Eric Palm is village administrator of River Forest, Illinois, one of the first inner-ring suburbs of Chicago, about 10 minutes from that city’s western border.

Why local government? How did you start out in the profession?

Holding both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in broadcast journalism, Eric was certain of his professional future. He began his local government career by doing communications work for the city of Des Plaines, which is northwest of Chicago near O’Hare International Airport. As he became more involved in the functions of the manager’s office, he became hooked on the profession. So with some prodding by a colleague, Eric went back to school, earning his MPA from Northern Illinois University, and he hasn’t looked back since. “It's been a great experience. Any time you have the opportunity to impact people's lives in a positive fashion on a daily basis, it brings meaning to what you do.”

After working for Des Plaines in a communications role, Eric became an assistant to the city manager at the same organization. “I fell into the profession backwards. Certainly hard work and dedication helps, but a little luck never hurts.” From there, he went to Hampshire, Illinois, in the northwest Chicago suburbs, as that town's first village administrator. “This was a risky professional move… I went to a town that never had a local government professional. They were building homes exponentially, so they needed help, but it was a little scary because there weren’t a lot of other people there… There was no professional staff. I knew, though, that I wanted to be a city manager someday in a larger organization. There are different paths to get there, and I just thought the best way to get there is to actually do it. So you apply the brakes and get in the passing lane.”

Eric worked in Hampshire from 2007 to 2010. “I thought I would be primarily helping to shepherd growth, but that all came to a screeching halt with the economic recession and then it was more about preservation. Suddenly we were dealing with builders that were going out of business – and banks that held letters of credit and they were going out of business – and trying to make sure public improvements were maintained and finished.”

What are you most proud of in your career to date?

Even though Eric now manages River Forest, a larger organization, he argues his work in Hampshire was much more difficult. “We weren’t dealing with foreclosures so much as unfinished subdivisions. When the housing market crashed and no one was buying homes, the builders were going out of business. So we were trying to button up these subdivisions as best we could.”

“A lot of the public improvements were secured through letters of credit through banks. Normally, when a builder goes out of business, you can go to the bank and ask for money to finish these improvements. But this was anything but normal. One of the banks ran into problems with the FDIC and the $5 or $6 million dollars that we could tap into just vanished. So here I was - first-time administrator in a town of 4,000 people - and we had bond deals that were put together for public improvements that were $70, $80, $90 million dollars, and we were dealing with all this trying to figure out how we're going to make sure things don't crash in this small community.”

Eric and his staff calculated the amount of money that was needed to finish the improvements that were already started. Hampshire worked out a deal with another bank, creating an escrow account with instructions that in the case of a government takeover, the money could still be withdrawn. “Two weeks after we nailed that agreement, the bank went out of business. So we were able to secure about $1.3 million for the town to finish up the streets, the streetlights, and the sidewalks for the people who lived there. Certainly there were many, many acres of unimproved property, but we didn't care about that. That could stay farmland and it wouldn't be the end of the world.”

One of the last projects Eric worked on in Hampshire was a deal between the bondholders and developers. “We had an $80 million bond deal where we had issued debt to pay for all the public improvements, with the assumption the homeowners would pay an additional tax over 20 years to pay for those improvements. (This was a funding strategy that was commonly used when things were going so quickly.) Out of about 2,500 homes, only four had sold. The developers said ‘Hey, we’re going to walk away if we can’t work things out.’ We got together with six major bondholders – they took 40 cents on the dollar to walk away from the debt, so that we could shelve the project until things started to turn around.”

“We were able to secure the situation; our residents wouldn't endure financial devastation because of the housing market. No one is going to know that, because nothing bad happened, but I know it. One of the cool things about our jobs is that people don't always see what goes on behind the scenes. They don’t know what could have happened if someone in local government hadn’t protected the interests of the residents. That's what makes our job even more special.”

Do you have an opportunity to meet with people starting out in local government careers? If you do, what do you tell them?

Eric’s younger sister was a communications professional, originally working in public relations. Now she is working in local government. “That’s probably the best example I can give – my own sibling seeing what I do and saying ‘Hey, I want to do that’.”

“I’ve worked in broadcast journalism as well as advertising, and I’ve worked with some great people in those professions, but there was a hollow feeling I had. Now in local government, I’m able to help residents resolve their issues, however small, and it's great. Local government management gives my career meaning, knowing I can improve the quality of life for people on a daily basis. There aren’t many professions or jobs where you can do that.”

Is this the time to get into local government?

“Public service cuts across many different layers and levels. In Illinois, we have had a lot of challenges at the state level and so government has become a punchline for some people. But government at the local level can be inspiring. It's about helping to lead your community in partnership with a group of elected officials who are ultimately trying to take their community to the next level - whatever that is. And it’s about leading your organization and leading employees.”

“What we do in local government is like grinding an axe: you can never just stay complacent, you can never just sit still. You have to constantly refine what you're doing -- grinding that axe to make it better. So just when you think ‘Hey, we’ve got this figured out and we're good’ you know that it's time to go back and look at it again. How do we make it better? How do I make myself better?”

River Forest participates in an internship program through the Northern Illinois University. “It’s important to bring those folks in to give them hands-on experience, to balance their theoretical knowledge with the reality of the job. This is another thing that motivates me to get up in the morning and go at it again. And I learn from the experience as much as they do. For instance, I always considered myself an expert when it came to technology. As I get older, I see the interns coming in and I see myself 15 years ago where they are now. They’re on the cutting edge, telling me about all these new apps and technology initiatives. I say to them, ‘what are you even talking about? Let's go to lunch, you can tell me what all this means’.”

Why ILCMA and ICMA?

Eric belongs to ICMA and ILCMA, ICMA’s affiliate association in Illinois. “Belonging to two organizations – one local and one national – provides a different perspective and different context.”

“When you get to the manager’s spot, it can be a lonely island to be on. I can’t always go to my subordinates and ask for advice or counsel. My conversations and collaborations with local professionals and resources are invaluable. But like everything else, there's so much more to our world and what's just right in front of us or within five or ten miles of us. Connecting with colleagues nationally and internationally reminds me that I’m not by myself. There are people nearby, and also across the world, who are facing the same things I face on a daily basis.”

“Groups like ILCMA and ICMA are especially important for smaller organizations, where you might have fewer resources, fewer staff, and sometimes greater challenges. The Knowledge Network for example, is a fantastic resource – when you don’t have resources in your organization, you can get on the web and ask a questions or key in a few words to get some information.”