacting one or more City departments.

· Collect and organize data for the City-wide Balanced Scorecard.

· Facilitates program for Olathe District Schools third graders to learn about local government.

· Act as Staff Advisor to the Olathe Teen Council.

· Assist with Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) budgetary process by inputting data, performing appropriate analysis, and preparing necessary reports.

· Attend and participate in various organizational meetings and meetings of the City Council and Council sub-committees as directed.

· Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Periodic Job Duties/Responsibilities

· May facilitate employee committee or ad hoc groups.

Education/Experience

· Masters in Public Administration or equivalent

· At least six months of related work experience, applicable internships (paid or non-paid) are acceptable for experience requirement.

About the position of

Management Intern

Skills

· Ability to organize, direct and coordinate projects and meetings

· Ability to handle confidential information in a sensitive manner

· Excellent oral and written communication skills

· Ability to handle multiple demands and competing priorities

· Ability to work independently after receiving initial guidance

· Basic mathematical skills

· Ability to meet and deal tactfully with the general public, elected officials, vendors, employees and citizens

Knowledge

· General knowledge of municipal governments, city regulations/codes and ordinances

· Proficiency with PCs and computer software and applications

· General knowledge of office equipment, including photo copier, telephone, facsimile, calculator, shredder, etc.

License

· Valid Kansas Driver’s License (within 30 days of

appointment)

Working Conditions

· Long periods of computer and office work

· Intermittent periods of standing and walking

· Ability to lift, carry, push and pull up to 20 pounds

· Constant talking, hearing, concentration, judgment and writing ability

Note This job description should not be construed to imply that these requirements are the exclusive standards of the position. Interns will follow any other instructions, and perform any other related duties, as may be required. The employer has the right to revise this job description at any time. The job description is not to be construed as a contract for employment.

About the

Salary & Benefits

Salary: $34,500

Benefits: · Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance

· Life Insurance ($10,000 life/$10,000 accidental death and dismemberment policy)

· Deferred Compensation, with City match up to $30 per pay period

· KPERS (Kansas Public Employees’ Retirement System)

· 10.5 Paid Holidays per Year

· One Personal Day per Year

· Vacation: 2 weeks per Year

· A detailed description of benefits may be found on the City’s website http://www.olatheks.org/HR/Benefits.

City of Phoenix Management Internship

Phoenix has posted information regarding their Management Internship for 2012. Find more information on the employment page.

City of Richmond Fellowship

The City of Richmond, VA, just opened a position of Management Fellow. The program rotates the fellow through 4-5 city departments during an 11 month fellowship. More info on the employment page.

Long Beach Management Assistant Program

The Long Beach MA program - California's oldest city management fellowship - is now accepting applications. Find more information on the Employment page.

Interview with Allen Bogard, City Manager, Sugar Land Texas.

by Andrew Nelson

Editor’s note: This interview is the first in a series of conversations I had with managers at the ICMA Annual Conference in Milwaukee. Each of these managers represents a city or county that has offered or is currently offering Management Fellowships – one- to two-year postgraduate work and mentoring experiences that help new MPAs and MPPs get their feet wet in city management.

**

Every year, the Romney Institute of Public Management sends a large group of its local government students to the ICMA Annual Conference. This trip often serves as the first encounter many of the students have with professional managers, their staff, and private sector firms providing services to municipalities.

One of the activities that students from the Romney Institute (Brigham Young University) do every year is network directly with managers and professionals while on the exhibition hall floor. BYU rents a space for students to discuss careers in city management with other participants, network for internships or jobs, promote the institute’s student-led local government consulting group, and showcase the Romney Institute’s dynamic and practical-based program.

I was in Milwaukee for the conference with my fellow BYU MPAs, working the booth and trying to talk to as many managers as I possibly could. One thing I’ve noticed about city managers is their willingness to share their love for their careers. While working the booth, I saw a nametag – City Manager, Sugar Land, Texas. By itself, this city probably would have blended in with the thousands of other names I didn’t recognize. However, my best friend had served a Mormon mission to Sugar Land several years ago and loved the area. The name had stuck in my head. I made the connection and started a conversation with Sugar Land’s manager, Allen Bogard (see photo below).

After a short chat at our booth, I learned that Allen has hired management assistants in the past (also known as management fellows, management interns, analyst trainee, or “management analyst I” in other jurisdictions). During our chance meeting, we were able to discuss his successful career from changing tractor tires for the city of Dallas to becoming the manager of Sugar Land and how a new grad can break into the city management field with the help of a management fellowship.

How did you get started in city management?

Oh goodness. I wanted to be a lawyer and I was on my own through college and my grades weren’t good enough. I had a girlfriend who wanted to get married and I learned about a graduate program at the University of North Texas that taught people how to be city managers. That sounded like something that was very interesting to me.

It sounded like I could satisfy my desire to do public service and it was also a career that looked good to me so I went ahead and joined that program. That’s where I got my master’s degree. I got a bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas-Arlington in Political Science.

I got married and within three months of bumming cigarette money off of my new wife (who was a nurse) I decided I had to go get me a job. I went ahead and got a job with the city of Dallas changing tractor tires and doing just about anything else that I could. I worked through a number of different positions with Dallas and ended up being a budget analyst. Then I left to work for the city of Plano. That’s about when I finished up my master’s up in North Texas. I primarily worked in the Public Works area. I became a director reporting to the city manager. I was still pretty young at the time. I had already worked for Dallas for three years. I was with Plano for seven years during which time the city grew from 60,000 to 120,000 and in Public Works, that’s excellent experience.

A change in leadership – the city manager was retiring – was not in alignment with my successful continued growth. At that point I decided to take my first city manager’s job.

Where was that?

A little town in East Texas named Winnsboro. Only three or four thousand people. It was quite a change from the metropolis [of Plano and Dallas], but I loved it. In ’85, I was 31. In a small town, you do a little bit of everything. When small kids come into my office, often the first thing they notice is a picture of me riding an elephant in the circus. It’s illustrative of the number of roles you play in a small town. I personally think that is very satisfying. It’s very exciting because you never know what you’re going to be dealing with next.

It’s so interesting to hear how people arrived where they are. There really is no one “best” system to get into city management.

That’s right. I kind of did both [starting in a large city v. a small city]. That’s kind of a regular conversation with people in my organization. I always encourage them to keep an eye open outside. I have mixed emotions because I want to keep people for as long as I can. At the same time, I want them to be thinking about “When is the right time to make that move?” There is a good time and it’s not just when the opportunity opens up, but also the right mix of your family makeup. The longer you stay in a Plano or a Sugar Land, the higher your compensation becomes, the harder it becomes to make that transition…or if you’ve got kids or a wife, if she has a job. The more complications you have in your life the more difficult it becomes to make the transition. It’s an important issue.

So tell me a little more about Sugar Land.

Sugar Land is a town of about 85,000. It is demographically upper-end income housing. It is very rich in the sense that it has a very strong business base. We’ve been very successful in attracting a diversity of commercial development. We have about an equal amount of retail, office, and industrial space. It is largely oil-related as is Houston, but Minute Maid, for example, has its corporate headquarters there. There are several large engineering firms there. We probably have 40,000 plus jobs in the city. We are the retail marketplace for southwest side of Houston out into Fort Bend County, which is our county. As you continue to the southwest, there is not another retail marketplace until you get to Corpus Christi. Our mall and retail areas are very significant sources of revenue. We’re always making sure that we maintain that revenue stream. We have about 50% of our general fund through sales tax. Over the years our sales tax has allowed us to lower our property tax rate and we actually have the second lowest property tax rate in the state for cities over 50,000. That’s good in a way, but it also makes us more reliant on sales tax, which can be cyclical, and is something that we have to pay close attention to. So we do some things to manage our money so that’s not a problem.

We’re AAA bond rated. We had Fitch and this year we got Standard and Poor’s, so we’re real pleased about that. It’s something that takes a long time to accomplish.

Has there been a lot of job turnover in the city in Sugar Land?

We are finding ourselves to be a place where people come to steal my employees. That’s one of the things that happen when you’re successful. You can’t begrudge anybody. So we’ve had a lot of turnover specifically in the economic development area. Actually I think it’s going to end up working in our best interest. Not that the folks that were working in those areas weren’t doing a good job. We had a change in leadership in that department a few years ago. The new director wanted to have a staff with more economic development expertise and experience than [the previous director]. As the turnover occurred, we’ve been able to increase the stature and capacity of that department.

What’s the biggest concern facing the city of Sugar Land?

We are arriving at a point where continuing to afford to invest in capital improvements will require us to raise the tax rate. The city hasn’t had a tax rate increase – and in fact has basically reduced the tax rate every year for the last twenty years – because of the growth of sales tax receipts. The net effect of that is that we no longer have the financial capacity within the tax rate in a low growth economy to be able to continue to invest in new capital projects, not only because of the cost of the debt service, but more importantly the ability to maintain and operate whatever it is we want to build. I’ve had to refine my message, educate my elected officials and eventually the community on the idea that we need to seriously consider raising the tax rate. And politically that just hasn’t been feasible up to this point. We are beginning to talk about having a bond election and using that election process as the manner in which the elected officials can get permission from the public. If the voters don’t approve it…well, I have a $186 million budget this year. We have a declining debt service obligation, the way we have structured our debt conservatively in the past, which means that we have capacity opening up within the same debt service tax rate over the next five years that would allow us to invest in rehabilitation and more “needs” as I call them, about $60 million. So we can rehabilitate the streets, we can maintain everything that we have. We just can’t go out and build more parks.

And we have to stop landscaping everything… I mean, if you stand still too long you’re going to get flowers planted in your hair. (both laugh)

Parks are expensive to maintain. We’re going to have to go through the process of a bond election to allow the financing for the “wants.” I’ve basically split our five-year CIP into two parts this year. The part that we’re going to fund based upon the revenue stream that we had over the next five years. And the list of “wants,” the things that we want to do but do not currently have a funding source for with conservative economic projections. Of course, if the economy explodes and takes off, it’ll be a different picture. For now, that’s the biggest challenge that we’d face.

The other one is the award that we’re getting for our very diverse community. We are now 35% Asian. It is largely Chinese and Indian. We have a Hindu temple and a Muslim mosque. Those parts of our community are coming to Sugar Land because it has an excellent school system. It’s very stable for property values. It’s got a very good reputation as a good place to live, a safe place to live. Well maintained. It’s very orderly. For the Asian community, that’s right up their alley. Those parts of our community are growing. We have to teach a city organization that is primarily people that look like me to know enough about the Hindus and the Muslims and the Chinese to make sure we are providing services to them that meet their needs. That is an unusual characteristic that we have been working on and trying to respond to by reaching out to those communities and having them come in and teach us about not only their culture and where they come from but also the makeup of their community in Sugar Land. For example, we have learned about the concerns that Indian families have about losing their young people. In other words, these are first generation, they have their young people in the school system and they begin to gravitate away from the culture that the family would like them to follow. Things like that are important to know. We are making sure that we have parks department events that are inclusive of their cultures but also bring them into the Fourth of July and Cinco de Mayo and so forth. So that’s a set of different challenges that we are dealing with there. We think it’s a strength. They are excellent citizens. And they are very appreciative of their city government.

Let’s talk about your Management Assistant program. How many times have you offered the program?

We’ve had an internship program for years. As a matter of fact, my public works director came to the city as an intern ten to twelve years ago and worked his way up to director of Public Works. We have three generations of Management Assistants. The first one, one of the participants is my assistant to the city manager. I fondly refer to her as Bogard’s brain because she serves that role for me. A second generation intern just took a small town city manager’s position in Wisconsin. We’ve been organizing a two-year temporary position hopefully with a starting salary that can allow you to live - not well but live - and they work with the Assistant City Managers and myself. Jennifer May the assistant to [the city manager] helps to provide linkage and support. Most of them have gone on to find a position with the city of Sugar Land at the end of the two-year period, somewhere within the departments in a role that either evolves while they’re there or in some cases we’ve realized this is somebody that we want to keep and so we’ve made things happen we’ve hired them as budget analysts.

One thing we’ve been looking at doing right now is attempting to reorient that program to overlap with our budget analysts to where there would be a shared resource that would concentrate on one of my assistant city managers’ areas which are public safety, public services or finance administration and let the MAs be not only working on strategic projects but also supporting those departments from a budget perspective. So I’ve got budget analysts who want to get involved in strategic projects and supporting the departments and I personally believe that there’s nothing a City Manager needs to know more than finance—not because that was my background just because that’s how you control things. So we’re trying to mix that up to where our MAs are going to have a broader breadth of experience.

Is it a difficult sell to your council to fund those positions?

Absolutely not. As a matter of fact, I started out and just did it because it was the right thing to do. I funded it out of salary savings so I didn’t budget it. Over the years we have budgeted it, this last year we went through a scaling back of our finances to get us back into structural balance and we eliminated about eighteen positions so I don’t have any of the MA positions –well, I’ve got MAs but they’re MA IIs, they’re more full-time, permanent positions—I did not specifically fund the MA program as approved positions, but I’ve got the ability within the budget to create those positions with temporary savings because they’re temporary positions. The City Council has been tremendously supportive of the program once I was ready to roll it out… they recognize the value of young people coming into the organization—they see people leaving, they want to see good young people coming in—and that’s one of the things that they look to me to do is to be aggressive in bringing those people into our organization and they have seen a tremendous amount of success, so it’s well received.

Have you noticed any trends, positive or negative, coming from the recent MPA grads from around the country?

I had someone mention one the other day that I really hadn’t thought about but I’ll steal theirs, and that was the social skills that the MPA students are coming out with nowadays. It appears to me that the schools are doing a better job than when I went, helping MPA students learn the importance of networking, interacting with the professional groups, like what you’re doing now, and that certainly wasn’t a part of the program that I graduated out of and as a matter of fact I could have benefited tremendously if I could have been in those types of environments. I think it made it harder for me to be successful because I didn’t have that kind of a background that made it easy for me to talk to people that I didn’t know and so forth. People joke now because all I ever do is talk but I remember talking to people on the phone and just you know having terrible anxiety… anyway, those social skills I think are extremely valuable.

Other than that, we’ve been attracting some really top-notch young people to our organization and they’re very hungry and you have to feed them. That’s something that does take some effort on the organization’s part to make sure that you are feeding that passion that they have. If you don’t then it’s not going to be the best situation, you need to reward that passion and help them find challenges and get involved in things.

What do you think about changing the stigma of internships towards a more “apprenticeship” notion?

I like that. I understand what you’re saying relative to the connotation of the term “intern,” but we use it much more broadly than just for MPA types, we have interns that come in for the parks department, interns that come in to the engineering department, so it’s much broader than just in the city manager’s office… what we’ve done in the past is primarily try to tie an intern or management assistant to one of the Assistant City Managers and that has worked pretty well I think to keep them engaged in things.

Although I am interested in continuing to do the internship program I really believe that the MA program for us is something that is more significant both for the organization that gets something out of the investment and for the student to be able to have that first opportunity at a job, a real live paying job with benefits, and really be given the opportunity to be able to earn your way into a more permanent situation. In our case our community is very well respected in the region and the state of Texas, and I think the young people that come there have a benefit that will accrue with them in the future for having been associated with our city—I don’t mean that to sound egotistical or anything but it was the exact same thing for me working for the city of Plano back in the day. Plano was kind of the epitome of city management and whenever I could put that down on my resume it made a whole lot of difference.

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Tacoma - ICMA Local Government Management Fellowship

I received the following message from Gabriel Engeland at the City of Tacoma a few days ago.

"I am pleased to announce that the City of Tacoma will soon be accepting applications for the Management Fellowship position located in the City Manager’s Office. The Management Fellowship at the City of Tacoma is a two year position designed to assist recent graduates in developing the skills necessary to become effective local government managers.

"More detailed information, including application information, is available on our website atwww.cityoftacoma.org/managementfellow.

"The City of Tacoma will be accepting completed employment application forms from qualified candidates from Thursday, September 8, 2011 to Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 5:00 p.m."

The Management Fellow position will start around the beginning of November, so you need to have completed your MPA before then in order to be eligible. For more information about the ICMA Local Government Management Fellowship program, click here.