Tim’s Thoughts January 2024
Happy New Year! I am hopeful that you are off to a great start in the new year. If you read last month’s article, you know that I intended to change up the President’s article a bit for the next six months. Each month from now to June you will be hearing from our Senior Advisors. I have given them a clean slate to discuss whatever they would like to share with you. Our Senior Advisors are an important part of VLGMA and serve all of us anytime that we need a word of encouragement or sound advice. I know that you will enjoy hearing from their experience.
Pete Huber is first up this month, Pete retired from Pulaski County in 2017 with 31 years of service to local government. He served as County Administrator in Pulaskifor sixteen years. Pete also served as Town Manager of Saltville prior to his service in Pulaski.
So instead of Tim’s thoughts I share with you Pete’s thoughts:
Where to start? First, I would like to thank Tim Fitzgerald for inviting Senior Advisors to write short articles for this newsletter. He has given us carte blanche so you may want to stay tuned,
Second, I want to reach out to the VLGMA membership to be sure you know that you are not alone. It is natural to think that you are alone when as CAO you have to work through political landmines while maintaining professional confidentiality and integrity or when as DAO you find yourself at odds with your CAO and/or your elected officials. While a longer description including contact information can be found here, we are a team of nine experienced retirees ready, willing, able to come meet with you in person or otherwise to help you work though whatever situation you may be facing. Our names, e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers are at the bottom of the linked page, and we are eager to lend an ear either in person, via zoom or an old-fashioned phone call. Indeed, you can check out our approach to helping give back to others in the Senior Moments page of the monthly VLGMA newsletter. My main point is that you are not alone and that we care about you.
Third, I would like to encourage all local government managers to appoint an assistant if you do not already have one. Since retiring seven years ago, I have done two interim assignments. Both times, I was there because the manager had left without the benefits of an assistant manager being in place. While I very much enjoyed serving as an interim, I felt bad for the staff who had to adjust to me then go through the whole process again when the long-term manager was appointed. Furthermore, they had to live with a longer period of uncertainty than was needed.
In most smaller communities, assistants also have departmental duties rather than being an added layer in the org chart. In effect, designating an assistant involves finding the person with the greatest potential, changing their title and finding some money in the budget for a corresponding salary increase. The benefits of designating an assistant are substantial: peace of mind when personal or family issues pull us away from our work, opportunity for professional growth for the person serving as the assistant, ability to bounce ideas off another person, a check on our blind spots, a second voice of reason when working with elected officials, and an alternative personality for staff to interact with when working through operational issues. I realize that most localities have a designated assistant and that these couple of paragraphs may only pertain to what I hope is a handful of communities. However, the best thing managers can do for themselves is to bring on an assistant so as to give a deserving staff person more of a “big picture” experience and to protect themselves and their community from “burnout”.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to encourage managers, assistants, department heads and others involved in local government to recognize that we often have to deal with the negative side of human nature. While not as pronounced as what our brothers and sisters in law enforcement deal with or as difficult as what social service employees face in trying to help others, we too can be burned out by the darker side of life when the vocal minority complain, or elected officials get sideways with each other. With the New Year, let us also seek out beauty in nature, the joy of helping others, the camaraderie of working toward a common goal together with others, and the satisfaction of achieving a personal goal.
I hope these thoughts are helpful to you. As Senior Advisors, we welcome the opportunity to support you both personally and professionally. We are your support team and we hope you will let us know how we can serve you. We have all walked in a similar pair of shoes to yours and we have great respect for the good work you do. Best wishes for 2024.
Thank you, Pete, for your excellent words and advice.
I would like to welcome new members,
Brian Borne, Town Manager, Town of Dayton
Aretha Ferrell-Benavides, City Manager, City of Martinsville
Nathan Garrison, Town Manager, Town of New Market
Kendra Hayden, Director of Community & Economic Development, County of Smyth
Ben Prescott, County Administrator, County of Westmoreland