[0:00] things functioning on that day-to-day
basis and I think overall it would just
[0:05] be a good addition for the community um
again remember that it is a different
[0:10] position than what the city manager
was and that's really all I had to say
[0:30] and I think now we're just going to let
the city administrators give us a little
[0:35] overview of what they do and what um it
represents to
[0:43] them hello everybody thanks for having
us uh out here
[0:47] tonight um I'm just going to introduce
myself maybe we should just introduce
[0:51] ourselves give a quick background my
name is Justin wiland I'm the current
[0:55] city administrator for the city of te
I've been there for about a year now um
[1:01] te I'm the second uh that the city of te
has had they had an individual there was
[1:06] there about 5 years before myself and so
te is kind of new to getting a city
[1:12] administrator uh kind of ingrained
within the organization of the city and
[1:17] in the community uh but before that I
was in the city of Del Rapids for uh
[1:23] almost 14 years uh great Community
really similar in in in kind of size and
[1:30] scope and function and history and
everything of that nature between Canton
[1:36] and and Del Rapids um you know Del
Rapids uh has had a city administrator
[1:42] in place for I would say almost 30 years
uh I was there 14 and there's a few
[1:48] before me and and and I think it would
be a really good Community to look
[1:53] towards as well as uh as is the way that
that Community has been managed and
[1:59] really thrived with having that point
person in place um prior to being in uh
[2:04] darap is I was also in lennu for a few
years uh I was in lennu when the uh when
[2:12] when the City of Canton still had the
city manager form of government and uh
[2:17] you had a really great city manager at
that time ay Nelson who's been married
[2:22] is now in unon and in my perspective
really worked well between Lennox and
[2:27] Canton at that time and really felt that
may had brought some uh some really
[2:31] great things to this community so Canton
I guess was what I'd say has had that
[2:36] experience of having you know the city
manager for government we'll get into
[2:41] this later different than a city
administrator uh but really I just kind
[2:46] of categorize all of those things as
just a professional local government
[2:50] manager similar to what you know we
talked about this on the drive up here
[2:54] it's kind of similar to what a
superintendent does they just help kind
[2:58] of clarify and manage uh your your
elected officials and and your community
[3:03] and your staff
um uh I I'm just I'm from South Dakota
[3:09] grew up in Madison went to USD received
both my uh undergraduate and graduate
[3:15] masters of public administration from
from USB um but I really applaud uh the
[3:20] mayor and councel and everyone for
really looking at this for this
[3:24] community I've been an advocate of of
this professional local government for
[3:29] you know 25 years now since I was in
college at
[3:33] USB these things really these positions
weren't a part of the fabric of the
[3:39] state 20 years ago in the early
2000s um I sit around a table of about
[3:45] eight city managers throughout the state
you had Yankton and Vermillion and and
[3:50] Brookings and and and a few other
communities delics was one of those as
[3:54] well and now this this this we consider
it a profession is really blossom
[4:00] and and there's communities of of, 1500
uh all the way up to the size of aine
[4:05] that has have a professional government
manager uh at at the helm in these
[4:10] communities and really I feel it just
really the communities that have them
[4:15] you look at them you look at where they
are today and I attribute a lot of that
[4:19] to the the just the way those
communities are managed um again I
[4:23] applaud campon uh the one other thing I
just want to say before I pass it on we
[4:28] kind of talking for a while here already
um is
[4:31] that you can go through this process you
can commit to doing and hiring someone
[4:38] uh for your community and you and you
can be sold on wanting to do that you
[4:43] need to find the right
individual the the person who sits in
[4:47] that office has to be able to connect
with your community connect with your
[4:53] with your uh staff connect with your
councel uh really find a way to get
[4:59] ingrain in your community so you you can
that's to me that's what matters you got
[5:05] to find someone that fits with that you
you'll have success in these positions
[5:09] so um other than that I'd like to just
turn it I guess I'll pass it
[5:14] on thanks J my name is D bot I'm the
city administrator in Linux I've been in
[5:19] Linux for just about six years now six
years in December uh since I started
[5:24] there uh that was my this is my first
post in local government I that time
[5:29] nonprofit
and uh federal government for that um
[5:34] and I'm I'm just excited that K is
having this discussion I really am uh
[5:38] you know this is something that uh all
three of us really truly believe uh for
[5:44] a variety of communities for a variety
of reasons is the right way to go uh to
[5:49] have professional local government
management uh and the reason we believe
[5:53] that is because we've seen what it can
do for local government uh and
[5:56] professionalizing everything getting
making uh everything more consistent
[6:00] making sure uh the elected officials
have consistent advice uh and uh solid
[6:07] communication uh so they know what's
going on uh you know a variety of of
[6:11] reasons there uh and that's just a few
of them uh my my background is in uh I
[6:18] grew up in Iowa not far from here it's
kind of a halfway point for me I grew up
[6:22] in Orton City and Su Center a little bit
in northern Michigan for a few years uh
[6:27] it's college at Dort over in s Center
and uh worked for a few years ended
[6:33] upating my masters at Iowa State
University I will make sure I mention
[6:37] because it is B that I a Hawkeye by
heart only my tuition went to Iowa State
[6:43] despite last week show
[6:47] my um but you know i' I've known camp
for a long time this this has been our
[6:52] route toall when I was growing up I was
in high school college uh and it's just
[6:58] an exciting time see this discussion
happening uh and we're I'm happy to be
[7:03] here to be a part of that discussion out
whenever information I can at what this
[7:11] look hi everybody my name is James Barth
I'm the city administrator in Madison
[7:15] South Dakota first off apologies for
being a couple minutes late I left
[7:19] Madison with enough time but Universe
didn't want me to be here on time there
[7:22] was an accident on the interstate
fortunately I was not invol but it slow
[7:26] us down a little bit so a little bit of
background myself I grew up in e South
[7:30] Dakota north central part of the state I
call it God's country I don't know if
[7:33] you guys call it down here um but I grew
up in a small town I went to South
[7:37] Dakota State and then went on to
Syracuse my masters in public administra
[7:41] administration um I've spent eight years
in the profession now so I've had three
[7:45] years in Madison I been the first city
Minister that they've had they have a
[7:50] city Commission in form of government
which I know is is something that you're
[7:53] like official they very keen on learning
how that worked for Madison as they
[7:56] started up their administrator so I'm
the first there I joke that I'm the
[8:00] worst administrator they've ever had
because it's true um I'm the mean medium
[8:04] in mod and from the first and last so
far and it's been a great Community been
[8:08] very happy there they've been very
welcoming to me to my position and it's
[8:12] really been a great thing for for
Madison before that I was in B South
[8:16] Dakota just W some Brookings a few miles
for about five years I was the second
[8:20] ministrator they had up there and also a
pretty good set up for their
[8:24] organization something I emphasize with
the couple of your elect officials that
[8:28] you have here um and I will emphasize
with the group here is that we're happy
[8:32] to sit here and answer questions and and
talk about how we feel the profession
[8:37] works and how it could work in the City
of Canton or answer however we we feel
[8:41] best but this is really canton's public
for this is your time to learn about how
[8:47] City administrative form Works ask
questions express your doubts concerns
[8:52] uh we might be able to liate those we
might be able to agree with them if I
[8:55] think something might be a drawback I'm
going to going to call it out that way
[8:59] this your public forum same for your
likeed officials and we're just happy to
[9:03] uh contribute however we can to this
discussion thanks for coming it's good
[9:07] to see a good public input and
involvement in this this process thank
[9:12] you um I have 30 questions tonight and
I'll um read them and you can fight over
[9:18] who you want to answer these question or
you 15 for Justin 15 for D no that's not
[9:23] how that
works okay the first question is I have
[9:28] heard there is a the Cota legal
definition for the city administrator
[9:32] versus city manager if this is true I
would like to know the difference and or
[9:37] similarities and why the city
administrative form of government was
[9:45] selected maybe a good place to start
with the difference between
[9:48] administrators and managers please guys
jump in um if you do you feel like it so
[9:54] city manager Forum which is something
that that c is more familiar with city
[9:58] manager generally have more Authority
than administrators they have the
[10:01] ability to hire persons to to terminate
uh persons as needed um to have a lot
[10:08] more authority over day-to-day
operations whereas administrators
[10:11] administrate the action from their like
the body in your case the commission um
[10:16] so they they do a lot of the same things
but those managers kind of have the next
[10:20] level of authority um but they still
have to operate within the the budget
[10:25] constraints and all the other ordinance
and policies that they like
[10:29] for administrators very much have to U
implement the exact direction of of the
[10:38] like to body and follow whatever is that
looking to do um think that kind of
[10:43] covers the difference of a little bit uh
as far as why this form was selected I
[10:48] would have to defer that to the Canton
folks they're the ones that are
[10:51] proposing this this ordinance that would
set this up um and ultimately for the
[10:56] the community to join that discussion
does that the question
[11:01] that guys you know I I think pretty much
H it there Jameson the the difference is
[11:06] really I mean there is differences or
there are differences in what state code
[11:11] says about city managers and City
administrators but most of that comes
[11:14] down to what Authority they have uh the
reporting structure is still the same
[11:18] they still report to the council uh but
managers have more authority to take
[11:22] definitive action an administrator now
[11:30] okay the second question is how can we
afford an administrator and how will the
[11:34] position be paid for and how is the city
administrator's salary funded I don't
[11:40] know if you
guys it's budgeted already for next year
[11:45] so um it's already in the budget for
next
[11:48] year so how it's
funed you think that you save you save
[11:55] enough money to pay for your salar
[11:59] I yeah that question is coming
up so if you have no comments I will
[12:06] move on to number three what will the
Commissioners do if we have an
[12:12] administrator what what kind of what
does that look for for for the
[12:15] Commissioners what do they do if we have
an
[12:18] administrator yeah I'll I'll tackle this
since I come from a commission form
[12:21] currently um so commission form operates
a little differently than alanic which
[12:25] both of you would would be under and my
previous city was under um with with
[12:29] with any form I'll start there the the
elected officials are the ones driving
[12:34] the ship they're the ones pointing in
the direction setting that vision for
[12:38] where they want the community to go and
the city administrator is the one that
[12:42] has to U has to get you there they're
the ones um working with the staff
[12:48] implementing that vision and moving
things forward um I think the the
[12:52] interesting part about City commission
form is since that's set up in State
[12:55] Statute where you have five distinct
bodies
[12:59] or individuals with five areas that they
have to oversee
[13:05] um I I think the challenging thing that
I have seen coming into Madison was when
[13:11] you have a commission form without an
administrator you you some ways are
[13:15] having five different organizations you
have five different bosses leading the
[13:20] same city and potentially five different
directions hopefully they're
[13:24] communicating with each other and moving
in the same direction but those are five
[13:28] individuals that have authority over
different parts of the city and the
[13:31] staff have to follow their commissioner
that doesn't mean that they're heading
[13:34] in the same direction at all and those
five elected officials by state law
[13:40] can't get together and talk in groups of
of three unless it's in an official
[13:45] meeting so you're you're trying to run
the same organization you can't talk to
[13:48] each other you can't even email two
other elected officials because those
[13:52] emails are public records which
constitute quum and and just aren't
[13:56] allowed by state law so there was
definitely challenge I felt like there
[14:00] and for the staff that that I
communicated with coming into Madison
[14:05] there was significant challenges in turn
over for elected officials they have a
[14:09] new boss that comes in every 3 years or
maybe six years or maybe they just
[14:13] Shuffle position so the finance
commissioner now the utilities
[14:16] commissioner and now they've got a
different way of thinking they've got
[14:19] different boss that has different
direction they want to go in so it was
[14:23] very difficult on staff and and I felt
that they were not able to to be grown
[14:29] in the way that was best for the
organization and ultimately they were
[14:33] always sitting under heels waiting for
their elected official to tell them what
[14:37] to do and and and and one of my biggest
focuses being a Madison since then has
[14:43] been to grow my staff is I want to be
able to uh myself leave for for a week
[14:48] or for a vacation or or have my Like
official out of town for a few days and
[14:52] have challenges and problems come up and
have my staff tackle have them be the
[14:57] able to have the initiative and the
Capac
[14:59] and confidence so they can handle things
on their own and the wisdom to know when
[15:05] they can hand something and bring it to
me um so for the commissioner former
[15:09] government I feel like the city
ministrator has been able to really
[15:12] bring those five different areas of the
city together which were very much stos
[15:17] you had the cement walls between them
they had different bosses um and and try
[15:20] to break those down get people to work
more collaboratively more efficiently
[15:24] and U and
ultimately bring the city forward in in
[15:29] a better way um State Statute does make
it a little more challenging for SE
[15:34] administrator in commission form versus
a alderic form I think that's why your
[15:39] elected officials have the ordinance
that they are looking at to set it up an
[15:42] ordinance to state that the elected
officials are hiring this administrator
[15:47] to handle the day-to-day operations and
take some of that that heavy
[15:51] responsibility from them while making
sure that those elect officials are
[15:55] still the ones that are providing that
direction setting the Vision doing
[15:59] strategic thinking they're not
necessarily thinking about h on First
[16:03] Street but they're thinking about how do
we improve our infrastructure um over
[16:08] the next 20 years to make sure that our
city is U meeting the needes try to
[16:13] think like officials to a higher level
versus uh complaints which are very
[16:18] important some of you have probably
called in your city as you should if you
[16:21] got you've got problems to file a
complaint or Express a concern as you
[16:26] should and as administrator I can work
with myff staff to make sure the people
[16:30] that can fill that pothole are the ones
taking those calls and going to fill
[16:33] that pothole rather than elected
official who has potentially a full-time
[16:37] job a family other things that that uh
that prevent them from jumping on the
[16:43] First Street to fix that
PO that answer the
[16:47] question I rambled a lot there no that
was that was really good Jameson I think
[16:52] you bring that experience with the
commission
[16:54] form um you know we're all doing the
same thing we're all trying to manage
[17:00] the taxpayers funds and and and give the
community uh what what what what their
[17:05] wishes are for in this community uh the
I guess one of the things I would say
[17:11] about what the commission would do is uh
they would keep doing what they were
[17:17] doing U but how many times does the
commission sit in in a in a in a
[17:21] commission meeting and and kind of look
at each other and say well well how are
[17:25] we going to get this done you know when
you have that
[17:29] professional that's uh interpreted as an
expert in a lot of these fields you have
[17:36] someone there that can turn around and
go get it done for you find the ways to
[17:42] to get that project done that you've
been trying to get done for the last
[17:45] five years find the funding sources
coordinate with the state agencies you
[17:50] know I I think that that's where a lot
of these communities lack is the is the
[17:55] Commissioners have full-time jobs you
know they go to that commission meeting
[17:59] at night try to get things done and then
they're sprinkling in during their work
[18:02] we trying to do stuff and it's hard to
be consistent if you got someone there
[18:06] 40 50 hours a week that can help
coordinate these things you get to the
[18:10] finish line on a lot of the the projects
and ideas that the community is is is
[18:15] searching
for I think those are all great points
[18:19] and one of the things that Jameson
mentioned um is something similar to our
[18:23] experience with lenux when when um I'm
sure experienced this being the first
[18:29] one in L and I experienced it as well is
sometimes you get into this this this
[18:34] culture where everything is complaint
driven like we're we're responding to
[18:38] complaints on this problem uh there's
this issue over on this area the park
[18:43] looks uh bad the trash wasn't empty
whatever it might be and it's a
[18:47] challenge to go from that from that
complaint driven work to u a very
[18:52] proactive it just happens kind of
culture and that was one of those things
[18:56] that that we tried to tackle as well
moving from uh you know we we wanted
[19:01] people to wake up on a snowy day with
the streets already ploud and and not
[19:05] have to think about the streets it just
happens you know those things are
[19:10] coordinated and and it's not that those
things don't happen in towns without
[19:15] professional government management uh
when you've got uh one person kind of
[19:20] coordinating everything instead of said
different Commissioners that babies
[19:24] maybe see things a different way from
each other it just add a lot consist to
[19:29] the
process okay thanks um what will the
[19:35] return on investment be for with an
administrator will the position be
[19:40] eliminated if it doesn't pay for
[19:45] itself
um we we did get a chance to kind of see
[19:50] some of these questions in advance so I
had to had an opportunity to think about
[19:53] that and I think that's a very common uh
U way to do these going in into these
[20:00] positions and I would say without a
doubt every year that I have uh been a
[20:07] city administrator whatever Community I
was in uh I I believe that I Justified
[20:13] my cost through efficiency in the in in
the in what we were doing by catching
[20:20] things in advance that might have cost
us or by gaining grants uh for specific
[20:25] projects that the community had been
looking at but I would really caution uh
[20:31] having that point of view and looking at
it that way I think that's a trap uh for
[20:36] the person that you hire or or just the
community in general I think the the
[20:40] community just needs to have that
commitment towards having this position
[20:45] because I think what you're doing is
just you're looking at it as an
[20:49] investment in your community as as as as
as you just said uh Nate was you know
[20:57] you're you are are justifying this
through not just staying at the status
[21:02] quo you're looking at this so you're
looking at moving in in a positive
[21:06] direction so you're going to with this
position you're going to have a more
[21:10] responsive government you're going to
have one that communicates potentially
[21:15] better with your public you're going to
have one that's more more organized more
[21:20] more strategic working with your Council
to to set up a more strategic plan for
[21:25] the future of your community so I think
you're it's it's and that's where you're
[21:30] benefiting not necessarily from your
cost savings every year justification of
[21:35] the person's wages so a growing
Community a community that wants to grow
[21:42] can't look at it that way in my
[21:46] opinion I think I think I would add that
you can look at at fiscal responsibility
[21:53] which any administrator worth their salt
is going to be have a high value for
[22:00] this responsibility you can also look at
what what value you're getting from this
[22:04] person from this position and what more
are we getting done than we weren't
[22:08] getting done before one of the
priorities for my commission starting
[22:11] Madison was strategic planning they
identified that they were constantly
[22:16] stuck in the complaint basis and the
weeds and they weren't able to get
[22:21] beyond that and they wanted somebody to
come in and initiate a strategic
[22:25] planning process and Implement that
strategic plan so that's that was
[22:28] something that's heavily built in my job
description something that um they place
[22:32] as a priority for me every like a body
is going to have different priorities
[22:37] maybe in Canton is something completly
different I don't know but you're you're
[22:41] not just looking at doing the same
amount of work with another person you
[22:45] you should be looking at doing the
amount of work you're currently doing
[22:48] more efficiently and doing more Beyond
it getting more done getting more for
[22:52] your taxpayer
devs
[22:56] okay um next question is how can we hire
an administrator when there's not a job
[23:02] description um I just want to say that
that is on the agenda for Monday night
[23:07] the job description is on for Monday
night and we will be looking at that as
[23:12] a commission so I don't know if
[23:17] you yes you should have one we should
have
[23:23] one um next question is what would you
do if one of your commission came to you
[23:29] with an unethical or borderline
unethical proposition and strongly
[23:34] encourage you to go with this
proposition but would you tell him or
[23:42] her this is a position that no
administrator wants to be put in but
[23:47] some administrators find themselves in
[23:52] and there there's a lot to say here
know our lives run on policies and laws
[23:59] that that that's what we refer to when
there's a question we first refer to the
[24:03] policy the ordinance the resolutions the
state La whatever there might be uh
[24:08] recorded on that particular issue
um all three of us are also members of
[24:15] the of icma international City County
management association and we personally
[24:20] have to abide by a code of ethics and it
if we don't we can be uh censured we can
[24:25] lose our membership and those are
important
[24:29] programs for us to be in the the I just
to Echo that not to hijack that ICA code
[24:34] of ethics is on online and you can go
look at that and all of us are required
[24:38] to follow it and find it incredibly
incredibly important as kind of the
[24:42] Baseline of of how we have thank you
it's I can't understand that enough how
[24:49] important that quot ofic is
um I I think a lot of us have talk about
[24:55] what we would do in that kind of
situation um you in in my case that were
[25:00] come to be that some uh elected official
wants to put in place a policy that's
[25:05] unethical or illegal it's my job to both
inform them of that and inform the City
[25:10] attorney of that uh and in some cases
you know we need to work with the mayor
[25:13] and City attorney to rectify that um at
the end of the day the counselor
[25:19] commission is still judged by The
Counselor commission not judg by the
[25:22] city administrator or city manager uh so
forth it's up to that elected body
[25:28] members uh but if I'm being asked to do
something IL or
[25:32] unethical no my mys are going to come
before that
[25:37] request maybe I can just keep on that
same topic maybe it's not something
[25:43] that's
unethical uh maybe it's just a request
[25:46] that seems out of
bounds we don't take direction from one
[25:51] individual yeah you we have to have a
quorum of the council make a decision to
[25:56] provide us with Direction so we we don't
have the ability to just go out and do
[26:00] do something that one of the council
members came and instructed us to do so
[26:05] I I do think that that's always
important to keep in
[26:08] mind yeah and I would I would add that I
I know I've been in situations where
[26:13] I've had elect officials ask me things
and I start with giving the benefit of
[26:16] Doubt because they come from not
government background and they might ask
[26:22] me something thinking it's perfectly
okay I see no problem with it and I'll
[26:26] explain to them the problem concern that
I have and every time that I've had
[26:31] these situations they they they
understand and they back down and say
[26:34] okay you know thank you for exping that
to me and I always get benefit of Doubt
[26:37] to who like officials they're they're
learning just like the rest of us but as
[26:41] a see management professionals like
they've said those ethics are or methods
[26:45] are kind of like our 10 commandments I
also have high value with in state laws
[26:51] like open meeting law so that if I've
got elected official that I feel like
[26:55] aren't are at risk of not the meeting
law I'm going to call them out out on it
[27:00] and I'm going to make sure that that
we're compant with that because it's up
[27:03] to us first to be accountable and have a
self-discipline to all those things and
[27:08] if we're not then we have to talk to
City Chans and those sort of things
[27:11] nobody wants to do
that thank
[27:15] you um next question is is a city
administrator required to live within
[27:21] City
[27:24] Limits that would be up to you
but do you all live in city limits I
[27:30] currently live within the within the
city T City wom you
[27:34] know I think that that's up to
your how wide of a C Net you want to
[27:41] cast for this position and and so how
flexible you want to be and if you feel
[27:45] that that's an important thing then you
make that requirement you know it's
[27:48] going to be based on your housing
availability and everything of that
[27:51] nature if that's a reality uh you know
if you want to get someone really
[27:55] quality you might have to be flexible
you might have to get them period of
[27:58] time as well or something of that inur I
do live in L it's required for four of
[28:04] us yeah I I live in Madison um I highly
encourage an appointment agreement for
[28:10] any administrator starting out in New
Town I encourage for the the city as the
[28:14] employer and I encourage it strongly for
the administrator as well and when I was
[28:18] starting one in Madison they provided me
a draft and it didn't have a residency
[28:21] requirement in and I said put a
residency requirement in there because
[28:25] whether it's me now or somebody in the
future you want administrator the one
[28:28] living in
City thanks what qualifications are
[28:34] required to become a city administrator
is their specialized schooling for this
[28:41] position I think all of us sitting up
here all receive Masters uh public
[28:46] administration and so we have that kind
of same as a business administration but
[28:51] it's the public for local government um
not a requirement I think it helps to
[28:57] give a good B knowledge of of of how
these positions are supposed to act um
[29:03] you
know I think it's important that you do
[29:06] find someone that has some background
and experience at least in local
[29:10] government um and it would be it would
be recommended to have someone that has
[29:14] experience as either a city manager City
administrator or assistant city manager
[29:20] administrator somewhere not to say that
Public Works directors or Parks
[29:24] directors or something you know uh
Engineers or people that me you can't
[29:28] also fill these roles um there's also
another requirement that I you know I
[29:33] don't know if C would want to require
that because it you need a seasoned
[29:36] individual but the icma international
City Managers Association also has
[29:41] what's called a cred credential manager
certification and that's also something
[29:47] that uh a lot of the seasoned managers
have and you know you're getting someone
[29:50] that has a quality background and has
went through rigorous um background to
[29:56] receive that credential so
just follow up on the the schooling um
[30:02] like Jus said we all have m in public
administration simar to a business
[30:07] administration but just for the public
sector um what they cover in these
[30:10] programs is is very wide ranging uh you
get a taste of everything um you're
[30:16] going to cover budgeting you're going to
cover financial planning fiscal analysis
[30:20] you're going to cover uh Human Resources
uh Planning and Building um all the
[30:27] stuff going to encounter being a local
government manager you're going to have
[30:31] some Education and Training through this
program uh that that's that's why it's
[30:35] important that that really does
summarize our jobs we're we're every
[30:40] hour of every day you could be working
in some different uh aspect of of public
[30:44] administration with the local
[30:48] government okay thanks um this is got a
lot of questions in it so I will read
[30:54] through it and answer it whatever part
you want what does a typ typical workday
[31:00] look like for a city administrator and
what duties do you do on a day-to-day
[31:05] basis how would that be beneficial to a
community that doesn't have a city
[31:15] administrator yeah that's a great
question I think the day-to-day looks
[31:19] not only different for any position
throughout the year but also from town
[31:24] to town because Madison
Linux um te can that are all going to
[31:30] have different things that's required of
their administrators when I was in vulga
[31:34] I had a lot of hats I was the guy doing
the building permits and um planning
[31:40] items and commission agendas and a
little of everything and in Madison I've
[31:45] been able to to uh assume a different
role I work a lot more with uh building
[31:50] up an organization uh lot more with
leadership staff training uh Mission
[31:55] Vision Values is something that's I've
been working on now lishing our core
[31:58] values for the first time um it's been a
lot of building up as I mentioned
[32:02] earlier an organization to be resilient
and adaptable to change in those sort of
[32:07] things and I've enjoyed it quite a bit
um starting out in that smaller town was
[32:11] immensely beneficial because I have such
a strong knowledge of of basic
[32:15] government day-to-day operations from
from the ground level I've help out a
[32:19] lot but every town is going to be
completely different and these guys
[32:23] probably come from towns that Mak be
more terrible game
[32:28] uh it's a really difficult question to
answer because I don't I don't think I
[32:32] even had time for lunch today or and I
don't remember what I had for breakfast
[32:36] just getting the kids out uh to school
in the morning uh but you know you know
[32:41] typically uh it's just you
know we're we're going to respond to S
[32:48] send inquiries emails phone calls uh I'm
going to catch up with all my department
[32:53] heads to know what's going on throughout
uh throughout the community um um I'm
[32:58] going to be providing you know them
Direction I'm going to be connecting
[33:01] with my city engineer to make sure
projects are on track I'm going to be
[33:06] communicating with the mayor and Council
about all of these things and making
[33:09] sure that they're up to speed on on on
how the day-to-day operations are going
[33:14] um I'm going to be um also that
strategic planning piece of it is is
[33:20] doing the research on on topics that are
coming up for Council uh meetings
[33:25] preparing that the council meeting
agendas in advance and you know I'm I
[33:31] try to be very very thorough for for
City Council meetings with a lot of prep
[33:37] prepared materials uh providing
recommendations and background on issues
[33:42] so that the council can see everything
in advance and go in with uh opinions
[33:47] and and uh kind of have their decisions
uh pre-formed before they get to a
[33:52] meeting so there's not a ton of
discussion on on specific items um but
[33:57] you know in T it's really a lot of my
time has been managing the growth and
[34:02] and the amount of development and
everything that's occurring there uh but
[34:06] you know I I just think that what it
does bring to the community is that
[34:10] One-Stop
shop so everyone everybody knows where
[34:15] to go to because and I think probably
currently in Camp you could call five
[34:19] different people and they might tell you
five different things I don't know if
[34:22] that's true but it's that One-Stop shop
uh that that can that can communicate
[34:27] with the I think it's that
benefit this is a harder question to
[34:32] answer because I have a calendar there's
things on that
[34:36] calendar but some of them don't happen
some of them happen twice um because
[34:42] every day is so unpredictable uh and
especially when you know Jameson
[34:46] mentioned when he was in vulga being a
lot more handson and you know my day go
[34:52] from planning for the city council
meeting a few weeks from now to uh
[34:56] helping out with a quick project streets
that they just need somebody to act the
[35:00] pl or for 10 minutes while while they
get a piece of equip about it because
[35:04] we're now a guy or something like that
um so every day is unpredictable but I I
[35:09] think in general uh you know my time is
going to be spent on overarching
[35:14] financial goal where are we on reserves
where are we uh what are we looking at
[35:19] in sales tax numbers compared to last
year do we need to make any
[35:22] adjustments um what policies need to be
reviewed you know try all of our
[35:28] policies every year for updates making
sure they're still um applying with
[35:32] appable laws um Department check-ins try
and do that every day with each my
[35:37] department that's making sure they have
what they need uh to get their job done
[35:43] today uh a lot of time spent on
community engagement and Council prep
[35:49] planning filling prep hard board prep um
City Council planning takes a lot more
[35:56] time than I I think we probably all have
very similar Council packets that have
[36:01] all the materials memos with
recommendations so on and so forth uh we
[36:06] try and after each council meeting uh
the next Tuesday I do my follow-ups and
[36:11] then I start planning for the next counc
meeting because it's coming right around
[36:14] the corner two weeks and it does take
time to get those things put together um
[36:20] we we we make a point of having all of
our Council materials published by uh
[36:24] noon on Thursday that the council
Saturday Sunday uh and uh if they want
[36:29] to for part Monday to review that agenda
ask any questions that they may have and
[36:35] uh be prepared to make a decision the
coming day um I like to think that you
[36:40] know being in this position as mayor
council a lot more efficient and
[36:43] effective with their time um our our
meetings certainly aren't um as long as
[36:50] they used to be uh so because the
council's more for they have more
[36:53] information as they get there a lot of
that comes from the amount of work that
[36:57] we
ahead of time to get the research done
[37:00] so that they have the information they
need to make
[37:03] this thank that's f a little bit more
for me here sorry but u a lot of what we
[37:09] do is to try to make our elect official
jobs easier and that matters to the
[37:13] public too um before Madison CR
administrator one of my Commissioners
[37:19] said that he was routinely working 30 to
40 hours a week on cityway and stuff he
[37:23] wasn't retired he actually had a very
critical role in the community that took
[37:26] a lot of his time but he was devoting 30
40 hours a week so what does that mean
[37:31] well it's not very Democratic because
now your entire population that might be
[37:35] interested in running for City
commission at a point is narrowed down
[37:39] to people who are either crazy enough to
work basically two fulltime jobs most
[37:43] people get burned out or people that
that are retired and have the time for
[37:46] it
or that's probably about it I mean and
[37:50] and if you really want to open it up to
your whole population to serve in local
[37:54] government and to be on commission they
have to be able to assume a role where
[37:58] they're not putting 30 40 hours of work
in my Commissioners still work they
[38:03] still make their pay they still attend
their commission meetings U but that was
[38:07] was not not efficient was not productive
and so coming in as administrator I did
[38:13] everything I came to make their job as
easy as possible and that means regular
[38:17] staff reports and memos and
recommendations and previews and then
[38:21] walk into those same things with the
public during commission meetings so
[38:24] everybody's know knows what we're doing
why we're doing it as possible that's a
[38:28] big part of what we do another part that
what I what I do is probably underplayed
[38:32] is is I learn I I try to spend a little
bit of time um doing professional
[38:37] reading whether that's through our our
magazines or whatever the case is we
[38:42] also learn from each other and when Nate
says he works on commun engagement he
[38:46] works on community engagement they do a
lot of commun Engagement they do a
[38:49] really good job of it and I know there
are things that I've learned from Nate
[38:53] that I've took taken to Madison and
lately we've worked a lot
[38:58] doing a lot of work too so so we learn
from each other we learn from from
[39:01] materials it's important to always be
growing and helping our community be
[39:05] we're going to see a Madison live Q&A
here in maybe I thought about
[39:10] it okay thanks um as an administrator
what are the best and the worst days
[39:17] you've ever experienced in your
[39:22] role going to sound weird but they're
the same days for me um um there's two
[39:29] events I can think of uh first is uh a
small tornado limux at in
[39:34] 2021 uh and the second is the rain
storms we had in
[39:39] June uh those days are both the worst
and the best days of my career U the
[39:44] worse because um we see our community
hurting we see our community in pain we
[39:50] see people's homes hurt if we see uh you
know yards destroyed we see people's uh
[39:56] livelihoods ch some reasons um and you
know our our dam metics were not severe
[40:02] in either case um but one of your home
it still feels severe it's your business
[40:08] it still feels severe um or school you
know in our case we had school aot of
[40:13] sessions for a few days because of
the
[40:18] um I can remember in the tornado
specifically that um it was me at home
[40:24] with my son my wife was in two Falls and
caught up in the adrenaline of the
[40:28] moment for the first several hours
you're okay let's get this done you're
[40:32] work with your team and everything's
happening everything's pring along and
[40:35] you finally take a break to go home and
see did my house okay uh and how's the
[40:41] family and you just get hit with a wable
like oh my goodness this my community um
[40:46] I hope everybody's
okay um but then everybody comes
[40:51] together you see your community come
together to tackle a big problem uh I've
[40:55] never been prder of my team than with
that Street clean up after that storm we
[40:58] are done in 4 days I think um and just
there was no question same the storms in
[41:04] June there's no question of who's
supposed to help out or well I I don't
[41:08] work on that team I'm supposed to
reworking on this team or I'm on the
[41:11] street be reworking on this super stuff
um there was none of that it was just
[41:16] what do we need and where we need and
that that's to me uh when you know that
[41:20] you've got a team that's willing to step
up and make things work for their
[41:23] community that was a highlight of my my
group
[41:30] I think you answered that day that's
good I know C just went through that as
[41:34] well here so I think that that
definitely would would touch on all of
[41:38] those
points um I I agree with M terms
[41:43] sometimes the the best and the worst are
usually tied together as youve probably
[41:47] gathered I I spend a lot of time
thinking about staff coaching growing um
[41:51] those those employees to be resilient
Etc and we've got I want to say 78
[41:56] fulltime employees which which sounds
Alik a lot but Madison has a large Rec
[42:01] facility we share with DSU we've got our
own police force that's 15 right there
[42:05] we've got electric Department that that
most cities have we have a lot of
[42:09] diverse departments there and the worst
days are when I'm trying to improve
[42:14] culture or build that collaboration and
there's a setback there's going to be
[42:17] setbacks and they know that's not that's
that's something I work hard for U the
[42:21] best days remember when I when I had
those big WS I I had one employee who I
[42:26] quickly ident coming to Madison as a top
employee somebody that's a real
[42:32] go-getter and just Superior performance
and I was able to grow and move that
[42:38] employee into a morb leadership position
which they weren't sure about they kind
[42:43] of nervous well they didn't really want
to but they willing to move into that
[42:46] and after they were in that en roll for
a while and got settled um this person
[42:50] told me and this was the the most he's
ever enjoyed his his job at the city
[42:54] he's been there in 16 17 years when I
have employee who I pushed and grew and
[42:59] they come back saying I was nervous but
I've never enjoyed my job more than I do
[43:02] now that's that's a
that's thank
[43:09] you as an administrator who is
responsible for monitoring your job
[43:18] performance the mayor and city council
are in t But ultimately that is elected
[43:24] officials which is the entire public of
of the of the community you serve so the
[43:29] entire C taxpayers and City Limits would
be monitoring the performance of of of
[43:34] your city administrator if you one
[43:38] place I'll just add I started a
performance review process when I got to
[43:42] Madison was something they had before
try to make it simple but useful for all
[43:46] employees and I abide by that same
process we have exec session once a year
[43:49] with City commission so my like body
goes through that performance review
[43:53] with me and we identify opportunities
for improvement and is all that so again
[43:59] yeah like the official be responsible
for
[44:03] that okay next question
is how do you know when you've been
[44:10] successful in your
[44:18] role
um I would say just
[44:22] overall people aren't showing up to see
Council screaming at
[44:27] the council you you know you you're
doing your job um but I would say just
[44:32] when when the community feels holistic
everybody's on board everybody
[44:37] understands the direction of your city
and your Council and and the direction
[44:41] that they're putting forward people
people are all bought into that that in
[44:46] the direction you're taking as a
community that's when I would say when
[44:49] you when you know you're you're move
moving forward successfully
[44:57] ultimately when you're meeting the needs
of your community and meeting the the
[45:00] needs and expectations of your mayor and
Council for me that that says at the end
[45:05] of the day that's what's going to
determine if I'm going
[45:08] to stay in that role for a while right
uh and whether it's successful but
[45:12] there's you know the performance of my
team also says a lot about how
[45:17] successful I'm going to be if uh if if I
a team that's performing and firing on
[45:23] all cylinders um that's a big
determining fact I'm being successful in
[45:27] my role it's my job to make sure that
they have what we need are working
[45:31] towards common goals and uh working
towards the vision and the miss the uh
[45:36] vision and Mission that the council has
set forward for the for the
[45:41] organization uh we also we have
Performance Management metrics that we
[45:44] try to hit um it's nothing super complex
uh but it's stuff that we want to make
[45:49] sure uh we're monitoring and making
progress so every we've got a
[45:53] Performance Management report that the
council reviews uh Department possible
[45:58] for providing um metrics
[46:01] on I'd say an indicator of success is if
as a community your entire Community you
[46:06] can identify goals work towards those
goals hit obstacles get around the
[46:12] obstacles um have disagreements and work
amicably through them if there's a
[46:18] really sticky situation as a community
you're able to address that or fix it or
[46:23] get past it that's that's when we are
okay thanks what role of any does a city
[46:30] administrator have regarding enforcement
of city codes SL
[46:38] ordinances I would say all employees
have responsibility to enforce Cod
[46:42] ordinances there would be some
individuals that have more
[46:44] responsibility than others if you have a
code enforcement officer um or obviously
[46:49] the attorney those sort folks will be
more involved there but absolutely
[46:53] administrator would have a stronger role
in The Code Enforcement depend who you
[46:57] got at your team unfortunate we got a
code enforcement officer who's also
[47:01] building official and so Gras complaints
and dilapidated buildings those sort of
[47:05] things can go to
him if he wasn't doing his job I have to
[47:10] be involved with that make sure that
that the new already
[47:14] address I I think this duty is actually
in my job description U it really is
[47:20] what what we're responsible for making
sure it's happening building official
[47:23] code official um L has as well I think T
does too just talk about that but um
[47:31] those are pieces of the code that need
to be enforced there's other pieces too
[47:35] and there are times when U maybe the
code or the ordinance isn't quite so
[47:41] clear and staff need some clarification
we had one of those this morning
[47:45] somebody um on a golf cart permit of all
things has an old golf cart with three
[47:51] wheels instead of four state code says
the golf cars defi is having four wheels
[47:55] so you know those are things that we
have to go back and look at and help
[47:58] interpret for the staff and um it it
really is kind of what our job is
[48:06] about I I I think you guys answered that
that question just be mindful of time
[48:12] here we any question
yeah we have lots of questions here um
[48:18] what is the difference between the city
manager and the city administrator I
[48:22] think we already covered that but the
second part is does one work better over
[48:26] together for a city the size of
Canon in your
[48:34] opinion I think that's a question you
need to answer as a community I don't
[48:38] think there's a one- siiz it's all uh
approach to to this um you've
[48:43] experimented with the city management
form of government it looks like you're
[48:47] going to experience or looking at
experimenting with the city
[48:50] administrator former government you
might have a answer figured out in the
[48:54] next few years maybe on that question
but um you know I think there's
[48:58] communities all across the the country
the state of South Dakota various sizes
[49:03] that are management forms and City
administrator forms um so it's really
[49:09] whatever I think fits the culture of
your
[49:13] community okay
um does this concept work better or
[49:20] worse depending on the type of
government that a city utilizes for
[49:25] example Council
D mayor versus Council D manager versus
[49:32] commission that's
yeah I think administrative form can
[49:38] work in any of those I kind of spoke
earlier how I I feel like it's worked
[49:41] well in Madison the commission form
breaking down the silos but it can
[49:44] really work in anything
[49:48] form yeah I I think the the main thing
is is that you're bringing in a
[49:53] professional and bringing in someone
that has exper in in in running a
[49:59] organization that is a local government
which is different it's different than
[50:03] business it's different than in a school
district it's different uh than than a
[50:07] lot of things so it's just it's it's
someone that has expertise that can
[50:11] analyze your community analyze your
organization and try to put you on the
[50:15] right track uh towards
success okay um next question is funding
[50:22] and revenue management are selling
points for the administrative position
[50:27] since much of the grant funding is a
simple pass through of funds that the
[50:31] city would receive regardless of who is
heading City Hall can you identify other
[50:37] efficiencies that can help to justify
the cost of of an
[50:47] administrator I I I think I kind of
answered that question pretty early on
[50:51] but you know I would say that you know
we've talked about this a bunch but it's
[50:56] just that that overall investment in in
what you want your community to look
[51:02] like uh do you want it to be uh more
proactive rather than reactive do you
[51:08] want to be more strategic about about
how you're looking into the future um
[51:13] analyzing you know what what what type
of Staffing you have and making sure
[51:18] your your your staff approach
appropriately across your departments um
[51:23] you know make just try to increas
communication with the public and uh
[51:31] communication with your with your
residents communication with your
[51:34] Council between your council members I
think all of those things is is really
[51:38] what that um what that investment is I I
don't like I said let's see as an
[51:45] expense see it as an investment of what
you you want your community to be more
[51:50] better manage
better
[51:54] okay what will the city administrators
duties and responsibilities be that are
[51:59] not already being covered by current
city
[52:05] positions I think that' be more of a c
question it can be whatever you
[52:12] want
okay
[52:16] um next question that was sent in was
what happens when the city runs out of
[52:22] money to cover this
position I hope that's not going to be
[52:27] the
case you got to go to administrator you
[52:30] won't
run I don't think that's a realistic I
[52:34] think it's important to acknowledge here
too you've got a finance officer that's
[52:37] been in this community for a number of
years that is well known throughout the
[52:41] state as an effective person and and
great at his his position too so um you
[52:47] know I think he knows where the where
where where all
[52:51] the pennies are hidden in the couch curs
and hopefully you can find to justify
[52:57] putting somebody in place
here okay how has the day-to-day
[53:03] administration of municipalities evolved
over the last few decades is it the same
[53:08] or more
[53:13] complex oh yeah ever since Co I think
everybody's jobs are a little bit
[53:17] different The public's just has I think
different expectations in general um you
[53:23] know us as as professional government
managers
[53:27] uh Jameson mentioned some of the some of
the magazines and things like that that
[53:32] we read through icma well several of us
are headed to a conference this next
[53:37] weekend uh in Pittsburgh for the
international City Managers Association
[53:41] so we really try to stay on top of the
the trends in in across governments
[53:47] across the the the country so we're prep
prepared for them when they get here
[53:51] because it always takes a while for them
to get here but we go to these
[53:54] conferences and we we find out new
approaches and and we try to bring the
[53:59] back to our community to to implement
those um I can't think of anything off
[54:03] the top of my head right now that I can
specifically say uh that uh but it's um
[54:09] definitely the the the the it's ever
changing we have a potential uh vote on
[54:16] the food tax coming up and that's going
to have an adjustment for for all of us
[54:20] in our communities if our if our sales
taxes decrease in the in the next couple
[54:25] years so I think that that's what these
positions do is try to keep ahead and
[54:29] make sure that that your community is is
forward thank you I'd say one area
[54:34] that's been become more complicated in
recent years is community engagement we
[54:38] have a lot
more avenues for communicating with the
[54:42] public and the public has a lot higher
expectations for us to communicate
[54:47] effectively and efficiently it used to
be that they were fine meeting in the
[54:51] corner and Y oh I got a cool questions
sounds good now now they want government
[54:55] to be more proactive and they want us to
use all those different Avenues to
[55:00] communicate and and and we should rise
that so that's why we've been focusing
[55:04] lot engagement because we should have a
great website that's got you language
[55:08] translation accessible and we should
have text messaging options for the
[55:13] public to sign up for we should have a
mobile app and those sort of things if
[55:16] we rolling out so um it takes a lot of
work um it takes a very very U
[55:24] Keen OB not obs it takes
a focus I think that's what I'm trying
[55:29] to say it takes a lot of focus
initiative to make sure get that right
[55:33] but we should rise the occasion for the
Public
[55:38] Communication okay um my next question
is the prevailing argument against the
[55:44] city administrator is that we can't
afford it yet most citizens agree that c
[55:49] spending has gotten out of control what
role would a city administrator play in
[55:54] crafting a budget and ensuring that it's
adhered to um Can a competent
[56:00] administrator pay for themselves by
improving fiscal responsibility and
[56:07] efficiency maybe I'll start with the
budget question I think talked about
[56:12] efficiency quite too um you know the
budget process in any municipality it's
[56:18] a team sport U you know in Linux I I
leave that process but I'm obviously
[56:23] working very closely as a finance
officer uh through every day of that
[56:27] process department heads are working
with the finance officer and me and
[56:31] trying to craft their budget and
determine what their needs are going to
[56:34] be in the next year um so
it's adhering to that budget is done
[56:43] with both the the city administrator and
the finance officer keeping tabs on that
[56:47] watching where they are for the year
making sure that when they are getting
[56:50] close uh we we have a reason to to be
you know hopefully you're not getting
[56:54] close to that budget until December um
there are some cases where you do you
[56:57] got to pass it supplemental but it's
it's a it's an involved process it's not
[57:02] just the city administrator um and
responsible for that budget or
[57:06] responsible for all that stending um I
think that's an important aspect of of
[57:11] the way Lo it works there's multiple
checks and balances through that process
[57:16] uh it's not just one person that's doing
it um I mean in terms of whether you can
[57:20] afford it or not I mean I don't know
what C's budget looks like um come from
[57:26] a small community with limited sales tax
if we can afford I imagine a lot of
[57:30] places can
um and yeah a c administrator Justin's
[57:36] answered this a couple times and I don't
think you can really look at it in terms
[57:40] of as going to pay for itself again this
isn't a business this isn't something
[57:45] where you know you're you're
producing um a consistent Revenue stream
[57:49] by being in that position you are
creating efficiencies you are
[57:53] streamlining processes you are making
the organization more
[58:00] eff yeah I don't know can over spending
I I don't know much about I'm being
[58:06] honest um so may maybe you are I don't
know or there could be a couple other
[58:10] things there as administrator I'd be
coming in I I'd look at projections so
[58:15] maybe we need to better communicate to
the public what we're what we're doing
[58:19] because uh in Madison you know some
people might say gez last year you had
[58:23] $30 million in capital projects how can
you afford that well let's let's let's
[58:27] pull this out and take a look at it it's
not just a matter of what we're doing
[58:30] this year or next year we have to look
10 20 30 years down the road and and
[58:35] figure out what our Revenue expectations
and projections are as well as what our
[58:38] expenses are so we look at having a nice
detailed cap Improvement plan that for
[58:43] me goes at least 5 years infrastructure
Improvement plan that goes out a few
[58:46] years a strategic plan and all those
documents should be talking to each
[58:49] other to make sure that we are heading
the right direction and we're not
[58:52] spending more than we're bringing in or
projecting but the second piece that
[58:57] that could be something that could cause
public high is if if the city is putting
[59:03] its money towards things that the
community doesn't deal with priority so
[59:07] that's not a case of overspending in
total but from the public side maybe
[59:11] it's a case of overspending in certain
areas and that's where as you're putting
[59:15] together those Capital Improvement plans
and and your budget each year you need
[59:18] to make sure you have a really great way
of getting public input especially in
[59:23] the years when the public doesn't care
they they're you need your input even
[59:27] more because the public budget ordinance
I could approve in 5 minutes how we
[59:32] didn't have no public input I we like to
see public input as administrators so
[59:37] what I'm trying to get out there is is
having a method and a process in place
[59:40] where you make sure the public is
included and valued so that the dollars
[59:45] are going to the priorities and the
public would like to see them
[59:48] go you really hit the nail on the head
there Jameson um I think if you go and
[59:53] look at uh any of the RS or um any of
the other go to the yankton's website
[1:00:00] look at their their their budget there's
a narrative on the front of that those
[1:00:04] budgets that really kind of rather than
a bunching numbers on a piece of paper
[1:00:08] it it spells out what the city's going
to spend in that next year and puts it
[1:00:12] into a narrative format um the other
thing too is is that you know these
[1:00:18] aren't our budgets they're not in my
opinion they're not the Mayors and the
[1:00:23] in the in the city commissions they are
the budget so they that input that's
[1:00:29] looking out for 5 years so that
everybody's has is on the the same is on
[1:00:35] the same train that trains Le to the
station and that and everybody in the
[1:00:38] community is on that is is really
something that we we strive for um when
[1:00:43] it comes to that budget budgeting
process okay um the next question sent
[1:00:50] in
was Kinton has been stagnant in numerous
[1:00:55] respects for several decades while towns
similar in size proximity to S Falls
[1:01:00] have enjoyed a growing tax base with new
homes and new businesses how can a city
[1:01:05] administrator help move Canton Beyond
[1:01:21] 1980
um lnx was was very much in I I wouldn't
[1:01:28] say they were stag and I I I don't think
that would necessarily describe where we
[1:01:32] were uh I I can't take credit for all
the growth that's happened there in the
[1:01:37] last few years um but it is one of the
things that that I was tasked with when
[1:01:43] when I started was to get a Housing
Development and to work with the L area
[1:01:47] Development Corporation uh Lincoln
County and any other partner we needed a
[1:01:53] developer and so on and so forth uh to
make that Happ and you know so those
[1:01:57] things take time obviously and I'm happy
to say that that we've we really have
[1:02:02] been growing over the last few years at
a great at a rate that we probably
[1:02:05] haven't se to F here days um those
aren't accidental things but they're
[1:02:10] also not things that are solely the
responsibility or success of the city
[1:02:14] manager it's it's this has been a vision
that's been set forth for the community
[1:02:20] uh by its elected officials in
coordination with the voters uh to speak
[1:02:24] for uh direction that they want to move
and if if if canton's goal is to
[1:02:32] increase housing
opportunities and attract new industry
[1:02:38] and um introduce new retail to Main
Street um and you set those as your
[1:02:44] goals um those are things that that
administrator is going to be working
[1:02:49] towards
um again it's not just that
[1:02:53] administrator that's doing that team
it's a it's a number of organizations
[1:02:57] that have to come together to do that uh
but the goal has to be set and if the if
[1:03:01] the vision is clear that that's the
direction that you want to move um an
[1:03:06] administrator can help um help pedal the
bank so to speak definitely um you know
[1:03:13] in business they always say location
location location and and I think in
[1:03:17] City uh government it's infrastructure
infrastructure
[1:03:22] infrastructure you aren't going to grow
you're not going to trct that new
[1:03:25] buiness bu to town you're not going to
attract those homes to town if your
[1:03:28] Wastewater Plant or your sewer lagoons
are are are not keeping up or your or
[1:03:34] your water system is is crumbling and
you've got water me brakes all over town
[1:03:39] um those type of things you really need
to be focused on those and and you know
[1:03:45] you have an economic development
director here in town that you can lean
[1:03:48] on but he has to have those tools and
have the infrastructure in place to be
[1:03:52] able to to be moving forward and moving
the community forward so City
[1:03:56] administrator can help you organize plan
look into the future identify those
[1:04:01] priority projects get those done so
you're in place your water your water
[1:04:05] systems ready to go your sewer systems
ready to go your street infrastructure
[1:04:08] is ready to go all all of those type
things um that that's where I would say
[1:04:13] that an administrator is going to help
you move forward and lenux has that
[1:04:17] infrastructure in place they built a
brand new uh a Wastewater Plant when I
[1:04:21] was there they've got the water
resources from L Clark they they repl
[1:04:25] and put insult curbing gutter throughout
their streets that in in areas of Main
[1:04:30] Street that weren't there and have done
a lot of those Investments and and then
[1:04:34] the community responds later developers
see that and respond to
[1:04:40] that and I think I did mentioned earlier
that the C Economic Development board
[1:04:44] sped a Housing Development which is to
start the infrastructure this soon like
[1:04:50] within a month month and a half they
opened bids last Thursday for the conru
[1:04:56] company to do the infrastructure so that
is a step
[1:05:01] forward um next question was who do you
personally oversee what employees are
[1:05:07] considered under
you I think that's
[1:05:13] commission yeah City administrator in
most organizations is going to see
[1:05:18] oversee um directly department head
quote indirectly all all
[1:05:23] employees uh you know instru will
typically end up uh with the city
[1:05:28] administrator and then to the City
Commissioner
[1:05:31] Council I would Echo that same
thing I've got 10 department heads and
[1:05:37] then 11 employee that do Communications
marketing that is a department head
[1:05:41] those 11 individuals report to me and uh
that's just the nature of of cities we
[1:05:45] got a very diverse organization okay
thanks um do you commu communicate
[1:05:52] everything to the Commissioners and
mayor or do you make make decisions on
[1:05:56] your
own definitely making some decisions on
[1:05:59] your own you can't that's the point for
having a position don't want to bring
[1:06:04] everything to your life officials and
ask them to make every decision
[1:06:07] otherwise why why you're there um I I
think the important thing is being able
[1:06:12] to sort out what needs to go elected
officials and what is something that we
[1:06:16] can do ourselves and quite often
especially with my commission former
[1:06:19] government I still have you know five
different like officials overseeing
[1:06:22] different areas so if I have a question
related so I can start with one person
[1:06:28] and maybe we can
s so that's the important part being
[1:06:33] able to sort what what you bring to them
out from what you don't need and
[1:06:37] policies help a lot with that to yeah
when we're making decisions they're
[1:06:41] Often by policies that are already in
place or budget that's already been
[1:06:44] passed and approved uh we we then have
that authority to make certain decisions
[1:06:48] because policies already SE it's easy to
rely on that uh in terms of
[1:06:53] communication uh think you have your
Council May the better off you are
[1:06:58] really can never over
communicate um I visit with most of our
[1:07:04] council members each week have a every
two weeks um Thursday or Friday I with
[1:07:09] my mayor to review the council agenda
for the next week um and talk to him at
[1:07:14] least
weekly about items that may have come up
[1:07:18] that he's want to want to know about
next council meeting then every Friday
[1:07:22] Also usually it's Friday sometime
Thursday Saturday or Sunday uh the
[1:07:28] council gets a briefing for me on
important matters for that week uh
[1:07:32] things that came up uh that I think they
might want to know about uh things that
[1:07:36] I think are important in the community
um important news items from around the
[1:07:40] state that I think
they ini measure 28 on that have come
[1:07:47] out important project status we update
on our infrastructure projects to just
[1:07:54] to make sure that Mo as as they can be
because if I'm getting questions on
[1:07:58] these things I can hearing to you my
council members and they are going to be
[1:08:01] getting questions on them as well and
they need to be justed as
[1:08:08] I okay um are you the point of contact
when people have questions about things
[1:08:15] going on in the community that are City
[1:08:21] related I I think Jameson's going to
answer that question different than I'm
[1:08:25] going to answer that question different
than ma can answer that question in
[1:08:29] Madison um Jameson's probably not
answering a question about a building
[1:08:33] permit I'm not answering the question
about a building permit in t because we
[1:08:37] have a a Planning and Zoning
administrator and a building inspector
[1:08:41] uh but you know
we're if if they don't have the answers
[1:08:46] to those questions we're we're the we're
the next stop um in general I would say
[1:08:52] so I like to know
I I may be a little bit micromanager
[1:08:58] like that but I just like to be an
earshot of kind of everything that's
[1:09:01] being discussed in in in City Hall in t
so if I hear somebody ask answering or
[1:09:06] trying to answer a question within City
Hall I like to be able to pop up and and
[1:09:11] get get into that conversation and make
sure they that they have the right
[1:09:15] information and just trying to be
responsive as well um I've got you know
[1:09:20] we've got you know a website where you
can submit information and it might go
[1:09:24] to a department head but then that
department head can't answer that
[1:09:27] question so they'll send it to me I
think it's just kind of however you want
[1:09:30] to structure that uh but generally um
feel like I'm there to answer most any
[1:09:35] questions that that arise throughout the
course of the
[1:09:40] day okay how do you handle commission
meetings do you give more than one
[1:09:46] option for issues and a
[1:09:50] recommendation yeah cities do this very
differently as well I've seen some
[1:09:54] cities where the administrators speaks
very little they're there to support and
[1:09:57] answer questions other cities where they
they lead post of the discussion or in
[1:10:02] my case I try to do introduction for
each topic U sometimes I'll bring a
[1:10:06] staff up to kind of take that over
trying to build them up or a lot of
[1:10:11] times it's just me and the commission
can ask questions go from there as far
[1:10:15] as recommendations again vary there
there's some cities that they're like
[1:10:19] official they don't want recommendations
from their administrator um I personally
[1:10:22] think that's that's a a that think
you're not getting the most benefit out
[1:10:27] of that and on the other inpection
there's cities that just want one
[1:10:31] recommendation what do you want to do
most I say fall in the middle so I if
[1:10:35] there's three viable options I'm going
to bring them three viable options I'm
[1:10:38] going to make a recommendation on on one
of them most of the time I think they go
[1:10:42] with the staff recommendation but I can
think of more than one occasion my my 8
[1:10:47] years in the profession now where I had
a fairly strong recommendation or
[1:10:51] opinion on something and my elect
official went a different direction and
[1:10:55] one I supported them wholeheartedly
because they're they're the boss and and
[1:10:59] what they want to do is what we're going
to do and secondly I think pretty much
[1:11:04] every time in hindsight they were right
as a administrator I'm not know all
[1:11:09] knowing Around Mission or anything so
for it's important for me to step back
[1:11:13] and say yeah I made a recommendation to
do this kind of parking you did this
[1:11:16] parking and you were right this was a
better thing for the community for the
[1:11:19] public and and it worked out just time
it's a it's a team thing you need like
[1:11:24] off you good administrator good staff
good
[1:11:30] invol thank you for bringing that up I
always I always think that's just really
[1:11:34] important to mention and for the
community to know that you know we are
[1:11:40] higher as these people that are supposed
to know everything and and we generally
[1:11:44] have a pretty good background but I
sometimes don't know all the intricacies
[1:11:49] of a Wastewater Plant right so you have
experts for that but if I do bring in a
[1:11:54] recommendation for
I may feel very strongly about it I me
[1:11:58] all of us administrators kind of pick
and choose when to fall on a sword you
[1:12:02] know for specific issues or topics
throughout the course of the year right
[1:12:07] U but I've had occasions when the when
the council does not uh take the
[1:12:12] recommendation that that I had set
forward forward and you know it's really
[1:12:17] important for us at that point to really
check our OS and to realize that we are
[1:12:21] not the elected officials we are we are
appointed admin
[1:12:25] and that the elected officials are the
ones that make the decisions it isn't us
[1:12:29] that make those decisions and so it's
really all of us really follow those
[1:12:33] rules I may think that that was the
stupidest decision the council's ever
[1:12:37] made and I don't know how I'm going to
deal with the aftermath of what they
[1:12:40] made but I turn around that next morning
I come into the city hall and I direct
[1:12:44] the staff to follow through with uh and
myself to follow through with the
[1:12:48] decision that the council had made so
they are the elected officials they are
[1:12:51] the ultimate decision
makers okay thank you
[1:12:56] next question do you consider yourself
on call
[1:13:02] 247 yeah yeah yeah tried to keep
separation there you know and I think I
[1:13:08] everywhere I've been everyone's been
respectful of my time and my family and
[1:13:13] going to the grocery store or whatever
but you know we're always there and my
[1:13:17] my kids are used to it at this point
getting uh you know pulled out of a
[1:13:22] vacation dance or a phone call or
specific issues so yeah I me we we it's
[1:13:28] it's like these are our babies these
towns are are our our families our
[1:13:32] babies we're going to be there to to
help make sure that the right decisions
[1:13:35] are made and we're going to be there
when we get called upon I've had three
[1:13:39] calls from council members of the hour
the half we've been here so yeah yeah
[1:13:44] you
[1:13:46] are okay um can be respectful to you um
because we know you have to travel and
[1:13:53] jamus and you have to go farther
um I'll call this the last question and
[1:13:58] if I didn't read some of your questions
because we've run out of time and I
[1:14:01] think they only skip like three or four
so in your opinion do you think it would
[1:14:07] be beneficial to combine the finance
officer position with the city
[1:14:11] administrator position would it be more
cost effective and allow both positions
[1:14:16] to be done
[Applause]
[1:14:20] adequately um I'll take a stab at that
um for the better part of the last I'd
[1:14:26] say 50 years in South Dakota that's the
finance officer basically served that
[1:14:33] that role as a as a city administrator
and a lot of them have done that very
[1:14:37] effectively um and some of the
communities that's still the case and
[1:14:42] they do call them finance officer City
administrator um and if that's something
[1:14:46] you want to do you know I don't think
that's as pure as a form as as as having
[1:14:51] an administrator because I do think
they're too separate
[1:14:55] responsibilities I am not a finance
officer I Rely completely on my finance
[1:15:00] officer for everything that is not my
expertise that is not my background you
[1:15:04] don't want me to be finance officer I
can tell you that right now so um you
[1:15:08] know the two separate roles it allows
those Finance officers to concentrate on
[1:15:14] their job to make sure those City books
are in order to make sure that they're
[1:15:17] prepared for audits that they're
providing solid recommendations uh to
[1:15:21] the Council on on on on fiscal uh
decisions so I I I do think they're
[1:15:27] separate I think there's room for both
within a community um and and and I know
[1:15:33] you know I've been in I was the first in
in ladex where where they uh the you
[1:15:38] know the finance officer had
trepidations about uh the administrator
[1:15:42] coming in it's still pretty un and um I
can say that they're just part of the
[1:15:46] they're they are part of the team
they're part there there's you know
[1:15:50] there might be a chain of command but
there's not a chain of command is the
[1:15:53] way I approach it is that everyone on
the same team to to PL forward and do
[1:15:58] what's best for your
community yeah I I would Echo all what
[1:16:03] Justin said here um they
are different positions uh in lenux
[1:16:08] they're very different positions and in
our case it's more of an accountant
[1:16:13] making sure that uh you know accounts
payable accounts reable utility building
[1:16:18] all those things are done reliably and
effici and effectively those are things
[1:16:23] you're going to want to do I I can
future fisal analysis still the base if
[1:16:28] you want me to be an accountant you're
going to have to find somebody else uh
[1:16:31] and that's very much what that position
is and um it's not you know I like to
[1:16:36] think in lenux it's more of a
partnership between those two positions
[1:16:40] um those two positions need to work
closely together they need to be very
[1:16:43] trusting of each other um they need to
be able to have very vulnerable
[1:16:46] conversations with each other about
finances about where things are at uh
[1:16:51] I'm I'm on my second finance officer
uh was in wor Antics uh for a while U
[1:16:59] recently retired um then came on reti
work here um very quickly but I think if
[1:17:07] you were to ask and my my new finance
officer i what does that look like um
[1:17:14] bouncing ideas off each other work
closely every day to figure to solve
[1:17:18] problems um it's more of a u a
Consulting relationship than it is a
[1:17:23] reporting relationship for us it's just
a it's a very close
[1:17:27] partnership uh and uh my wife would
would often say me I feel like you know
[1:17:31] your finance officer better go e some
because you really do spend that much
[1:17:35] time with them uh and uh you get to know
them that well because you're just
[1:17:40] working that closely together it's such
a close partnership and it's meant to
[1:17:45] it's meant to be a close partnership to
make things effec
[1:17:56] okay um I want to thank all of you for
coming out here tonight for this I want
[1:18:01] to thank everyone who sent in emails
with the questions um we appreciate it
[1:18:06] we had a good number of questions some
of them were Rel to to but um no and
[1:18:15] thank you especially for coming over
here and doing this for our community
[1:18:20] thank you
[1:18:31] [Applause]
[Music]
[1:18:33] we're all available in time to have
these discussions we're here to Advocate
[1:18:38] Jameson's the president of the South
Dakota City Managers Association so uh I
[1:18:42] think we feel these kind of inquiries
through through Jameson right now so
[1:18:46] yeah exactly what I was going to say and
and to go a little bit further if you
[1:18:49] have any questions tonight I'm happy to
stick around for a little bit talk more
[1:18:53] oneon-one about any questions concerns
whatever you have I think we're all
[1:18:57] happy to sck
out thank you