Al Vanderberg | Experience Committee Chair
One of the high points of the recent MME Winter Institute was the opportunity to recognize MME members for their outstanding work and accomplishments through our annual awards. We will highlight one award winner in each of the next few editions of The Manager.
Tom Tanghe was recognized with the Executive of the Year Award. This award recognizes exceptional leadership over the year prior to granting the award. Tom Tanghe has certainly had an outstanding year of leadership and service. Tom is a current MME Board member and serves as a Board liaison to the Experience Committee. He also serves as chair of the Oakland County City Manager’s Association where his office works collaboratively with communities around the county to present topics of interest to its members.
For several months in 2023, Tom led a statewide effort with colleague Joe Hefele, city manager of Rogers City—as well as several other local government managers—advocating for state funding for communities with defined benefit pension plans that have followed best practices and whose funding levels were above 60 percent, but still in need of additional funding to relieve community fiscal stress. That effort included substantial contact with elected officials as well as municipal managers across the state, for which he provided guidance and template documents to each community so that they could join in the statewide advocacy.
As part of his role on the MME Board, Tom is the liaison to the Experience Committee where he has been highly engaged, including regular attendance at monthly meetings, nominating and selecting award winners, and developing template documents in the preparation of a statewide management directory that will include the bios of MME members.
Over the past 12 months and continuing, Tom is the only city manager to serve on the Professional Law Enforcement Association Board of Directors, a national organization that provides for additional liability protection for police officers across the United States. Tom was sought out for his years of experience working with police agencies and as a trusted individual supporting the law enforcement profession over his entire 34-year career. His participation represents local government support of local law enforcement agencies.
Tom’s contributions to the profession were most recently recognized by the Detroit Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration as their 2023 Outstanding Executive Official of the Year. This recognition, like the MME Executive of the Year Award, recognizes his many contributions to the profession of local government management.
Please join me once again in congratulating Tom Tanghe on being honored with the MME Executive of the Year Award as he continues to serve and be a role model for so many in our venerable profession.
Al Vanderberg
Chair, Experience Committee
Administrator/Controller, Kent County
Al Vanderberg serves as county administrator/controller of Kent County since August 2021. Previously, Al served as county administrator of Ottawa County; deputy county administrator/controller of Kent County; city manager of South Haven; and assistant city manager of Greenville. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Michigan and Master of Public Administration from Michigan State University. Al served as president of the Michigan Municipal Executives and Michigan Association of County Administrative Officials (MACAO), chair of the Grand Valley Metropolitan Council (GVMC) Board of Directors, and chair of the former West Michigan Strategic Alliance. He was appointed by Governor Snyder to the Michigan Municipal Services Authority Board of Directors and Executive Committee and was appointed by Governor Snyder and reappointed by Governor Whitmer to the Michigan Child Lead Exposure Elimination Commission. Al is a member of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights Council for Government and Education on Equity and Inclusion, the NACo DEI Advisory Group, and the National Association of County Administrators Board of Directors. He is a member of the adjunct faculty of Grand Valley State University where he teaches in the undergraduate and master’s programs. He also writes and speaks frequently on local government management topics and issues. He can be reached at al.vanderberg@kentcountymi.gov.