What initially prompted you to get involved with local government?
Out of college, I started my career in the private sector providing services for projects being developed or designed in local governments or projects undertaken by a local/regional government. After a number of years working with dozens of municipalities, I saw some projects get implemented and some projects sit on shelves and collect dust. As a planner and engineer that worked hard to deliver those projects, it was frustrating to watch a project die, as there wasn’t a correlation to the quality of design or level of effort invested. Striving to be a better consultant, I wanted to understand why only some projects were implemented and how I could help my clients’ projects reach implementation.
As a result, I made the transition into the public sector to understand from the local government perspective why, how and where plans and projects either were implemented or died. The answer that I discovered was one of my favorite words: champion. Plans and projects need champions to champion plans and projects. Champions are the people that give the extra effort to do something extraordinary. It requires leadership on the champions’ part to take action and make a difference. Champions come in many different forms from the community (residents and businesses), City Councils, City Managers, and City Hall teammates (Directors, Managers, Supervisors, Project Managers, engineers, planners, management analysts).
Why did you want to become a city manager?
The funny thing is that I didn’t start my career even knowing what a City Manager was or did. I started my career out of college as a civil engineer focused on transportation. The highest level in local government I had been exposed to was a City Traffic Engineer. So I had aspirations of one day becoming a City Traffic Engineer in my career. This occurred at the age of 29 with the City of Fresno — a lot earlier than I anticipated.