New ICMA president searches for recruits
This month, the Washington-based International City/County Management Association (ICMA) will induct Sedgwick County, Kan., Manager William Buchanan as the organization’s new president. As county manager, Buchanan is overseeing several major projects in his jurisdiction, including building a new arena and implementing social service programs. This year, the Pennsylvania native plans to continue working on ICMA projects already in progress with a focus on encouraging involvement in government by all people who make up a community. American City & County talked with Buchanan about representing Sedgwick County, his goals for the upcoming term and the need for diversity among local government managers.
Q: What challenges do you face as county manager, and how do you handle them?
A: The unique challenge is how [to] take on these new projects and continue to provide quality public service [to] the underprivileged of this community. How do we make sure they get treated properly [and have] a chance to succeed?
Q: What is one of your main goals for your upcoming term?
A: I want to continue to remind our members of the important work that we do in [the] community. Members of our profession don’t hear often enough what a good job they do. [As president, I will strive to recognize] the hard work and good stuff that the people of ICMA do in local governments everyday.
Q: What special projects will you be working on this year?
A: I want to really work hard on this whole concept of emerging leaders and bringing new people into the profession. We have a population demographic tsunami coming. The baby boomers are going to start falling off real quick. How do we replace them, and who do we replace them with? How do we grow our own managers, and how do we make sure this profession looks like the people we serve? How do we make sure we’re inclusive and reach out to folks and make sure that people know that this is a good way to earn a living? [We also have to make sure] the federal government knows that we’re available to provide contract work in other nations. Finally, I want to make sure [we] educate folks about the profession.
Q: How will you encourage people to become involved in local government and ICMA?
A: We’re [creating] a strategic planning committee … to make sure that there’s a path that’s easy for young people. We’ve got to encourage managers to hire interns and to make sure assistants get the education and training they need. We have found that a lot of assistant managers in this profession don’t get to go to conferences. How do we have mentoring programs within in our cities and counties? We as an organization probably do a pretty good job of recruiting and making sure that our cities and counties are diversified. We need to make sure that those pools of candidates will work their way up to the top jobs and encourage elected officials when they’re doing those hirings to make sure that they are inclusive.
