By Patrick Sullivan
I can’t tell you how much MME in all its forms, from MCMA to MLGMA to MME, has meant to me. My life changed when I started my first village manager job in January 1990. A neighboring manager told me I just had to go to the upcoming MCMA conference in Grand Rapids. At the time, two weeks into my first manager’s job, I felt a little awkward asking my council to send me to a conference. But the neighboring manager, Randy May, insisted that I needed to see what our state association had to offer. He said this would lead to connections, knowledge, and friendships that would be so important to support my chosen profession. Wow, was he right! I met my wife, Amy, at that conference and the knowledge, connections, and friendships I have gained over the years have been invaluable.
So, when past president Pete Auger asked me to serve as MME president, I eagerly accepted the opportunity to help our association. Pete sort of tricked me into it. He asked me if I would serve on the board. I said. “Sure Pete, but you should know I already served a term on the board a few years back. So, if there’s someone else who would like a turn, I’d be fine with that. too. However I can help the association.”
Pete said, “Well, it’s a three year commitment. First you’re vice president, then president-elect….”
“Wait, what?” I replied. I had to wait until the Winter Conference and the Nominating Committee report to find out if I had heard him correctly. Thanks, Pete!
But I’m honored that he reached out to me and that I’ve had the opportunity to give back to an organization that has given so much to me.
While I came into this job with no preconceived notions of what needed to be done, it quickly became apparent that diversity would be the topic of the year. The Winter Institute in Ann Arbor opened with the Women’s Symposium and the topic of why we don’t have more women in our profession. Then President Van Beek and I were asked why there were only two women on the MME Executive Board. I’ll never forget a conversation I had in the hallway with Christian Wuerth. He said that our board shouldn’t just represent the demographic breakdown of the membership we have today, but what we want to look like in the future. We need to look like an organization that wants to recruit more women and minorities.
Our association, along with the other state associations in the Midwest, were faced with a controversy when the ICMA reopened the Midwest Vice-Presidential nomination process due to a lack of diversity among the candidates for that post. I attended a testy meeting in Columbus in February, where the Midwest presidents were successful in sticking to our regional rotation agreement, but also heard, in no uncertain terms, that we needed to do a better job of recruiting diverse candidates from our region.
About the same time, the MML started an initiative to recruit more women into executive leadership. With the goal of increasing the percentage of women in our profession from the current 16 percent to 50 percent, the 16/50 program was launched in March.
We’ve made some progress this year in addressing these concerns. Keith VanBeek and the MME Nominating Committee have proposed changes in our nomination process that will make it easier to attract a diverse field of future MME Executive Board members and officers. The state associations reached out to their members and In December, six nominees who represent a variety of states and are a diverse reflection of the great men and women serving our profession applied for the Midwest, Non-CEO, Vice Presidential nomination to the ICMA Executive Board.
The 16/50 program selected 25 women from over 100 applicants, many who are already working in local government and aspire to be managers, to participate in their Women’s Municipal Leadership Program. MME was able to make a financial contribution to this effort. The program is also conducting university panels and an Ambassador Program to attract women to our profession.
I appreciate our members supporting the phased in dues increase that we started this year. We project that we will finish about $36,000 to the good at year’s end. That helps us support all the good things that MME does.
I can’t begin to express how grateful I am to those who really do the heavy lifting. Our committees and our support staff at MML, the folks who plan our conferences, guard our ethics, advocate for our profession, prepare our next generation, and recruit more members to participate on our board and committees. It’s a ton of work, and everyone does it because they are committed to this profession and want to give something back. Thanks for giving me that opportunity.
Patrick Sullivan
President, Michigan Municipal Executives; City Manager, Northville
Patrick Sullivan was selected to be the city manager of Northville in 2006. His previous governmental experience included 10 years as superintendent of the City of St. Clair; four years as assistant village manager and village clerk of Beverly Hills; manager of the Village of New Haven; and township clerk of Lenox Township. You may reach him at 248-449-9905 or psullivan@ci.northville.mi.us.