January/February 2006 · Volume 88 · Number 1

Profile

ISEEK Spotlight: Kandis Hanson

Looking for a career filled with glamour, intrigue, and excitement? Why not try local government management?

Seriously.

This month’s “ISEEK Spotlight” subject has worked in local government for 11 years and insists that government work doesn’t deserve its dull-as-dishwater reputation. As city manager of Mound, Minnesota (population 9,740), Kandis Hanson has a varied and fascinating job. She oversees a $200 million redevelopment of the city, is stimulated by the high intrigue offered by the policing function, has the satisfaction of making a long-term impact on her community, and makes a terrific salary, too.

There are 853 cities in Minnesota. They all need people to run them.

Does the idea appeal to you? Traits common to successful city managers and administrators include good leadership and communication skills, a strong interest in developing relationships with people, and a generalist’s big-picture vision of the world and of projects.

Kandis Hanson is city manager of Mound, Minnesota.

The Journey

Kandis Hanson took a roundabout route to becoming a city manager. The former farm girl started a twoyear degree in marketing at Rochester Community College right out of high school but dropped out after the first year. Friends who were having success as hairstylists inspired her to go to barber school in St. Paul. A brief stint as a hairdresser, however, convinced her that she was on the wrong path.

Returning to finish her marketing degree at age 28 led to Hanson’s completing a four-year B.S. degree in human environment, with a minor in urban and regional studies, from Mankato State University. Next came a real estate license, and Hanson was netting $13,000 per year selling houses. “And I said to myself, ‘What’s wrong with this picture’?” she laughs.

One day, a form arrived in the mail from Mankato State’s urban and regional studies program, which Hanson filled out without paying much attention to what it was. “Several weeks later I got a call from the dean’s office saying I was selected to receive a grant to further women and minorities in government. I’d get two years of master’s classes, all expenses paid,” she recalls.

The timing was perfect. Married with no children, Hanson thought, “This is better than winning the lottery because education keeps on giving.” While finishing her master’s degree in urban and regional studies with a focus on local government management, Hanson completed three internships.

“I was very deliberate,” she says, “with one internship for a free-standing city—Mankato—one with Rice County, and another with a metro city, so I could show I had a sampling of working in all local governments. It looked really good on my resume.”

A mentor told Hanson she needed to decide if she wanted to be an assistant city manager or a city manager. He said if you want to be the leader, you should start out as the leader. The only way to start out in the top position was to take a job in a small town, he said, and work your way up to larger jurisdictions. So that’s what Hanson did. She was 39 and anxious to get her career going.

Hanson first became city manager of Eyota, Minnesota (population 1,400), holding this position for 27 months. Then she held the city manager job in Kasson, Minnesota, for just over four years. She has been city manager of Mound for five years.

The Work

A city manager is hired by, and works directly for, the city council and the mayor. The city staff works for the manager. The city council sets the policies, and the manager runs the organization based on these policies. The city manager has total responsibility for operations, as well as for human resource issues.

This differs from the city administrator form of government, in which staff members work for the city council, and the council decides personnel matters.

Hanson typically works an 8:00-to- 5:00 day, but evening meetings are a regular part of her job, with two per week being the norm. So she flexes her time, coming in later and leaving earlier, depending on her schedule.

In the past, Hanson worked 50 to 60 hours per week but now averages about 45 hours. “I’ve been at that point where you overdo it and feel like you’re becoming your job. I love my job but don’t want to be my job,” she says, “so I don’t have any trouble any more keeping the balance.” Her first task every morning is to respond to e-mails, phone messages, and mail. Meetings take up about 25 hours per week.

Hanson oversees seven departments and meets with her department heads regularly: finance, community development, police, fire, public works (which includes parks), clerk’s office, and the city-run liquor store. She has 50 fulltime staff and about 20 part-time and seasonal workers to supervise.

Hanson admits she used to be a perfectionist, having a hand in every detail, but with a heavy workload, she’s learned how to back off. “I’m a generalist, and though I have oversight of all city departments, I don’t get into the minutia anymore,” she says. “My staff will tell you that I don’t micromanage their work. They often say ‘Thank you for letting me do my job.”’

Personnel issues take up much of her time. “My greatest joy,” she says, “is helping my coworkers develop and grow and watching them carry out the initiatives of the city.” Hanson says one of her key skills is the ability to attract the right people for the right jobs through advertising, screening, and interviewing.

She puts a big emphasis on team building and cultivating a family feeling among her staff. “We carry each other through the hard times. When someone is having a hard day or a family issue, I say, ‘Give yourself a break. Take some time off and go fishing. We’ll cover for you here’,” she says.

Hanson studied “reinventing government” during her college years and likes to run her city like a business as much as possible. Obsolete police cars with high mileage used to be sold by competitive bids, and Mound would get about $1,500 per car. Now, Hanson advertises old city vehicles on eBay, and the city is getting three to four times the amount. “We recently sold and shipped an old police car to New York for use in a movie,” she says. “Innovative money making is important to offset our lost local aid.”

Because cities work closely with counties and school districts, businesses, government agencies, and citizens, Hanson has spent countless hours cultivating good relationships with them. She credits getting the right people in the right staff positions with turning around some difficult and even nonexistent relationships during her tenure in Mound.

Her least favorite part of the job is writing performance evaluations. Since she gives her employees regular feedback, she says she finds writing up summaries to be tedious and redundant.

Satisfaction comes from big and little successes. A little one: an older man asked for time with Hanson to discuss a warning citation he had received for something he was doing on his property. Hanson answered his questions and gave him some help, and as he left, he said, “You know, the downtown looks great. You’re doing a wonderful job.” Hanson says that eliciting a compliment from someone who comes in over a negative issue is an accomplishment.

As for the big successes, the city of Mound has a number of large redevelopment projects that are proceeding smoothly. “We’re euphoric,” Hanson says. “I have to credit the team. We believe in ourselves and just have this attitude of success.

“We recently applied for a $400,000 grant to Hennepin County for downtown assistance, and they contacted us and said, ‘We’ve got a million; you really should write your application for a million.’ It astounds us, the good that is falling into our laps from the relationship building and teamwork.”

The Rewards

After five years on the job, Hanson is earning annual pay in excess of $100,000 and has reached the top of her pay scale. She gets medical, dental, and life insurance benefits, plus paid vacation.

Paid, work-related education benefits are available, but Hanson hasn’t taken advantage of them. “I’m so busy at work, I’m not inclined to tie up all my free time with job-related activities right now,” she explains.

In Minnesota, city managers’ salaries are affected by the governor’s cap. Minnesota is the only state with a salary cap for government employees based on the governor’s wages. “The legislature recently increased the cap to 110 percent of the governor’s pay, which takes it up to $133,000, so that’s a coup for managers who are in those higher pay brackets,” Hanson said.

According to the 2004 Twin Cities Metropolitan Area Compensation Survey of 96 city managers, city administrators, and county administrators, hourly rates for these jobs range from $22 to $79, with most positions paying between $45 and $55 an hour. In the same survey of 96 professionals, 67 a master’s-level degree, 16 had a bachelor’s degree, and nine had not completed a degree.

It's Your Decision

Recent professional conferences in this field have focused on encouraging people to make this career choice. There’s concern in the profession that there won’t be enough people interested in local government management to fill the jobs that will soon be vacated by retiring baby boomers. So it’s a good time to look into the field. It’s also a good choice for career changers many skills from the business world are applicable.

People skills are the keys to success in a city manager position. You’ll be hiring, supervising, disciplining, evaluating, and firing people. You’ll answer to councilmembers who have the power to fire you at a moment’s notice. You’ll need to establish good working relationships with countless agencies and organizations that do business with your city. A little social savvy will go a long way in this job.

And you’ll need to be politically astute. Many decisions in government are affected by thoughts of elections and connections. You’ll need to tune into the political realities of the job, while maintaining a high level of personal integrity.

Being a generalist will serve you well. An interest in and working knowledge of many different areas will be useful: economics, revenue systems, redevelopment, human resources, information technology, engineering, architecture and construction, public safety, and so forth.

You’ll need a broad but shallow understanding of many areas. You’re not expected to know everything, and the ability to ask for help when it’s needed will come in handy. This is a job with long hours and regular evening meetings. You’ll need to find balance to avoid burnout.

Resources

You can find out more about local government careers by contacting a number of organizations dedicated to city and county governance. The League of Minnesota Cities (Web site, www.lmnc. org), based in St. Paul, is “committed to serving Minnesota’s cities through effective advocacy, expert analysis, trusted guidance, and collective action.” It publishes Minnesota Cities Magazine and the Handbook for Minnesota Cities. You may search through LMC’s online directory for information on the state’s 853 cities.

Minnesota City/County Management Association, also in St. Paul, is a professional association of administrators and managers serving local governments in Minnesota. Information on membership, publications, conferences, training, and ethics can be found at www.mncma.org.

If you like the idea of making a difference while making a good living, local government administration and management might be the right choice for you.

—Alison Highberger
Writer
Prototype Career Service
St. Paul, Minnesota
www.prototypecareerservice.com

Copyright 2005, Prototype Career Service. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from iSeek Solutions. July 14, 2005. http://www.iseek.org.

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