Pat McGinnis
Chair, Advocacy Committee
Advocacy Committee members Jason Smith (Belleville) and Jared Olson (Roosevelt Park) presented a session on Fostering Community Awareness and Community Growth as Professional Managers at the Summer Conference in Marquette. The session was well attended, and the round table format delivered several best practices for our consideration:
- Get into the schools and present on council manager form at least once per year
- Appoint under 18 to serve on city boards or commissions to reach youth (Vassar has voting members of the DDA who are not yet 18!)
- Citizens Academy (Coldwater, Midland)
- Intentional statement that communities conduct Citizen Academies to grow interest in future careers in local government and public service
- Service club speaking tour (Kiwanis, Rotary, Optimist, etc.)—Join one!
- State of the City address
- Person on staff who pushes out social media
- Include other departments in advocacy, not just CMO
- Career recruiting—many professions in local service
- Support managers when they are facing a tough elected body
- Mock city council meeting with students
- Governance presentation during council meetings
President Wuerth asks us to attend our regional meetings to encourage members to post good news stories on our pages on LinkedIn and Facebook. You should be seeing a member of the Advocacy Committee at your regional meeting, and they will be asking you to post a cool story about YOUR town and tie in the relevance of a strong council-manager relationship.
It is never a bad time to advocate, so don’t wait—post something today and do a press release about the efforts you and your team are making to improve your community!
Pat McGinnis
Chair, Advocacy Committee
City Manager, City of Portage
Pat McGinnis has been active in the MCMA/MLGMA/MME since 1987 when he first worked in a manager’s office in the City of Farmington Hills. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public administration from Michigan State University and has served as city manager in the Michigan municipalities of West Branch, Grand Haven, and Portage. He served a term on the MLGMA Board of Trustees and received the Excellence Award in 2012 and an Innovation Award in 2020. He and his wife Tina live in Portage, Michigan with their bunny, cat, and puppy. He can be reached at mcginnip@portagemi.gov.