GovLove - A Podcast About Local Government

LouieStat and changing culture. Daro Mott, the Chief of Performance Improvement for the City of Louisville, Kentucky, joined the podcast to talk about their use of data and focus on process improvement. Daro described Louisville's particular focus on professional development and training employees to change culture. He also shared his path into local government and their work to earn the What Work...

Navigating the Supreme Court decision. Earlier this year the case of Janus v. AFSCME changed part of the relationship between local governments and unions. No longer can cities and counties collect union dues for non-union employees that benefit from union negotiations. Matthew DiCianni from the Chicago based law firm, Ancel Glink, joined the podcast to talk about the role of unions and the impact...

Talking crisis management and communication. Melissa Agnes, the author of Crisis Ready: Building an Invincible Brand in an Uncertain World, joined the podcast to talk handling crises. Melissa shared her perspective on plans versus programs and the importance of communication. 

A lot of preparation and work goes into hosting a Super Bowl. Two communications professionals from the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota shared their story of hosting Super Bowl 52 in their city. Greta Bergstrom is the Communications Director and Jordan Gilgenbach is the Digital Media Relations Coordinator for the City of Minneapolis. They talked about the working with dozens of partners to keep res...

The President of the Greater Providence, Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce, Laurie White, joined the podcast to share how Providence works to attract businesses and entrepreneurs. She talks about how important it is to know your workforce, what businesses are looking for and how she works together with the State Secretary of Commerce.  

Good government for the people. Jenny Reed the Director of the Office of Budget & Performance Management for the City of Washington, DC joined the podcast to talk about how they use evaluation and performance management. She shared the work of the Lab @ DC, how they want to make a more data driven budget process and their use of low cost evaluations. Jenny also shared the process of earning the Wh...

College Football and Local Government. We continue our series on the relationship between local governments and universities. Tom Casady, Director of Public Safety, joined the podcast to talk about the game day atmosphere in Lincoln, the preparation it takes to get ready for the influx of fans and his favorite memories. On Saturdays enough people come to Lincoln to make it the third largest city i...

A panel of local government staff, an elected official and a tech company staffer discussed the changing workplace. They shared their opinions on what they want to see from their employers, how government can better engage with residents and how local government needs to deal with diversity and inclusion. The group also took questions from the audience that hit on the urban-rural divide, the role...

The author of a new book on the Flint water crisis joined the podcast to talk about what happened. Anna Clark, the author of "The Poisoned City: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy," shared her perspective on the role of government in the crisis, the decline of local journalism and the importance of infrastructure. Anna also talked about instant replay, what a book tour is like and whethe...

Trust and accountability in local government. Kevin Knutson, the Vice President of Customer Success at Envisio, joined the podcast to talk about strategic planning, accountability and his view on the biggest challenges facing local governments. He also shared how Envisio, a software company, is helping organizations stick to and achieve their strategic plans. 

Game day for one of college football's storied rivalries. Every year, the City of Jacksonville, Florida plays host to the Georgia-Florida Game (or Florida-Georgia, depending on the year) and welcomes two fanbases from rival schools for events, tailgating and more. Brent Fine, the Special Events Manager for the City of Jacksonville, and Rick Catlett, the President/CEO of Gator Bowl Sports, joined t...

Live from the 2018 ICMA Conference in Baltimore, MD. The new ICMA President, Karen Pinkos, joined the podcast to talk about her career path, leadership and her tips for young professionals. She answered questions from the audience and talked about her new role as ICMA's 4th female President. Karen was recently selected to serve as the next City Manager of El Cerrito, CA, where she has been the Ass...

Transparency before it was cool. Three people from the City of Kansas City, Missouri joined the podcast to talk about how KCMO uses data to inform their decision making and how they hold themselves accountable to achieving their strategic plan. Kate Bender, Deputy Performance Officer, Bo McCall, Performance Analyst, and Chris Hernandez, Communications Director, shared the story of KC Stat, a month...

Parkour! Running, jumping and climbing through the urban landscape is catching on as a new form of play. Colin MacDonald the Design Director for Parkour Visions came on the podcast to talk about adding parkour elements to parks and teaching parkour. He explained how parkour can activate otherwise bland landscape and teaches people how to fall.

College Football and Local Government. GovLove is looking at how local governments across the country deal with game day. Glenn Bartolome, a System Impacts & Events Coordinator for King County Metro Transit, joined the podcast to discuss how they get thousands of fans to the University of Washington football stadium. The stadium is located in a dense urban neighborhood and both the University and...

Getting outcomes from engagement. Kit Cole is a public engagement consultant and a board member of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). She discusses the value and types of engagement, plus the importance of engagement in local government. Kit also compares the approaches to engagement in big, urban cities like Los Angeles versus small, rural communities like Brownsville,...

Preserving quality of life in shrinking Iowa cities. A grant from the National Science Foundation is exploring how communities can protect quality of life and community infrastructure while they lose population. The Shrink Smart Project aims to develop data-driven tools to assist towns in actively planning for shrinkage. Three people from Iowa State University joined the podcast: Kimberly Zarecor...

College Football and Local Government. Fall is here and that means football season, and at GovLove we are taking a look at how local governments across the country deal with game day. Mayor Walt Maddox from the City of Tuscaloosa, Alabama talked about how they handle the influx of fans filling the University of Alabama stadium, which seats over 100,000 people. From trash pickup and security to pla...

Playing matchmaker and reducing implicit bias. The CEO of Strategic Government Resources (SGR), Ron Holifield, joined GovLove to talk about how they are pushing local governments to change how they recruit. He shared his career path from time as a City Manager to leading a recruiting firm. Ron talked about his company's philosophy, the hierarchy of leadership and the SGRecruiter tool, which will m...

Using data and design to creatively solve problems. Tina Walha the Director of the Innovation & Performance team at the City of Seattle, Washington joined the podcast to talk about her team's work. She shared her path into local government, which started with a stint in Mayor Bloomberg's administration in New York City. Tina discussed the work of Seattle's i-Team, how they are building on the use...

A smart rural community. David Clyne the City Manager and Shawn Irvine the Economic Development Director join GovLove to talk about their work for the City of Independence, Oregon. This small city of about 9,000 people has used technology like municipal broadband to infuse a culture of technology into the work of the City and the culture of the community. They have worked on projects using a virtu...

Code for America recently hosted a National Day of Civic Hacking as a call to action bringing together civic leaders, local governments, and community organizations. Groups across the country got together to work on some of our toughest challenges. ELGL Executive Director, Kirsten Wyatt, was down in San Francisco, California at the Code for America headquarters and talked to three participants in...

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Culture of Health Prize recognizes communities that have placed a priority on health and are creating powerful partnerships and deep commitments to provide everyone, especially those facing the greatest challenges, with a fair and just opportunity for health and well-being. Katie Wehr from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Julie Willems Van Dijk from the U...

The City Manager of Hillsboro, Oregon, Michael Brown, joined GovLove to talk about his approach to recruiting for department directors and other top level vacancies. Michael shared how when his Assistant City Manager announced their retirement he spent time rethinking the position and allowing the departments and staff that will report to the new person to have input on what to look for. He also s...

The Director of the Greater Cincinnati Water Works Department, Cathy B. Bailey, joined GovLove to talk about her career path. Cathy started as a chemist in 1992 for the Cincinnati, OH water department and was named the director in 2015. She talked about how her department is removing lead lines by working with partners across the community, what her job is like day to day, and her perspective on d...