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Democracy on the Front Lines
City Administrator’s Blog
Walter Denton
October 24, 2007
One of the reasons I have not posted many blogs this month is because I have been out of town attending two conferences: the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Annual Conference and the Illinois Municipal League (IML) Annual Conference. I generally do not travel much for this job, but I was out of the office for almost two weeks in October. The
two conferences were valuable for different reasons and I think were well worth my time.
The ICMA conference generally attracts about 4,500 people who are involved in various positions in local governments: city/county managers, assistant city managers, assistants to the city manager, finance directors, human resource directors, public administration students, and public administration professors. The conference is truly international and the ICMA has members located in Canada, Mexico, Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Bulgaria, Australia, and New Zealand.
The most enjoyable portion of the conference is to catch up with my colleagues in other cities. We get to talk about how things are going in our cities and inquire about successes and failures in our local governments. Without exception, I was pleased to tell people about how O’Fallon is doing very well – a growing community with strong development and a stable mayor and city council that gets along and supports staff recommendations. Not all cities are this fortunate. I heard from more than one city manager about how city budgets had to be cut dramatically and employees laid off due to revenue shortfalls.
Other stories are less dramatic. Everyone talks about maintaining positive relationships with elected officials, making the organization more efficient, and promoting development opportunities in their communities. I am motivated by the commitment to public service at the conference, and how city managers will put their jobs on the line for what they feel is right.
At conferences, it is often said that you learn more in the hallways talking to your colleagues than in the educational sessions, and I will admit that I spent a lot of time in the halls, but I also learned some things in the actual seminars. I attended sessions on the implementation of performance measurement strategies (click here to learn more about O’Fallon’s performance management initiative). There also were some sessions dealing with managing and leading in the global economy.
The IML Conference is worthwhile but in a different way. This conference consists of managers, administrators, and elected officials from around Illinois. While the ICMA conference is primarily conceptual, the IML conference is valuable because it is nuts and bolts. There are so many changes every year due to state laws and court cases, it is impossible to keep up with it all. The IML conference features presentations that highlight the major issues and provide guidance on how cities should proceed.
For example, I have been following the legislation on the Video and Cable TV Law for quite some time. I thought we were prepared, but I did not know until the IML conference that the O’Fallon City Council needs to approve three ordinances before the law’s provisions can go into effect. This includes the ability for the City to collect service provider fees, so we were in danger of losing valuable revenue to regulate the new video service providers. That information alone was worth the time and money spent to send me to the conference.
I also received updates on important municipal issues dealing with pensions, design review regulations, and wireless networks. These are not burning issues for people not affiliated with local government, but they were interesting to me. The pension issue, in particular, could soon be a critical issue for state and local budgets and it has not received much attention. Perhaps I will write a future blog on the looming pension crisis in Illinois city governments (click here and here for more information).
Conferences are a great opportunity to learn new concepts and recharge your batteries, and these meetings did not disappoint. I just wish they were spaced apart a little more.
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