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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-02-15 TranscriptionFebruary 15, 2008 Special City Council Work Session 4:30 P.M. Meet and Greet -City Manager Candidates: Bailey: Good afternoon. Thank you all so much for being here, and you can move forward. This is a little, I'm sure, intimidating for them. Um, you know, spread out, take some room. (people talking in background) On behalf of the City Council, I want to thank all of you for being here and welcome. Um, as we know, Iowa City and its citizens are very interested in participating in its government, so we're delighted to have all of you here. I just want to tell you a little bit about how this afternoon is going to work. Well, we'll have brief comments from each one of the candidates. I will introduce them all and then allow them to step up to the microphone and make about a two to three minute introductory remarks. There are citizen input forms in the hallway with the box that they can go in. If you'd like to fill those out tonight; you're welcome to take those with you. The box will be in the lobby of City Hall throughout the weekend to drop that off. You can also provide input on the web, at www.icgov.org. All your comments, um, will become public documents, so just a note about that. Uh, we have food and really do help yourself to the wonderful food from some great Iowa City restaurants. We're proud to sort of offer a nice buffet here. So, you're not here to hear me talk. You're here to hear the candidates talk, so I'd like to introduce, and we'll go in alphabetical order with Art Chaudry speaking first, and then Larry Delo. Then Mike Matthes. Then Marketa Oliver, and then finally Susan Stanton. So, Art. Chaudry: Thank you, Mayor, Members of the City Council, and the citizens of Iowa City. Uh, some times I have to pinch myself to believe the uncommon journey that my life has brought me, from being born and raised in the Savannahs and the Highlands of Africa to the Heartland of America. I'm indeed honored and humbled to be a finalist for the position of the City Managep- of Iowa City. Uh, you might ask yourself a question which I have tried to answer throughout the day, uh, what brings you to Iowa City? Uh, well, I'm always motivated by change, challenge, and an opportunity to make a difference; And I also look at the values, the vision, and the orientation of the community, that I like to be a part o£ And in studying, uh, Iowa City, I see a great deal of alignment between who I am and what (noise on mic, unable to hear) so I would be (noise on mic, unable to hear) happy to call myself a proud citizen of Iowa City. 'To give you a little bit of a background on myself, uh, where I come from. I was 1Dorn and raised in Africa. I came to the United States on a very competitive scholarship that, uh, took me to a competitor of yours, which is University of Illinois in Champaign- Urbana. I graduated with a degree in engineering, but my aspirations always were to move into ranks of management, so I added an MBA in Chicago. Uh, was lucky to be recruited by one of the Fortune 500 companies, Johnson & Johnson. So a lot of my management grooming developed'~,(unable to understand) comes from my initial exposure to those, uh, requirements, uh, that learning and training and education that Johnson & Johnson invested in me. I quickly rose through the ranks there, uh, becoming a group'manager at a early age. Then was, uh, sought and recruited by a...by what wa's then a small, fledgling Midwest based pharmaceutical company called Marion Labs. I was involved in many of the strategic, uh, financial and organizational initiatives, and rose with them to the highest levels of that organization, finally ending up my February 15, 2008 Special Work Session Page 2 career there as a senior executive with worldwide responsibilities. Uh, by that time, that company had become a global pharmaceutical player ranked number three. Uh, but the endgame there was for me to move to the headquarters, which was being established in Frankfurt, Germany, because this i!s a German company that bought it and tried to put together a fully global company with French, German and American, uh, pieces. I declined that to stay in the community that L..we had grown to love, and took an unusual back then, vv~hich was to accept a position with the Kansas City Royals. The Royals at that time were in a state of turmoil and distress, so my challenge was to transform the organization to stabilize the finances and package it, position it, so it could then be sold to new owners, because we had been under the ownership of Mr. Kaufman (unable to understand) philanthropist and presence in Kansas City. Sa once I completed that, uh, responsibility, transitioned the franchise to the Glous family, a new opportunity came up, and that was, uh, appointment as chief administrative officer of Jackson County in Kansas City. So, there I was enrolled in, uh, the thing that typically jurisdictions such as Iowa City, are engaging and that is improve the level and delivery of services to its citizens. I ryas involved in introducing innovation, pushing the envelope on, uh, such projects as the government initiative, improving the efficiencies and effectiveness. So, I'm uh, one who has abroad-based background, uh, I'm an executi~Ve with in-depth expertise in experiences, results and impacts in both the pri' ate and public sector, and the more I study about Iowa City, the more I read abou it, and my interactions throughout the day with the City Council, the ayor, and the Members of the team, uh, some...many of them are here in,the audience today, uh, thrilled me. I just feel that Iowa City has so much to of er. It's a progressive city. It is a city that consistently ranks high as one of the m st desirable places to live, uh, and is anchored by a world-class institution, the U iversity of Iowa. So, I hope my unique personal and professional background ca be an asset to Iowa City, as it continues to be one of the healthiest, safest, and I like this, and the sexiest cities in all of the Midwest. So thank you for givin me this honor to be in the distinguished panel here of finalists, and I look forty rd to meeting many of you individually on a one-on-one. Thank you. (applause) Delo: Hi, I'm Larry Delo. IJh, one of the candidates, obviously, nd I'm not sure what party Art's running for, but I will nominate him for Preside t. (laughter) The, uh...(several talking, laughter)...well, not in Wisconsin wh re I'm from. Uh, for a little bit of background. I am from Wisconsin. That's w ere I've been born and raised, and I, uh, currently am in the Green Bay area, u ,from the city of De Pere, which is a suburb in that area. Um, my background i , uh, essentially generalist in government. I have served in various position - a management assistant with the city of Janesville, as well as the city admi istrator in Milton. I have, uh, lived in Milwaukee for approximately five years hile I went through graduate school. That's where I have my MPA. I worked or the Social Security Administration during that time period. I've served interns ips for no pay for the Department of Administration for the State of Wisconsin, hich I can probably say I now know how to adjust a, uh, annual report so the G vernor never looks bad. Um, so, and as additional background, I've worked o d jobs, uh, as I was going through college and, uh, in factories, in construction, um, I have a...also grew up on a dairy farm in the middle of the state, so I hay that background for This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Igwa City City Council special session meeting of February 15, 2008. ', February 15, 2008 Special Work Session Page 3 the rural part. Uh, again, a very generalist background. I h ve a strong background though in economic development, intergovern ental relations, um, up in our area, in the Green Bay metro area, I have develop d a number of strategies that are being adopted throughout the county, an this is a metro area of about 250,000 people, uh, where we're doing a lot of su port and intergovernmental activities toward economic development We've been extremely successful. We are also moving in collaboration such as possibly merging all our fire departments together. We've looked at police department mergers, uh, we have gone forward in trying to do shared t x base. There's a lot of those things that I specialize in and work on in that area. I serve as a chair on some committees, um, that work specifically with the priva e sector in promoting those things, um, we also have St. Norbert College in the a a, uh, which again matches up nicely with the college community here, and w have a very strong tie, and I have a very strong relationship, with the people fr m the college, working on student activities, involving the college in the c mmunity, uh, resolving issues that the community may have with student activities, which is the other side of it. So, again, there's a lot of background ti d to that, and finally, to be a little shorter than Art was, um (laughter), one of the hings that I have an interest in being in Iowa City is that of course it is a Big Te community, uh, it's one of the things that really attracted me here. To be quite onest, I haven't look at going anywhere else because where I currently am, it's a wonderful area, and so you have to be something that I consider very special be ore I'd even consider this type of an opportunity, and I believe it is just an excell nt community, uh, everyone I've met has been very friendly, uh, very forthrig t. It's a beautiful downtown, prettiest parking stall, or garages, I've ever see (laughing) and so it...it really is a neat opportunity, and I just want to thank y u all for that opportunity and look forward to speaking to everyone. Th nk you. (applause) Matthes: Hi there. I'm Mike Matthes. I'm the Assistant City Mana er in Des Moines, so I've had one of the shortest drives here, by a few blocks...I m almost a neighbor. I'm so happy to be here, and...and humbled to be here. Th nk you for having me. Uh, obviously there are many of you who care deeply bout the city. You're burning your Friday afternoon to be with us, and as questions about the government, so that's terrific. Uh, I'm really into it. I love this work, and it's great to see so many others that love it too. Uh, I can't wai to talk to each of you, uh, and something the press asks a lot is, uh, why wou d you want to come to Iowa City. Seems like a silly question to all five of us, u ,and what I'd really like to know is why you would like to come to Iowa City, by you like being here, what you love about it, so I can't wait to talk to you a out that. Brief history, um, got my master's degree at Iowa State, uh, so `bout that. (laughter) It's the second best school in Iowa, right? (laug ter) So, uh, felt pretty good about that. Uh, went to college in ,Iowa for a history degree, and uh, was born and raised in Florida, of all places, uh, I' been in Iowa for about 20 years and I'm starting to get used to the winter, u ,that's the second question everyone asks. Uh, I've been in Des Moines my hole career, uh, started as an intern out of college and uh, was able to save ome money for the City and that worked into another job, uh, where I got tow rk pretty heavily in the housing department and doing some technology imple entations, People Soft's the name of that product. Uh, got also to work with, uh, technology now, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the I~wa City City Council special session meeting of February 15, 2008. February 15, 2008 Special Work Session Page 4 currently, as the interim director of the IT department, as w 11 as acting, uh, or as well as Assistant City Manager. Acting IT Director, Assist nt City Manager. And have been fairly heavily involved in performance mea urement, and in Des Moines that's a pretty big term we throw around, but it's re lly about communication with the public. Uh, it's about listening to hat the community has to say, what it wants to see happen in the future, uh, re orting about what our efforts have been, how well we're doing, in a totally honest way, and then, um, then keeping that communication going. So, we...Des Mo' es mailed that to every residential address so you can have it...you don't ha e to come to the city to get the information. So I'm proud of that. Uh, and with hat, I'll be quiet and turn it over to the next candidate. (applause) Oliver: My name is Marketa Oliver. I'm originally from Burlingto ,Iowa, and I want to say thank you. I feel honored to be part of the process and o have had the opportunity to meet and talk with many people today. I tho ght I knew how terrific Iowa City was, and I went on a tour yesterday, and really had not even scratched the surface on how terrific Iowa City is. So it jus is much better than I ever even thought, and I already thought it was pretty terri c! Um, I am...after graduating from Burlington High School, I went to Drake niversity, for both my undergraduate and graduate education, with a slight det ur my junior year to study at the University of Vienna. Um, I graduated with m master's in public administration and then I left the state for 10 years, and I w s in Yakima, Washington, which is, um, on the...on the little known sid of the state. It's the desert part of Washington, and it was a great opportunity to...to learn from some really terrific people, and then, uh, when my daughter was orn, my husband and I decided that we needed to be back in a place where the qu lity of life was really good for raising a family, so we naturally looked to Iowa. d I, uh, saw the Winter Heights position, and I had actually interned in Win er Heights when I was in graduate school, so I was absolutely thrilled to com home to that. I've been in Winter Heights since 2000, and we've been workin on a lot of community planning, economic development, um, sound fi ancial management, special events, and a variety of other projects that I'm reall excited to talk about. Thank you very much. (applause) Stanton: Good afternoon. The last person, so I'm going to try to kee it to no more than two minutes. Um, reflect all of the many sentiments that h ve already been discussed about what is no neat about Iowa City. I had a re lly...an interesting experience going out to my car the other day, and finding a slip on. I thought I'd already received my first, uh, parking ticket from the Polic Department. But oddly enough it wasn't. It was actually a note from someb dy that bumped my bumper, and said, um, we don't see any damage on your ve icle, but if there is give us a call, and they gave us the name. Now I thought, ow that's really a neat, you know, a neat experience in a community. That is ..that is interactive. I'm from the City of Largo, Florida. It's never this cold in lorida! Um, so I'm getting used to walking on the ice. Um, I, um, was born in pstate New York. I've worked in the states of Alaska, Illinois, uh, Kentucky, h, New York, and now Florida. I've been trying to kind of cover each corner f the nation. Um, I think my, probably my biggest asset I think I bring to this e of an organization is a process of organization development. I'm a graduate o Harvard This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the I~wa City City Council special session meeting of February 15, 2008. February 15, 2008 Special Work Session Page 5 Bailey: University's Leadership Program from executive senior ma agers, um, I have a master's degree from the University of Florida, um, in publ c administration. Of course we were the two-time champion in football, um, so 'll have to learn how to cheer for another team if...if I made Iowa State my hom ,but this is a real unique community. Have had a lot of fun; it was fun meeti g the Members of the City Council, especially the new people and seeing the ew energy that that's creating, and the unique opportunity that Iowa has to really chart out its new future in an era in which resources are more and more limit d, community expectations continue to expand, and the resources that we ave in order to do the job become that much more scarce. I think organizatio s are going to be required to do more with less and think strategically signifi ant, um, that's what I've done in my last job. It was about the same size as this ity, um, I don't have all the diversity of experiences of some of the other folks h ve, uh, this evening. I am a city manager. That's all I've ever done. That's all I m planning on doing in my career, and Iowa City would be a superb place to call home, and I appreciate the invite. Thank you all. (applause) This concludes the formal portion of our reception tonight. We encourage you to mingle and talk individually with the candidates, and enjoy some food, and really ask them your questions and get to know each one of them, and then provide some feedback for all of us, as we move through this proce s. Thank you so much for coming. We really appreciate your interest in the community, and your commitment, um, and help for us, uh, moving forward and firing a new city manager. Thank you. (applause) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the I~wa City City Council special session meeting of February 15, 2008.