There’s a saying: “if you don’t know who to call, call the fire department.”

Calls to 9-1-1 by Upper Arlington, OH, residents were not always emergencies, and many came from the elderly, who made up a third of the city’s population. These calls placed a burden on the city’s fire and EMS services and personnel, who were not trained to handle “social service” calls, and whose time responding to emergencies could have been delayed by them.

The city created “STAY UA” (Services to Age in Your Upper Arlington) in 2009 to reduce the burden on the city’s emergency services and to connect elderly residents to the help they need. The ultimate goal of “STAY UA” was to make it possible for residents to be able to remain in their homes regardless of their needs or disabilities.

The program featured a trained professional who provided social services and medical care to the elderly and walked them through their options. The service coordinator connected them to hospice care, the “Meals on Wheels” food program, and even pest control services. She also helped with in-home skilled nursing, prescription assistance, and financial counseling.

The program is working. The Upper Arlington Fire Division saw a decrease in EMS runs and the service coordinator provided assistance to more than 120 people during the first year. Elderly residents in Upper Arlington now have a valuable resource to get the help they need in non-emergency situations freeing the city’s emergency medical services to handle emergencies.

The city council originally proposed the “STAY UA” as well as explored and made recommendations on the best approach for establishing a long-term program. The city manager’s office and the fire chief put their efforts into designing and implementing the program.

When Leamon Brice arrived in Davidson in 1990, the town of 4,500 was directly in the path of a wave of growth advancing north from Charlotte.

A number of suburban towns already consumed by the wave had lost their identities and historic centers to unrelenting sprawl. They were marred by strip shopping centers, acres of parking lots, and cookie-cutter neighborhoods. Davidson was poised to be similarly devoured.

But 22 years later, the town of Davidson remains intact: its downtown is lively and viable; its streets and public spaces are alive with pedestrians, cyclists, and public art; and its residents, now numbering almost 11,000, know each other, many by name.

Town Manager Leamon Brice played a pivotal role in holding back sprawl, protecting Davidson’s soul, and engaging its citizens, all with little fanfare or notice.

Brice had a balancing act to perform, handling explosive growth while maintaining small-town values.

He had to introduce both elected officials and residents to innovative programs and as-yet-unheard-of-planning principles, and engage, encourage, and educate them every step of the way.

A “different” kind of community

In 2001, under Brice’s leadership, the town instituted the first affordable housing ordinance in North Carolina. It required that every new neighborhood include a mix of uses and housing types with sidewalks, connected streets, greenways, and open space. It demanded well-designed, minimum two-story commercial buildings to protect the historic character of the town. It also preserved 600 acres of contiguous, publicly-owned open space – a legacy for future Davidson citizens.

The result is a community that visitors immediately discern is “different.” The main entrance to town, an exit off Interstate 77, is the first clue. The exit deposits drivers in a real neighborhood, built for pedestrians as well as automobiles. Structured around two roundabouts, it includes housing, shops, schools, parks, and offices.

Development of the area stumbled slightly during the recession. Brice held fast to the town’s principles of planning and design during the economic downturn, and rejected projects that offered only short-term gain. He had the courage to know that the best interests of the town are sometimes served by waiting.

Tough decision pays off

Making that tough decision in a recession is the reason there was a site available for a new world headquarters building when the economy began its turnaround. The owners of the relocating company selected Davidson for its livability and quality of life, in addition to having a site ready for construction.

The success of Brice’s efforts is apparent throughout Davidson in the physical, social, cultural, and economic health of the town. The citizen survey affirms that citizens are supportive of his work: town departments consistently rate in the upper 90th percentile, and Davidson’s “sense of community” was ranked #1 in the nation in 2007 and 2012 by the National Research Center. His achievements were recognized nationally when the town received the EPA’s National Award for Overall Excellence in Smart Growth in 2004.

In the mid-2000s, Central City’s leaders identified a number of seemingly-unrelated issues that needed attention:

• Existing housing stock was rapidly aging, but new residential construction was at a virtual standstill.
• A badly-deteriorating trailer park was down to about one-third occupancy next to an adjacent property overgrown with vegetation and an abandoned water pit, creating an unsightly and hazardous area.
• Soccer leagues were flourishing, but there weren’t enough soccer fields.
• The city’s 50-year-old swimming pool was reaching the end of its useful life.
• There wasn’t enough open space for recreation and walking areas.

The city’s leadership appealed to a broad spectrum of community residents and organizations who then came together to develop a proposal to address all these nagging problems.

As they worked, the five key issues coalesced into one solution, resulting in a proposal for the South Recreation Project.

The city held public meetings to solicit ideas on what should be included in the project. Anyone who wanted to be involved could present — and improve upon — suggestions. School students of various ages offered feedback on the design, particularly for the swimming pool.

The result was the South Recreation Complex, which includes a trailer park, new lake, aquatic center, soccer facilities, residential subdivision, and a hiking/biking trail.

Paul Eckert began building relationships almost immediately after being appointed manager of Sioux City. One of the many groups that he joined was the local Chamber of Commerce’s Governmental Affairs Committee. Before long, the city was an important part of the Chamber’s legislative lobbying efforts and had its own unique campaign to focus on city issues.

Through the committee, Eckert initiated a special state legislative day each year and invited neighboring city officials and state legislators to come together to discuss concerns and ideas before the next legislative session. Sioux City reaped the rewards from these state and federal legislative efforts, including funding for a key transportation route, police officers and training, a wastewater treatment plant, redevelopment funding, and the Targeted Jobs Withholding Tax Credit Program.

Soon after being appointed city manager, Eckert initiated quarterly meetings with all neighborhood groups to discuss issues they were facing. Key city staff members then followed up by attending each neighborhood meeting to discuss the issues. The lines of communication were opened and real solutions began to be implemented. For example, fewer cars were abandoned on the street, residents were being educated about graffiti and how to deal with it, and barking dogs were dealt with more efficiently. Eckert has been described by some neighborhood network volunteers as the best city manager they have ever had.

Relationship building is critical for a successful professional local government manager. Understanding the impact of regional issues on a community, engaging community interest groups, working with other legislative or jurisdictional bodies are all essential to paving the way for future success. By building positive working relationships with nearby city officials, state and federal legislators, and local neighborhood groups, Paul Eckert has made a difference for his community.

Meet the Manager

Paul Eckert

City Manager (2002-2013)

Now city manager of Mount Shasta, California, Paul Eckert had been with the city of Sioux City since 1997, first as assistant city manager and then as city manager from 2002 to 2013. His career in professional local government management spans more than 30 years. He also served in the Marine Corps and earned his BA and MPA from California State University.

If you were to create a new city from scratch, where would you begin?

The city of Rancho Cordova, CA, was founded in 2003 and started by hiring one of the most innovative city managers in the country. Soon after its incorporation, Rancho Cordova hired Ted Gaebler, who had been city manager and/or CEO of seven local government agencies in five states and is an internationally-known author, consultant, and lecturer.

Gaebler worked closely with the city council, staff, and community to shape and nurture the new city. Under his leadership, the city has accomplished much, most significantly, achieving a positive financial picture early in its existence, while providing ever-increasing services—especially laudable amidst the budget deficits of surrounding cities, counties, and the state of California.

The key, according to Gaebler, was as simple as the right mind-set. He practices pragmatic, internally-driven change; decentralized authority; increased transparency and accountability; reduced management layers; and public/private partnerships—all to provide more efficient and cost-effective services. The results are civic pride, citizen engagement, and public trust. His goal was to create a government that delights its citizens by being community-centric, thinking first of its customers—the residents.

Gaebler strongly believes that ideas which delight citizens can come from the professional city staff. He taps their creative energy by developing ways in which they can contribute to the successful operation of the city government. He does this by encouraging employees to develop new ideas and methods to expand their thinking. For example, he has:

• Created the “Office of New Ideas” which encourages any city employee, without permission or advance notice to their superiors, to present ideas for employee-initiated projects, some of which may receive seed money from the city for further development or implementation of the idea.
• Borrowed a concept from the private sector by rewarding exemplary staff with city hall stock certificates. The stocks have actual cash value, are secured by $5,000 bonds from municipal debt offerings, and offer the same “ownership” in the organization as stocks do in corporations.
• Encouraged staff to take calculated risks to foster creative and innovative thinking, accepting mistakes as part of the learning process.

By empowering his professional staff and providing them with a sense of ownership, former City Manager Gaebler helped build a new local government that delighted residents, providing the inspiration for Rancho Cordova’s slogan: “City Life. Reinvented.”

Keeping Santa Monica on the cutting edge was a priority for Former City Manager Rod Gould. Called “Silicon Beach”, Santa Monica has become Southern California’s technology hub with its concentration of startups, accelerators, incubators, coworking spaces and venture capitalists.

Since March 2010, one of the key attractions that the City is able to offer to these businesses is its 10 Gigabit per second network, Santa Monica City Net. Providing the high capacity infrastructure that technology-based businesses now consider essential has been key in helping them keep their competitive edge in their industries.

Through City Net’s affordable broadband offerings, businesses have been attracted to relocate to Santa Monica, obtain cutting edge broadband for greater operational efficiencies, and still net savings from their current expenditures.

New service opportunities in telemedicine, education, tech, entertainment, and operational efficiencies are attributed to the fiber optic network. From industry leaders in tech and entertainment, to hotels and startup incubators, more than 120 businesses benefit from the broadband initiative. In today’s budget climate, the broadband initiative supports the City’s economic development and fiscal stability goals, generating $1M in annual revenue to offset all program costs and provide a net positive impact to the General fund.

Learn more about Santa Monica City Net.

Meet the Manager

Rod Gould

Former City Manager

ICMA Life Member Rod Gould served as city manager in four California cities over 29 years and was city manager of Santa Monica from 2010 to 2015. He previously served as manager of the cities of Monrovia, San Rafael, and Poway, California. He is a past president of the League of California Cities' City Managers Department. He was the second recipient of the the Wes McClure Manager of Distinction Award, the highest honor of the League of California Cities City Managers Department. Mr. Gould received his a bachelor's degree in economics and political science from Yale University and master's degrees in public administration and education from Harvard University.

In 2009, the city of Beverly Hills embarked on a strategic effort to strengthen its economic base by developing a five-year Economic Sustainability Plan. The plan prioritizes projects based on those that show the greatest promise for enhancing city revenue.

Retired City Manager Jeff Kolin created a workgroup to gather input from the city council, city departments, and key groups in the community.

Key projects that have resulted from the city council’s adoption of the plan include:

• a three-story city-owned building that houses the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce and the Conference and Visitors Bureau, along with a state-of-the-art visitor center
• a parking garage that uses smart, environmentally friendly technology
• a city-owned office building that achieved a LEED silver rating and is the first public building in the city with rooftop solar panels
• a signage program that makes it easier to navigate the city and locate parking structures

During their annual priority-setting session, Kolin and Assistant City Manager Mahdi Aluzri ensure that the city council uses the plan as one of its four criteria to determine allocations for key projects.

Watch a video about the plan

Download the city’s Economic Sustainability Plan

Meet the Manager

Jeff Kolin

Retired City Manager

Jeff Kolin was city manager of Beverly Hills from January 2010 to February 2015. Previously, he was city manager of Santa Rosa and Pittsburg and deputy city manager of Santa Clarita (all in California). Kolin is a member of the board of directors of the League of California Cities, a vice president of the California City Managers' Foundation, and an ICMA Credentialed Manager. He has both a B.A. and an M.A. in sociology from Cal State Long Beach.