What inspired you to enter city management?
At the age of fourteen I had my first job as a cashier at the local city pool. For the next decade as a lifeguard, swim instructor and coach, that pool would be my safe haven, my happy place, my home-away-from home. I learned how to reconcile the cash drawer and make deposits, how to answer the phone and deal with the happiest and the grumpiest of patrons, I learned time management, staff scheduling, how to respond in life and death emergencies and how to pivot when things did not go to plan. I didn’t know it then, but looking back – it truly gave me the foundation to be a future city manager. Working at the pool inspired me to go to college and earn my degree in Recreation Administration and coming out of school, it was a natural progression for me to continue in the field of parks and recreation.
Bill Kelly first invited me to work in the city manager’s office a year or so after I graduated college, while I was working for the city of Arcadia as a recreation coordinator. But my life was filled with day camps and special events and I couldn’t imagine ever leaving recreation. A few years later, I was a recreation supervisor for the city of Sierra Madre; John Gillison was the city manager. He made the crazy decision to put community services and human resources together under one department (to this day he claims that “people are people”) and made me the deputy director. It was in this role I fell in love with the full spectrum of city management and the multitude of ways we can serve the public.
How did you become an assistant city manager?
I was first promoted to assistant city manager in Sierra Madre. Being a small city, I had the opportunity to wear multiple hats and at the time was leading a number of divisions – although my title was officially “Human Resources Director”. Gratefully, my city manager, Elaine Aguilar, was able to gain the city council’s support to create an assistant city manager role in the organization and I was selected to serve in it. I loved my time in Sierra Madre, but I also knew there was more to learn and experience in city management, and a few years later, when a deputy city manager role opened in Rancho Cucamonga under John Gillison, I applied and was selected for the role. Five years later, I was promoted to assistant city manager, and it’s my most favorite job to date (other than teaching three-year-olds how to swim!).
What do you enjoy the most about your role?
The people – those I work with every day, those we serve in numerous capacities and those we serve along with in the profession. The people keep things interesting; the people keep me inspired; the people ultimately make it all worth it.
What role does a city manager play in local government, and how do you feel it differs from that of a council member or mayor?
In my opinion, the professional city manager role is an amazing one in that you get to work with the elected officials and the community to plan for the future, to set the vision, mission and goals to work towards achieving that vision. And, as a professional manager, you also get to work with the city employees to implement strategies and do the work to accomplish the goals. It’s a unique seat in which you have the opportunity to see the full circle of the vision becoming reality.
When I’m talking with family or friends who don’t necessarily understand local government, the question that always makes me laugh is, “When are you going to be mayor?” and my response is always, “Never”. I am eternally grateful for the amazing mayors I have had the opportunity to work with and being a democratically elected policymaker is the most fundamental part of our local government structure and the council-manager form of government. However, I love being on the non-partisan, implementation side of governance. I enjoy building teams of dynamic individuals with different backgrounds and interests and bringing them together to create solutions that meet the needs of our diverse communities.
What does your typical day look like?
Is there such a thing a typical day? The uniqueness of each day is one of the things I enjoy about this role. It’s always different, there’s always a plot twist, and I rarely get done what I think I’m going to do in any given day. But for the sake of this article, I’m generally in the office between 7:00-7:30 in the morning. I try not to schedule meetings before 8:00, with hopes of getting a handle on anything that popped up overnight, getting a feel for what the morning newsfeeds are reporting and how that might impact our work and to be able to connect with team members before I start running from meeting to meeting. From that point on, my days are often booked back-to-back with all sorts of meetings ranging from department updates (I love when we can make them walking meetings) to regional collaboration meetings, strategy planning sessions, and meetings with developers, business owners and community groups. I also have meetings for ICMA, League of California Cities and other professional partnerships along with mentoring calls and the occasional training – many of these are scheduled through my lunch hour. If I’m lucky the meetings end around 5:00 and I spend the next hour or two trying to catch up on emails from the day and deliverables for later in the week. But in reality, most of my deliverables are done on Fridays when city hall is closed.
What city project are you most proud of?
I can’t pick just one! So instead of deciding between my first successful grant application for a new park, or championing the development of our Community Affairs Network or the program we’ve created for a Diverse, Respectful, Inclusive, Valued and Engaged workforce (DRIVE), I’m going to rely on the moment that I am always the most proud of, whatever organization I am in – when I am a part of an activated Emergency Operation Center. I often tell employees new to the government sector, the job you are hired for is just what we do while waiting for an emergency to happen. Our jobs as government workers, as mandated disaster service workers, are to show up when nobody else can. When the fire and winds rage, when people are packing up their homes and evacuating from the flood, we show up and preform jobs that most humans do not even know are happening. We leave our families to work 12+ hour shifts, we go through the states of adrenaline, exhaustion and determination. And in these moments, when I stop and look around the EOC, I am so proud of the team of people I get to work with that my heart feels about to burst and my eyes tear up, and I am just so grateful to get to do the work we get to do.
What are the greatest challenges facing city managers in the state today?
I think one of the greatest challenges we will continue to face is the ever-changing workforce. With less people in the workforce overall, with competition for specialized positions in both the public and private sector, and with PEPRA no longer having the same “golden handcuff” effect, we are going to continue to struggle to fill the turnover in our organizations. All the while, the public’s (and state’s) expectations for deliverables are going to keep increasing. We are going to continue to compete with one another for top talent and likely going to have to make decisions on what programs and services we can continue to provide, not necessarily because of the fiscal resources (although important and impactful), but also based on the capacity of the workforce to meet the growing needs and expectations.
When and how do you interact with the residents of your city?
There is such a wide variety of opportunities to interact with residents! I occasionally engage with residents when walking through the courtyard or lobby, before city council meetings (sometime during), and at city or chamber of commerce meetings and events. But (and this may prove to many that I truly am crazy) the most meaningful and interesting interactions are generally the community engagement sessions we have on whatever the topic du jour may be. The workshops where we have engaged with the community for park master planning, the General Plan and specific land use planning brings out interesting ideas and feedback that I know I would not have thought about on my own. Listening to people share about what is important, what inspires them and what they want to see in their hometown can be a remarkable experience. And in those more contentious moments, I work to channel my inner Leslie Knope, and remind myself of the line, “What I hear when I’m being yelled at is people caring loudly at me.”
What is the role of a city manager in upholding the public’s trust in local government?
City managers set the bar for how the public trusts local government. One of the best compliments we can receive is when the public comes to us as the trusted source of information. How we, as managers, show up for our city councils, our leadership teams, our employees and the community each and every day sets the tone for how our leadership teams and employees show up for each other as well as our residents, our business owners and our visitors. We set the bar, because, like it or not, all eyes are on us to see how we are going to act. When we lead with our shared ethics, and act with integrity to guide and support the organization, we model behavior that is worthy of the public’s trust.
How are cities shaping the future of California?
California is made up of 482 cities. Each city has its different mission and vision, but each one incorporated in order to better care for and protect its community. Within cities we have the opportunity to regularly engage with our citizens and businesses to leverage community insights in order to build communities that reflect the wants and needs of our people. It’s within cities that some of the best innovations happen ranging from experimenting with new building types, expanding smart technologies, and realizing first-of-its-kind transportation alternatives. Cities are where we try new ways to solve old problems, including mental health and homelessness, literacy and disaster resiliency and where we share our experiences with our neighboring cities in order improve quality of life for our regions and across the state. When cities come together, using our individual and shared experiences, and push for stronger state-wide policies, we collectively shape the future of California.