July 2012 Administrator:Layout 1.qxd

JULY 2012, ISSUE 7
Summer seminar a time for ‘renewal’
T
he 2012 N.C. City & County Management
Association (NCCCMA)’s Summer Seminar
was a time “of renewal for all of us as we
transform our local governments to make them a
better place to live,” said outgoing President Harry
Jones, Mecklenburg County manager
Jones’ remarks during the business meeting
of the seminar, which was held June 28-30 at
the Renaissance Hotel in Asheville/Buncombe
County, challenged his colleagues.
“Each and every day you wake up, you have
a new opportunity to plant a tree under whose
shade you will never sit.”
Jones, who is fighting cancer, thanked the
members for their prayers and thoughts.
“I was staggered, but I was not knocked
out,” he said. “I look at you as my brothers and
sisters.”
Concord City Manager Brian Hiatt took the
oath to succeed Jones as NCCCMA president.
“We admire Harry for the way he has handled this challenge but also for the way he
shared it,” said Hiatt.
Hiatt went on to say that, as managers, “we
cannot be satisfied with the status quo. It will be
a challenge to move forward.” He then asked
members to get involved in an NCCCMA com-
Lenoir City Manager Lane Bailey (right) swears in members of the NCCCMA Executive Committee (from left
to right): First Vice President Carl Dean, Holly Springs town manager; Immediate Past President Harry
Jones, Mecklenburg county manager; and President Brian Hiatt, Concord city manager.
mittee (see page 2 for more information on
that).
In an interview with Cabarrus Magazine,
Hiatt said it is “truly an honor to be selected by
my peers to head the association during a period when we are all working hard to maintain
essential services and prepare our organizations for the future.”
Looking to the past & the future
Martha Perego with the International
City/County Management Association (ICMA)
was a guest during the NCCCMA’s Executive
Committee meeting on June 28. The councilmanager form of government is on the cusp of
its 100th anniversary.
“It’s an exciting time for us a profession, hitting that 100-year mark,” she said.
North Carolina has long been a leader in
Continued on Page 3
Waynesville’s Galloway, Melnikova honored
L
ongtime Waynesville Town Manager Lee
Galloway was recently awarded the Order of
the Long Leaf Pine, one of the state’s highest
honors. Galloway was recognized for his years of
service to the state; the award is typically given to
those who have contributed 30 or more years of
service. Among the list of previous recipients are
Andy Griffith, Billy Graham and Dale Earnhardt.
“It only seemed appropriate that you have
been added to that list,” said Mayor Gavin
Brown, according to the Smoky Mountain
News.
Galloway retired on June 29 after 18 years
as manager in Waynsesvillle. He also has
worked in Dunn, Rockingham and served stints
in Georgia and Virginia.
“I couldn’t have painted a picture and it be
any better,” Galloway said about his time in
Waynesville.
Continued on Page 3
PAGE 2 • JULY 2012
Committee forms, news alerts now online
Those attending the NCCCMA Summer Seminar were able to get a sneak-peak at the new online committee membership sign-up process, which allows for more efficient input into the association’s committee process.
T
hose who have visited www.ncmanagers.org,
the website of the N.C. City & County
Management Association (NCCCMA) of late,
may have noticed a couple of added features.
The first recently-added feature is a “News
Alerts” feed for which members may sign up.
This service “pushes” news stories from around
the state and nation that are pertinent to the
local government management profession out
to those who have subscribed to the service.
Calendar of Events
2012 NCACC Annual
Conference
August 16-19, 2012
Raleigh Convention Center
Raleigh/Wake County
2012 NCLM Annual
Conference
October 21-23, 2012
Charlotte Convention Center
Members sign up using their email address,
and can then receive news stories sent directly
to that address.
NCCCMA has enlisted the help of technology company VC3 to help make this service a
reality. The NCCCMA “News Alerts” feature
uses Google Alert news feeds to find stories
from newspapers, blogs and other websites to
pass along to NCCCMA members.
Go to www.ncmanagers.org and click on
2013 NCCCMA Winter
Seminar
February 6-8, 2013
Sheraton Imperial RTP
“News Service” on the front page to sign up.
Another new feature ot the website is that
now members can sign up for NCCCMA committees via www.ncmanagers.org.
In previous years, members had to submit a
paper committee application, which was then
mailed to N.C. League of Municipalities’ offices
in Raleigh, tracked, processed and then given
to the NCCCMA president to pick assignments.
This new feature will make the process much
more efficient. Once a form is submitted, it is
automatically fed into a database and candidates for the various committees are sorted,
making the president’s job that much easier.
If interested in signing up for a comittee, go
to www.ncmanagers.org to fill out the
Committee Interest Form, available from the
home page.
In addition, you may read up on the responsibilities of the various committees by going to
http://www.ncmanagers.org/about/Pages/
Committee-Responsibilities.aspx
The available committees are: Civic
Education; Collaboration with MPA Programs;
Membership Support; Nominating Committee;
Professional Conduct; Professional
Development; Retirement Committee; Seminar
Program Committee; and Sustaining
Membership.
The Administrator is a monthly newsletter of the North
Carolina City and County Management Association, a professional association for city and county managers and assistant
managers from counties and municipalities throughout the state
of North Carolina.
For comments or suggestions, please contact Matt Lail, editor, at (919) 715-3929, fax to (919) 733-9519, or [email protected].
THE ADMINISTRATOR • PAGE 3
Summer seminar, continued from page 1
promoting the form of government AND in
membershp in ICMA. In fact, the state leads all
others in the number (107) of Credentialed
Managers.
“The bad news is you insulted Florida and
they are nipping on your heels,” said Perego.
She added that ICMA is looking at improving
the relationships between professionals and
students at those colleges and universities that
have Master’s in public administration programs. The organization is also looking at coming up with a lower level dues structure for
“mid-level” employees as a way to not only get
them involved in ICMA, but also to prepare
them for succession planning.
“It’s important to get them in your organization and ours at an early age.”
Telling the local government story
Being able to adequately and effectively
communicate with citizens is so vital in this day
and age. One general session of the seminar
focused on ways that cities and counties do just
that.
Dewey Harris with Catawba County said his
organization uses “old school” (press releases,
the newspaper, a speakers’ bureau, etc.) and
“new school” (the internet, social media, RSS
feeds, etc.) to communicate. He added it’s
important to know “to who you are telling the
story” to engage the media, tell your “own bad
story,” and keep elected officials in the loop.
Added Holly Springs’ Carl Dean: “We cannot
overstate the need to communicate to our citizens.”
Dean’s community, for example, uses 20
ways to reach “everyone.” He added that you
“can’t discount the human element,” meaning
having someone at your front desk is vital.
Business meeting information
A number of committees made reports during the Saturday business meeting. Dean, with
Professional Conduct, was pleased to report
nothing.
“You guys have been really good this year,
so thank you,” he joked.
Durham’s Wanda Page, with the
Collaboration with MPA Programs committee,
said that student chapters have started at
Appalachian State University and UNC-Chapel
Hill. The committee hopes to plant chapters at
the other eight schools with MPA programs.
“Thank you for sharing and documenting
Waynesville honors, continued from page 1
The next day, on June 30, Galloway had the
pleasure of turning around and presenting a
distinguished award when he presented his
assistant manager, Alison Melnikova, with the
N.C. City & County Management Association
(NCCCMA)’s Assistant Manager of the Year
Award. The award was presented during the
business meeting of the NCCCMA Summer
Seminar in Asheville.
“What makes Alison happy,” said Galloway
when presenting the award, “is giving her more
responsbility. And the more responsibility you
give her, the better she does.”
your stories of collaboration with MPA programs,” she said. “And thank you to all the
members who regularly engage the students
and MPA porograms.”
Emerging technologies
In the final general session of the seminar,
Catawba County Chief Information Officer
wowed those in attendance with a look at the
type of technologies that are on the way, including Google’s Glass Project and Corning’s interactive glass - both aimed at fully integrating our
lives and technology even more than already.
“We can forget work-life balance,” he said.
“The new term is work-life integration.”
Bledsoe said the next things to watch out for
are embedded devices, wearables, flexible displays, and projectors built into mobile devices -even vibrating tattooos.
“You are going to have to change how you
deliver information,” said Bledsoe.
“Think about how all this applies to your
realm.”
PAGE 4 • JULY 2012
Asheville/Buncombe shines during 2012 NCCCMA
Summer Seminar
Attendees at the NCCCMA Summer Seminar were treated to a walking tour of downtown Asheville. Here are some of the sights that they saw including grotesques
(not to be confused with gargoyles), skyscrapers and more. The tour was led by environmental planner Sharon Fahrer.