Talk about pressure, how about being asked to pen (OK, type) the first blog to the MLGMA refreshed, new and improved web page. That’s pressure. You see, most of us city manager types are efficient behind the scenes because we work the operations side of a representative form of governance we affectionately refer to as Council/Manager local government. Sure, us managers understand (sometimes) what we do for a living, but most people I dare say have no clue.
We are the faceless bureaucrat that keeps the gears of local government moving. I am sure most city/township/village or even county administrators have been to a social event and attempted to explain what we do for a living. Yes, fair to say, our position is not one on most people’s career list, wasn’t on mine. I only learned about the profession as a young police officer many moons ago.
So, why a blog?
As one of the first Michigan city managers to do a blog (started a decade ago), maybe it serves me right to be put on the spot. I’ve been explaining to managers for years why this blog thing is a good alternative way to tell our community’s stories. Well it is also a good way for managers to talk about being a manager. What does a city manager do? How about an interesting project or process that you are working on? There are so many great challenges we face every day, week or month we should be all able to highlight some of these not only for ourselves, but also for people looking or discovering just what a city manager does.
Blogs are meant to be short and you can share links, like this to my blog For Pete’s Sake or the MML blog Inside208. I have been volunteered to kick off the first few, but I look forward to reading what other managers post and find out what is going on in and how they are improving their communities every day.
Pete Auger, City Manager
City of Novi
Pete has been working in public service for the past twenty nine years including his service in the U.S. Army where he was a non-commissioned officer. Pete has sat on fourteen different boards, and has sat on or chaired many Michigan Local Government Management Association and Michigan Municipal League Committees. Pete served as MLGMA Board of Directors President in 2014.