City manager

There's so many people- who have no idea.

It sounds like, you know, maybe that's the question I'll ask in just a moment is, it was local gov on the radar, I ask it of everyone, and hardly anyone who's a professional in local gov, a leader, had any idea what local gov, remember what a city manager was.

But before we get to that question, you have such a positive outlook.

You have an energy that even comes through the screen right now, that is just positivity, that is going to, right, I'm sure...

Now, back to the conversation.

Hmm.

So I think it's in every aspect, whether it's youth ministry or whether it's even I know so many city managers, administrators will go back and whether it's their alma mater, whether it's the school where close to where they're serving and they'll do adjunct professor, you know, pour back or even I encourage everyone, go find a school that's near you and see if you can in whatever their undergrad or especially the undergrad, go drop into a class on government.

And I know this podcast is proven.

Now, let's turn to today's conversation.

My guest on the podcast today is Mark Jackson, city administrator in Story City, Iowa.

See, Story City, it's going to be a great story.

I can feel it already.

Now, let's turn to today's conversation.

My guest on the podcast today is Katie Beamer, city administrator in Fenville, Michigan.

Oh, I'm out.

It's just in Michigan.

So many.

And it helps you because again, you're unique in that you jumped right out into city administration.

You became a city administrator right away.

A lot of other people will go through planning, go through HR, go through whatever.

Our next item, we are talking about any other items of interest.

Any that come up? Seeing none, are there any committee reports to share? All right, moving on to Agenda Review and the City Manager's Weekly Report, I'd like to call on Deputy City Manager Alison Griffith.

ALISON

GRIFFITH, Thank you, Mayor, Mayor and Council, for your awareness.

And attached to the study session agenda is the weekly report to council.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you very much, Deputy City Manager.

All right.

So Ferris has been in existence for about 150 years.

Uh, and what I was walking into was a situation which for the previous 10 years, we'd had 12 city managers in that time period.

One of them lasted a week before she quit and walked out the door.

Uh, I was walking into a situation where we were making the news regularly, and it wasn't for great things.

Start with your staff.

You've gotta understand what you have, what you need, and how you're gonna fill that gap.

Um, and sometimes that's not easy 'cause we don't have unlimited budgets, right? How are you gonna get creative with the staff that you do have? Is it building the folks that you have into what you need them to be? Uh, and I think it was being, uh, radically different than most city managers are.

I didn't live in my office.