GovLove - A Podcast About Local Government

Justin Marlowe from the University of Washington Evans School & Alicia Shatteman from Northern Illinois University join GovLove to discuss what they see as the trending topics in local government. From technology to communication and the use of the M-word Justin & Alicia share what they are seeing from their MPA students.

Chris Morrill, the City Manager of Roanoke, VA for one more day, joins GovLove to talk about his next career step. He discussed his career, which included a stint in the Peace Corps and consulting in South Africa, and how hard it was to make the choice to become the next Executive Director of GFOA. He discusses managing Roanoke through the Great Recession and how the city worked to revitalize its downtown. And learn about Chris' plans for GFOA and why he thinks it's a vital association.

The CEO of the American Water Works Association, David LaFrance joins the podcast to talk about his work with the professional association, the challenges to Water service, Flint and more. David also discusses his career path, which includes a stint as the Finance Director at Denver Water.

Welcome to the first episode of GovLove International! In this new monthly series we'll interview a local government professional from outside the US. This month John sat down with Gord Hume a speaker and advisor on local government in Canada. Gord is a former city councilor of London, Canada and has written several books on local government. In this interview he discusses his latest book, "The Leadership Crisis" an analysis of leaders in city halls. GovLove International is hosted by John Allore, the assistant budget director of Durham, NC and produced by Tony Reed, the assistant city manager of Mt. Angel, OR.

Jane Brautigam the City Manager of Boulder, CO joined GovLove to talk about her career path and making the leap from law to management. She also shared her perspective on diversity in local government, affordable housing in Boulder and dealing with prairie dogs. Jane has been the City Manager of Boulder since 2008 and prior to that was the manager of Dublin, OH, Loveland, CO and was an attorney for several local governments in Colorado.

The Manager of North Carolina's largest county joins GovLove to discuss her career path, building trust in government, communications and more. Dena Diorio has lead Mecklenburg County since 2014 and came to the south after starting her career in New York City and two cities in Connecticut.

Chris Reykdal is a graduate of the North Carolina MPA program, former teacher and the new superintendent of public instruction for the State of Washington. Kirsten talks with Chris about his career path, how his public administration background helps him in his new position and why local government practitioners should think about running for office.

The latest installment of the Intern Files features the president! Lee Feldman, the City Manager of Ft. Lauderdale, FL, is the current president of ICMA. Madison asked him about his career path, his plans for his presidency and advice for someone new the profession.

The City of Peoria, IL and the City of Vancouver, WA squared off last week in the championship round of the ELGL City Hall Challenge. This March Madness style bracket asked cities from across the country to compete for the best City Hall in the nation. Kent chatted with the two finalists right before the contest closed about what they learned, how they got the word out and more. The guests were Stacy Peterson from Peoria and Sophie Banner from Vancouver.

The career ladder is becoming more of a career jungle gym, there's no one path to leadership in local government. To talk about a couple of non-traditional career paths Kirsten chatted with Amber Mathiesen, City Manager of Mt. Angel, OR, and AJ Fawver, Planning Director of Amarillo, TX. They shared how their backgrounds in records and planning prepared them for leadership positions.

Dan Biles, the Deputy County Manager of Jefferson County, Alabama, joined GovLove to talk about his career path, perspective on leadership and rebuilding infrastructure after a municipal bankruptcy. We discussed his jump from the private sector to government and how he models the behavior he wants to see in his employees - like leaving at 1:00 pm. Dan also shared how his military experience shaped his career and how the deputy or assistant manager role is unique.

Cari Anne Cashon, entrepreneur and author, joined GovLove to talk about her passion for public service. She talked with Kent about her interest in local government, volunteering and You Go Girl her book that aims to inspire girls to pursue their dreams.

Coming to Charlottesville, VA in April is the Hometown Summit, a celebration of small and mid-sized cities across the country. The summit is a convention and celebration of leaders who have spearheaded some of the nation's most creative and successful campaigns for community change. To learn more about it and get the inside scoop GovLove chatted with one of the organizers, Carolyn Zelikow from the Aspen Institute, and a speaker, Adam Klein from American Underground in Durham, NC.

What's it like managing a community with a theme? Marvin Collins, the City Manager of historic colonial Williamsburg, VA, and Joel Walinski, the City Manager of the Bavarian themed Leavenworth, WA, join GovLove to talk about the unique challenges of managing a city with a theme. From code that requires use from the 1700s to reworking the McDonald's logo to make it Bavarian, they cover it all.

Dan Ralley the Assistant City Manager of Upper Arlington, OH and Carl Anderson from ViewPoint Solutions joined GovLove to talk about how to better serve residents in permitting. They discuss Upper Arlington's approach to e-permitting and how it put customer service first.

Our fearless intern is back! The ICMA/ELGL Oregon Management Fellow, Madison Thesing talked with Julie Rusk, the Chief of Civic Wellbeing in Santa Monica, CA about their wellbeing initiative, what brought her into local government and the importance of community wellbeing.

Taking a Silicon Valley approach to city management, Kelly McAdoo discusses her innovative approach to leading the City of Hayward, CA. McAdoo describes how customer empathy and disruption are key to better serving residents of her city. She also talks about being a woman in a leadership position and how to attract more female city managers to the profession.

Atlanta City Council Candidate, Greg Clay, talked all about the ATL and public service. Greg earned his MPA from Kansas University and has worked in city hall as an administrator in Georgia and Kansas. He talked about the decision to leave administration behind and run for elected office, how he feels about the Falcons' new stadium and even his take on the FX show Atlanta.

What does it take to handle winter weather? From pre-treatment to salting and plowing the City Manager of Sterling Heights, MI talks about all the preparation and work that goes into keeping roads clear in even the harshest of winters. Mark talked about best practices and loving winter so much he has trouble sleeping before a big snowstorm.

The City of Louisville, KY is one of the leaders in local government innovation and we sat down with Ed Blayney, their innovation project manager. He discussed how they used civic hacking to cut down on fires in vacant homes, how they use data to solve problems and more. Ed also gave his recommendations for favorite barbecue and whiskey in Kentucky.

We sat down with Assistant City Manager of Charlotte, NC and sock of the month club member, Hyong Yi. He shared his inspiring story of dealing with tragedy and finding the power of love and community. After the death of his wife, Hyong started a 100 Love Notes project to celebrate her life and spread love to other people. Now Hyong focuses on being a great parent and keeping love at the center of his local government work.

January is Mentor Month! ELGL has been celebrating by telling the stories of mentor relationships and the best advice people have gotten over the years. To celebrate the month we sat down with Traca Savadogo from Tall Poppy Consulting to talk about how to mentor, what to look for in a mentor and more.

Beaverton, OR City Councilor Lacey Beaty and Roanoke, VA City Councilor Michelle Dykstra join GovLove for a wide ranging interview on what it takes to run for local office. We talk to each of them individually about their paths to public service and get them together to compare notes and give advice to anyone interested in how to run for city council.

Dr. Brian Williams from the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs, joins GovLove to talk about policing. From community policing to representative bureaucracy we covered it all. Dr. Williams has worked with police departments and community groups across the country to improve relations between police and communities of color.

The three GovLove hosts, Kent, Kirsten and Ben, got together to take a look back at 2016. They each picked their Top 5 episodes of the year and discussed their selections (43:50). Segments included: The most listened to episodes of the year (0:50); Three of a kind (7:20) featuring holiday movies, ELGL memories, holiday songs and books; Listener questions (22:40); Favorite iTunes reviews (28:30); Goals for 2017 (31:20); and the episode ended with "Can't Let it Go" where each host picked something they're obsessed with right now (1:14:50).

Podcast on podcasting! Kent sat down with three leaders in local government podcasting: Dana Berchman of Gilbert, AZ host of Government Gone Digital; Benjamin Brown from the North Carolina League of Municipalities, host of Municipal Equation; and Matt Horn from Geneva, NY host of 47 Castle Street. They talked about what it takes to start a podcast, why it's a valuable communications tool and more.

Earlier this month, GovLove hit the road and explored Charlotte, NC thanks to an invite to the NCLGBA Winter Conference. We used the conference as an excuse to talk to two awesome administrators working for the City of Charlotte, JL Lawrence and Rob Phocas. We talked to JL about public transit in the region and citizen engagement, then we chatted with Rob about sustainability and Charlotte's smart district.

GovLove takes a visit to the Steel City in this week's episode. We chatted with two people from the Pittsburgh, PA Office of Innovation & Performance about their open data and innovation efforts. Debra Lam, the Chief of Innovation & Performance and Laura Meixell the Analytics & Strategy Manager discussed PGH Lab, the city's Burgh's Eye View app and more.

We take a deep dive on the administrative side of elections with Tim Tsujii the Elections Director of Forsyth County, NC. We talked what it takes to prepare for an election, common misconceptions and more.

Paul Leonard the Township Manager of Upper Dublin, PA came on the podcast to talk public safety, emergency response and his favorite podcasts. Paul has been in local government for 30 years and is still an active fire fighter.

The game that launched a thousand local government careers. From future planners to city managers, SimCity inspired lots of local government leaders to pursue their chosen career. We talked with Ocean Quigley, the Creative Director at Facebook and former Creative Director at EA in charge of SimCity.

We sit down with Nick Kittle about his work with Adams County, CO on innovation and sustainability initiatives. Nick shares how he combats "energy vampires," and shares his definition of "innovation." Nick also gets real on the podcast, sharing his life experiences and how they have motivated him to serve the public and focus on his family.

We sat down with the CEO of Archive Social, Anil Chawla to talk civic technology and the GovTech Podcast. Then the tables get turned and Anil asks Kent Wyatt about the story behind ELGL and GovLove.

George Hawkins the CEO of DC Water comes on the podcast to talk about his path to local government, the innovative things the DC water system is doing and more.

The League of Women in Government is an exciting new group working to bring attention to the issue of gender equality in local government. Specifically they've focused on raising the percentage of women in chief administrative officer positions from 13 percent, the rate it was in 1984 and 2014. GovLove interviewed three leaders involved with the group who spoke at a symposium before the ICMA conference in Kansas City.

The return of Between Two Interns! For their first episode they grill Anthony Hooper, the Public Works Director of Lake Oswego, OR. Our new interns, Ashley Sonoff and Madison Thesing, are both Fellows in the Portland, OR area. For the first part of the episode we get to know them and their path to local government. Then the interns talk with Anthony about being a manager, getting creative to advance and more.

The 2016 Election season is in the home stretch with contests at every level of government. We sat down with Promise King the Executive Director of the Oregon League of Minority Voters to talk about voter turnout, issues important to minority voters and more.

On October 21st Engaging Local Government Leaders (ELGL) held six pop-up conferences across the country involving more than 550 local government administrators. Organizers from each of the locations come on the podcast to talk about what they were inspired by and their favorite speakers and sessions.

How does blocking or muting someone on Twitter affect free speech? Angela Greben has been doing research into precisely this topic. She has been filing records requests across the country to find out who elected officials and public Twitter accounts have been muting to find out if it impacts your first amendment right.

What's it like to launch a new city website? In an interview from the 2016 ICMA Conference in Kansas City, Mike Ekey from the City of Raymore, MO and Ashley Fruechting from Vision Internet tell the story of Raymore's process and launch. From the bid process to the ribbon cutting (yes ribbon cutting of a website) Mike and Ashley give a behind the scenes look at the process.

Ron Holifield from Strategic Government Resources comes on the podcast to discuss culture and how it can impact hiring and brand perception. The interview covers everything from servant leadership to how prepared local governments are for the "silver tsunami."

We sat down with Assistant City Manager Rick Usher while we were in Kansas City, MO for the 2016 ICMA Conference. He discussed the city's new streetcar, bringing Google Fiber to the region and supporting the start-up community. Rick also shed some light on KC's ties to history and how the city has changed in his 30 year career at City Hall.

It's all dad talk in this week's episode! Four guests come on the podcast to talk about balancing being a father and working in local government. Patrick Rollens (Corvallis, OR), Ryan Adams (Irving, TX), Ben McCready (Normal, IL) and Matt Yager (Plano, TX) talk about dealing with sick kids and what workplaces can do to be more family friendly.

Live from #ICMA2016! GovLove was in Kansas City, MO for the annual conference and found some time to sit down with Amy Garmer from the Aspen Institute and the director of the Dialogue on Public Libraries. She talks how libraries are changing, "technology petting zoos" and more.

As President of The Novak Consulting Group, Julia Novak helps cities across the country with everything from executive recruitment to strategic planning. She comes on the podcast to talk the rise of incivility in government and the need to think of public service as a "barn raising" effort.

Reporting from the Michigan Municipal League conference from the top of the mitten, Bridget Doyle and Kirsten Wyatt talk about what they've learned at the conference and what they spoke on. They also end the episode with some classic jokes.

The Department of Labor released new rules for exempt and non-exempt employees. In this episode we sit down with Kristin Donald, the finance manager of Apex Park & Recreation District in Colorado, to talk about what organizations are doing to get ready.

Soofa Benches' Ed Krafcik comes on GovLove to talk about smart urban furniture appliances. Soofa creates solar powered charging stations that double as park benches. He and Kirsten also discuss smart cities and the role of technology in government.

Chris Maddox comes on the podcast to talk about local government and technology. The conversation covered everything from his career in the tech sector to engaging citizens and creating a business environment to encourage the technology industry.

Mayor Matt Surrency joins Kent to chat about local government in Florida. They discuss his decision to run for elected office and his time as President of the Florida League of Cities.