Aretha R. Ferrell-Benavides is the city manager of Glenn Heights, Texas.

How did you get your start in local government?

For me, local government is a passion. My mother was my inspiration. When I was growing up, she worked for the city of Fort Worth. When I was in college, she took me to a conference, similar to ICMA, and I fell in love with the profession and decided at that time that's what I wanted to do in life. I was about 18 years old when I decided I wanted to be a city manager. There were a number of people who mentored and supported me along the way. Those individuals don't necessarily realize the significant impact they had on me and my career. I'm thankful for those individuals and organizations like ICMA and the role they’ve played in my life.

What do you think are the most important qualities for a local government manager?

High integrity and a sense of compassion. When you focus on your integrity, you have to know that there will be some things that you’ll question.

Compassion is what we do. We say we’re public servants, but our job is really to take care of those who may not have a voice. One of the things that inspired me about my mom’s work in local government is that she worked with the people. Her office was called the Action Center, where residents went to talk about problems. My mom provided a voice for the people who didn’t have a voice.

What are some of the highlights of your career so far?

Well, I have had some really exciting jobs. I’ve worked not only in local government, but also state and federal government. In local government, I’ve had the chance to do a couple of trade missions, and I took a group of people to South Africa, Ghana, and Senegal, which was wonderful.

More recently, through Sister Cities International, I took a group to China for a Beijing sister cities exchange with cities from all over the world. Most of the students that we took had never left the United States! Kids from Kazakhstan, Mexico, Indonesia – all over the world, really – gathered to present on youth integration into local government. These 200 students coming together and talking about local government was really exciting.

You know you don’t even think about something like that within the job description of a local government manager or local government employee, but there’s so much to it!

No, you don’t. I have a master’s of public administration in international development. One of my beliefs in local government is that we can learn from other countries. And early on in my career, I worked for the federal government, focusing on local government development in the former Soviet Union. Here in the United States, we take for granted some very basic things, like revenue sources. But if you look at government development, especially internationally, there's so much we can learn about other issues, like security. One idea that I brought home to my own community is some of the children from Germany talked about their youth league. We’ve created something similar for our students in Glenn Heights to learn not just about government but to get them engaged at an early age.

What excites you about local government management right now?

Well, it is a growing profession! If you look at local government right now, you’ve got about four different generations. And with those generations, everyone comes with a different background and I think that brings some new excitement because it forces you out of thinking business as usual. You've got those who are the workaholic generation, as well as the folks who say “Okay, let's do what we have to do.” This mix of perspectives gives new ideas and new focus for tomorrow. If you look at ICMA, you’re going to increasingly see a variety of people with different backgrounds and at different age groups.

What thoughts do you have about increasing diversity in the profession?

I think it’s very important. As managers, I believe it’s important that we look to see that our organizations have both women and men, people of different religions, sexual orientations, etc. It is easy to think that we’ve made a lot of strides and that there is no need to focus on affirmative action or diversity programs, but that's not the case. If you look at a lot of our local government organizations throughout the United States there's still a shortage of females, there’s still a shortage of African-Americans, Latinos, and Asian-Americans. And you don’t have to show favoritism, but we have to work to promote and groom those individuals in the profession.

If you were giving advice to a young woman looking to enter the profession, what would you tell her?

I would tell her what my mother told me. When I first said I wanted to be a city manager, my mother said, “First of all, you’ve got to be tough. There are going to be good days and bad days, but you have to stay focused on your goal and be true to who you are. And by that I mean that you must realize that you're not trying to compete with the men, you are trying to compete only with yourself. And if you work hard and stay focused, you can do it.”

Your spouse is also in the profession?

It’s an interesting thing – to see spouses and parents and children involved in the profession. It can help you along the way. As managers and local government professionals, we put a lot of time into our jobs, and so someone who understands the business may better understand if you say “hey, it’s budget season—I may be home at 3 a.m.; I may not come home.”  

The partners program is so important for managers and their whole families. My son has grown up in a city manager's life. By the time he was 10 years old, he had lived in four different time zones, since I needed to go where the professional opportunities were. There’s a lot of training that goes into the family and supporting that structure.

As a mom and a female city manager, when my son was growing up, I needed to consider the impact of my career path on him, making sure there was some stability. It definitely impacted my decisions. I think it might be different for men.

Why ICMA?

ICMA offers opportunities to mix with other people who are in local government. I started out with the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, a wonderful organization. [Aretha served as NFBPA president, 2011-2013.] I realized I needed to diversify my opportunities. ICMA offers a lot of connections, especially living in Texas, home to many ICMA members.

I’ll tell you a career in local government is a journey: sometimes you go forward; sometimes you go backward; sometimes you go to the side. But you have to keep focused on that journey. And one of the things that I’ve realized is that I’ve had jobs that were just perfect, and I’ve had jobs that weren’t so perfect. And the members of ICMA have been very supportive of me; they’ve given me advice in my career choices and encouragement along the way. When I became city manager, it was amazing to see the outpouring of support I received from colleagues who said, “We’re here if you need us, if you have any questions.” As I’ve been in the field, I’ve also called upon colleagues: “Okay, let me know how this works. Can you help me with this or have you dealt with that?” And that’s the kind of thing you need in the profession. You need folks who are going to be honest with you, but also supportive of what you’re trying to do.