Alan Vanderberg, ICMA-CM
County Administrator
Ottawa County, Michigan
avanderberg@miottawa.org

The best advice came when I was a young city manager acting as lead negotiator with the police and fire unions.

I was focused on the salary increase amount and cost of benefits. The police requested to go on 12-hour shifts and work fewer days in a week. A seasoned labor attorney told me to map it out very carefully because it could be an extremely expensive request to grant.

We did and found that our organization was not deep enough for appropriate shift coverage and that overtime costs would have eaten us alive.

Linda Cochrane
City Manager
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
linda.cochrane@edmonton.ca

The advice I received: Do the right thing. It was our guiding principle at the city of Edmonton when we responded to the wildfire evacuation of the city of Fort McMurray this past May.

Some 80,000 individuals were forced to flee with little notice. As the nearest major city, we set up a reception center and provided essential services.

We were prepared to meet the need. But our not-for-profit partners didn’t have the staff or experience to do the same. We made the decision to step out beyond our legislated role to help the not-for-profit societies set up warehouses to manage donations and care for rescued pets.

Residents don’t see the divisions between governmental and nongovernmental organizations. We are here to serve, and in emergencies, we do what is necessary.

Stephen Childers, ICMA-CM
City Administrator
Ozark, Missouri
schilders@ozarkmissouri.org

Maintaining a high level of public safety service has become increasingly more difficult as residents’ expectations for perfection increases and the basic cost of doing business continues to rise.

It seems, however, that residents are generally reluctant to support additional taxation to fund such services. The fact is, the cost of operating a public safety department can be one of the most expensive departments in a local government’s budget.

All that being said, I believe the best advice I have been given is that when additional staff and/or funding is requested by the department head, be sure to require hard facts to justify the need; know the origin of the data being presented; and if percentages are used to justify the expense, check and double-check the method of calculation.