Public-Private Partnerships – Essential in Building Community
Public-Private Partnerships is a phrase that is often overused and under supplied. In today’s economic environment, I have found that genuine partnerships are needed to achieve the return of investment, time, and energy for both the private and public...
Public Service – A Rewarding Experience
I have served local governments for over 27 years and I can truly say the experience and opportunity to make a difference in the lives of so many is a rewarding experience and one I would not trade. My passion, which I began to realize many years ago, was in creating...
Managing Through Outsourcing
In times such as these, many people still have a feeling that public sector employees are overpaid, underworked, and (frankly) untouchable. The reality of public service is they are not. Coming from the private sector 12 years ago to the public arena, I vowed never...
How to Make Up Lost Sequester Hours
By now, we’re all aware of the dreaded sequester -- or group cuts to federal spending -- that recently went into effect. According to The Washington Post, although the sequester was originally meant to serve as an incentive for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit...
2013 Public Works Salaries and Benefits
For seven years Public Works magazine has asked readers – city, county, state, special district, and township employees who oversee their community’s infrastructure assets -- how much they’re paid. The latest statistics can be found here. For some communities,...
Government Employment and Staffing
For as long as most of us can remember the words “government employee” have been synonymous with steady, reliable employment where terms like “downsizing” and” rightsizing” seldom applied and the threat of being laid off was as remote as snowfall in Miami Beach. ...
Why Most Economic Development Efforts Fail
This is the second article in a four-part series on Why Local Governments Fail at Economic Development. The first article addressed how local government officials “fail to define and sell the sizzle” that makes their community attractive for a new businesses...
A New Look at the Importance of Cities
Is the distinction between working in municipal, state/provincial or federal government an ever-narrowing focus to smaller geographical areas and more localized issues? No. Consider this: cities are the economic engines of a country. Innovation, research and...
Seeking a Job in Utopia: Top Cities for Job Satisfaction
MuniNet Guide a municipal research website focusing on state and local government, U.S. demographic and employment trends, public finance, and municipal bonds; highlighted a recent report on cities with the highest job satisfaction. Topping the Glassdoor...
Just When I Thought I Was Out – They Pull Me Back In!
As a person who has dedicated most of his professional life to city management, I would like to offer a perspective to managers who are nearing retirement. After having served eight years with the state of North Carolina, I transitioned to local government in 1989. ...
Why Most Local Governments Fail at Economic Development
Many local governments are desperate for economic development; they want their jobs in their communities. Unfortunately most local governments fail miserably at inducing business growth. Below is a simple ‘how-to’ lesson local governments can use to initiate economic...
7 Tips for Successful Job Offer Negotiations
You’ve been in search of that next great job for months now and finally an offer comes through! Are you feeling excited…or more anxious? For many, particularly women, we take the offer that’s presented at face value and NEVER even consider negotiating! I know – I’ve...
Resume Cyberspace: What Happens to Your Resume When You Post It Online?
I used to wonder what happens to our resumes when we send them out to people or post them online.Do they get seen? Do they disappear into cyberspace? Do they get filed away somewhere in a big hope chest of resumes? What really happens to our resumes when we post them...
Tethered to a Digital Government
There are many ways to serve the public. From the dedication of our public safety folks in Fire and Police, to the unsung heroes of the sewers who make all of our lives a little bit easier. One thing all of them have in common is the Digital Tether or at least that...
Keeping Your Job Search Alive
You found a posting for THE perfect job. After painstakingly completing your online resume and creating the most eloquent KSA responses ever, you wait. Why apply for anything else? Why even look; No other job will be as good as this one. The problem is that job...
The Big Secret in HR Hiring
A “Fully Staffed” department in government is the nebulous goal that always seems to be just out of reach. There are 3 main reasons you can’t get fully staffed: 1. Your numbers are built on a fantasy and government doesn’t live in a fantasy. 2. Your hiring managers...
Secrets to Getting Your Resume Noticed
Resume writing is like building a puzzle. You need to collect and describe all the little pieces that make you special (i.e. your skills and experience), and then you need to combine them together in a document that will adequately sell you to a prospective employer....
Reinventing The Relationship Between Government and People
As local governments have down-sized staffing and dramatically reduced services to survive the Great Recession and other economic challenges in recent years, we’ve often been told that we’ll just have to do more with less. Yet, at the very same time that government...