Career Advice from Andy Pederson:
What's the best career advice you've ever gotten? Succeeding in municipal management is your ability to handle things that are in a constant state of flux.
What are your favorite job-hunting tips? Expect the unexpected, stay positive, have fun.
What do you think were the most important steps in the path you took that led to your current position? Starting as an intern, progressing to an assistant to the manager, and then assistant manager, but most importantly the mentors I had along the way.
What was the biggest challenge you've faced in your professional life and how did you overcome or address it? Every challenge is an opportunity. I don’t really view them as challenges.
What are the top three Web sites you find most helpful professionally? Professionally--Google gives you everything, ICMA, league of municipality sites from around the country.
What's the most interesting book or magazine you've read recently for your professional life? Five Dysfunctions of a Team and follow up implementation text.
On the Value of ICMA Membership
The training and information you get from ICMA can give you fresh ideas for how to approach things. Participating in Leadership ICMA and the Senior Executive Institute (SEI) were transforming experiences. I developed very close friendships from them.
Whatever you are contemplating, there is probably someone out there who has already done it. The relationships and network you develop are invaluable. Rather than having to invent something new each time, you can borrow and learn from what others have done and how they could be implemented in your community.
We’re doing a lot more than we used to with the same number of employees, partly thanks to information and insights from ICMA’s professional network. We’re also saving time and money. For example, one small change in our garbage collection is saving us over 350 man hours a year.
We’re benchmarking ourselves against other communities and exploring doing things in different ways.
We promote the entrepreneurial spirit here in Bayside, and ICMA has helped with that. For example, after seeing ideas in an article in one of ICMA’s e-mail newsletters about sustainability, we decided to strive to reduce our energy consumption by 10 percent.
Project Implementation Details
Transforming an old park into a new, accessible community park
We transformed an old, unaccessible park into a new, totally renovated, ADA compliant public space that is being used for a variety of different functions, including our very popular outdoor music concert series and an annual community picnic. We used $60,000 in CDBG funds to purchase and install the equipment.
Renovating the historic Lions Gates
We are in the process of restoring the historic Lions Gates that have been here for 100 years. These stone walls made of rocks brought from Lake Michigan in 1911 bordered by pillars were originally the entrance to the estates in our community and have great historic significance. They were about to fall down before we started this effort, which has included getting federal funding, local donations, and formal landmark designation.