Michael Steigerwald, ICMA-CM
City Manager
Kississimme, Florida
msteiger@kissimmee.org

Keeping people informed generally avoids situations where they would otherwise be blindsided.

That being said, you can’t always be ahead of every issue. In my first months as city manager, the city’s revenues declined. The adopted budget, however, had projected an increase.

This left me facing a 10 percent revenue deficit in my first fiscal year. Despite a healthy reserve, I met with staff members to show them just how quickly this reserve would be gone if we didn’t change our ways fiscally.

While the initial shock was evident, staff responded with optimism and determination. Not since that time has a proposed budget required major cuts to balance, and we came out of the recession without increasing taxes, service cuts, or significant layoffs.

Though it’s not my preferred method, sometimes freaking out people is just the ticket to initiating organizational change.

Martin Reeves
Chief Executive
Coventry, United Kingdom
martin.reeves@coventry. gov.uk

Coventry is delivering a project to persuade residents to adopt more physically active lifestyles.

To give this important work an electric shock during a meeting of senior leaders of health across the city, public health consultants, and senior local authority officials, I announced that we would be closing the major street around the city (ring road) for a day to enable residents to reclaim the roads and streets.

There had been no previous discussion about the practicality of this, and I only thought of it on the spur of the moment. It had never been done before and colleagues thought I was mad, that business would suffer, that the city would go into meltdown, and that people would die as they went around the ring road.

Instead, thousands turned up with friends and family, business footfall increased, and no one was injured. In fact, residents had fun and hopefully will be inspired to be more physically active in the future.

Mary Lou Brown
City Administrator
Grand Island, Nebraska
cityadministrator@grand -island.com

 The mayor requested my resignation for what was explained to me as political reasons. I submitted it with an effective date 90 days into the future and agreed to work from home and be available for questions during that time.

After several weeks of this arrangement, the mayor determined that he preferred I work from city hall. In spite of all that had occurred, I agreed to physically return to the office.

His decision to bring me back was not a public one, so when I showed up in the office, it took employees and elected officials by complete surprise and was slightly awkward for the first few minutes.

When it came time for my resignation to become effective, the mayor asked me to stay in my position, which I still am in today.

Robert Harrison
City Administrator
Issaquah, Washington
bobh@issaquahwa.gov

I was called to a grisly scene in a city stream where a buck had been hit by a car and then scavenged by stray dogs. These animals had become a pack and had been seen roaming the city during the previous two weeks.

A week later, a dozen residents came to a city council meeting to share their fears about “killer dogs” in the community. The mayor asked what I’d found at the scene. My answer: A deer struck and killed by a car—and the circle of life.

Residents didn’t like that answer, however, and continued to panic about the dogs. The city had to take action, and the police department captured the dogs.

While the facts were accurate, the episode reinforced that I always need to be aware of the audience, the setting, and its pre-existing perceptions before speaking at a public meeting.