By Thomas A. Tanghe
Go figure. I miss the MME Winter conference and win the MME Mentoring Award. But seriously, I want to thank those who made the decision to recognize my work in preparing the next generation of leaders in local government. Truth be told, many have gone on to success in the private sector, but I feel pretty good about that too. But no doubt some have pursued careers in local government such as Amanda (Thomas) Opalewski of Sterling Heights, and Andrew Hagge, who is now with the City of Auburn Hills in a full-time role.
The Auburn Hills internship program began in 2006. It seemed natural for us since Oakland University resides in our community and has a solid MPA program. But I can tell you that I’ve also had interns from universities such as CMU and Wayne State. The first of our interns were not focused specifically on local government management, but that changed two years later when I formalized a program that would focus on students interested in careers in local government management. The role, known as Management Assistant, was created after I had done much reading about the attention given by ICMA to “feed the pipeline”. That phrase stuck with me as I realized that we needed to prepare the next generation of competent managers who would see the role of City Manager as one of great importance and as a noteworthy and honorable career. Thirteen years later, our internship continues.
As the program has progressed, so has its content. Students are not only given guidance and direction during the internship, but they are formally evaluated based on meaningful criteria. This includes: orientation to each city department to understand their relationships to each other and to the public, budget preparation, labor negotiations, attendance at City Council meetings, City Council memo preparation, one or more presentations to City Council, planning of one community event, professional appearance, special projects, grievance handling (formal and informal), professional representation of the employer, interaction with boards, commissions, and staff, use of technology, written and oral communication skills, initiative and drive, community visibility, and professional development activities through attendance at training and/or conferences. To do all of this, a City Manager must be prepared to spend the necessary time to coach and mentor if the experience is going to be meaningful to the intern and valuable to the community. Don’t kid yourself – a good internship is hard work if you’re going to do it right. My interns are not copy makers and coffee fetchers.
Perhaps one piece of advice I can give to other managers about internships is to keep it simple. We’re in government and we sometimes think that “good work” is judged by the number of pages we produce. The Auburn Hills internship documentation is essentially a posting that summarizes the expectations as well as an evaluation document that includes the criteria mentioned in the paragraph above. The real value of any internship will be in the work assignments given to the intern, as well as the necessary guidance for the completion of the work by that intern. Handing someone a lengthy manual on “How to Be an Intern” is not the answer. Anyone who might be interested in learning more about our program is welcome to reach out to me at ttanghe@auburnhills.org. Again, thank you for selecting me for this year’s Mentorship Award. It’s an honor to be recognized by my colleagues.
Thomas A. Tanghe
MME Member
City Manager, Auburn Hills
Thomas Tanghe is the city manager for the City of Auburn Hills and recipient of the MME Mentoring Award. This award recognizes the MME professional who has made significant contributions in the development of new talent and/or who has designed and implemented outstanding career development programs for local government employees. He has served the City of Auburn Hills for the past 21 years, the last eight as City Manager. He has thirty-one years of municipal management experience having previously worked for the cities of Lathrup Village and Southfield, both in Oakland County. Over the life of his career, he has served in various capacities as a volunteer to ICMA, MME, and Mission Square (formerly ICMA-RC). Most recently he co-hosted the 2021 MME Summer Conference. He is the founder, past chair, and a current member of the board of directors of the Auburn Hills Community Foundation; and in 2021 was appointed to the board of directors of the Professional Law Enforcement Association (PLEA) and is its board secretary. Tom was MME’s Excellence in Local Government Management award winner in 2011 and in January 2022, received MME’s Mentorship Award. He can be reached at ttanghe@auburnhills.org.