GovLove is a podcast about the people, policies and profession of local government. From Mayors and City Managers to interns and everyone in between, we interview the people making a difference in their communities to learn about the great work being done at the local level. GovLove is brought to you by Engaging Local Government Leaders (ELGL).
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Relevant these days with with all the crisis we face at the border. Yes. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Very timely. Oh, fascinating. Alright. The my next culinary question for you, cake or pie? Oh, pie every day. I I we're we're pie snobs here in my family. We're real big pie job. So it gotta be the homemade crust. Gotta be the homemade fillings pie. What's the go to type of pie? You know what? I love good lemon ring pie or good chocolate cream pie, but my kids will almost always choose apple pie. Go figure. I'll I'll I'll eat any pie. I love it. You're not picky about pie. I'm not picky. It just well, since homemade pie, I'm good. Yeah. Awesome. Alright. Then the next layer of question for you. What was the first album that you bought? You know, I have a really clear memory of holding a cassette tape when I was, like, thirteen years old, and it had to be the album called what time is it by the time, which is like a prince adjacent band. Okay. At the time then, and still now, I'm a huge prince fan, but I was thinking I was like, why wasn't my first album prints album. I don't know, but it was the time, but it was the time. But it's all of my it's all of my prints throughout my whole life. Yeah. I love that. Alright. And then, my last letter of house for you, where do you go for inspiration? Oh, you know, I think honestly, like, outside. That sounds so dorky and, like, boring, but, like, just being able to clear the mind, like, getting in my bike and just riding and having no stimulation, is honestly what's inspiring to me. And I will say too there's a a state park about an hour a half away from here. And every time I'm there, it's called Shenandoah River State Park. Every time I'm there, I just find myself totally at ease and, like, at one with the universe. So those those are my happy places on my bike and in that Oh, I love that. I love that. Yeah. There's something about getting on a bike and just especially when you don't have to be anywhere at any certain time. You're just, like, out for a ride. That that is lovely. Even commuting to work. It's still, like, the most important way to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I agree. Alright. So I'm I'm a I was, like, asking, yes, how they end up kinda doing the work that they're doing. And so, you know, you're on today to talk
The love of nature, the mental health benefits, the physical health benefits, the emotional, all the good stuff that comes with just going for a walk or a hike or being around water, like, all the other things that exist with it. It all just blended together. And I was like, do I have a job? Is this a is this my job? This is actually what I do because I love what I do because when I'm at work, I'm in parks, and community centers. And when I'm not at work, I'm just right back in parks and community centers. And so, you know, enthusiasts in your own profession or parks and recreation at the intersection of personal and professional is something I say as well too. And it just all kinda made sense, and it all just ties back into the idea that we have such a great industry to work in because it is so fun. And if you embrace it for what it is, you can really create something cool. And you're gonna like you said, you spend a lot of time at work. You spend a lot of time with the people at work. And so just, you know, my hobbies have really blended in with my profession. I won't sit here and say that I love what I do. I've never worked a day in my life because that's not true. But it just it was just an emerging trend. And so as I was developing out a personal blog, as I was going on other podcasts throughout my career, as I was just kinda navigating the space, it was just something that always showed up, and I felt like that is the lens, the angle that if somebody comes across any of my content on the Internet, that that is what they're gonna find either visually or words, and that's what you did find. So that's means that it's working, which is fantastic. Yeah. Well, and I think the parks and rec space has a really great opportunity that that some other local government professions don't. Right? So I think about that phrase of exploring what's like to be an enthusiast in your own profession. I don't know that accounting screams that. Right? I don't know that, like, engineering might maybe it does. But, you know, there's some of the other professions that, you you you don't have that opportunity for kind of full immersion and where the personal and profession
They would have it's in, Piedmont Park, which is a huge park in Midtown Atlanta. And they would set up I wanna say it was, like, 2 to 3 stages. And so it would be performers just performing at the same time on those stages. So I my friend, snagged tickets from somewhere and asked if I was available. And, of course, I'm gonna be available for music midtown, because any other time, I can't afford those tickets. And so this was probably this was probably, like, 10 or 11 years ago when I first moved into the Metro Atlanta area. And I went and I had a ball. I saw everyone from, what? Blink 182, all the and that's what I like to say about music, big town is because they went all the way, like, old school to, like, today's hit. So, like, I saw Blink 182 all the way to, like, Bruno Mars. And it was the best. It was a lot because it was a 2 day music festival, but it was the best show. And I got to see so many people. I just had so much fun now. I I didn't have any cell service to get an Uber at that time. I think I walked 10 blocks to get to have service, but it was all worth it. And I have, like, some dirty Chuck Taylors to prove it all. To prove yeah. To prove it all. Man, music festival are intimidating, especially at multistage. Like, oh, that that that's a lot. That's overwhelming. Yeah. It is a lot of people, and I I think I'm a little claustrophobic. So having that many people around me, but I just tried to, like, zone get in the zone and, like, just listen to the music and look at the performers, It was really good. So worth it. That's awesome. That's awesome. That's a fun first question. Alright. The next line, Eric, for you. What what book are you currently reading? So this is a really good question because I stopped reading for probably about 2 or 3 years because I read so much at work. And so I'm just getting back and I used to love reading growing up. So I'm just getting back into it. So one of the professional development books I'm reading is called the 1 minute manager meets the monkey. And it was
And remember, leading is about looking up. Management is about looking down. And when you invite those department heads in to help, you're you're really choreographing and saying, help me lead the organization. And in doing so, you gotta step into the world of the manager's office and really take on some responsibility that might be outside of your normal day to day opportunities, leading within your department. So I like I've I've always enjoyed the 4 balls concept. It makes a lot of sense to me. And when I think about that ball, the elected officials. Right, and I like the analogy of the amount of hours they spend, I'm always surprised by how much work commissioners put elected officials put into the job. But one of the things that I'm always thinking about, you know, as I think about what's my future, right, where do I go in my career is this notion of risk. Right? The higher up in the organization you go, a little more risk you take on in your career. If you're depending on a whole lot of other people, some who don't directly report to you, to be your eyes and ears with the elected officials, how do you get to the place where you feel comfortable enough to take that risk? And then how do you build a team to make sure that team rewards that risk that you're taking? That's a complicated question. I mean, it sort of gets to the nitty gritty of the of the the relationship that managers have with their board. You know, the first thing I would tell you is that, the the manager has to be effective. And if you interview 10 different managers, you're gonna get some decent variation in how he or she works with the board, introduces the department heads, introduces the executive level of leadership in the organization to help with the day to day operations and the activity of the board. I think that, in our case, and that's where I serve in Almar County. You know, the the the staff is committed to high
To get a job. She was like you should, you know, get out of this small town, and so I went back to get my graduate degree in architecture which was kind of more like urban design, but really focused on sustainability in the urban environment, and we happened to land in Hoboken, and right around that same time, like Irene, Sandy, these are 2 big hurricanes that happened in 2011, 2012. So studying architecture, these consequential events happened, and I walked into city hall, and I was just like, hey. Listen. I I think that I could help support the operation here. I have a background in this, and, the the mayor was like, that's great. You know, let's let's see what we can plug you in and started as an intern and now, you know, chief resilience officer, assistant business administrator, and just have a lot of, I guess, insight into and and experience with that adaptation process going through, you know, the recovery and rebuilding, and, that's why we're having a conversation today. So it was a little circuitous, but I guess I've always kind of been on the local government path and, I just I really enjoy what I do and and even more than I enjoy the the people that I get to work with and to some degree, also our constituents and council persons, and that's always a a little bit of a challenge, but it's all part of the soup. Know? It's all part of the it's all part of the process, and and listening is a big part of that. So Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Residents and and elected officials have their their challenges, but it's part of it. Yeah. Well said. Well, I think we you have you have your, like, you have your internal stakeholders. You have your external stakeholders. And Yeah. What I think is interesting is if you can figure out how to move all those different levers in the same direction, that's where I think that, you start to gain momentum in realizing what that whatever that vision is or what whatever those next steps might be. Yeah. Yeah. Well said. So
