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How did you end up back in Greater Des Moines as Urbandale’s city manager?

I left in November of 1981 after I finished graduate school at Drake University. I went to a community by the name of Sidney, Ohio. I was there until October of ’85. Then I went to Montevideo, Minn. It’s out in the middle of nowhere, but it was my first city manager job. I started with Muscatine in March of ’89. So I’ve taken some travels, and quite honestly, when I left in ’81, it really wasn’t in my foreseeable future to ever make it back. I knew in this profession that my opportunities would take me lots of different places.

What attracted you to this new position?

Of course having grown up in Des Moines, I was familiar with Urbandale. But Urbandale has changed greatly since I left in 1981. One of the other things that made it attractive is that I knew Bob Layton (Urbandale’s previous city manager). When I was in graduate school at Drake, I was an intern in the Des Moines city manager’s office. Bob was just starting there as one of the administrative assistants. When I came back in ’89 (to Muscatine), the first phone call I got from anybody was Bob Layton welcoming me back to the state. And he always spoke highly of this community. He was this community’s biggest cheerleader, and he helped lead them through a tremendous amount of change.

Are there some challenges you face coming in?

I think always the challenge, particularly now in the public sector and municipal government, is the sustainability of the services we’ve created. We’re not alone in that. So budgetary concerns and how we’re going to allocate our resources are going to be paramount. Also the council has identified their two very top priorities. One is economic development, to position ourselves to be the city of choice when it comes to economic development opportunities. Another item is to look at the service level, particularly for fire and EMT (emergency medical technicians), to fully evaluate how they are going to accomplish getting to a level of service vis-à-vis manpower to provide those services to the community.

How did you get into this field?

When I was a student at Wartburg College, the city administrator came and spoke to one of the classes on government. And he had such passion in his voice. He said, “I used to be in the banking business, and then I got out of that and did this.” Then my senior year of college, I had the opportunity to be an intern for the city administrator’s office in Waverly, Iowa, and I had fun. I really did. I wrote their cable television ordinance back in the day when cable television was just breaking into Iowa. … I really felt that it gave me a venue to make a difference in a public way.

Is there an accomplishment you’re most proud of?

We did a significant amount of public infrastructure improvements. The city of Muscatine invested well over $20 million into riverfront development and taking 30 acres of land and essentially turning the 30 acres into public land where there had been some grain silos and some old businesses. We did that, and we built a lot of collaborative partnerships with the private sector and other public entities, and we got things accomplished.

What do you do for fun?

I like to walk. With the trails, that’s another attractive component here. I try to get out 50 minutes to an hour each day. I used to like to golf, but I haven’t golfed for a number of years, so I might try to take that up again. I was very active with my kids when they were in high school; I was on the booster clubs and the football club and those types of things.

How would you describe your management style?

Certainly this position is looked upon to be a leader of the organization, but with that I would like to think I have a very collaborative and open process and system and style. Rarely will you find my door shut. I like to be on a first-name basis with everybody, and I really pride myself on reaching out to the community, trying to be a part of civic organizations.