This month, Public Management is truly focused on the basic building blocks of thriving communities—infrastructure and economic development. It’s no accident that professional local government has its origin in engineering—people who saw the universal need to ensure that local communities had adequate infrastructure to accommodate growth and development.

In the early 1900s, the United States transitioned from an agricultural to industrial economy. Cities faced immense pressure from in-migration and immigration. Political machines in charge of our cities were ill-equipped to manage that growth. Enter individuals focused on the building blocks of successful communities—roads, drainage, water, wastewater—the things that everyone takes for granted and that we must get right to have a successful community.

Economic development is built on sustainable infrastructure. When infrastructure needs are met, economic development occurs and that creates jobs and opportunities for our residents. Thriving communities emerge when basic needs are met and people have opportunities to prosper.

Today our members remain focused on basic service delivery and work diligently to move their communities forward. What are the basic building blocks of success in your community? Is your foundation (infrastructure) built to support a thriving community?

At ICMA, we focus on our infrastructure as well. We are committed to your success, and our mission is to support professional local government through leadership, management, innovation, and ethics. Our organizational infrastructure revolves around ensuring these programmatic areas are positioned to be successful.

Our roads and water lines are a massive database of membership information: who, where, how many years of service, credentialing statistics, engagement with ICMA. From there we offer people at all points in their career (including those just thinking about a career in professional local government represented by our student chapters) learning and development programs, opportunities to volunteer and serve the profession, and of course, connection with one another.

All of this is built on the foundation of a shared commitment to ethical leadership. Our Code of Ethics is what sets us apart. In fact, it’s what makes this business of managing communities a profession at all! We emerged as a profession from the conditions of corruption and patronage to rebuild people’s trust in government. That is our history, and that is our legacy!

We respect your commitment to building a solid foundation for your community, and at ICMA, we are focused on maintaining a solid foundation for our community, which is you, our members.

JULIA D. NOVAK, ICMA-CM, is executive director of ICMA.