PM Magazine, March 2025

Julia D. Novak, ICMA-CM CEO/Executive Director, ICMA

FINANCE AND BUDGETING

SPECIAL SECTION: From Bias to Balance: Advancing Women in Local Government through SheLeadsGov Page 49

FEATURES

12

Getting to Know Our New CEO/Executive Director, Julia D. Novak, ICMA-CM

A former local government manager and consultant, she sees building bridges and supporting members as her top priorities.

16 Cities Come Together to Forge New Paths on Budgeting

Rethinking Budgeting trailblazers Liberty Lake, Denver Public Library, and Minnetonka share early experiences putting practices into action.

Chris Fabian, Shayne Kavanagh, and Elizabeth Steward

22

Informed, Empowered, and Engaged: Citizen Participation in Local Government Budgeting

The highly successful participation experiences of Kenyan citizens in their local budget process serve as best practices for other jurisdictions worldwide.

Frankline Muthomi and Kurt Thurmaier, PhD

30

Tax Increment Financing: Navigating the Intersection of Policy, Development, and Reform

How to refine your TIF practices, align them with community goals, and navigate today’s fiscal and social landscape.

John S. Weidl

34 Making the Decision to Fire an Employee

While never an easy task, use these considerations to go about it the right way.

Rod Gould, ICMA-CM, Dr. Frank Benest, ICMA-CM, and Jan Perkins, ICMA-CM

38 Advancing Career Technical Education by Adopting Lessons from Germany’s Dual System

As Northern Virginia advances clean energy goals, global exchanges bring new ideas for workforce development.

Dr. Dale Medearis, Dr. Tricia S. Jacobs, Patrick Earle, Kris Martini, Arran Richards, Tanja Mayer-Harding, and Geovanni Castano

2 Ethics Matter!™

Reflections on the Code’s Value Throughout My Career

6 Women in Leadership Fall in Love with Local Government…Again

8 Looking Back

50 Years of Aspirations for Women in Public Administration

41 Next Generation

Emerging Leaders Recognized with 2025 Kelsey Scholarship

42 Assistants and Deputies

Managing Those with Greater Technical Expertise

44 Insights

Q&A with Dawn Peters on Ethics and Advocacy for the Profession

56 Professional Services Directory 38

International City/County Management Association

Reflections on the Code’s Value Throughout My Career

A former ICMA regional vice president’s perspective on the Code of Ethics as we celebrate Ethics Awareness Month

BY KEN PARKER, ICMA-CM

KEN PARKER, ICMA-CM worked in the public sector for over 43 years until his retirement, serving three cities as their city manager. He is currently an ICMA senior advisor in Florida.

We may often forget why the ICMA Code of Ethics was so important to those first ICMA members. When you look at United States history during the early twentieth century, corruption and scandals were common at all levels of government. It was against this backdrop that those first professional city managers sought to differentiate themselves and the council-manager plan from what people saw in other local governments. The adherence to the Code outlining the profession’s values became a distinguishing and defining characteristic of ICMA members.

With its 13 tenets, the 1924 ICMA Code of Ethics established the ethical foundation for what it means to be a professional city and county manager. Over the years, we have built upon that strong foundation.

I was fortunate to begin my career in local government under the tutelage of Dallas city manager Scott McDonald, assistant city manager

Public Management (PM) (USPS: 449-300) is published monthly by ICMA (the International City/County Management Association) at 777 North Capitol Street. N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002-4201. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mailing offices. The opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of ICMA.

COPYRIGHT 2025 by the International City/County Management Association. All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced or translated without written permission.

REPRINTS: To order article reprints or request reprint permission, contact pm@icma.org.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: U.S. subscription rate, $60 per year; other countries subscription rate, $155 per year.

Printed in the United States.

Contact: 202/289-4262; subscriptions@icma.org.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Public Management, ICMA, 777 N. Capitol Street, N.E., Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20002-4201.

ARTICLE PROPOSALS: Visit icma.org/writeforus to see editorial guidelines for contributors. For more information on local government leadership and management topics, visit icma.org.

George Shrader, assistant city manager Gene Denton, and assistant to the city manager Jim Favor. Since I aspired to be a city manager, they encouraged me to join ICMA. Upon joining, I reviewed the tenets and guidelines of the Code. It was evident to me that the Code was not a list of rules and regulations, rather the tenets were principles that should be ingrained into the character of every ICMA member. Those principles should be seen in every aspect of our life, professionally and personally. In 1973, I accepted my first city manager position. The city had changed forms of government and adopted the council-manager plan, and I was their first city manager. I learned the importance of the Code and its application in real-life situations.

There are three ethical examples that I dealt with in my career that stand out to me as I reflect:

1. Vendor Relations

Soon after I arrived in my first city, I received a call from an elected county official. He wanted to introduce me

Public Management (PM) icma.org/pm

ICMA

777 North Capitol Street, N.E. Suite 500 Washington, D.C. 20002-4201

EDITORIAL OFFICE: pm@icma.org

ADVERTISING SALES: Justin Wolfe, The YGS Group 717-430-2238 justin.wolfe@theygsgroup.com

ICMA MEMBER SERVICES: 800.745.8780 | 202.962.3680 membership@icma.org

Creating and Supporting Thriving Communities

ICMA’s vision is to be the leading association of local government professionals dedicated to creating and supporting thriving communities throughout the world. It does this by working with its more than 13,000 members to identify and speed the adoption of leading local government practices and improve the lives of residents. ICMA offers membership, professional development programs, research, publications, data and information, technical assistance, and training to thousands of city, town, and county chief administrative officers, their staffs, and other organizations throughout the world.

Public Management (PM) aims to inspire innovation, inform decision making, connect leading-edge thinking to everyday challenges, and serve ICMA members and local governments in creating and sustaining thriving communities throughout the world.

to a vendor who provided the county with a number of products. The first question the vendor asked me was “What is your home address?” I asked him why and he said he wanted to send a box of cheese to my home.

The Code immediately came to mind and I told him, “That is not how we do business.” A few months later, I found out the man was an undercover agent. There were 75 individuals arrested and charged with accepting bribes. The county official who called me was one of those charged with accepting bribes.

PRESIDENT

Tanya Ange*

County Administrator Washington County, Oregon

PRESIDENT-ELECT

Michael Land*

City Manager Coppell, Texas

PAST PRESIDENT

Lon Pluckhahn*

City Manager Vancouver, Washington

VICE PRESIDENTS

International Region

Colin Beheydt

City Manager Bruges, Belgium

Doug Gilchrist

City Manager

Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

Lungile Dlamini

Chief Executive Officer

Municipal Council of Manzini, Eswatini

Midwest Region

Michael Sable*

City Manager Maplewood, Minnesota

Jeffrey Weckbach

Township Administrator

Colerain Township, Ohio

Cynthia Steinhauser*

Deputy City Administrator Rochester, Minnesota

Mountain Plains Region

Dave Slezickey*

City Manager The Village, Oklahoma

Pamela Davis

Assistant City Manager Boulder, Colorado

Sereniah Breland

City Manager Pflugerville, Texas

Northeast Region

Dennis Enslinger

Deputy City Manager

Gaithersburg, Maryland

Steve Bartha*

Town Manager Danvers, Massachusetts

Brandon Ford

Assistant Township Manager

Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania

2. Doing the Right Thing Knowing There May Be Consequences

The Code immediately came to mind and I told him, “That is not how we do business.”

A few years later, I received a call from a prominent businessman who represented a number of individuals who owned properties in the downtown area of the community where I served. He said that one of his clients owned a building where the hardwood floors had buckled and believed it was the city’s responsibility to fix the wooden floors since storm water had been captured under the building, causing them to warp.

Southeast Region

Jorge Gonzalez*

Village Manager

Village of Bal Harbour, Florida

Eric Stuckey

City Administrator Franklin, Tennessee

Chelsea Jackson

Deputy City Manager Douglasville, Georgia

West Coast Region

Jessi Bon

City Manager

Mercer Island, Washington

Nat Rojanasathira**

Assistant City Manager Monterey, California

Elisa Cox*

Assistant City Manager

Rancho Cucamonga, California

*ICMA-CM

** ICMA Credentialed Manager Candidate

ICMA CEO/ Julia D. Novak, ICMA-CM Executive Director

Managing Director, Lynne Scott lscott@icma.org

Brand Management, Marketing, and Outreach; Director, Equity & Social Justice and Membership Marketing

Senior Managing Editor Kerry Hansen khansen@icma.org

Senior Editor Kathleen Karas kkaras@icma.org

Graphics Manager Delia Jones djones@icma.org

Design & Production picantecreative.com

I asked the city’s insurance carrier and the city’s consulting engineer to review the claim and determine its validity. Both came to the same conclusion: it was neglect by the property owner, not the city, that caused the floors to buckle. I called the businessman and told him that the city would not pay the claim.

A few days later, I was invited to a meeting in the rental agent’s office. He wanted me to explain to the property owner, who happened to be an influential individual, why the city had denied the claim. The agent was on a speaker phone with his client when I entered the room. I explained the denial. The client asked his rental agent who was going to pay for the damage done to the building, and the agent replied that it would be the client’s responsibility since the client did not carry that type of insurance on his properties.

A few days later, the mayor was in my office. He said that I made the right decision and remarked, “Remember that your ethical decisions often have consequences.” The elected body stood behind my decision and did not pay the claim, and the community took notice that my ethics were not for sale. The Code had provided the guidance I needed in handling the situation.

3. The Meaning of Political Neutrality

Tenet 7 of the Code about political activity states: “Refrain from all political activities which undermine public confidence in professional administrators. Refrain from participation in the election of the members of the employing legislative body.” It is interesting to compare this section of the current version of the Code to the section on political activity in the 1924 version. The 1924 version of the Code simply stated: “No City Manager should take an active part in politics.”

When I came to Florida, the political landscape had begun to shift. The ethical dilemma that I wrestled with

Our adherence to the Code, both personally and professionally, should be evident to our governing bodies, our fellow workers, our professional colleagues, and to the community.

was whether to register with a specific political party. I determined that registering with one of the major political parties would hinder my effectiveness in making policy recommendations to the city council. Therefore, I decided to register as “no political affiliation (NPA).” That meant that I gave up my right to participate in party primary elections.

Many years ago, I had an elected official who stated that they knew how I voted. My response was “no, you don’t!” They said that my wife was affiliated with a specific political party, but I reminded them that my wife is an independent thinker, and she preserved her right to participate in the nominating process. I reminded the elected official that I had chosen to be an NPA in order to not be tagged as a member of a specific party or political philosophy.

One of the roles that a manager plays in today’s political environment is that of a bridge builder. In my career, I worked with governing bodies that were divided. Since I was viewed as nonpartisan and politically neutral, it enabled me to help them reach consensus.

Conclusion

I learned early in my career that the public does not separate our private and public life. Our public and private activities not only reflect on ourselves and our families, but also on the local government that we serve, as well as our profession. Our adherence to the Code, both personally and professionally, should be evident to our governing bodies, our fellow workers, our professional colleagues, and to the community.

Throughout my career, the principles embedded in the Code have served to guide my conduct as a professional manager and as an individual.

Calendar of Events

Experience Our Premier Self-Paced Courses

Discover how our programs can elevate your team’s performance. Get hands-on with a 30-day free trial of our most popular courses:

• Council Orientation Program

• Ethics 101

• Fundamentals of Local Government

Ready to start? Visit icma.org/test-drive to request your trial access. Our team will follow up with everything you need to get started.

UPCOMING EVENTS

SheLeadsGov Virtual Forum | Innovate, Inspire, Impact

March 5 | Free Virtual Forum

Succession Planning: A Guide to Unlocking Potential and Preparing for Leadership Transitions

March 12 | ICMA Free Coaching Webinar

Modern Meetings, Better Governance

March 18 | Free Webinar

VI World Forum of Local Economic Development

April 1–4 | Seville, Spain

Local Government Reimagined Conference

April 2–4 | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Improving Your Jurisdiction’s Development Review Process

April 3 | Webinar

Modernizing Budgeting: A Transformational Shift to Priority-Based Budgeting

May 8–22 | Certificate Program

National Economic Mobility and Opportunity Conference

May 21–23 | Baltimore, Maryland, USA | Free Registration

51st CAMA Conference and Annual General Meeting

May 26–28 | Mont Tremblant, Québec, Canada

Gettysburg Leadership Institute

June 11–13 | Register by April 25

Muniworld 2025

June 17 | Tel Aviv, Israel

Invest in Your Organization: Bring ICMA’s Training to Your Organization! In-Person and Online Training for Your Team

Bring ICMA’s Certificate and Micro-Certificate programs to your jurisdiction. Offered live online and in-person, we will bring the training to you. Choose from 13 topics. Schedule the perfect training for your team at a time convenient for you. Invest in your organization today! Scan the QR code to learn more.

For a full listing of events and details, visit icma.org/events. Shop all courses at learning.icma.org.

Fall in Love with Local Government…Again

BY INDIA ADAMS-JACOBS

Leading with love may be more crucial now than ever before.

“When did you first fall in love with hip-hop?” is a pivotal line from one of my favorite movies, Brown Sugar. After recording my GovLove episode with Ben Kittelson, “Managing a Small Town and Returnships,” I reflected on that line, but with a local government twist: When did I first fall in love with local government?

Local government is not just about policies and budgets; it’s about people and their stories.

For me, a few moments stand out. As town manager of Colonial Beach, Virginia, I led an effort to preserve a local green space that had been a contentious issue for 30 years, split between those who wanted preservation versus development. After a successful grant application, we received nearly $400,000 to preserve the park. Its first official event was an inclusive gathering, where over 50 couples, including my husband and me, renewed their vows along the Potomac River at a ceremony called Love in the Park.

As an ICMA Local Government Management Fellow, I read Peter Kageyama’s Love Where You Live and For the Love of Cities. These works made me think about my unique role as a public administrator and how my efforts could foster a more loveable city. Kageyama shared that municipalities should embrace “the lovers” in their communities, as these passionate people are often catalysts for change. I realized local government leaders should also be “the lovers” in our communities and organizations. Beyond aiming for efficiency or innovation, perhaps we should focus more on making our communities more loveable.

As women in this profession, we may hold a competitive edge in cultivating love in our organizations and communities. At a time when many people are developing a hatred toward institutions, leading with love may be more crucial than ever. If you need to rekindle your passion for local government, consider these three approaches:

Learn

Read Gary Chapman’s The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace. (He also authored The 5 Love Languages). Discover your employees’ workplace appreciation languages and incorporate them to build more cohesive teams.

Be Present

A resident texted me this holiday season to say that I was the only town manager ever to attend her Christmas

event. Simply showing up can make a difference and foster meaningful relationships.

Build

“Virginia is for Lovers” is our state slogan. As part of a tourism campaign, localities statewide built LOVE signs. Now, as town manager in my hometown of Bowling Green, Virginia—the cradle of American horseracing—we have one of the best LOVE signs featuring our town’s historic highlights. Building on Kageyama’s concepts, I encourage you to create something that inspires deeper affection for your community this year.

This year, some of us feel newly motivated, while others are anxious about the future. I encourage you to ask yourself, “When did I first fall in love with local government?” Reflect on it. You might be surprised by the answer, and if you haven’t had that moment yet, ask someone who has.

The late poet Nikki Giovanni wrote, “We love because that is the only true adventure.” As you continue your local government adventure, share your love story whenever possible. As trust in institutions is waning, I believe that sharing our personal stories of love can rebuild trust and inspire others.

If you are still seeking that spark, consider connecting with colleagues who remain passionate about serving their communities. Invite them for coffee, lunch, or a video call to share experiences. Often, these small moments of collaboration reignite the love we once felt. Local government is not just about policies and budgets; it’s about people and their stories and our stories as leaders. Keeping that front and center can preserve our sense of purpose and spread “gov love,” this year and beyond.

INDIA ADAMSJACOBS is town manager of Bowling Green, Virginia, USA.

One of Virginia’s 300+ LOVEworks signs, located in Lynchburg, Virginia, USA.

Rosemarie

Fifty Years of Aspirations for Women in Public Administration

In commemoration of a ground-breaking event, a look at the status of women in local government leadership half a century ago, as things stand now, and what we envision for the future.

Fifty years ago, a small band of women and some key men did something revolutionary at the University of Kansas (KU). They organized a conference called Women in Administration: Public Management in the ’70s. Fast forward to 2024, a much larger group of women leaders and the KU School of Public Affairs and Administration organized an anniversary conference to celebrate the first one. The room had several hundred women government leaders rather than the few that were present in 1975. Women have clearly established a place as leaders in government and will continue to do so well into the future.

The conference is now an annual event known as Inspiring Women in Public Administration, and while inspiration is found in the content and conversation, understanding the context of this important event is important. History needs to be remembered so we can

BY JULIA D. NOVAK AND JAN PERKINS

JULIA D. NOVAK, ICMA CM, is the CEO/executive director of ICMA and a former city manager.

JAN PERKINS, ICMA CM, is vice president of Raftelis and a former city manager.

appreciate the present and move forward even more solidly into the future. While 50 years ago may sound like a long time ago, it is within our lifetime, and the trajectory of women in leadership in local government continues to rise.

In the mid-’70s, there were few women in leadership roles in public service. Some determined women were mayors. (The first woman mayor in the country was Susanna M. Saltar, elected as mayor of Argonia, Kansas, in 1887.) In 1975, there were several other “first women mayors” in cities ranging from San Antonio, Texas, to Canton, New York. As for women holding the top executive job in local, state, or federal government, there were so few they would not even have filled one table at the conference.

At that time, women were required to wear skirts to work in most places. Today, it is a choice. Until 1974, when the Equal Credit Act was enacted, women had to have their husbands or fathers sign for them to get a credit card or open a bank account. It was legal to terminate women who became pregnant until the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed in 1978. Sexual harassment was commonplace in many workplaces and not declared illegal until 1986 in the landmark Supreme Court case Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson. Women were routinely paid less than men for doing the exact same work, with the rationale that “men have a family to support,” not even thinking that women do also, and certainly, that should never have been the consideration!

The 1975 conference had some outstanding speakers, including Cissy Farenthold, a 1974 candidate for governor of Texas who spoke on women as a force for change in government.” Margaret Jordan, district attorney of Johnson County, Kansas, spoke on career opportunities in public management. Jimmy Carter happened to be in the area and was invited by MPA Program Director Robert Denhardt to speak, and he

did so by sharing the wisdom of his mother Lillian Carter, well known for her public service.

The numbers today show progress. We would say “not enough,” but progress it is. The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) tracks the gender of city/county managers. The 1976 report by ICMA’s Task Force on Women stated that only 36 out of 2,802 chief administrative officers in the United States and Canada were women at that time. ICMA data indicates that in 2019, 19% of local government chief administrative officers were women, and in 2024, 23.3% were women.

While progress seems slow, the numbers continue to grow, and we all envision a day when there is equality at the highest levels of government.

At the 2024 conference, one session asked participants to visualize the future for women in government. Two key questions were asked: What is true today that you hope will still be true in 25 years? What is not true today that you hope will be true in 25 years? The following is a synopsis of participants’ answers.

What is true today that women at the conference hope will still be true 25 years from now?

A strong focus on training and professional development. As was the case at the 1975 conference, this remains a core interest and need. Women leaders have helped create this focus over the years and want it to continue well into the future. They recognize it as important not only for one’s individual and professional growth, but for the wellbeing of the public agency.

Women supporting other women in the rise to the top. There are now many formal as well as informal networks of women set up for supporting

Equal pay was identified by women at the conference as a significant issue to remain focused upon. It is hoped that well within the next 25 years pay equity will be a reality for women in public administration.

each other, providing mentoring and peer support. The Women Leading Government organizations in many states, with the first initiative established in California in 2006, have provided the springboard for many women leaders. Women’s focused groups within professional associations, from engineers to police chiefs, are formalized means of creating networking opportunities that mirror the longstanding informal networks that men have had throughout their careers. These formalized networks have become a cornerstone of leadership development, peer mentorship, mutual encouragement, career advancement, getting through tough times, and simple solidarity. Networking is a fundamental practice that women have embraced and formalized. This has been an important step in moving away from negative stereotypes about women supporting each other.

Gaining a seat at the table. Women are in top leadership roles. Maintaining that momentum and growing the number of women decision-makers was identified as vital for sustained progress. Representation is key in shaping policies and organizations.

Flexibility in the workplace. With women in leadership roles, even prior to the pandemic and broadly applied remote work, workplace flexibility has become part of organizational life. It helps with balancing work with family or personal life. Flexibility is appreciated by the women at the conference as something that is true today, and it remains a priority for the future as well.

Diversity and inclusion in leadership. Not only do women want a seat at the table, the women at the conference believe that diversity in leadership is critical. Having leaders with a range of experiences and perspectives in high-level positions is important for the well-being of our organizations, communities, the people we serve, and our employees.

What is not true today for women in public administration that women at the conference hope will be true 25 years from now?

More women in leadership. Over the next 25 years, it is hoped that many more women will rise to the top of our public organizations and serve in all leadership roles. As women gain these leadership positions, they will influence how fast the numbers grow. A seat at the table is just the start. Being a top decision-maker who can influence the future is a critical way forward.

Diversity in leadership. More remains to be done, particularly women of color in leadership positions, and it is hoped that the future will see many women of color in the top jobs.

Equal pay. We are not done with equal pay. It was identified by women at the conference as a significant issue to remain focused upon. It is hoped that well within the next 25 years pay equity will be a reality for women in public administration.

There is power in women supporting women. We are connected by our unique set of experiences and aspirations.

No longer feeling like we have to prove ourselves because of our gender. Many women feel they still need to prove their worth and capabilities, especially in male-dominated fields. The women in the room want to be respected based on their abilities, skills, and achievements; not second-guessed because they are women. They hope this notion of “proving yourself because you’re a woman” diminishes over time and that the expectation of respect for all becomes embedded, rather than having to fight for it.

A safe workplace. Women cited the hope for safe and secure workplaces. This was stated for both physical and psychological safety, particularly regarding freedom from harassment or bias.

Conclusion

There is power in women supporting women. This theme surfaced frequently. We are connected by our unique set of experiences and aspirations. Women decision-makers, top leaders, and elected officials all can and do influence and help create the future. The numbers in the top jobs are rising, and it will take encouragement from current leaders—both women and men—in public administration professions to make even greater gains.

Many women at the conference shared stories of how women mentors and colleagues helped them seize opportunities and navigate challenges. Equal pay, workplace flexibility and safety, diversity in leadership, and many more issues will be important topics of discussion and work. Nothing happens by hoping, but hope is an important foundation for action.

Twenty-five years from now, our own hope is that top leadership positions in public agencies are comprised of many women—at least half. That is plenty of time to get there. Women will need to be our own champions for us to attain the “true tomorrow” vision.

As the first woman to hold the position of prime minister in the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher said, “Don’t follow the crowd. Let the crowd follow you.”

The authors wish to express their appreciation to the University of Kansas School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA) and the Public Management Center (PMC). Leadership for the 2024 Inspiring Women in Public Administration Conference was provided by Dr. Marilyn Goodyear, interim PMC director and associate professor; and Dr. Maja Holmes, director and professor of SPAA. They provide unwavering commitment to professional management and growing the numbers of women in executive level positions in public service. Thank you to Sara O’Keeffe who beautifully captured in visual images the visions of the women at the 2024 Inspiring Women in Public Administration Conference.

Working With You To Build a Stronger Future

Your service to our communities helps us all to grow and thrive. Thank you for your commitment to improving the areas where we work and play. As an organization, we share your value of serving others.

We advance our communities by promoting equity in the workplace, actively supporting our local neighborhoods, and contributing to a sustainable environment. Learn more about our commitment to service at www.missionsq.org/service.

We’re proud to partner with you in strengthening our communities.

Getting to Know Our New CEO/Executive Director, Julia D. Novak, ICMA-CM

A former local government manager and consultant, she sees building bridges and supporting members as her top priorities.

In January, ICMA President Tanya Ange announced that Julia D. Novak had been selected by a unanimous vote of the ICMA Executive Board of Directors to become the new ICMA chief executive officer and executive director. She is only the seventh individual in the association’s 110-year history to hold that title and the first woman to do so.

As an ICMA credentialed manager since 2002, Julia has served communities in multiple regions and in a variety of positions, including city manager and deputy city manager. As a successful business owner and senior executive, she applied her insights and entrepreneurial drive to build a thriving consulting practice where she and her team have become trusted advisors to counties, cities, villages, towns, townships, boroughs, and special districts with populations ranging from 8,000 to 1.3 million people. Her service extends internationally to include the United States, Iraq, China, and Africa. The ICMA Executive Board cited qualities including Novak’s integrity and deep commitment to the highest ideals of good local governance, in addition to her experience and expertise. While she is well known by many ICMA members and partners, we were eager to hear directly from Julia, so we caught up with her just before she formally stepped into her new role.

You have had an amazing career. How do you think those experiences will inform your new role?

I have been fortunate to experience working in and for local government from a variety of perspectives. I think this provides a unique lens to understand the needs of our members. My time in direct service to local government provided me with opportunities to work in communities of different sizes in different states (Colorado, Massachusetts, Maryland, and New York, as well as internships in Virginia and Kansas). Each jurisdiction had its own adaptation of Council-Manager government. Our members work in a variety of contexts, and ICMA has to be there for all of them! As a consultant, my clients were “our members” and I know how important it is to listen to their needs, develop an understanding for the context they are working in, and meet them where they are to support their organization. As executive director, I will lean on these lessons and the importance of listening to the needs of

our members and figure out how best to support them as they serve their communities.

What do you see as your top priorities coming into ICMA?

Well, I have a lot to learn about the innerworkings of the organization I’m now leading, so that is certainly a priority, and I do plan to spend my first weeks on the job somewhat internally focused. But what I truly see as the priority for me and for ICMA is our members. I’m eager to engage with them and understand the diversity of their needs and how ICMA can stand with them as they serve their communities. I plan to attend the Local Government Reimagined Conferences (lgr.icma.org) and will look for other opportunities in the coming months to connect with members.

I told the board that I see my role in four “buckets”: support the board, engage with our members, connect with our partners, and lead the organization. There are, of course, a lot of layers in each of those buckets. I’m excited about each of these components, but I would say I am especially excited to “get out there” and meet with members, listen to their concerns, and work with the team at ICMA to support them. To add a level of transparency in the next year and beyond, I’ll be making my calendar available to ICMA staff and our members so they will know where I am and who I’m meeting with.

You know the ICMA membership and partners very well. What is it that attracted you to this role at this particular time?

I don’t think anyone necessarily “aspires” to be the executive director of ICMA, but when the opportunity came around I reflected on the experiences I have had in my career and believed they might translate well. I hadn’t thought about this prior to considering the role, but upon reflection, I have worked in every ICMA region, my experiences include working both in local government and consulting for local governments, and I have worked successfully in a virtual environment for the past 20 years.

I can imagine no greater honor and privilege than filling a role that in my career has been held by three men I admire: Bill Hansell, Bob O’Neil, and Marc Ott. I am so excited to serve my colleagues

in this way and ensure ICMA is the special and meaningful organization I have held in esteem during my career.

You are making history as the first female ICMA executive director and have been a mentor and advocate for women in leading local government roles. In fact, there’s an article written by you on page 8 in this issue of PM. Do you think ICMA could do more to support and advocate for women and other underrepresented groups for that matter?

Well, first of all, I’d be just as happy to be the second or third female executive director, and I look forward to the time when we don’t have to think in terms of “firsts.” I believe ICMA has to be there for all our members—what I hope women and other underrepresented groups find when they check into ICMA is a welcoming community where they feel like they belong!

Our membership reflects the diversity of not only the United States but around the world, and we want people to find the support, mentoring, tools, and experiences they need to support their individual journey. Everyone who serves in leadership roles in our communities are examples and role models for others. I definitely want women and other underrepresented groups to see themselves serving in leadership roles in communities. I take great pride in the people I have worked with over the years that are now leading cities and counties and special districts. It’s really amazing to see.

It is something unique about professional local government that we all root for one another, learn from one another, and thrive together. I’ve also enjoyed connecting with professionals from the many disciplines that make up our local government organizations. The work we did with Local Government 2030 (localgov2030. com) was not just about the initiatives that came out of it, but about developing the collaborative, cross-disciplinary connection among the participants—leaders who are going to address the challenges of the future.

The “I” in ICMA has been around since 1924. How do you believe ICMA could become more relevant to local leaders throughout the world?

There are two components to the international work at ICMA: the relationships with affiliates and partners and the development work we do that strengthens democracy and is a vital part of our business model. I hope our partners will experience ICMA as open to listening and learning as we are to teaching and sharing. I had an amazing opportunity to teach strategic planning to local leaders in Baghdad, Iraq, and found that the concerns they expressed were nearly identical to what their counterparts in the United States would say—striving for safe places to raise families. Together we can connect good ideas, wherever they happen, to a worldwide network committed to creating thriving communities. Being part of that is very exciting to me and I look forward to connecting with our partners and adding value to our international work.

How do you envision the organization evolving over the next few years?

It is time for a new strategic plan to which our members can contribute and that our executive board will use to shape their priorities as they provide strategic direction to ICMA. Having worked on a few hundred strategic plans over the years, I’m excited to be in a position to fully participate in this process. The plan will provide guidance to the ICMA organization on how best to execute on the members’ vision for our future and the board’s priorities for the organization. This level of involvement by the board with input from members will result in a high degree of ownership, which ultimately leads to more successful outcomes.

Upon beginning any new career journey, we’re advised to “begin with the end in mind.” What would you like your legacy to be?

I would like to be thought of as a bridge builder bringing together members, the board, ICMA staff, our partners, and our affiliates. I would also like to think that ICMA can be a good home for individuals from a wide range of segments who will see value in our organization—from parks and recreation, public safety, and community relations to board members and others from special districts since they too are responsible for delivering services to communities.

Ultimately, I’d like to leave our members with a high-performing organization that understands their needs, provides impactful

resources and opportunities to connect with others, nurtures their career development, and celebrates the important work they do. That’s one reason why I’m really happy that we are bringing back Leadership ICMA (icma.org/page/ leadership-icma). Members can look to ICMA to provide those career-defining experiences that they may not be able to get on the job or elsewhere. My hope is that ICMA will be the organization that local government professionals want to belong to, engage with, and support.

There are so many challenges on the horizon—the proposed federal budget cuts to name just one. What do you see as the most daunting of these and what are your thoughts on addressing them? What is daunting is that there is a daunting challenge within each community that is nuanced and multifaceted; and ICMA, and our members, are working in an environment with a lot of uncertainty about how various levels of government will support one another moving forward.

Julia Novak | Rapid Fire Questions

Coffee or tea: Coffee

Coke or pepsi: Coke—very rarely and never diet

Cake or pie: Pie—has to be gluten free, sigh

A book you regularly re-read: The Anatomy of Peace by The Arbinger Institute

Favorite TV show: The Big Bang Theory

Favorite ways to relax: Golf, pickleball, hiking, and most anything I can do outdoors

Dogs or cats: Dogs. We have had Leonbergers for more than 20 years. It’s nice to have a dog that’s as big as you. Our current leo is Angus and he loves his mama!

Where are you from? In this business, sometimes you feel like you’re from everywhere, but I grew up in Fairfax County, Virginia. My amazing mother (Carmen Dyson) and sister (Ginny Dyson) still live in Fairfax!

Where do you live now? I jokingly answer that question by saying mostly Marriott hotels, sometimes Hilton…but “home” is in Cincinnati.

Tell us about your family: My husband Joe and I have been married almost 38 years. We have two adult children—Madelaine and Jack—who are both teachers. They are both married to wonderful people (Madelaine to William Wilkerson and Jack to Alexa Grace), and best of all we have two grandchildren (Carmen Amelia Wilkerson and Alexander McKnight Novak) and a new baby Wilkerson coming in June!

The joy of being a professional local government manager is the diversity of issues you get to deal with—and ICMA needs to stand with our members as they do this hard work. I am certainly concerned about the financial impact that changes in funding streams will have for our members and for our organization. We have to be mindful of that and ensure that we serve our members despite fiscal constraints, just like they will be expected to serve their communities with declining resources.

ICMA just celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Code of Ethics, which is core to our identity. What role has the Code played in your career?

The Code of Ethics is foundational to professional local government. Its existence is what makes us professionals. So, our commitment to the Code of Ethics must be part of how we serve our communities. It has been “true north” for me as a professional and frankly guided me as both manager and consultant. Political neutrality, for example, is key and has allowed me to be principled in doing the jobs I have been hired to do which is to serve the officials who were elected by the community.

I am glad that our membership embarked on a thorough review of the Code of Ethics and as we move into the second hundred years, we must remember that our commitment to the Code of Ethics allows us to stand true and provide equitable and efficient services to the communities we serve.

How would you describe your leadership style?

I think about my leadership style in terms of how people experience working with me. As executive director, I hope that our members experience me as someone they can relate to—and that I work hard to understand their needs.

For the ICMA organization, I hope they will experience me as a leader that cares about the work they do and one who works to create an environment and organizational culture that is collaborative and committed to excellence. I told the board that I want ICMA to be excellent, collaborative, trusted, and respected—and I hope to embody each of those words as I lead the organization.

Alexa, Jack, Joe, Xander, a very happy Juju, Little Carmen, Madelaine, and William

• Ideal foundation for newly elected councils

• Promotes collaboration and efficiency

• 5 comprehensive online courses

• Flexible self-paced learning

• Developed by George Cuff, governance expert

• Perfect for smaller communities with limited training budgets TRAIN YOUR ENTIRE COUNCIL Group License*

ICMA Member: $895

CITIES COME TOGETHER TO FORGE NEW PATHS ON

Budgeting

Rethinking Budgeting trailblazers Liberty Lake, Denver Public Library, and Minnetonka share early experiences putting practices into action.

BY CHRIS FABIAN, SHAYNE KAVANAGH, AND ELIZABETH STEWARD

Incorporated just 20 years ago, Liberty Lake, Washington, USA, is a young city with a small but growing population of 14,000, a strong economy and an expanding commercial base—and almost no debt. But even in this enviable position, city leaders are overhauling their budgeting and planning processes to better serve the community.

The timing is strategic: Liberty Lake is approaching its first major infrastructure replacement cycle—facing the complex challenge of repairing and replacing roads, storm water systems, and city buildings. As an early adopter of the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) Rethinking Budgeting best practices, the city is taking advantage of its strong position to transform budgeting and strategic planning processes so when a crisis arrives, it is resilient and nimble in response.

Liberty Lake, Washington, USA.

As the city implements its $18 million annual budget, it is also participating in a new group of passionate and likeminded budget practitioners— the Rethinking Budgeting Trailblazers Group. Convened in 2024, the group’s objective is to help more local government organizations successfully implement the Rethinking Budgeting recommendations.

“When you take this revolutionary kind of approach, you have to have people who are willing to go out and tell the story of why it’s important, what it means, and the places where they’re implementing it,” said Mark McAvoy, city administrator of Liberty Lake.

McAvoy acknowledges that implementing the new budgeting best practices isn’t a copy-and-paste scenario from one organization to the next. All public sector organizations are different and have to find their own paths to implementation.

“This is my fourth city, and I can see the benefit of making this change,” he said. “I want

The group was formed after the GFOA adopted new budgeting best practices in 2024, developed through the Rethinking Budgeting research initiative in partnership with the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). This body of work replaces a 1997 framework for budgeting best practices adopted by the National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting (NACSLB).

others to be able to think in a new way about what is possible, because it all goes back to benefiting the community.”

In his opinion, the new budgeting best practices give local government leaders the best opportunity to meet the challenges of today and better prepare for the future.

“Knowing where I came from in this budgeting and planning journey, mindset-wise, to where I am now, I can help other people make that same jump,” he said, “and we’ll be in a much better place across all local governments.”

Early Adopters Chart New Territory

The mission of the Rethinking Budgeting Trailblazers Group is to inspire and support local government organizations in unlocking the value of Rethinking Budgeting through a repeatable model for implementation, realworld success stories, ongoing education, and a community of peers.

The cross-sector Trailblazers team brings together local government practitioners, academics, researchers, and industry partners from across the United States and Canada to advance Rethinking Budgeting. All group members have expressed a desire to be early adopters of the recommendations to bring value to their communities and provide leadership to other local government organizations wanting to do the same.

The group’s mission is to learn together, create solutions, provide case studies and other external-facing materials, share resources, and build long-term professional relationships around this new operating system for budgeting in the public sector.

The 2024-2025 group includes:

• City of Oak Harbor, Washington, USA.

• City of Minnetonka, Minnesota, USA.

• City of Port Moody, British Columbia, Canada.

• City of Twin Falls, Idaho, USA.

• City of Liberty Lake, Washington, USA.

• Denver Public Library, Colorado, USA.

• Strategic Government Resources (SGR).

• GFOA.

• University of Central Florida, School of Public Administration.

• Envisio.

• Polco.

• Tyler Technologies. Vendors in the group, who provide solutions to support local government budgeting, planning and performance processes, intend to apply the group learnings in future development and integration of their technology solutions. However, there is no expectation that members become customers of the participating companies.

Is Your Organization Ready?

Participating group member organizations are required to take the GFOA’s Rethinking Budgeting Readiness Assessment with facilitation from the GFOA team. Because Rethinking Budgeting is far reaching, the assessment is most effective when undertaken with leadership participation from different areas of the organization, including city management.

The Readiness Assessment tool was developed with a similarly cross-functional group of private sector survey scientists, GFOA researchers, technology vendors, and government practitioners. For local governments looking for a place to start in rethinking their budgeting and planning processes, the assessment can be accessed from the GFOA website and used for free.

Small City, Big Vision

At Liberty Lake, the evolution isn’t just about a new way of budgeting—it’s about using new decision-making strategies to improve life in the community, which is already

known for its civic pride, recreational and educational opportunities, and abundant trails and green space.

By allocating resources for programs that are meeting strategic goals and measurably making the city better, city leaders aim to create greater transparency around spending, engage more deeply with residents about their priorities, and build resilience against future challenges, such as economic downturns or climate events.

In spring 2024, Liberty Lake was one of a handful of pilot communities to take the newly developed Readiness Assessment. It offers a tool and process that leads an organizational team through a series of questions and discussion areas to discover how prepared it is for change, to create cross-functional buyin, and to identify barriers to getting started.

To ensure broader participation, Liberty Lake gathered a cross section of city staff, elected officials, and members of the city’s community engagement commission. The biggest takeaway was a need for more inclusivity in the budget process, and that improvements

“I think of budgeting not at all as counting and balancing. It’s a deeper conversation about public policy, about solving problems, and truly wrestling with ‘Are we making the communities that we serve better?’”

—David Cooke, City Manager, Fort Worth, Texas, USA

not everyone who works for the city needs to understand everything about the budget, just being involved in regular budget discussions helps show how vital the work is for the community.

in communication around the budget would help to smooth the transition to a new process, build trust, and alleviate skepticism that data from the process would be used against departments.

In response to the assessment findings, the city is taking steps to make budgeting an organization-wide process. Rather than create separate budget meetings, Liberty Lake has incorporated budget discussions into existing operational meetings. While

“From a service delivery perspective,” McAvoy said, “we want everyone involved to know exactly how much they’re investing and what is being returned on that investment.” For example, the city wants to share with residents how much it pays for snow removal and find out if residents are satisfied with the level of service for their investment. “If you use that example and spread it to all other programs, that’s what we’re trying to accomplish,” McAvoy said. “And through it all, we want to have engagement with our residents, businesses, and visitors, and have them be able to tell us where we are missing the mark.”

Fort Worth Flips the Script

To understand the leading edge of Rethinking Budgeting in practice, look at what’s underway in the city of Fort Worth, where the annual budget of $3.6 billion is 200 times larger than that of Liberty Lake. To manage its growing

Liberty Lake, Washington, USA.

population of nearly one million across 360 square miles, the city is completely reframing how it plans, prioritizes, and measures success.

The North Texas city is adding roughly 100,000 new residents every five years, challenging the city to maintain or replace aging infrastructure while building new roads, water systems, and public facilities to support the increase in new residents.

Describing himself as a “frustrated budget analyst,” City Manager David Cooke in 2023 led the founding of The Fort Worth Lab (The FWLab) to provide a new research and data analytics hub supporting an entirely new budgeting and strategic planning process that tests assumptions, validates decisions, and models scenarios, among other functions.

“I think of budgeting not at all as counting and balancing,” Cooke said during a recent GFOA training webinar. “I think of budgeting as an analysis of whether we’re making

Mark McDaniel, deputy city manager and chief architect of the lab, notes that although the government has to operate differently than the private sector, that doesn’t mean it can’t borrow from private sector practices. This perspective is evident in the lab’s appointment of a chief transformation officer.

The lab also holds regular “Fort Worth Stat” meetings to analyze performance trends and major policy issues.

Perhaps most importantly, the lab provides a deeper analysis of how allocated resources improve community outcomes and budgets according to those priorities.

organizations adapt approaches based on core principles that work for their unique situation.

3. Strategic versus baseline services: Not every funded service is strategic. Some important baseline services (like garbage pickup) simply need to be maintained efficiently.

our communities better, and through the budget process, are we allocating resources that will get us there. It’s a deeper conversation about public policy, about solving problems, and truly wrestling with ‘Are we making the communities that we serve better?’”

In creating The FWLab, the city is borrowing from GFOA best practices but writing its own playbook, one that leaves behind a patchwork of legacy solutions, including spreadsheets and custom workflows. In its place, the city has assembled a core team of 30 employees serving as internal consultants for city departments and elected officials. Trust is a huge theme for the lab as it establishes a culture that invites questions and fosters collaboration. It also has benefitted from city council and leadership support for strategic investments in technology tools, including software solutions for priority-based budgeting, long-range planning, strategy and performance, and data analytics.

While city leaders know it will take several budget cycles for this new approach to take root, early results are promising. The lab has become a trusted partner in policy analysis, even challenging and customizing academic models to better serve Fort Worth’s unique needs.

“Budget is not an annual event,” McDaniel noted. “It’s a way of life.”

Eight Key Differences in New Budgeting Practices

Rethinking Budgeting advocates for greater community engagement in identifying strategic priorities; aligning funding with those priorities; and tracking, reporting and adjusting based on results. The following are eight key differences between traditional budgeting and GFOA’s new approach:

1. Prioritizing savvy decisions: Rethinking Budgeting prioritizes making savvy decisions over technical balancing of numbers. Once key strategic decisions are made, the technical components naturally follow.

2. Principles over practices: Rather than following rigid prescribed practices,

4. Collaboration over competition: Traditional budgeting often creates a zero-sum competition for resources that deplete shared assets. Rethinking Budgeting emphasizes collaborative approaches and efficient resource use to benefit the whole organization.

5. Less is more: Focus on efficiencies and avoid unnecessarily complex processes.

6. Risk-aware decision making: Budget processes must acknowledge and plan for uncertainty in revenues, community needs, and priorities rather than assuming perfect predictability.

7. Appropriate selfskepticism: Systems should be able to examine and adjust based on past decisions rather than taking them as unchangeable givens. At the same time, systems still need some stability. So, skepticism must have limits.

8. Long-term perspective: Budgeting should incorporate long-term thinking and planning rather than focusing solely on the next budget period.

Different Organizations, Similar Challenges

Among the participants of the Trailblazers group are the Denver Public Library (DPL) and city of Minnetonka,

Minnesota. While DPL and Minnetonka are at different points in their budget evolutions, they both share a recent challenge: implementing budget cuts.

Denver Public Library: Making Every Dollar Count

For the 2025 budget, the Denver Public Library, which includes the Central Library and 27 branch locations, was asked by the city and county of Denver to cut its budget by 7.54%, and had just a few business days to develop a reduction plan.

The library addressed the reduction with a mix of service adjustments and a creative, stringent approach to personnel management that introduced a savings target for each pay period met through natural attrition, delayed recruitment, and staff redeployment. This was made possible, in part, by planned renovation closures that allowed the library to leverage existing personnel to fill vacancies and minimize

service impacts. At the same time, the library chose a minimal reduction from the facilities management budget to guard against deferred maintenance resulting in unplanned service reductions in some of Denver’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.

“The library has come a really long way in its movement to more of a priority-based budget,” said Kirsten C. Decker, director of organizational strategy and development.

When Decker started at DPL

five years ago, she viewed the budget as a “black hole budget” (can’t find how much a certain program costs) or a “SALY budget” (same allocations as last year).

What the budget should be, she said, is “a statement of your priorities, an opportunity to really articulate what you’re prioritizing and care about.” As DPL started moving toward a strategic management cycle several years ago, the team agreed to prioritize aligning the budget to strategy. “Budgeting

is: how are you trying to make these dollars work for you?” Decker said. “How are you trying to align this investment with the priority?”

The transition has required DPL to first deconstruct its entire budget so it could understand existing spending patterns before reconstructing it focused on priorities. The process has included a lot of non-sexy parts, like redoing the accounting structure to better align with library operations, as well as coaching and upskilling of managers who oversee portions of the budget.

“It’s moving away from just straight-up math to understanding the value proposition of an investment,” said Decker, who has stayed apprised of the intersection of budget and performance strategy her entire career, reading just about everything from the GFOA think tank. “I think we have a responsibility to the communities we serve to make sure we’re making the revenue we’re given work for them, based on direct feedback from them,” she said.

As it continues to evolve its budget practices, DPL is committed to priority-based budgeting, articulating value,

performance measurement, and process improvement, Decker said. “We want to lead the way in this space.”

Minnetonka: Preparing Now for Future Challenges

Minnetonka, Minnesota, a Twin Cities suburb with approximately 55,000 people, is known for its rich natural resources, including a 58% tree canopy and the many recreational resources of Lake Minnetonka. Probably less well known but also impressive are the city’s Triple A bond rating and its reputation as a fiscally well-managed city.

But rather than resting on its laurels, the city is laying the groundwork for implementation of GFOA’s Rethinking Budgeting practices. Increasingly, the city’s strategic plan is driving the budget, and a more program-based approach is part of the city’s three-year plan.

“Our employees see the value in it,” said Minnetonka City Manager Mike Funk. “They want to be involved. They want to contribute, and you start to see this real synergy being built around it—more than I’ve ever seen.” Funk got into government 28 years ago to make a difference, and with that experience, he has come to realize that “cities can do it better.”

For its most recent budget cycle, Minnetonka faced budget pressures from inflation and the broadening of city services beyond the core (maintenance, public safety, snow plowing, etc.) to programs that make the community more inclusive and resilient to climate change.

To minimize additional property tax burdens for the 2025 budget, the council chose

“Our employees see the value in it. They want to be involved. They want to contribute, and you start to see this real synergy being built around it—more than I’ve ever seen.”

—Mike Funk, City Manager, Minnetonka, Minnesota, USA

to delay some high priority projects, including $37 million for necessary improvements to aging community facilities. “The budget process this year was probably one of our tightest ones to date,” said Finance Director Darin Nelson, “and I don’t necessarily see that improving.”

Capital-intensive needs on the horizon for Minnetonka include planning for a large public park in a redevelopment area called Opus, where a new light rail station will open in 2027, along with new businesses and housing. The city also must plan for improvements to four fire stations and two fitness facilities, and adding more trails across its 28 square miles.

The city’s revenue streams are heavily reliant on property taxes and user fees, and without sales, income or lodging taxes, the city has fewer options on the revenue side of the budget.

The city plans to participate in the Rethinking Budgeting Readiness Assessment and also implement software tools for priority-based budgeting aligned with its existing strategic planning and performance management tools and processes.

“Budgeting always gets harder,” Funk said, “but with the current economic cycle, we need to make sure we’re forward thinking and positioning our city for long term success.”

Steps to Better Budgeting

Local governments and agencies can start now on their own journeys in Rethinking Budgeting with these six steps:

1. Begin with GFOA’s Rethinking Budgeting Readiness Assessment to identify key focus areas across people, tools, process, and culture. This provides a structured framework for understanding your organization’s starting point, bright spots, and gaps.

2. Transform budgeting from a purely transactional process into a strategic and collaborative one by bringing together diverse perspectives from across your organization to discuss specific challenges around decision-making and core issues.

3. Build trust through transparency and collaboration, including creating psychological safety so departments can openly explore solutions without feeling defensive about their budgets. While cultural shifts take time, they are essential for enabling more strategic decisions.

4. Focus on getting better data and analysis to inform decisions, while being realistic that meaningful change takes time. Start with clear goals and priorities from leadership, then gradually build capacity and buy-in across the organization.

5. Adapt best practices to fit your organization rather

than follow a rigid formula. Operating as chefs rather than cooks, select and combine the ingredients that best suit your organization’s unique needs and circumstances.

6. Build community around these new approaches by seeking peer support through industry conferences, taking GFOA training, and leveraging GFOA’s educational materials, like the “Financial Foundations of Budgeting.”

Conclusion

While transforming budgeting processes may seem daunting, the experiences of early adopters like Liberty Lake, Denver Public Library, Minnetonka, and Fort Worth demonstrate that organizations of any size can successfully implement new approaches that better serve their communities. By focusing on strategic priorities, building trust through collaboration, and leveraging available resources and support networks, local governments can begin their own journeys toward more effective and transparent budgeting practices.

CHRIS FABIAN is senior director of product strategy –ERP budgeting at Tyler Technologies.

SHAYNE KAVANAGH is senior manager of research at Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA).

ELIZABETH STEWARD is vice president of marketing and research at Envisio.

Informed, Empowered, and Engaged: Citizen Participation in Local Government Budgeting

The highly successful participation experiences of Kenyan citizens in their local budget process serve as best practices for other jurisdictions worldwide.

BY FRANKLINE MUTHOMI AND KURT THURMAIER, PhD

Citizen engagement is a very uneven experience in many local governments. Local managers may endorse citizen involvement in governance in theory, but they may lack incentives for engagement in practice. From advisory committees to planning and zoning commissions, from town hall meetings and citizen surveys to the three-minute microphone statements, there are many options for citizens to be involved.

The town of Watamu in Kilifi County, Kenya

Managers and staff can glean valuable feedback from residents about program performance, capital project designs, and resource opportunities when they create and practice a genuine culture of meaningful engagement.

As trust in local government follows a declining curve that has begun to mimic trust in federal and state governments, managers might find some inspiration for increasing trust from citizen experiences in local government budgeting practices in Kenya.

Local Governments in Kenya

The government of Kenya— and the people of Kenya—take citizen engagement seriously. Governance reforms in Kenya’s 2010 Constitution created a devolved governance model with a central government

and 47 new sovereign county governments. County governments were given wide political, administrative, and fiscal autonomy in governing their affairs and their local communities.1 Each county has two branches: a governor elected at-large to lead and manage the executive offices, and a county assembly elected by ward.2

The implementation of the 2010 constitution of Kenya began after the 2013 general elections that enacted the devolved system of governments, including election of local governing members and institutionalization of local structures.3 While the national government retains authority for the police, military, education, and national roads, responsibility was devolved to county governments for infrastructure, planning and

economic development, fire and ambulance, libraries, parks and other cultural facilities, and healthcare.4 Some counties have begun to devolve further by recreating municipal governments that were dissolved in 2010.

Kenya’s 2010 constitutional amendments also developed fiscal reforms mandating citizen participation and performance-based budgeting.5 Constitutional provisions articulate public participation as a fundamental right of all citizens. The implementing laws mandate that citizens be able to express their preferences in project prioritization and budgetary allocations with direct engagement in the planning and budgeting processes of local (i.e., county) governments. The County Government Act of 2012 further stipulates structural

arrangements of public participation at the lowest village levels.6

Legislating participation was only the first step in empowering citizens in local decision-making. The counties have been experimenting with several citizen participation frameworks to engage and collect public input in budget decision-making since 2013. There are lessons to share after a decade of active citizen participation.

Meaningful Citizen Engagement

Research on citizen participation in the United States and elsewhere has established that combinations of participatory processes, mechanisms, outcomes, and environmental factors explain variations in who participates, how they participate, and at

Community budget champions in Busia County presenting a map of intra-county inequalities during the Equity Week in 2019. (Photo from IBP Kenya.)

what levels they participate. In the last six years, we have been conducting field research to explore whether and how citizens are empowered, well-informed, and engaged to influence county budgetary decisions in Kenya. In 2016 and 2017, we attended standingroom-only budget forums in different counties. Citizens asked questions to the budget staff and assembly members about capital projects such as shelters for bus stops, the number of health clinics and the lack of drugs and equipment in the new health clinics, and the poor quality of road resurfacing. In other meetings, residents berated budgeting staff that provided no documents and no transparency for the budget information they had a constitutional right to access. Although active citizen engagement in many counties just meets minimum legal requirements, several exemplary counties provide citizens with multiple opportunities to share their needs and priorities, including town hall meetings, focus groups, citizen committees, and citizen surveys. Moreover, citizens in several counties have taken it upon themselves to learn budgeting techniques and practices by frequently attending budget forums, with a significant number of them going through voluntary budget training and capacity-building initiatives with the International Budget Partnership Kenya (IBPK).7 Residents in some counties, together with county officials, have created social media groups to share information and deliberate on local matters. For example, WhatsApp groups are a common platform where residents audit their

Our research indicates that citizens choose to participate because they believe in the opportunity to influence budgetary decisions on issues that affect them.

governments by sharing photos of the status of capital projects, inform residents about public forums, and demand accountability for resource utilization. County officials also rely on social media groups to gain a better understanding of residents’ perceptions about their policies and actions.

In the context of citizen participation in budgeting, our research suggests that meaningful engagement depends on participatory transparency. When exploring citizen participation in county budgeting in 2018, we asked citizens to share their experiences with the processes, mechanisms, and outcomes of engagement during budgeting. We learned that meaningful engagement requires that (1) citizens are given access to relevant information before participating in budgeting discussions, and (2) citizens must be allowed to participate at different levels of decision-making processes. As manifested in Kenyan counties, participatory transparency encompasses the following factors:

Access to relevant information meant that citizens were provided with past expenditure reports and the proposed budgetary documents to cross-examine the implementation progress of previous capital project decisions and the current requests. The information is, and should be, presented in a non-technical format, as it is for citizen budgets, to help laypeople read, process, and use it to inform their needs and priorities. Furthermore, timely access to information helped them align their priorities with proposed decisions and use their knowledge of community

needs to advocate for changes where necessary.

Access to participation was crucial for citizens to voice their priorities and concerns. Since public meetings are the commonly used engagement approach, there was overwhelming support for decentralized participation forums. Village- and wardlevel public forums offered most residents inexpensive and accessible (in terms of distance) participation opportunities compared to those held at sub-county and county levels. Furthermore, decentralized public forums led residents to feel included in the process, even in regions where participation was tokenistic.

The Engaged Budgeting Model

Participatory transparency is central to our engaged budgeting model, informed by the specific roles of government and citizens in yielding participatory outcomes for both parties. As Figure 1 illustrates, governments must take an active role in providing reliable information to the public and reducing the obstacles to participation, which would in turn empower citizens to be informed about government decisions and access participation forums.

One of the distinctions between counties practicing engaged budgeting and those taking a minimalist approach is a bureaucratic culture that takes the information to where the citizens are—not waiting for citizens to find their way to the bureaucracy to state their preferences. For example, the member of county assembly (MCA) in a ward in Kisumu County, who also happened to be the county assembly budget

FIGURE 1. THE ENGAGED BUDGETING MODEL

Source: Muthomi and Thurmaier, 2021

committee’s chairperson, made sure that residents have access to all relevant budget documents through the ward office at no charge. The ward office is a central place for residents to share their needs and priorities with the area MCA and obtain timely policy decisions as they are released at the county level. Moreover, the MCA empowered residents to form community groups, (such as water committees, education committees, and youth committees, etc.) and advocate for community needs based on the common areas of interests. In this particular ward, residents were more optimistic about their engagement experiences compared to other regions in Kisumu County.

A major barrier to engaged budgeting is the lack of citizen

access to the room where it happens. Forums and open meetings scheduled midday at city hall systematically exclude residents who lack the flexibility to leave work or family responsibilities. Meetings where residents must travel a distance may not have funds for transportation, excluding lower-income residents. A process that invites residents into a neighborhood meeting, but then relies on bureaucrats to carry their message forward to higher levels of decisionmaking, risks diluting or otherwise misrepresenting the neighborhood’s perspective.

In contrast, Makueni County’s budget process is a bottom-up model (cluster system) where citizens’ priorities are an accumulation

of projects from the village, ward, sub-county, and county levels (see Figure 2).8

Developed by an engagement culture, Makueni County’s approach not only provides multiple opportunities for residents to participate and voice their concerns, but it also ensures diverse regional needs are reflected in final decisions. It emphasizes the synthesis of access to all the rooms where decisions are made with transparency in local village languages and multiple mediums. The bottom-up approach reduces the cost of participation to lower-income residents. The county also financially supports representatives elected by neighbors to represent them throughout the process—independent

of the elected member of the county assembly—providing the neighborhood with ears and eyes as well as a voice at the table. The outcomes for citizens in this type of process were more than meaningful citizen participation; they could see priorities being funded and this increased their trust in their local government.

Our research indicates that citizens choose to participate because they believe in the opportunity to influence budgetary decisions on issues that affect them. However, budgeting is a complex process. Adequate comprehension of the process and information requires repeat participation of citizens to master the vocabulary and glean insights about the

process of budgeting. Figure 1 associates participatory transparency with participatory outcomes in our model. When coupled with skills training, participants’ knowledge about budgets and budgeting processes can improve.

Budget Advocacy and Civic Education in Kenya

The International Budget Partnership Kenya (IBPK) advocates for credible, meaningful budgeting practices by pushing county governments to make public all the necessary budgetary information and provide opportunities for citizens to participate in the county budget-making process. Moreover, the IBPK has been providing civic education and budget training to citizens across the country as a

Local governments that desire improved citizen satisfaction and trust in their stewardship of their communities must provide meaningful public engagement through participatory transparency.

citizen proposals related to budget decisions.

The IBPK training focuses on various aspects of local governance and budgeting. Volunteers selected from wards and villages go through intensive skills training that covers:

1. The separate roles and shared functions of the national and county governments.

2. The budget cycle.

3. The necessary budget documents to be made publicly available.

Village Level

means of empowering them with knowledge and skills for interrogating budgetary information and pushing for community-based needs and priorities. To date, the NGO has trained over 870 designated budget champions and 60 designated budget facilitators who are spread over 36 counties and unified

through four regional hubs. Budget facilitators are leaders of county-level civic engagement activities during budget decisionmaking processes. Budget champions are communitybased influencers who mobilize citizens and support collective learning, analysis, and generation of

4. The sources of government revenues and revenue sharing principles. Participating volunteers are equipped with necessary skills of reading budgetary items, examining the public justification for budgeted programs, and how to make rational choices and priorities during public participation.9

County Level

*County Peoples Forum — 1 county forum. 1,000 participants, 11 representatives from the 60 sub-wards.

*Sub-county Peoples Forum — 6 sub-county forums. 53-97 participants, 11 representatives from each ward.

*Ward Peoples Forum — 30 ward forums. 72-92 participants, 11 representatives from 2 sub-wards.

*Sub-ward Peoples Forum — 60 sub-ward forums. 53-75 participants, 11 representatives from each of the 3-5 village clusters in a sub-ward.

Village Cluster Peoples Forum — 315 village forums. 143 participants, 11 representatives from each of the 13 villages per cluster.

Village People Forum — 3,455 village forums. At least 100 participants per village forum. Elect/select 11 representatives to form the village development committee.

*10-20 co-opted representatives from organized groups are also included at these levels of public forums.

FIGURE 2. THE BOTTOM-UP CLUSTER SYSTEM IN MAKUENI COUNTY

Both the budget facilitators and champions use their newly equipped skills to train and empower others in the community in understanding the importance of public participation and how to engage effectively.

Key Takeaways for Local Governments

Around the World

Local governments that desire improved citizen satisfaction and trust in their stewardship of their communities must provide meaningful public engagement through participatory transparency. Governments need to ensure the public has access to relevant information, can access public participation forums that are inexpensive and are within their reach, and that the public is engaged in different stages of decision-making processes.

First, government/budget officials should increase citizen accessibility by taking information about proposed capital projects, program evaluations, program revisions, and other matters to where citizens are—and when they are available: near their homes, on different days, and at different times. Find them in service club meetings, PTA/PTO meetings, video meetings over lunch hours, and on different dates. Increasing access to information this way simultaneously increases access to participation in all stages of the budgeting process. When Makueni County brings budgeting engagement to the village level, it leads to increased participation of villagers at higher stages of the process.

Second, the quality of budgeting information

Governments need to ensure the public has access to relevant information, can access public participation forums that are inexpensive and are within their reach, and that the public is engaged in different stages of decision-making processes.

matters. Producing budget documents that align with the GFOA budget presentation award10 ensures information is provided within a policy context, with multiyear data in graphic and textual formats, glossaries of terms, and tables of content that make navigating the document easier and more comprehendible. So is providing budget information that is non-technical for lay citizens to be informed about government programs, decisions, and plans. Many residents distrust their governments because they cannot determine how their tax dollars (or Kenya Shillings) are being spent in addressing community needs and interests. By providing clear budget information, governments can increase the trust of their residents.

Third, civic education is crucial in empowering residents with knowledge and skills of public budgeting. Kenya’s constitution provides the public the right to be involved in government decisions on issues that affect them, but without the necessary skills, the public would be limited in asking the right questions. There is no doubt that the International

Budget Partnership Kenya (IBPK) is filling this gap, as many residents are learning how to read and evaluate budgetary decisions. Skilled residents feel more empowered to attend public forums and represent their community in advocating for resources and developmental needs. A quick glance at the training session videos (see note 10) reveals easy parallels for other local governments.

In the United States, the overlapping jurisdictions for taxpayers is confusing, and city managers often get blamed for issues that are another jurisdiction’s decision or issue. Part 2 of module 1 in the IBP video is devoted to training residents about which jurisdiction is responsible for which service and who is accountable. This is preparatory work for residents to know the limited scope of the municipal budget for which they wish to influence allocations. Part 3 of module 1 is also preparatory training, explaining which revenues the local governments control and which they do not. Investing in this civic education is a worthwhile investment for local government managers to help residents understand the fiscal and statutory

environments in which their budget allocations can be made.

Conclusion

Citizens want to be informed, empowered, and engaged in decision-making processes in ways that they can attribute their voices to final decisions. Implementing an engaged budgeting model can help local governments meet the necessary conditions for meaningful engagement and yield positive outcomes in decision-making processes. The requirements are basic and cost little.

Most importantly, our Kenyan research suggests that engaged budgeting is, at the core, a question of intention and commitment. Engaged budgeting requires a culture of engagement whereby staff are encouraged to work beyond legal obligations to find out what residents think about what the local government is doing, thinking of doing, or evaluating. They schedule engagement sessions at the convenience of residents rather than staff. They approach uncomfortable resident questions with curiosity instead of defensiveness. What does the resident really want to know,

and how can you provide that information—perhaps even more—to oblige their democratic right? A culture of engagement does the following:

• Keeps the public regularly informed about government decisions, actions, and plans.

• Adopts transparency measures that ensure the public can access relevant information with minimum efforts.

• Designs and implements (multiple) public engagement mechanisms that reflect the composition of residents within the local jurisdiction.

• Empowers residents to access public participation activities and change or

influence final decisions based on their needs and preferences.

• Provides feedback to the public on how their input contributed to the final decisions, what was taken into consideration, and what ought to be considered in the future.

The positive participation experiences of many Kenyan citizens in their local budget process are beacons for meaningful engagement practices in local budgeting in other jurisdictions.

ENDNOTES AND RESOURCES

1 Key provisions are in Articles 10, 174, 201, and 232 of the Constitution. See Chapter 11 on Devolved Government. It provides the objectives, functions, powers, and structures of devolved governments.

2 Article 196 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 stipulates the powers and

privileges of the County Assembly. According to the County Government Act of 2012, the County Assembly is composed of elected members representing the number of electoral Wards, six nominated members representing marginalized groups, and the speaker who is an ex officio member.

3 See Nyambura, Joyce and Jason Grant, “County Government Structure in Kenya: An overview of the local government structure in Kenya, ICMA, April 26, 2022 https://icma.org/ articles/article/county-governmentstructure-kenya

4 See https://afrocave.com/role-ofcounty-governments/#devolvedfunctions-in-kenya .

5 The Constitution of Kenya was inaugurated on August 27th, 2010 as the supreme law. However, active implementation was after the 2013 general elections which officiated the devolved system of governments, election of local governing members, and institutionalization of local structures. Key provisions are in Articles 10, 174, 201, and 232.

6 County Government Act of 2012.

7 https://internationalbudget.org/ country/kenya/

8 Read more about Public Participation Framework in Makueni County: https:// makueni.go.ke/public-participationframework/

9 See the Kenya County Budget Training Workshop conducted by the International Budget Partnership Kenya (IBPK): https://www.youtube.com/pl aylist?list=PLuAL7CEtZWbouu7aKydl Kt6_CEzWkiYf-

10 https://www.gfoa.org/budget-award

FRANKLINE

MUTHOMI is an assistant professor of public administration at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, USA.

KURT THURMAIER, PHD, is a distinguished engagement professor of public administration at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, USA.

Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative

TAX INCREMENT FINANCING

Navigating the Intersection of Policy, Development, and Reform

How to refine your TIF practices, align them with community goals, and navigate today’s fiscal and social landscape.

BY JOHN S. WEIDL

Tax increment financing (TIF) is one of the most widely used economic development tools in local government. It allows municipalities to stimulate growth through targeted public investments financed by future tax revenues. However, its implementation can present challenges, from equity concerns to fiscal risks. As municipalities face increasing demands for transparency, sustainability, and inclusivity, TIF must evolve to meet modern policy priorities.

This article explores TIF’s applications and challenges, using Milwaukee and Cook County case studies to highlight successes and shortcomings. It offers actionable recommendations for local government managers to refine TIF practices, align them with community goals, and navigate today’s fiscal and social landscape.

Key Takeaways for Local Government Managers

Mandate transparency:

Establish public reporting on TIF performance to enhance accountability and trust.

Promote equity: Prioritize projects that include affordable housing, workforce development, and benefit underserved communities.

Mitigate fiscal risks: Standardize revenue projections and conduct robust feasibility studies.

Advance sustainability: Use TIF to fund green infrastructure and climate resilience projects.

Foster Collaboration: Develop regional task forces and revenue-sharing mechanisms to coordinate overlapping jurisdictions.

The Evolution of TIF: From Urban Blight to Broader Applications

Introduced in California in 1952 to combat urban decline, TIF originally focused on addressing blight in urban cores. Over the decades, its applications have broadened significantly, encompassing projects like industrial parks, mixed-use developments, and

environmental remediation.

In Wisconsin, TIF is a critical tool for municipalities operating under strict levy limits, enabling investment without raising property taxes. However, this flexibility has also created challenges.

Critics argue that TIF’s broad applicability sometimes prioritizes politically motivated projects over those targeting areas of greatest economic need. As municipalities rely more heavily on TIF amid declining state and federal support, questions about its long-term sustainability persist.

Mechanics of TIF: A Double-Edged Sword

TIF works by freezing property tax values within a designated tax increment district (TID). New taxes generated from increased property values—the “increment”—are reinvested into development projects. While this mechanism can drive significant growth, it also carries risks:

Fiscal Risks: Municipalities often issue bonds to finance projects upfront, relying on future increments for repayment. If projected revenues fall short, local budgets can become strained.

Equity Concerns:

Benefits are not always evenly distributed, and some TIF projects may exacerbate disparities rather than alleviate them.

Effective governance and rigorous feasibility studies are essential to mitigate these

risks and ensure TIF achieves its goals.

Empirical Evidence: Successes and Shortcomings

Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley

Between 2002 and 2011, Milwaukee transformed the Menomonee Valley from an industrial wasteland into a thriving commercial and recreational hub. The project attracted 49 businesses, created over 3,200 jobs, and increased property values by 94%. Investments in environmental remediation and infrastructure upgrades

program benefits and straining essential services like schools. These governance challenges underscore the importance of regional collaboration and oversight.

Aligning TIF with Modern Priorities

As community expectations evolve, municipalities can leverage TIF to address broader challenges such as climate change, social inequities, and fiscal constraints. Practical recommendations for local government managers include:

TIF remains a powerful yet complex tool for local governments.

showcased TIF’s potential to integrate economic, social, and environmental goals. However, limited spillover benefits to nearby low-income neighborhoods highlighted the need for equity-focused planning. Future projects must incorporate strategies to ensure development benefits extend beyond the immediate TID.

Cook County’s Overlapping Districts

Suburban Cook County, Illinois, effectively leveraged TIF to attract new businesses and revitalize infrastructure. Conversely, overlapping special districts in Chicago created competition for limited resources, diluting

1. Promote Equity

- Require affordable housing quotas in TIF-funded projects.

- Prioritize workforce development initiatives targeting underserved populations.

- Use equity-focused evaluations to ensure marginalized communities benefit.

2. Advance Sustainability

- Fund renewable energy installations, flood mitigation, and green infrastructure through TIF.

- Incorporate environmental performance metrics into TIF project evaluations.

3. Enhance Transparency

- Mandate public reporting on TIF performance, including financial, social, and environmental outcomes.

- Engage community stakeholders in planning to build trust and align projects with local priorities.

4. Foster Regional Collaboration

- Develop task forces to coordinate overlapping jurisdictions and mitigate resource competition.

- Implement revenuesharing mechanisms to ensure fiscal equity among municipalities.

Barriers to Reform

Efforts to reform TIF face resistance from stakeholders who fear increased oversight

could delay projects or reduce revenue streams. Developers, municipal officials, and overlapping jurisdictions often have conflicting interests, complicating reform initiatives. To overcome these barriers, state-level mandates for standardized reporting and evaluations can provide a foundation for equitable and effective TIF implementation.

The Path Forward

TIF remains a powerful yet complex tool for local governments. By prioritizing transparency, equity, and sustainability, municipalities can unlock TIF’s full potential to drive inclusive growth. Local government managers are pivotal in shaping TIF strategies that meet community needs while addressing broader policy challenges.

REFERENCES

Briffault, R. (2010). The most popular tool: Tax increment financing and the political economy of local government. University of Chicago Law Review, 77(1), 65-95.

Eagon, B. (2017). TIF-for-tax: Upholding TIF’s original purpose and maximizing its use as a catalyst for community economic development. Wisconsin Law Review, 180-224.

Johnson, C. L., & Kriz, K. A. (2019). Tax increment financing and economic development: Uses, structures, and impact (2nd ed.). State University of New York Press.

Kim, G. (2024). The dynamic and persistent effects of tax increment financing as an example of place-based policy: Evidence from Cook County, Illinois. Regional Studies, 58(6), 1339-1355. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.20 23.2242401

Lefcoe, G. (2011). Competing for the next hundred million Americans: The uses and abuses of tax increment financing. The Urban Lawyer, 43(2), 427-482.

Merriman, D., Skidmore, M., & Kashian, R. (2011). Do tax increment finance districts stimulate growth in real estate values? Real Estate Economics, 39(2), 221-250. https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1540-6229.2010.00294.x Merriman, D. (2019). Improving tax increment financing (TIF) for economic development. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Retrieved from https://www. lincolninst.edu/publications

A Step-by-Step Guide to Tax Increment Financing

Tax increment financing is one of the most complex, controversial, and widely used economic development tools utilized by local governments. Written for local government professionals and practitioners in training, this book presents a practical approach to analyzing TIF projects by offering a stepby-step guide alongside real-world case studies that help readers unpack and decipher the complexities of TIF.

Skidmore, M., Merriman, D., & Kashian, R. (2009). The relationship between tax increment finance and municipal land annexation. Land Economics, 85(4), 598-613.

Tosun, M. S., & Yakovlev, P. (2002). Tax increment financing and local economic development. West Virginia Public Finance Program.

Wisconsin Department of Revenue. (2017). Tax incremental financing (TIF) information. Retrieved from https://www.revenue. wi.gov/Pages/SLF/tif.aspx

Further Reading

Briffault, R. (2010). The most popular tool: Tax increment financing and the political economy of local government. University of Chicago Law Review, 77(1), 65–95.

Eagon, B. (2017). TIF-for-tax: Upholding TIF’s original purpose and maximizing its use as a catalyst for community economic development. Wisconsin Law Review, 180–224. Merriman, D. (2019). Improving tax increment financing (TIF) for economic development. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

JOHN S. WEIDL is city manager of Whitewater, Wisconsin, and a doctoral candidate in business administration at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

• Best practices from across the country

• Ways to make conversations and decisions less subjective and more objective

• The “inside baseball” of how TIF deals get vetted

• Downloadable spreadsheet templates that accompany the text

LEADERSHIP BOOKSHELF

You can rely on these ICMA publications to guide and inform your leadership and learning.

Future-Proofing Local Government Essays on Innovation

ICMA LOCAL GOVERNMENT

REIMAGINED INITIATIVE

A collection of essays written by local government practitioners, academics, and industry professionals that inspire readers to consider the future of local government, innovative approaches to common challenges, and impacts on service delivery. 2025.

FREE Digital Download

Managing Local Government Services: The Challenge of Change (4th Edition)

BY KIMBERLY L. NELSON AND CARL W. STENBERG

This revised edition provides an overview of practices and strategies for effective service delivery in a complex and at times chaotic environment, along with additional resources. 2024.

ICMA Member Price: $65.95

Non-Member Price: $89.95

The Effective Local Government Manager (4th Edition)

EDITED BY ROBERT E. (BOB) LEE DPA, ICMA-CM AND MICHAEL ABELS, DPA, ICMA-CM

Learn how to navigate dynamic, complex 21st Century forces: helping elected officials provide effective leadership, building a bridge between the community and local government, helping the community design its future, leveraging resources, and promoting quality service delivery. 2023.

ICMA Member Price: $65.95

Non-Member Price: $89.95

ICMA is the leading publisher of books, reports, survey research, training materials, and other resources used by local government management professionals, municipal and county associations, and colleges and universities. These and other ICMA print and digital publications and data sets can be purchased at bookstore.icma.org

Tax

Increment

Financing: A Practical Guide for Analyzing TIF Risks, Benefits, and Outcomes

BY JOHN KOVARI AND JOSEPH E. GROMAKI

A practical approach to analyzing TIF projects with a step-by-step guide and real-world case studies that help readers unpack and decipher the complexities of TIF. With your purchase comes several downloadable digital excel files allowing you to use this resource to its fullest potential! 2024.

Available in print and digital.

ICMA Member Price: $55.95

Non-Member Price: $65.95

Managing Local Government: Cases in Effectiveness (2nd Edition)

EDITED BY ROBERT BLAIR AND KIMBERLY L. NELSON

Features 27 real-world scenarios tackling today’s most pressing local government issues. 2025. Available in print and digital.

ICMA Member Price: $55.95

Non-Member Price: $65.95

Effective Supervisory Practices (6th Edition)

EDITED BY MICHELLE POCHÉ FLAHERTY

Boost your leadership skills, gain a thorough understanding of your role as a manager/ supervisor, and increase your productivity through quality management and more effective teamwork. (To learn more about ICMA’s companion training series, contact jlamphear@ icma.org.) 2023. Available in print and digital.

ICMA Member Price: $55.95

Non-Member Price: $65.95

Making the Decision to Fire an Employee

While never an easy task, use these considerations to go about it the right way.

This is an unpleasant subject. Wouldn’t be easier if all our key staff were hard-working, forward-thinking, ethical team players with excellent technical and interpersonal skills and political judgment? No need for this article then.

But it is not always so. A large part of our responsibility as a city or county manager is to field and lead the best possible team of professionals to ensure competent services, projects, and problem-solving for the public we all serve.

People management is our greatest challenge as leaders. Our mark as a top executive is not how many balanced budgets you helped to usher through, new public facilities built during your tenure, the agency’s bond rating, or the number of awards your city/county receives. It is the strength of the management team of department directors and direct reports we are able to build over time. How well they perform—both individually and as a team—is essential to good government administration and operations. How they perform when the top leader is not around is the true test of the chief executive’s effectiveness.

However, there will be times when a senior staff member will need to be fired. It can happen for any number of reasons. It is hard. You probably know them well and few people take pleasure in firing someone. We are keenly aware that causing someone to lose their job will cause hardship for the individual and their family. It is a decision not to be taken lightly. But hardships can be created by not firing someone, by ignoring problems, or indefinitely postponing a difficult decision. The buck stops with the chief executive.

BY ROD GOULD, ICMA-CM, DR. FRANK BENEST, ICMA-CM & JAN PERKINS, ICMA-CM

When Separation Is Necessary

Sometimes a key department head is viewed as indispensable. However, if that person does not perform the job satisfactorily, then separation is called for. What constitutes “performing unsatisfactorily”? This could be because the individual consistently fails to meet expectations, despite training, coaching, and counseling. It could be for an ethical lapse or commission of a crime (this would be an easy decision, of course). It could be because the individual simply cannot get along with peers or subordinates and leaves dysfunction in their wake.

We need to keep in mind the impact on others of the senior managers with whom we surround ourselves. Even if the person is technically brilliant and gets things done, at what cost is that happening? It could be because something has so seriously changed in the senior staff member’s life that they cannot carry out the job responsibilities any longer. Maybe the person cannot be trusted to carry out the chief executive’s vision and message and is undermining the team.

Regardless of the reason, the city/county manager must carefully assess the situation, correctly decide the course of action, and carry it out with resolve but also compassion. What follows are some do’s and don’ts regarding your direct reports.

Before You Get to the Point of a Firing

Do assume that all your direct reports are qualified

Trust

and confidence in senior leadership depends on much more than skills.

leadership depends on much more than skills.

Do offer executive coaching to the department head. It will only work if the individual accepts that they need to make a change in their behavior and performance. If the person is in denial, coaching will not be effective, but it is a good step to offer it, with the understanding that you have expectations of change.

and highly competent in their positions when you take a new position as a city/county manager. At the outset, give the senior staff member the benefit of the doubt if you don’t really know them.

Do get to know them. Meet with them formally and informally. If you have heard concerns from others about the person, or have observed some things that concern you, discuss the early warning flags with them directly and openly. Read their human resources file.

Do be very clear about your expectations and your desire to see them be successful. Understand their work plans and adjust as needed. Support and validate the behaviors and actions you seek.

Do establish that expectations are more than work plans. Expectations are about ethics, ensuring that the employees below the department heads are also accountable and doing the right thing. Sometimes, when something major goes wrong in a department that the department head should have known about and prevented, it means that the department head can no longer do the job and cannot stay in the role. Trust and confidence in senior

Things to Do if You Believe You Need to Fire the Senior Manager

Do be mindful of state and federal laws, collective bargaining rights, civil service protections, and other constraints. Consult with your human resources director about serious performance or attitudinal problems and seek their advice. They will often have insights and history that you may lack and can make certain that you follow all laws and rules if you must terminate the employee— even if that employee is “at will.” Also, check in with the city attorney or county counsel to be sure that your process and decisionmaking is fully within the law, documented, and will stand up.

Do observe the platinum rule: treat others the way they hope and expect to be treated.

Do provide some grace for errors of judgment and reduced performance if the person is ill or suffering problems at home.

Do offer assistance to your separated employee, such as job search guidance, personal counseling recommendations, and any severance and benefits extension that are due. Promptly process the

last paycheck and cashout of any leaves that are required under the personnel rules. If appropriate, offer the individual the chance to resign in lieu of firing. Although this is not proper if there is a criminal or ethical reason for the termination.

Do think about how much time you and the team will have to focus on the right things once the person is gone. It is likely that much time is being wasted now by handwringing over a poor performer or someone who can’t get along with others. Visualize the better future that is around the corner.

Do be clear about the costs of maintaining status quo of keeping a problem department head. There are many people to consider in the equation—not just the person who is under-performing. The number-one reason people leave their employers is poor supervision. If the underperforming department head is creating problems for their staff, you have much more to worry about than the department head alone.

Do prepare a statement that announces the departure that respects the rights of the individual.

Do inform the governing body promptly once you have terminated the employee. Make sure the governing body hears it from you and not others. But this is not to ask permission since it is your decision and you do not want to invite interference.

Things to Avoid if a Firing Is Necessary

Don’t equivocate and delay an inevitable termination decision. Things will rarely get better and often get worse. The rest of the organization is watching and expects you to act.

Don’t second guess and constantly revisit the decision. Make it and move on. Trust that you had good reason to terminate the senior employee and that your reasoning was sound.

Don’t discuss your reasons for separating the employee with others. Be sure to respect the privacy rights of the individual affected and don’t add to their challenges upon separation.

Don’t let political pressure or community opinion to influence your decision to keep or fire a department head. Make the decision based on what you know to be right for the organization.

Don’t try to convince the employee that the termination is for the best. If you have set the expectations correctly and counseled them along the way, the decision should come as little surprise. Keep the meeting short. Be prepared for emotion and pushback. Stay focused and have all the paperwork ready. Have another person in the room with you when you state your decision to the employee.

Don’t agree to provide references avoiding the reason for the firing. Insist that if the employee wants you to speak to a future employer that you have a full release signed by the employee that has been vetted by the city attorney/county counsel.

Don’t delay or rush the recruitment. Do it right. Don’t settle for simply a qualified replacement. Hire a star or appoint an interim official and recruit again if the first recruitment fails to produce one.

A Theory About Morale

The court-appointed receiver of a major housing authority once offered this theory and advice to those who worry that firing key people will tank morale. The receiver was having to clean house at an agency that had been a patronage dumping ground for city and state politicians for many years and was failing in its mission. Serious action was needed to right the ship.

He opined that every employee in an organization has two lists in their head regarding the staff. The

Building and nurturing the strongest possible senior management team is your largest responsibility as a manager. That requires feeding and occasional weeding.

first list is of those who consistently seek to do good work, earn their paychecks, and treat others decently while doing their jobs. The second list is of shirkers, malcontents, incompetents, and troublemakers who cannot or will not do their jobs and/or create dysfunction as they do so. He said that people’s lists are remarkably similar, except as to where they place themselves.

His theory is that if you fire someone on the first list, morale will be negatively affected as it looks unjust or personal. On the other hand, if you fire someone from the second list, morale will remain the same or even edge up. The organization wants management to hold people accountable and to do so fairly. Staff keep score by means of these lists.

In our experience, when we replace a fired senior employee with a much more professional, personable, and effective one, staff quickly forget about the fired employee and move ahead. We’ve done our job as an executive.

It’s About Public Service

Firing employees who cannot or will not meet their job expectations is just part of the job of the chief executive. There may be some magical thinking in our profession that if we are really a good manager, we will rarely if ever fire someone due to our exceptional leadership, coaching, and mentoring skills. It is unlikely that we will get through our career without having to do that.

If a colleague boasts to you that they’ve never had to fire anyone, their approach to leadership may not be a model to follow.

Separating a person from employment is difficult and fraught with emotions. Follow your instincts and these do’s and don’tsand you will do right by your organization and the employee involved.

Building and nurturing the strongest possible senior management team is your largest responsibility as a manager. That requires feeding and occasional weeding. Doing the hard thing right will pay many dividends for your city or county. Respect it, and don’t shy away from it.

ROD GOULD, ICMA-CM is chairman of the board of HdL Companies, a former ICMA Executive Board member, retired city manager, consultant, and supporter of all those who toil in local government service. (rodgould17@gmail.com)

DR. FRANK BENEST, ICMA-CM is a retired city manager and currently serves as a local government trainer and ICMA’s liaison for Next Generation Initiatives. (frank@frankbenest.com)

JAN PERKINS, ICMA-CM is vice president of Raftelis, a local government management consultant and facilitator, retired city manager, and a believer in good government and in the city management profession. (jperkins@raftelis.com)

Advancing Career Technical Education by Adopting Lessons from Germany’s Dual System

As Northern Virginia advances clean energy goals, global exchanges bring new ideas for workforce development.

BY DR. DALE MEDEARIS, DR. TRICIA S. JACOBS, PATRICK EARLE, KRIS MARTINI, ARRAN RICHARDS, TANJA MAYER-HARDING, AND GEOVANNI CASTANO

The local governments of Northern Virginia are working aggressively to transition to a clean energy economy, with Arlington and Fairfax counties having committed to communitywide carbon neutrality by 2050. Region-wide initiatives, such as SolSmart and Solarize NOVA, have expanded the opportunities for solar deployment, and as a result, 1,410 Virginia households have made the switch to solar, generating more than 12.7 MW of solar capacity since 2014. In 2022, ICMA’s SolSmart program awarded the Northern Virginia region gold status in recognition of their leadership in implementing solar policies and programs that are considered best practices and models for other communities.

However, with the deployment of new technology comes new challenges. The application, maintenance, and operation of sustainable energy and related infrastructure is critical to enabling the local governments of Northern Virginia to meet their climate and sustainability goals. Installing, running, and maintaining solar photovoltaic systems, transmission lines, data centers, micro-grids, and electric vehicles relies on the adequate supply and retention of a trained workforce and the development of paid apprenticeships that ensure a pipeline of skilled workers are ready to build and service the new infrastructure. Moreover, there is a significant opportunity to diversify the clean energy workforce. According to the Brookings Institute’s 2019 report, “Advancing Inclusion through Clean Energy Jobs,” fewer than 20% of workers in clean energy production and energy efficiency sectors are women, while Black workers fill less than 10% of these sector’s jobs.1 This at a time when, according to the “National Solar Jobs Census” conducted in 2023, solar energy jobs grew by over 27% in the Commonwealth of Virginia between 2018 and 2023.2 Northern Virginia’s hightech–focused economy, research-intense academic landscape, high-performing primary school systems, and large college-educated population have often marginalized appreciation for career technical education (CTE) and training. To better understand the potential for CTE and learn from a program that has decades of success,

Northern Virginia leaders sought the opportunity to learn through global exchange.

Northern

Virginia Looks to the German “Dual System”

As Northern Virginia sought out successful models, they were particularly interested in the German “dual system.” Since the Middle Ages, Germany has developed and refined a system of apprenticeships that today is considered the global benchmark for workforce training. The German dual system is a consensusdriven process involving coordination among labor unions, businesses, schools, and governmental regulators in the co-development of standards for curricula, wages, credentials, safety, and testing. The dual system fuses on-thejob paid apprenticeships (about 70% of the work week) with the balance spent at school (about 30% of the work week). Apprenticeships in Germany usually start at the age of 16. Employers cover approximately 75% of the costs of the three-year apprenticeships. Standardized exams and the monitoring of training for the professions are overseen by the guilds or chambers of commerce. Youth in Germany have the opportunity to learn a paid skilled trade without a college diploma. However, the career pathway pursued by students within the dual system has very often led to the pursuit and attainment of a college education.

Germany has managed to successfully converge sustainable development with career technical education and, in the process, elevate

the profile of the trades. For decades, Germany has been recognized as a global pioneer in the sustainable technology sector, especially renewable energy. Much of this can be attributed to its unique education system that has created a highly trained workforce capable of producing, operating and servicing its grid, solar photovoltaic systems, wind turbines, district energy systems and energy efficient building programs. Germany’s dual system has seamlessly fused together theoretical education and practical experience through apprenticeships for over 1.3 million students in over 334 occupations. The results are exceptional. German youth unemployment is regularly under 10% (currently it’s at 5.75%), and greenhouse emissions in Germany are falling due to the success of the country’s ambitious multisector energy policies.

Global Connections and Learning Exchange

The relationships between Northern Virginia and Germany run deep and create exceptional opportunities for learning and the exchange of ideas. Germany is the second largest investor in the Northern Virginia region, which has the world’s fortyeighth largest economy with over $276 billion of activity. A 2023 analysis of foreign direct investment in Northern Virginia pointed out that approximately 101 German firms invest over $800 million in the Northern Virginia region. The investment created roughly 6,000 jobs, mostly in the science and technology sectors, and with

wages often 15% higher than their U.S. counterparts in equivalent sectors.

Germany is the largest investor in the U.S. energy sector, as evidenced in Siemens Gamesa supplying wind turbines for Dominion Energy’s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW).

Rehau, a German-based developer of geothermal energy systems with North America headquarters in Loudoun County, has developed groundloop heat exchange systems for Alexandria City Public Schools. The presence of these and other German-based firms in Northern Virginia involved with sustainable energy and technologies, such as VW, SAP, and Airbus, serve as potential portals for the suitable adoption of the dual system, especially through internships and workshadow types of activities. There are more reasons to be optimistic for Northern Virginia’s adoption of apprenticeships in the sustainable energy technology sector. In 2023, the United States departments of Commerce, Education, and Labor co-launched the Select Talent USA program, a federal program connecting foreign investment in the United States to the creation of apprenticeships and workforce development. The first pilot projects of Select Talent USA will focus on connecting foreign investors from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria with resources and experts to establish quality training and education programs in the United States.

In light of these exceptional assets, in November 2023, a seven-member team of CTE educators and teachers

from Arlington County and Alexandria City schools, accompanied by staff from Dominion Energy and the Northern Virginia Regional Commission, traveled to the Stuttgart and Hamburg regions. They met with representatives from renewable energy businesses, guilds, unions, chambers, and schools to study the application of Germany’s dual system to Northern Virginia. Subsequent to their return, the Northern Virginia CTE educators observed multiple potential lessons about the dual system that applied directly to workforce training in NOVA. These include opportunities to:

• Inform curricula for auto-technicians studying electric vehicle technology about the integration of diagnostics to instill higherorder thinking skills.

• Inform the updating of the automotive teachers’ training skills.

• Inform the CTE introductory skills programs within specific trades.

• Inspire the creation of workforce fairs in middle schools and high schools, especially in the sustainable technology and energy sectors. This is very relevant for Northern Virginia where formal agreements between school districts and German-based firms such as VW, Mercedes Benz, Lidl, and Airbus can lead to short-term and long-term apprenticeships for CTE and STEM students.

• Inform training and create apprenticeship opportunities within programs such as the Virginia Energy Workforce Consortium (VEWC).

• Inform the safety training programs of utilities such as Washington Gas and Dominion Energy.

Following her return from Germany, director of CTE and workforce development for Alexandria City Public Schools, Dr. Tricia S. Jacobs, commented, “Alexandria City Public Schools is perfectly placed to learn from and apply Germany’s dual system to Alexandria’s apprenticeships and CTE programs. The city of Alexandria has the ideal constellation of demographic, pedagogical, and commercial activities to create apprenticeships informed by lessons from Germany.”

More Win-Win Situations— Diversifying Global Student Exchanges

Creating apprenticeships and informing CTE in the sustainable energy sector by applying practices from Germany also has the potential to diversify youth exchanges. Northern Virginia is among the most demographically diverse and globally connected regions of the United States. Northern Virginia’s foreignborn population is 27.7%, the region’s minority population

is 50.9%, and 35.6% of all Northern Virginians speak a language other than English at home. But according to the Institute for International Education, K-12 study abroad opportunities tend to be accessible only to small numbers of students with adequate private financial resources. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that fewer than 10% of students who study abroad are Black or Hispanic.3 The model under development in Northern Virginia gives students from under-represented communities the chance to take part in international exchanges that are not only culturally enriching, but through purposeful, outcome-oriented contexts.

Conclusion

Northern Virginia is redefining the notion of “think globally, act locally.” This is embodied in the creation of apprenticeships and study of workforce training lessons in sustainable energy from Germany through the purposeful bundling of educational, commercial climate policy initiatives. The end product stands to be a more robust form of CTE and the inclusion of students from

economically disadvantaged backgrounds in the sustainable technology and cross-national education sectors. As workforce development trends change, this provides a shining example for community-business partnerships around the world.

Contact the ICMA clean energy team at energy-ready.org for ideas and practical application of clean energy in your community.

ENDNOTES AND RESOURCES

1 https://www.brookings.edu/wpcontent/uploads/2019/04/2019.04_ metro_Clean-Energy-Jobs_Report_ Muro-Tomer-Shivaran-Kane_updated.pdf

2 https://www.irecusa.org/programs/ solar-jobs-census/

3 https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/ d19/tables/dt19_310.10.asp

DR. DALE MEDEARIS is senior regional planner for Northern Virginia Regional Commission.

DR. TRICIA S. JACOBS is director of CTE and workforce development for Alexandria City Public Schools.

PATRICK EARLE is a sustainable technology education teacher for Alexandria City Public Schools.

KRIS MARTINI is director of career technical education for Arlington Public Schools.

ARRAN RICHARDS is an auto-technology teacher for Arlington Public Schools.

TANJA MAYER-HARDING is coordinator for humanities and world languages instructional specialists for Alexandria City Public Schools.

GEOVANNI CASTANO is energy technology advisor for Dominion Energy.

Emerging Leaders Recognized with 2025 Kelsey Scholarship

BY ERIKA COOPER

ICMA is pleased to award this year’s Local Government Management Fellowship Judy L. Kelsey Scholarship to two current fellows.

ICMA is happy to announce this year’s winners of the Judy L. Kelsey Scholarship. The award was named in honor of Judy Lyn Kelsey, a pioneer in the local government management profession and long-time ICMA member, who generously gifted $109,000 to ICMA in her estate.

With her gift, ICMA established the Local Government Management Fellowship Judy L. Kelsey Scholarship in 2019, to assist emerging women leaders who have been accepted into the ICMA Local Government Management Fellowship (LGMF) program, which places a fellow in a manager’s or department head’s office in a council-manager community.

This year’s winners of the Judy L. Kelsey Award are fellows Allison “Fredi” Hayes and Jaritza “Jari” Nunez.

Allison “Fredi” Hayes

Currently a fellow with Shelburne, Vermont, Fredi currently plays a pivotal role in filling gaps in communications, grant management, human resources, and budget planning.

In her first six weeks, she secured a $73,000 grant to expand the town’s electric vehicle infrastructure, marking a significant achievement early in her fellowship.

In addition to her grant work, Fredi is helping Shelburne’s approximately 120 volunteers navigate Vermont’s new state requirements on open meeting laws and ethics. She’s also assisting the town’s new finance director in preparing for the upcoming town meeting, a key Vermont tradition. This includes organizing data, running budget scenarios, and preparing the town meeting booklet, ensuring a smooth process for both residents and officials.

Fredi holds a master of public administration and nonprofit studies degree from the University of Arkansas, where she cofounded the university’s ICMA student chapter in 2018. Her leadership continued throughout both her undergraduate and graduate studies. With extensive experience in relationshipbuilding within Arkansas’s municipal government and through her involvement with ICMA, Fredi’s perspective on public administration has been shaped by the challenges and opportunities in rural communities.

In Fredi’s essay, she reflected, “The work I am doing in Shelburne has reinforced my commitment to local government, especially as I see firsthand how trained

administrators can enhance the quality of life for residents and improve the functioning of municipal services.”

Fredi is passionate about continuing her service to small communities, supporting others who share her commitment. She is also deeply grateful for the scholarship that has enabled her to cover personal expenses and pursue further professional development. Through her fellowship, Fredi is helping to shape the future of local governance in Vermont, one community at a time.

Jaritza “Jari” Nunez

Jari serves as a fellow in the city manager’s office in Bakersfield, California, where she contributes to advancing innovative projects and fostering equitable community outcomes. Her role involves analyzing departmental challenges, streamlining processes to enhance government operations, and driving initiatives that prioritize accessibility and inclusivity.

Before returning to Kern County, Jari was part of the inaugural cohort of the Bloomberg Harvard City Hall Fellowship, where she worked with the Pueblo, Colorado, increasing engagement and building trust with underserved residents for city planning and budgeting. This experience further fueled her passion for public service and her commitment to fostering equity-driven change through local government. Jari holds a master of education policy and analysis degree from Harvard University.

Jari is driven to make government more accessible and representative. She is passionate about increasing affordable housing, fostering economic and community development, and breaking cycles of poverty to ensure all residents have the opportunity to thrive. In her essay, Jari shared, “Returning to my hometown has allowed me to channel my experiences into meaningful action. I am deeply committed to ensuring that local government reflects and uplifts the communities it serves.” She plans to use the scholarship to advance professional development, reduce financial barriers, and continue her advocacy for sustainable community growth.

Managing Those with Greater Technical Expertise

Lessons learned from the deputy city manager’s chair BY

EMILY COLON, ICMA-CM

As a deputy city manager (ACAO), I’ve found myself in numerous situations where I’m tasked with managing teams of individuals whose subject matter expertise far exceeds my own. Whether it’s managing a department of legacy employees or overseeing a highly specialized team, these experiences have taught me valuable lessons about leadership, humility, and collaboration. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way.

Start with Humility

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is the value of humility. Early in my career, I was thrust into an interim role as the purchasing director for a department I knew very little about. Having never even entered a requisition into the system, I was stepping into a leadership role with a full team of seasoned professionals—many of whom had worked for the county for years and were understandably frustrated that they didn’t get to run the department themselves (especially after a series of failed directors).

Stay Humble, But Be Confident

Another key lesson in managing experts is the importance of balance: staying humble while also having confidence in your leadership ability. There was a time I was asked to oversee the fleet management department. Now, let’s just say I don’t exactly have a deep background in car mechanics. In fact, I don’t even drive my personal vehicle past its warranty expiration! But when the assistant director suddenly retired, and the director went into the ICU unexpectedly, I was tasked with stepping in to keep things running smoothly.

While you don’t need to be an expert in everything, it’s crucial to show up, be willing to learn, and demonstrate confidence in your ability to support your team—even when you’re stepping into unknown territory.

I’ll never forget my first meeting after the announcement. I felt like I was walking the plank, and the team was ready to throw me to the sharks. They were skeptical at best, and the weight of their collective experience was glaring. Fortunately, I had one thing going for me: I was prepared with a small icebreaker—a box of donuts and a sign that read, “I donut know what I would do without you.” It was a lighthearted way to show them that I wasn’t coming in to be their hero or fix everything on my own. I understood that success would be a team effort, and they were all the MVPs.

This moment of humility and self-awareness helped break down the initial resistance and set the stage for honest communication and collaboration. It reminded me that acknowledging what you don’t know can build trust and foster a team-oriented culture.

One of the first challenges was learning how to use a Microsoft Access database to file the monthly fuel tax and process billing to the other departments and constitutional offices. I hadn’t used Access since that one college class however many years ago, but I dove in and figured it out. It was a humbling experience, but it also gave me the confidence that I could navigate unfamiliar territory and lead the team effectively.

This experience taught me an important lesson: while you don’t need to be an expert in everything, it’s crucial to show up, be willing to learn, and demonstrate confidence in your ability to support your team—even when you’re stepping into unknown territory.

Leadership Is About Impact, Not Age

Throughout my career, I’ve often found myself in roles where I supervised directors and department heads who were at least 20 years my senior. When I joined the City of Lakeland at the age of 32, I’m sure there was some curiosity about what value I, as a younger executive, could bring to the table. But over time, I learned that leadership isn’t defined by age or years of experience; it’s about the ability to inspire, communicate, and collaborate effectively.

When you’re managing individuals with decades of experience, it’s essential to acknowledge and respect their

EMILY COLON, ICMA-CM is deputy city manager of Lakeland, Florida, USA.

knowledge while also offering your own perspective. The value you bring as a younger leader comes not just from your technical skills, but from your approach to fostering an environment where everyone’s expertise can shine.

Stay Curious (But Avoid Micromanaging)

The phrase “curiosity killed the cat” is a familiar one, but most people forget the second part: “but satisfaction brought it back.” As a leader managing highly technical teams, staying curious is crucial. The key, however, is to ask the right questions and stay engaged with your team’s work without crossing the line into micromanagement.

The tricky part about being curious in these situations is finding the balance. If you’re not careful, it can come across as meddling or lack of trust in your team’s abilities. The difference, in my experience, lies in how you approach the curiosity. I make an effort to genuinely learn about the business and the intricacies of what my team does. When it’s time to solve a problem or make a decision, I can ask informed questions and better understand their recommendations.

Micromanagers, on the other hand, tend to focus on the solutions

without taking the time to understand the process. They focus on the outcome rather than the people who are driving it. As a leader, it’s essential to understand the nuances of the work your team is doing before diving into solutions. This will allow you to be an informed decision-maker without undermining your team’s expertise.

Conclusion: Gratitude and Trust

As I reflect on these experiences, the one constant that has helped me navigate the complexities of managing teams with greater technical expertise is trust. Trust in my team’s abilities, trust in their judgment, and trust in the value of collaboration. But just as important is showing gratitude— gratitude for their expertise, their time, and their willingness to work together.

The value you bring as a younger leader comes not just from your technical skills, but from your approach to fostering an environment where everyone’s expertise can shine.

So, to anyone managing a team of experts: start with humility, stay curious, and always remember that leadership is not about having all the answers, but about fostering an environment where everyone’s expertise is valued. And above all, say thank you. Because without the dedication and expertise of your team, nothing would be possible.

Q&A with Dawn Peters on Ethics and Advocacy for the Profession

Recognized for her advocacy for professional local government management, Dawn Peters is a true and tireless ambassador in service to the profession.

With March being Ethics Awareness Month, Women’s History Month, and Local Government Excellence Awards nominations season at ICMA, we wanted to chat with Dawn Peters about ethics in local government management and her career in public service. She made history in 2024 as the first-ever recipient of the Advocacy for the Profession Award in Honor of Martha Perego. Learn more about the ICMA Local Government Excellence Awards at icma.org/awards. The deadline for award nominations is March 14, 2025.

Tell us about yourself. What drew you to a career in public service and this profession, specifically?

When I first graduated from high school and entered college at Northern Illinois University (NIU) at the age of 17, I had no idea what I wanted to study and ended up going for 1.5 years before dropping out. I got married (we’ll celebrate our 45th anniversary in May) and had three sons. When I had my first son, I decided to be a stay-at-home mom. During those years, I knew I had to get out of the house for my sanity, so I began my volunteer service to the community. I started out with the Rochelle Hospital Auxiliary, and I worked my way to treasurer and eventually president of the auxiliary at the young age of 28. That sparked my interest in helping others and public service. In those early years, I gave back to the community through other volunteer positions in various community organizations and also served for 10 years on the Rochelle Planning Commission and the Greater Rochelle Planning Council.

A goal of mine was to finish college and with the help of my parents who watched the boys, as well as a supportive husband, I returned to school at the age of 30. I studied political science with an emphasis in public administration and a business administration minor. I took a local government class, and the teacher told me about the NIU MPA program, and the rest is history! It took me seven years to achieve my associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, and eventually master’s degree in public administration.

You’re the first-ever recipient of the Advocacy for the Profession Award.1 Give us your take on how the

council-manager form of government, professional management, and ethics are linked.

The council-manager form combines professional management with ethical governance to create a responsive, efficient, and accountable local government system. This structure emphasizes nonpartisan expertise while fostering trust through adherence to high ethical standards. Professional management is central to the council-manager form of government. City managers are selected based on their education, experience, and qualifications rather than political affiliations. This professional approach enables local governments to operate efficiently, reduce costs, and improve service delivery. Managers focus on aligning government operations with community goals while maintaining nonpartisanship. That is the hallmark of this profession.

You’ve been working in local government and supporting members working in local government for 28 years. What is your definition of ethics as it relates to this profession?

Ethics, as it relates to the local government management profession, involves doing what’s right even when no one is looking. Think: would it make your mother proud? Remember, I’m always a mom and now grandma at heart. It’s treating everyone with dignity and respect. It’s about integrity in all you do and providing service to all equitably. It’s about transparency and accountability. There is a lack of trust in government, and the ICMA Code of Ethics clearly outlines a commitment to political neutrality, upholds the public interest above personal gain, and prioritizes ethical conduct in all aspects of one’s work. This sets the professional local government manager apart from other professionals who may not have such strict standards regarding political involvement and public service focus within their fields. Basically, it emphasizes a dedication to serving the community equitably and transparently, not just one’s own interests.

In your opinion, what are the top three ethics issues and challenges members in your area of the country are faced with right now?

Find more information at icma.org/emo

Inviting a new cohort of local decision-makers to enhance economic mobility and opportunity in their communities.

APPLY NOW FOR THE 2025 ECONOMIC MOBILITY & OPPORTUNITY COHORT

PARTICIPANTS IN THE COHORT WILL

X Receive a $20,000 grant for their local government to participate in this cohort, which can be used to implement an economic mobility and opportunity assessment, planning or engagement process, or other eligible local activity.

X Network with other local government professionals.

X Participate in virtual and in-person learning opportunities, with travel expenses covered.

X Access resources and coaching from economic mobility experts.

Learn about what other local governments have done through this program and access guidance on applying at icma.org/emo.

Cohort applications close March 28, 2025.

Growing Local Government Leadership for Economic Mobility & Opportunity

This program from ICMA is made possible by support from the Gates Foundation’s Economic Mobility and Opportunity (EMO) program.

The ethical issues I’ve dealt with mostly revolve around involvement in politics, typically running for office or assisting in a local campaign. Some members are not aware or don’t seem to understand that this includes local elections such as running for a school board or park district board. The Code states:

Tenet 7. Refrain from all political activities which undermine public confidence in professional administrators. Refrain from participation in the election of the members of the employing legislative body.

Other common issues surround personal behavior and integrity, such as driving under the influence or having inappropriate relations with subordinates. The Code states:

Tenet 3. Demonstrate by word and action the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity in all public, professional, and personal relationships in order that the member may merit the trust and respect of the elected and

appointed officials, employees, and the public.

What observations can you share with members about approaching ethical decision-making?

I’ve always stressed to members— especially new members or people who are new to the profession—the value of the Code is as a guide to how they conduct themselves. I encourage members to reach out to me should they have any doubt about a decision and whether an action or situation presents a potential violation of the Code. Not everything is a right or wrong decision—a lot happens in the gray area. It’s better to ask the question than to move forward in doubt. I stress that my guidance is always given in confidence and to never be afraid to reach out to me. I don’t always have the answer, so often I turn to ICMA’s ethics director Jessica Cowles for guidance. Before her, I relied on Martha Perego, for whom the Advocacy for Profession Award was named, and who was always extremely helpful to me.

What motivates you and, from your perspective, what motivates

members to adhere to high ethical standards in professional local government management?

The members I serve motivate me, as my mission is to make a difference in their life as it relates to their work and the profession. People who enter this profession have a public service mind and focus; they want to do what’s right, they want to make a difference in the world, and they have a moral compass that steers them to make positive change.

There is a quote from Leo Rosten that I live by, and I’d like to share it with readers: “I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be ‘happy.’ I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.”

ENDNOTE

1 Advocacy for the Profession Award in Honor of Martha Perego: Recognizes an outstanding ICMA member who has made a significant contribution to advancing the awareness of the council-manager form of government, the profession, the ICMA Code of Ethics and its published guidelines, or other significant contributions to the growth or awareness of the local government management profession worldwide. This individual must have demonstrated their support of the ICMA Code of Ethics and adhered to the ICMA principles with integrity and respect. (Learn more at icma.org/local-governmentexcellence-awards.)

Helping Local Governments Navigate Large-Scale Solar Development

Explore the Solar@Scale Guidebook to learn strategies that improve large-scale solar projects.

Access our growing collection of recorded webinars to hear from national experts and experienced local government practitioners.

Check out these free resources and learn more at icma.org/ programs-and-projects/solarscale or by scanning the QR code:

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

Register for a new event for changemakers in the economic mobility and opportunity space!

The conference program will feature free educational sessions spanning several topics and issue areas that impact individuals’ access to opportunity and upward economic mobility.

This event is designed for leaders working to increase access to economic mobility and opportunity for residents in local communities. Attendees will have the opportunity to network, share ideas, and discuss opportunities for future partnerships.

Program and Registration Now Live!

REGISTER FOR THIS FREE EVENT TODAY

For more information about the program and presenting partners, visit www.emoconference.org

From Bias to Balance: Advancing Women in Local Government through SheLeadsGov

A pulse check 50 years after the formation of the Task Force on Women in the Profession.

BY JESSI FINLEY, JEANETTE GASS, LAURA SAVAGE, AND SOPHIE WEYN

ICMA established the Task Force on Women in the Profession in 1974 to confront the fact that only one percent of the chief administrative officer (CAO) positions in local governments in the United States and Canada at the time were filled by women. Over the past 50 years, ICMA has provided resources and programming to help make progress toward gender balance in the profession. Today, 23% of CAO ICMA members are women, and this number continues to grow.

Despite great progress, there is still work to be done, and ICMA is looking toward the next 50 years of advancing women in the profession.

Survey Results

As part of its SheLeadsGov initiative, ICMA launched the 2024 Career Advancement Survey, which builds upon research from 2013 and 2019 (ICMA Task Force on Women Surveys) and offers valuable insights from 300 respondents on issues related to career advancement and the status of women in local government today.

Women in local government continue to be ambitious in their career goals, although many share that there are obstacles impacting their career advancement. Survey participants report experiences of gender bias in the workforce, particularly related to obtaining promotions and being excluded from organization events. Probably the most shocking of these statistics is the

87% of survey participants agree that women face more barriers to career advancement in local government than men.

roughly 27% of respondents that reported experiencing instances of sexual harassment from a superior. Figure 1 gives a more indepth look at this and ICMA’s other gender bias findings.

Experiences of bias are not uncommon circumstances for a woman in local government to have to navigate, and they showcase many of the disproportionate challenges that women face. From the survey, 87% of participants agree that women face more barriers to career advancement in local government than men. These vary based on circumstance, but many survey participants shared similar experiences, including, but not limited to, those listed in Figure 2.

While all the barriers listed were reflected in the open-ended survey responses, “family considerations” is a clear standout challenge for women in the profession. On managing work-life balance, Kate Monaghan, director of corporate services, Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council, NSW, Australia, shared, “It’s not surprising that the biggest challenge for me has been my ‘work-life balance.’ I have worked late nights, weekends, and through family

Figure 2. Bias-related Barriers to Career Advancement

• Having experienced a malefocused network of recruiters in their job search

• Unethical organizational leadership

• Organizational cultural barriers

• Family considerations

• Lack of mentorship

• Lack of self-confidence

• Lack of pay equity

• Political circumstances

• Having been perceived as lacking professional experience

holidays. It’s great to have a supportive and understanding family, but it’s taken me too long to learn that there is no ‘balance,’ and there is no separate life for work and home. We all get to live one life with the same 24 hours a day, and we get to choose how to manage our time.” Seeing work as a part of life rather than an entirely separate entity has helped Monaghan and many other women in the profession manage the personal and professional aspects of their lives in a much more realistic way.

The lack of female representation in local government leadership also impacts women in the profession as they try to advance in their careers. All survey participants indicated that fewer than half of the senior managers at their organizations were women.

Bias related to job promotion

Experiences of exclusion from organization and events Experiences of sexual harassment from a

Stories from Women around the World

Lungile Dlamini, CEO, Manzini City Council, Eswatini, who serves as ICMA International Region vice president, shared some significant challenges faced by women in local government, namely, “navigating the complexities of a maledominated leadership environment. The expectations placed on women in Lungile

Dlamini

Figure 1. Types of Gender Bias Experienced by Survey Participants

leadership roles can be incredibly high, and often, there are added pressures to prove our competence, especially when it comes to balancing the needs of the community with the internal dynamics of government institutions.”

She continued, “In my position as the CEO of Manzini City Council, I’ve faced situations where my authority was sometimes questioned or undermined, not necessarily based on my abilities or decisions but simply because of my gender. This challenge is not unique to Manzini, but it’s one that many women in government face globally.”

Jessica Hoffman, assistant city administrator, Wentzville, Missouri, USA, shared that in her two decades in local government, navigating perceptions, biases, and stereotypes has been one of her greatest challenges as a woman in this profession. “Early in my career, I faced skepticism from colleagues who doubted my leadership abilities due to my gender and age, often leaving me feeling like I needed to work harder than my colleagues to prove my worth.”

All survey participants indicated that women represent fewer than half of the senior managers at their organizations.

city administrator—an experience my male counterparts rarely faced. Similarly, when I founded Missouri Women Leading Government (MOWLG), a male colleague asked during a regional city manager meeting, ‘Where’s the men leading government meeting?’” For Hoffman, these experiences underscore both the biases and the barriers women face, especially in leadership roles.

time of war is a whole other challenge that is unimaginable for many but very real for some. With many men being on the frontlines in Ukraine, Marta Rudnytska, director, Lviv City Council Secretariat Department, Lviv, Ukraine, shared what it’s like for women to step up in all areas of her community in an attempt to adapt to this new reality. “Women undergo significantly more responsibility during times of war. All Ukrainians who have been living in full-scale war for almost three years are experiencing psychological trauma, and a woman must be strong all the time. She must inspire herself, her family, and her employees.”

She went on to describe specific instances of bias that have taken place in her role as an assistant city manager. “People often mistook me for an administrative assistant, assuming I handled scheduling for the

While biases and challenges surrounding women in leadership roles are not uncommon in the profession, being a community leader during a

Regarding her own struggles in being looked to as a leader in her community during this trying time, Rudnytska confided, “I never thought that I would ever be responsible for 53 employees during full-scale invasion of my country, 43 of whom are women. Two employees (one of them a woman) joined the Armed Forces, one is the widow of a fallen soldier, and five women employees have fathers or children serving in the Armed Forces.” In addition to the work they do for the community, these women provide support for their husbands and children who are fighting on the frontlines, as well as their family members at home, and they volunteer when their husbands or children need resources on the frontlines. These employees are going through multiple traumatic events. Given this, they look to Rudnytska to provide support that is different than one would expect from a typical employee/supervisor relationship. Women like Rudnytska have proven their capacity to step up and lead under heartbreaking and difficult circumstances, countering biases and perceptions regarding a woman’s ability to lead.

Contributions from Women in Local Gov

Despite various obstacles, women in local government demonstrate their perseverance and far-reaching impact through the meaningful contributions that they make to their communities and the profession as a whole.

Dlamini proved herself more than competent through her successful implementation of multiple transformative

Jessica Hoffman

Marta Rudnytska

A panel presentation at the SheLeadsGov luncheon at the 2024 ICMA Annual Conference.

ICMA International VP Lungile Dlamini (right) at the 2024 Manzini Regional Day.

programs that fostered enhanced service delivery, greater organizational efficiency, transparency, accountability, and stakeholder participation throughout her community. While Dlamini created a lasting impact through these programs, she still wanted to ensure that other prospective women leaders in her community do not face similar instances of bias and pushback. To challenge traditional gender roles within municipal governance, she conceptualized and implemented a gender mainstreaming program, an initiative that enables the recruitment and placement of individuals in roles that were previously genderspecific, promoting equality and diversity within the organization. “I focused on consistently delivering results; building strong, respectful relationships with colleagues; and demonstrating my knowledge and passion for public service. I also made it a priority to mentor other women in the organization, empowering them to take on leadership roles, which has had a ripple effect in fostering a more inclusive and supportive workplace.”

Guiding and supporting a team of employees during a time of war would be a challenge for any local leader, regardless of gender. In response to this unique challenge, Rudnytska launched special trainings for her employees called “Communication with Military Personnel

“I’ve faced situations where my authority was sometimes questioned or undermined, not necessarily based on my abilities or decisions but simply because of my gender.” — Lungile Dlamini, CEO, Manzini City Council, Eswatini

and Their Families: Veterans’ Adaptation to Public Service and Civil Life.” These trainings include discussions with veterans on their potential needs, which have revealed that many of them aren’t exactly sure of what they need or how to communicate their needs.

In an effort to support these women local government leaders who are constantly supporting others, ICMA is stepping in to provide gender equity–

focused programming and ongoing resources in an effort to help break down these barriers and contribute to the success of women in local government around the world.

SheLeadsGov: ICMA’s Flagship Gender Equity Program

To mitigate the obstacles and bias that women experience in the workplace, ICMA has developed a flagship program accompanied by an array of resources to support women gaining a stronger foothold in the profession. SheLeadsGov (icma.org/sheleadsgov) is a global initiative that promotes gender balance by providing career resources and a networking platform for women in local government management. With dedicated staff support, ICMA has gained global recognition as the premier association to strengthen, enhance, and diversify the career pipeline for everyone in the profession,

SheLeadsGov Committee meeting at the 2024 ICMA Annual Conference.

while enhancing gender equity–focused strategic partnerships.

In 2024, the ICMA Executive Board established the SheLeadsGov Committee to serve as the conduit to ICMA staff and the board on issues related to women in the profession. Appointed by the ICMA president-elect, the member volunteers represent a blend of local government types, regional diversity, and a wide range of career experience—from new assistant managers to senior advisors and past ICMA presidents.

The committee will make recommendations that focus on the association’s work to mitigate the effects of gender bias in the profession and ensure that ICMA membership is inclusive and mirrors the diversity of the communities served. In addition, the SheLeadsGov Committee is charged with appointing a woman to each ICMA Executive Board Regional Nominating Committee to provide an additional perspective throughout the board nomination process, further solidifying ICMA’s commitment to gender equity.

Jessica Hoffman, assistant city administrator, Wentzville, Missouri, USA, said, “ICMA’s commitment to diversity and inclusion continues to normalize women’s leadership in local government, inspiring the next generation to step confidently into impactful roles. While the journey has been challenging, resilience, community support, and professional resources have enabled me to thrive and uplift others.”

With bridging disparities in the local government management workforce in mind, the SheLeadsGov Committee supports a strategic approach and DEI lens for gender-related research, data collection, and analysis to help promote programs that support, encourage, and prepare future and current women leaders of all backgrounds.

ICMA and SheLeadsGov Resources

SheLeadsGov Virtual Forum

Offering a unique opportunity to connect with women in all career stages, the SheLeadsGov Virtual Forum is a free half-day event held each March to honor and inspire women in conjunction with International Women’s Day and Women’s

History Month. The digital event provides attendees with engaging education sessions and thought-provoking discussions. The 2025 virtual forum, being held March 5, is driven by the theme “innovate, inspire, impact,” serving as a call to action for attendees to be courageous and confident as leaders in any role and at any level, to take risks and embrace change, to be bold in their ideas and actions, and to inspire others to do the same. The event is also an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women who have made a significant impact in their organizations and communities.

SheLeadsGov Webinars

ICMA’s SheLeadsGov webinars are dynamic professional development opportunities designed to empower and connect women in local government leadership. These events feature inspiring conversations with seasoned women leaders who share their personal journeys, strategies for resilience, and insights on navigating the complexities of local government—and more. Participants gain valuable knowledge and tools to lead with confidence and integrity, making these valuable webinars an essential resource for current and aspiring women leaders.

When Sonya Pritchard, chief administrative Sonya Pritchard

officer, Dufferin County, Ontario, Canada, found herself in a rapidly deteriorating staff-council relationship that was causing organization-wide negative impacts, she turned to an ICMA webinar to help refresh her mindset and shake her self-doubt. “I participated in an ICMA webinar, ‘Resilient Leadership: Powering Through in Local Government,’ featuring two long-serving women CAOs who shared strategies for navigating difficult situations and managing challenging councils. One key piece of advice that resonated with me was to remember that everything is a moment in time; council dynamics change and situations evolve. They also emphasized the importance of staying true to one’s values and maintaining integrity throughout the process.” Pritchard shared that this new perspective and opportunity for reflection allowed her to “let go of smaller concerns, focus on the things I can control, and dedicate myself to supporting our talented, dedicated municipal employees.”

Women in Leadership Column

The monthly Women in Leadership column in ICMA’s PM Magazine features inspiring female leaders in local government who share their unique experiences and insights. This column is a treasure trove of wisdom, offering practical advice, personal stories, and strategies for overcoming challenges in the public sector. Whether you’re an aspiring leader or a seasoned professional, these articles provide valuable perspectives that can help you navigate your career with confidence and resilience.

ICMA CoachConnect

ICMA’s CoachConnect program offers a unique opportunity for women in local government to receive personalized, one-on-one coaching from experienced professionals. This free program is designed to help participants navigate their careers, gain new perspectives, and develop essential skills for leadership. By connecting with a coach, women can receive tailored advice, career guidance, and support to overcome challenges and achieve their professional goals.

Participating in CoachConnect is especially beneficial for women as it provides a supportive environment to discuss career aspirations, navigate salary imbalances, seek contract negotiation advice, and build confidence. The flexible structure allows for both casual check-ins and more formal, ongoing mentoring relationships, making it adaptable to individual needs.

Dlamini celebrates the crucial role that the ICMA network and professional development opportunities like this have played in helping to mitigate some of the professional challenges she has experienced. “Through the training and professional development opportunities that ICMA provides, I’ve been able to enhance my leadership skills, which

“I made it a priority to mentor other women in the organization, empowering them to take on leadership roles, which has had a ripple effect in fostering a more inclusive and supportive workplace.”

— Lungile Dlamini, CEO, Manzini City Council, Eswatini

in turn has helped me better navigate complex political and administrative landscapes. ICMA has also been a platform for networking, where I’ve been able to connect with other women in similar positions, share experiences, and gain insights on how to overcome the unique challenges we face in local government.”

In-person Conferences and Events

ICMA’s in-person events offer countless professional development opportunities to receive training on many of the issues identified in the survey results, such as overcoming workplace bias, while providing valuable networking opportunities.

The ICMA Annual Conference provides a wealth of opportunities specifically

tailored to women in local government. Speed coaching allows conference attendees to engage in multiple coaching sessions with experienced local government professionals to gain career and resume tips, build relationships and valuable connections, and discuss career aspirations and challenges. The SheLeadsGov Luncheon provides space to network with other women and share career experiences and advice. Additionally, education sessions focused on women in the profession are held throughout the conference for attendees to learn, network, and converse in smaller settings.

Emphasizing the importance of building and strengthening your professional network, Kate Monaghan, director of corporate services, Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council, NSW, Australia, shared that “local government industry networks are a critical strength, and ICMA has been able to extend the connection globally. The experiences, positions, and stories of others have helped me to learn and grow and remember the broader world as a context for my own local experience.”

Kate Monaghan

Marta Rudnytska and Lviv City councilmembers pass out aid from Polish volunteers.

“ICMA’s commitment to diversity and inclusion continues to normalize women’s leadership in local government, inspiring the next generation to step confidently into impactful roles.”

—Jessica Hoffman,

Assistant City Administrator, Wentzville, Missouri, USA

Other Networking Opportunities

Women Leading Government (WLG) chapters support a regional and local network for women in local government and public service careers. WLG chapters provide a platform for women in government to connect, network, and share best practices for leadership development. They offer professional development and training opportunities, mentorship programs, academies, and access to resources to help women advance their careers and become effective leaders in government. WLG chapters are typically organized by state or region, and function as their own membership-based initiative.

To navigate challenges related to instances of gender bias in her role as assistant city administrator, Hoffman focused on building authentic relationships with colleagues and fostering a supportive community with the help of ICMA. “ICMA played a critical role in supporting Missouri Women Leading Government’s launch, offering guidance and encouragement that helped amplify women’s voices. SheLeadsGov has also provided invaluable resources to grow and connect with others in the profession.” Hoffman also encourages those interested to explore the more than 20 nationwide WLG chapters and “tap into this network to share knowledge, build connections, and advance women in leadership.”

ICMA and SheLeadsGov will continue to craft and curate helpful resources and events to empower women in the local government space. With the help of other gender equity–focused organizations, ICMA will continue to carry the torch for women in local government. Reina Schwartz, finance director of Albany, California, USA, and SLG Committee co-chair, reinforces this. “As ICMA looks forward with the strength of the SheLeadsGov initiative, we can picture our work on gender equity and inclusiveness as part of a three-legged stool of women’s

organizations, along with WLG and the League of Women in Government. The goal ultimately is to figure out how to support one another, and it’s not competitive. Each of the groups has its own lens. The SheLeadsGov Committee is ICMA taking the work ‘in house’ to apply the ICMA lens to it. It’s not the only lens there is, but that’s the benefit and the value that we can bring to the work.”

Continuing the Climb

The results of the 2024 Career Advancement Survey clearly demonstrate that women are still experiencing the same kinds of gender bias and challenges that led to the launch of the Task Force on Women in the Profession in 1974. While there has been an increase in the number of women serving in leadership roles, the testimonials from these women reinforce the survey findings and show us just how much work there is yet to do to make this profession a better place for women leadership.

Despite these barriers, women have made meaningful strides in their communities and ICMA is making some serious efforts to support them and their overall success. With the support of the ICMA network coupled with ICMA’s array of resources, women are empowered and encouraged to reach new heights and make their mark on this profession.

With determination to make an even greater impact that transcends both the borders of her community and her country of Eswatini, Dlamini is one of many women making a difference through her role on the ICMA Executive Board where she says she is “committed to advocating for more inclusive policies that support women in local government.”

Through ICMA’s SheLeadsGov initiative, ICMA pledges to continue guiding, supporting, and empowering women to shatter the glass ceiling and achieve greatness in this profession.

SheLeadsGov Committee Members

Lorena Rodriguez, Co-chair

Reina Schwartz, Co-chair

Michele Lieberman, Co-vice chair

Monica Spells, ICMA-CM, Co-vice chair

Aretha Adams

Leslie Beauregard, ICMA-CM

Leslie Black, ICMA-CM

Emily Colon, ICMA-CM

Jennifer Fadden, ICMA-CM

Traci Leach, ICMA-CM

Kelsee Lee

Kellye Mazzoli

Melissa Murphy-Rodrigues, ICMA-CM

Sabra Newby, ICMA-CM

Stephanie Olson

Keri Rugg

Amanda Serock

Melody Stout

Bonnie Svrcek

Susan Thorpe, ICMA-CM

Valmarie Turner, ICMA-CM

Gwendolyn Voelpel, ICMA-CM

Jessica Whitley

Jerri Wilson

JESSI FINLEY is a program manager of global communications and marketing at ICMA.

JEANETTE GASS is a senior program manager of global engagement at ICMA.

LAURA SAVAGE is a senior program manager of member services and ethics at ICMA.

SOPHIE WEYN is an assistant program manager of global engagement at ICMA.

Budgeting is one of the most important responsibilities that local government managers undertake every year. The new book, A Budgeting Guide for Local Government, Fourth Edition, provides new tools and methodologies to produce effective budgets that yield the desired results.

Learn more at icma.org/budgetingguide.

ICMA’s Career Guides are local government professional toolkits to help you thrive, from finding a position to succeeding as a first-time manager, or how to break into the profession from another field, and preparing the next generation through internships and Fellowships. icma.org/careerguides

THRIVE IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT 2025 COACHING PROGRAM

UPCOMING FREE WEBINARS – Register at icma.org/coachingwebinars

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12

Succession Planning: A Guide to Unlocking Potential and Fostering Talent Development

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16

Artificial Intelligence and Its Ability to Support Local Government Strategic Planning

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14

The Pillars of Resilience: Strengthening Community, Personal, and Organizational Fortitude

All Webinars start at 1:30pm Eastern time. Miss a webinar? Watch it anytime! Register and watch digital recordings from your ICMA Learning Lab Dashboard.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17

New Job Overnight: How to Make the Successful Transition

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15

Mastering Your Growth: Proactive Career Development Strategies

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19

Trends Transforming the Workforce: What You Can’t Afford to Overlook

Don’t miss out on these FREE 2025 coaching webinars. REGISTER TODAY!

Additional free coaching resources at ICMA Coaching:

• Access digital recordings on ICMA’s Learning Lab

• Career Compass monthly advice column

• CoachConnect for one-to-one coach matching

• Live speed coaching events, talent development resources, and more. Join our list for coaching program updates and more. Email coaching@icma.org Learn more at icma.org/coaching