Gregg Todd

County Administrator

Queen Anne’s County, Maryland

gtodd@qac.org

Affordable housing has been a struggle in our county (population 49,770) for many years. To address this, a moderately priced dwelling unit (MPDU) ordinance was passed in 2004. It requires that 10 percent of a residential development be provided at a reduced rate to individuals who have an income equaling 80 percent or less of the average household income in our local metropolitan statistical area.

The real success of the program began a few years ago when changes were made to the law that enabled a developer to provide a fee in lieu of a residential unit. The fee-in-lieu payments are managed by the county’s housing and community development department and are used as no-interest home loans for individuals meeting the income criteria.

This has greatly expanded the MPDU’s impact on affordable housing in the county.

Angela Christian, ICMA-CM

Town Manager

Newport, North Carolina

achristian@townofnewport.com

For Newport, it is recreation. In just four years, the town (population 4,829) has reshaped its recreation opportunities and events.

In the middle of town stood the community’s largest park that had seen better days—affectionately labeled “shabby chic.” The overhaul began with replacing playground equipment that was more than 20 years old, then adding new paint, and finally, holding a few events there.

Never underestimate the power of bright colors to attract kids to your playground. Now parents and grandparents share twirling on the merry-go-round or finding shark teeth in the fossil dig pit, recapturing the joy of playing outside with no electronic games.

With new LED lighting and sidewalk improvements, more walkers are enjoying our urban trails. Resident volunteers became involved in creating a park master plan and developed a bike and pedestrian plan that led to a new part-time town job position.

The most popular events include summer water slides, movies in the park, a community festival, and spring break activities. Recreation added value by attracting all age groups, providing opportunities for healthy lifestyles, and creating a connection to the community.

Andrew Nelson

City Administrator

Kemmerer, Wyoming

anelson@kemmerer.org

When I started as Kemmerer’s (population 2,656) city administrator, trust in the city was extremely low. One of the best things the city has done since that time has been having better communication through both its resident notification system and an online and social media presence in order to better understand what improvements residents desired to improve our quality of life.

People want information, and they want to be heard. Since most don’t bother coming to meetings, we have proactively tried to reach out online to provide correct and timely information. This has helped us communicate our action plan to incrementally improve parks, facilities, and other amenities in a way that creates reasonable expectations rather than knee-jerk reactions.

The best results come from simple, regular, individualized, and timely responses from the city to the resident. Everyone is not always pleased with the content, of course, but that doesn’t relieve our responsibility to provide it, even to the belligerent types.

We have had a tremendous, positive response to city initiatives through active online communication and have more than doubled subscriptions to our notification system while significantly decreasing complaints.