HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-04-25 TranscriptionApril 25, 2008 Meet and Greet With City Manager Candidates Page 1
Apri125, 2008 Special City Council Meet and Greet 7:30 A.M.
Council Present: Bailey, Champion, Correia, Hayek, O'Donnell, Wilburn, Wright
Staff: Dilkes, Karr
Others Present: Michael Lombardo, A. J. Johnson, Paul Beecher
Meet and Greet -City Manager Candidates:
Bailey: Good morning. I want to thank all of you for being here, and to announce
that the coffee has arrived, so please don't, uh, you know, push or shove.
It's right over here, ready to go. Um, I'm Regenia Bailey, Mayor of the
City of Iowa City. On behalf of the Council, we welcome you here this
morning and thank you for being here with us as we meet our City
Manager candidates. How we're going to do this is, um, the candidates
will take about two, three minutes, introduce themselves, talk a little bit
about their interest in Iowa City, and then instead of formal questions,
we'll allow you to mingle with them afterwards, and as you talk with them
about your individual questions, we thought people could get a lot more
information that way instead of a set of questions, and just keep in mind
that there are lots of people who have their own questions, so just be
cognizant of how much time, um, you're taking with the candidates, but
certainly we invite you to stick around and talk to them individually. So,
with that, I will start with Michael Lombardo and allow him to just
introduce himself and talk about Iowa City.
Lombardo: Well, good morning, um, I'm Michael Lombardo.
Bailey: Michael, I think I'll ask you to step to the mic, because Marian is taping
(mumbled)
Lombardo: Good morning, um, Michael Lombardo, um, I'm currently living in
Hamilton, Michigan. I'm the former County Administrator, uh, for
Allegheny County, Michigan. Um, I started my...my focus on local
government, uh, completing an MPA at the University of Albany, uh, my
undergraduate degree is in Economics, uh, so a strong research
background. Um, prior to starting my career in local government, I
worked for T-Bank for seven years, um, in commercial banking and at the
branch level, progressed through to become Branch Supervisor there, and
then returned to graduate school to complete my degree and start a career
in local government. Um, following a series of very good, um, internships
with the State of New York and also Schenectady County, New York, um,
I proceeded on to work for the International City-County Management
Association. They're the professional association for local government
managers. Um, I oversaw their performance measurement work and took
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City
Council Special Meet and Greet of City Manager Candidates of Apri125, 2008.
April 25, 2008 Meet and Greet With City Manager Candidates
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a consortium project of 40 large cities and counties and, uh, established
the Center for Performance Measurement, which, um, really assists local
governments in evaluating their service delivery, uh, looking at outcomes
- are we achieving what we want to achieve, and being able to measure
that and articulate it, uh, to the citizenry. Um, from there I became the
Assistant City Manager and Chief Financial Officer for Augusta, Maine.
Uh, capitol city of Maine. I worked on a broad array of programs there,
uh, Economic Development, Downtown Revitalization, uh, and all aspects
of the fiscal systems and budget process there, development of the CIP
and the like. Um, in late 2002 I became the Allegheny County
Administrator, uh, lead them through, uh, a series of difficult years. Uh,
Michigan budgets are...are, uh, diminishing quite rapidly, and it was a
very interesting time to look at, um, and examine how do we, you know,
still be effective in our services and in meeting the public's needs in a
downward spiral economically and...and, uh, crafting budgets to really
meet those needs. Um, with that, uh, I'd be happy to answer your
questions. I look forward to meeting many of you, all of you if possible,
uh, and thank you for this time. (applause)
Johnson: Good morning. I'm A. J. Johnson. I'm currently serving as the City
Administrator of Muscatine, Iowa. Um, my background has all been in
local government through my career. I'm a native of the Des Moines area,
following my public education through there. I attended Wartburg
College in Waverly, Iowa, where I received a B.A. in Political Science.
Following that I did, um, while at Wartburg I also had an opportunity to
intern with the City Administrator's office there, and my real first taste of
getting involved in local government was to help craft their cable
television ordinance, back in the late 70's. So, uh, that was kind of one of
those things where they say interns don't get to do much, but we also had,
uh, an opportunity to put that together. Uh, following that I received my
Master's degree from Drake University, and while in the Des Moines'
area, I had the opportunity to intern at a number of State agencies, and
after doing that I realized I didn't want to do State government. Um, I
realized that I wanted to do local government, and I had an 8-month
internship with the City Manager's office in Des Moines at the time, and
uh, that was a wonderful experience and that really helped to solidify my,
uh, professional career aspirations to get into city government. While
there, uh, they had the opportunity to work on a lot of their downtown
projects that have now become reality. The skywalk system and some of
the other improvements associated...ifyowre familiar with the Civic
Center and the Nolan Plaza area, they were working on those. So, those
were exciting times to be involved in local government, particularly in the
Des Moines' area and that really helped kind of get the juices flowing, if
you will, to keep me interested in that profession. From there I proceeded
out to Ohio...Sydney, Ohio, just north of Dayton, Ohio area, a town of
about 18,000, 19,000. I was the Assistant to the City Manager there for
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City
Council Special Meet and Greet of City Manager Candidates of Apri125, 2008.
April 25, 2008 Meet and Greet With City Manager Candidates
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four years. Had a wonderful experience there, uh, as in the Assistant role I
got to do everything that the City Manager didn't want to do, and so that
was, uh, that kind of gives you, uh, some really interesting responsibilities,
but the primary responsibilities were in personnel and purchasing, and uh,
and public relations. So that was quite an experience. Again, a wonderful
place to live and to become broken into the profession. And then I
ventured out, uh, wanted to get to that City Manager position, and
ventured over to Montevideo, Minnesota, which is about 130 miles
directly west of the Twin Cities, and uh, 30 miles from the South Dakota
border, and about 150 miles from nowhere. It was really out in, uh, lots of
winter, lots of wind, uh, but again, another wonderful community. A
strong City Manager position, um, about 6,000 people, was there for about
three and a half years, uh, had a wonderful experience there, uh, did a lot
of activity there associated with some downtown redevelopment. Uh, that
community was more of a hub for the area, uh, given western Minnesota's
demographics, uh, even a town of 6,000 had a significant draw for
medical, for retail, uh, for education, so we had a much more larger base
to work with, but we looked at, uh, the vitality of the community, uh,
really worked hard on economic diversity to try to take it out of a farm
service area into a light manufacturing area, and that was critical, that was
the goal of the community. We worked very hard on that, uh, and then in
1989 the opportunity in Muscatine came up and, uh, my wife and I are
both from Iowa and we thought the opportunity to come back to Iowa, be
part of that was too good to pass up. So, I, uh, came as the City
Administrator in 1989, have been there since that time. I've enjoyed 18
wonderful years over in Muscatine. We've done an awful lot of work
associated with, uh, redevelopment activity on our riverfront in the last ten
years. Uh, we've probably, as a community, have spent in the last 15
years spent close to $20 million on riverfront redevelopment, not only
from the City but othex private sector investment as well, so we've been
very proud of that. Uh, also, uh, really building a strong coalition between
business and government, as far as the projects and programs we want to
undertake in our community. So we've been very successful with that. If
you're familiar with Muscatine, it, uh, it is probably by per capita one of
the strongest manufacturing communities in the state of Iowa, but with
that comes some challenges, as well. We've dealt with, uh, economic
development issues associated with, uh, our growth, with housing related
issues, with replacement of aging infrastructure. So those are things that
we've tackled in the last 18 years, fairly successfully I think, and uh,
we've, uh, we've been proud of those accomplishments. As Michael, I
look forward to meeting all of you this morning, and be happy to answer
your questions. Thank you. (applause)
Beecher: Good morning. My name is Paul Beecher, and I'd like to thank you all for
braving the weather to come out this morning. I understand this is about
your third time of doing this, so you're probably better at it than I am. I
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City
Council Special Meet and Greet of City Manager Candidates of Apri125, 2008.
Apri125, 2008 Meet and Greet With City Manager Candidates
Page 4
started out in this business actually by mistake. Uh, my mother wanted
me to be a priest and I really didn't have that type of calling. One day
when I was working in Dallas, I walked across the street to the campus of
Southern Methodist University with the intention of enrolling in their Law
School. The, uh, the Dean of the Law School advised me that they were
starting a joint Masters of Public Administration Jurist Doctorate program
at the time, and would I be interested in being one of the first students in
that program, and I said, `Sure, why not!' Like all the other candidates
here, we had to do an internship during the program and I had the good
fortune of becoming an intern of the City of Richardson, Texas, and I
realized that this is what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. This gave
me an opportunity to help people in a secular way, as opposed to a
religious way, but it also gave me the opportunity to help communities
become what they wanted to be by bringing people together. I've had 33
years of experience in a variety of communities, different sizes all across
this country, done...gotten into more trouble than I wanted to, and done a
lot of good things, I hope, over those years in all the communities I've
been working for. I see a real opportunity in Iowa City, hopefully as your
next City Manager. You have a beautiful community with a lot of
resources. The Council did a very good, thorough interview yesterday
and, you know, they even opened my eyes to some other opportunities that
exist here. With your relationship with the University, uh, the dynamic
relationship that exists there, your relationship with the County and the
other local governments in the area give you, give this whole area -not
just Iowa City, but the whole area - an opportunity to be a real star in the
state of Iowa, and a real star in the...in this part of the country. Just in the
short time I had to talk to some of you before we came up here, and I was
impressed with the diversity of interests out there. The diversity of
opinions in this community, and I think that's a very, very healthy thing.
Uh, you know, sometimes as a manager you...if you've done it a real long
time or even if you haven't done it for a real long time, you get...you get
so overwhelmed by the requests and the problems that you...you just kind,
`Oh, my gosh! What am I doing?' but believe me, I would much rather
work with a community that's interested in its future, that has its best
interests at heart, and wants to be part of that. You know, I've worked too
many places where there's just...where they don't get involved unless it
comes into their backyard, which is pretty typical of most of us, you
know? If it's going to be in our backyard, we don't want it unless we
agree with what it's going to be. So, I...I see opportunities to bring people
together here, to move forward, to agree on a direction that we want to
move in, and to realize that we sometimes have to set aside our differences
in order to accomplish that; quit being selfish, quit being petty, and realize
that we are a community, made up of individuals, but a community
nonetheless that must go forward, and I see that opportunity here. You've
had a great run. You've had a good staff. Your prior City Manager has
done an excellent job. You're in good financial shape, but there's still that
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City
Council Special Meet and Greet of City Manager Candidates of Apri125, 2008.
April 25, 2008 Meet and Greet With City Manager Candidates
Page 5
one more step to go, and I certainly hope that I have the opportunity to
take you there. Thank you for coming again, and I' 11 look forward to
talking with all of you. (applause)
Bailey: So now I would invite you all to mingle, meet the candidates, um, have
some...we have plenty of food. We have coffee now, so please...thank
you all again for coming, and um, there are comment forms out on the
table, and then there are comment forms on the web. So, we invite your
feedback on our candidates, and thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City
Council Special Meet and Greet of City Manager Candidates of Apri125, 2008.