Jim Lenner
Jim Lenner has been the Village Manager for Johnstown since 2011. Located outside the Columbus, Ohio, metro region, Johnstown has seen significant growth over the past 10 years.
The accomplishment of which you are the most proud? ? I have been most proud of completing projects that increased the efficiencies of our staff. Although we have seen a small increase in revenue, we have been asked to do proportionally more with less. We have used our fund balance carryover in the last three budgets but have slowly reduced the amount without sacrifices in service or employee layoffs.
What trends/issues/challenges do you feel particularly apply to young leaders of today and why? ? The major challenge for young leaders in government is the stigma of government lazy, incompetent employees. We often are ridiculed for actions of other government entities as well as other government employees. There are good leaders in the public sector that do great things everyday. However, one story of a bad apple in the government sector sets the rest back in the eyes of the public. I believe young leaders will look elsewhere for fear of the impact of unfounded negative public perception of government employees.