Tim’s Thoughts February 2024

It is hard to believe that February is already upon us. I am looking forward to the upcoming winter conference at the Hotel Roanoke and I am hopeful that you will be able to attend the conference. Our co-chairs Cody Sexton, Deputy Town Manager, Town of Vinton and Natalie Guilmeus (Monkou) Economic Development Director, Town of Vienna along with third Vice President Danny Davis, Town Manager, Town of Middleburg have worked hard to provide an excellent program that you will not want to miss.

This month we have the pleasure of hearing from another one of our Senior Advisors, Bonnie Svrcek. Bonnie served as the Deputy City Manager and the City Manager for the City of Lynchburg for a combined term of over twenty years. Prior to working for the City of Lynchburg, she worked for the Town of Blacksburg, Fairfax County, and the City of Los Angeles, Washington D.C. office. Bonnie had the incredible opportunity to give back to the local government profession through service on the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Executive Board as a regional vice president for three years followed by three additional years including a year as President. In her repurposed life, Bonnie serves on the Central Virginia Community College Local Advisory Board and the Centra Health Board of Directors. She treasurers exploring new places with her husband. She enjoys creating color from nature and dyes yarn for her small hobby business called Good Karma Fibers. Bonnie is most proud of co-creating the Virginia Women’s Municipal Leadership Institute in partnership with Virginia Women Leading Government and the Virginia Tech Roanoke Center. She is also a fellow with the Virginia Tech Center for organizational and Technological Advancement.

I know that you will enjoy Bonnie’s thoughts as much as I did. 

Let me begin by saying how honored I am to have been asked, as a Senior Advisor, to contribute an article for the newsletter.  Thank you, President Tim!

Some random thoughts….

Lonely at the Top

Pete Huber, author of January’s “Tim’s Thoughts turned into Pete’s Thoughts” pre-empted the focus of what I was going to write about this month - “Lonely at the Top” (photo from my journal “Weekly To Do” list).  I will just remind you that there is a small but mighty group of Senior Advisors in Virginia that you can access when you need a listening ear from someone not on the front lines or need some advice from what I shamelessly believe are some really wise people who have walked in your shoes.  You can find us here:  https://members.icma.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?WebCode=senioradvisors

The Value Proposition for Diversity and Inclusion in the C-Suite of Town and City Halls and County Administration Buildings

Many of you know of my passion for working with women in local government with a focus on building confidence and equipping women with the tools to work in the C-Suite of our local governments. In Virginia, only 17% of local governments have a woman as a Chief Administrative Officer (CAO); Virginia ranks in the bottom 5% in the country with women in the top leadership position (diversitydashboard.org).  I think this is unacceptable from many perspectives but I will focus on two things I think are the most important:  1) local government leadership needs to reflect the demographics of its community; and, 2) mixed gender leadership builds stronger communities. The challenge is that we do not have empirical evidence that mixed gender leadership builds stronger communities. In the private sector, research has indicated that mixed gender leadership in the C-suite results in better profit margins (empirical evidence).  My question is: how do we prove that mixed gender leadership in the C-suite yields stronger communities. Is it a triple-A bond rating?  Is it the results of a citizen survey compared to similar communities without mixed gender leadership?  Is it end of year fund balance? What is it? Let me know if you have some thoughts on this….

A Flashback Moment:  Defying Gravity

Well over a decade ago, I had the opportunity to see the Broadway show Wicked in New York. In a former life I was writing articles for PM Magazine every other month and one of the articles I wrote was about my favorite song from Wicked - “Defying Gravity”.  I came across that article as I was doing some decluttering.  Today, more than ever, I believe you are called to indeed, defy gravity. The gravity of balancing budgets following a pandemic, the gravity of attempting to balance work with family or personal life, the gravity of leading a hybrid workforce, the gravity of retaining a skilled and motivated workforce, the gravity of state and federal mandates…the list seems endless.

In the song, the bad witch (sort of!) sings of how she wants to live without limits, going against the rules that others have set for her.  She also sings about the value of working together when she sings to the good witch (sort of!) that “together we can do anything”. There is no doubt this continues to ring true in the world of local government. In the backstory of Wicked, the bad witch never gave up on doing the right thing, no matter the cost.

Here are a couple other things I learned from Wicked:

-    The importance of being uncompromisingly true to yourself and your beliefs;

-    Being aware of how people are labeled and valued;

-    Giving everyone a chance to share their gifts and abilities without judgement; and,

-    Taking the time to listen and build relationships as we never know what truly lies within a person; we can only learn this through listening to others and building relationships.

Defying gravity is hard. Senior Advisors are ready and willing to help you as you work to defy gravity in the best interests of your communities throughout the Commonwealth.

A Final Note…

The 2024 Virginia Women’s Municipal Leadership Institute (https://www.vtrc.vt.edu/professional-development/women-municipal-leaders.html) launches March 20th. Over 60 women applied to be considered for 25 seats.

Thank you to everyone who applied and for the support of our amazing sponsors:  SandsAnderson, VRSA, The Berkley Group, VLGMA, Virginia Institute of Government, BakerTilly, Davenport & Co., League of Women in Government, The Riverlink Group, LLC, VAcorp, and Zelos, LLC.

Thanks Bonnie for your great words, I hope that we can all continue to defy gravity as we work to make better communities for our citizens.

I would like to welcome new members,

Elizabeth Lo, IT Director, County of Bedford

Ann Wall, Deputy County Executive, County of Albemarle

Josh Knight, Engagement & Communications Manager, City of Staunton

Cecile Rosenbaum, Town Manager, Town of Glade Spring

Chris Dorsey, City Manager, City of Salem

Samuel Roman, Assistant City Manager, City of Roanoke