GovLove - A Podcast About Local Government

Our fearless intern is back! The ICMA/ELGL Oregon Management Fellow, Madison Thesing talked with Julie Rusk, the Chief of Civic Wellbeing in Santa Monica, CA about their wellbeing initiative, what brought her into local government and the importance of community wellbeing.

Taking a Silicon Valley approach to city management, Kelly McAdoo discusses her innovative approach to leading the City of Hayward, CA. McAdoo describes how customer empathy and disruption are key to better serving residents of her city. She also talks about being a woman in a leadership position and how to attract more female city managers to the profession.

Atlanta City Council Candidate, Greg Clay, talked all about the ATL and public service. Greg earned his MPA from Kansas University and has worked in city hall as an administrator in Georgia and Kansas. He talked about the decision to leave administration behind and run for elected office, how he feels about the Falcons' new stadium and even his take on the FX show Atlanta.

What does it take to handle winter weather? From pre-treatment to salting and plowing the City Manager of Sterling Heights, MI talks about all the preparation and work that goes into keeping roads clear in even the harshest of winters. Mark talked about best practices and loving winter so much he has trouble sleeping before a big snowstorm.

The City of Louisville, KY is one of the leaders in local government innovation and we sat down with Ed Blayney, their innovation project manager. He discussed how they used civic hacking to cut down on fires in vacant homes, how they use data to solve problems and more. Ed also gave his recommendations for favorite barbecue and whiskey in Kentucky.

We sat down with Assistant City Manager of Charlotte, NC and sock of the month club member, Hyong Yi. He shared his inspiring story of dealing with tragedy and finding the power of love and community. After the death of his wife, Hyong started a 100 Love Notes project to celebrate her life and spread love to other people. Now Hyong focuses on being a great parent and keeping love at the center of...

January is Mentor Month! ELGL has been celebrating by telling the stories of mentor relationships and the best advice people have gotten over the years. To celebrate the month we sat down with Traca Savadogo from Tall Poppy Consulting to talk about how to mentor, what to look for in a mentor and more.

Beaverton, OR City Councilor Lacey Beaty and Roanoke, VA City Councilor Michelle Dykstra join GovLove for a wide ranging interview on what it takes to run for local office. We talk to each of them individually about their paths to public service and get them together to compare notes and give advice to anyone interested in how to run for city council.

Dr. Brian Williams from the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs, joins GovLove to talk about policing. From community policing to representative bureaucracy we covered it all. Dr. Williams has worked with police departments and community groups across the country to improve relations between police and communities of color.

The three GovLove hosts, Kent, Kirsten and Ben, got together to take a look back at 2016. They each picked their Top 5 episodes of the year and discussed their selections (43:50). Segments included: The most listened to episodes of the year (0:50); Three of a kind (7:20) featuring holiday movies, ELGL memories, holiday songs and books; Listener questions (22:40); Favorite iTunes reviews (28:30); G...

Podcast on podcasting! Kent sat down with three leaders in local government podcasting: Dana Berchman of Gilbert, AZ host of Government Gone Digital; Benjamin Brown from the North Carolina League of Municipalities, host of Municipal Equation; and Matt Horn from Geneva, NY host of 47 Castle Street. They talked about what it takes to start a podcast, why it's a valuable communications tool and more.

Earlier this month, GovLove hit the road and explored Charlotte, NC thanks to an invite to the NCLGBA Winter Conference. We used the conference as an excuse to talk to two awesome administrators working for the City of Charlotte, JL Lawrence and Rob Phocas. We talked to JL about public transit in the region and citizen engagement, then we chatted with Rob about sustainability and Charlotte's smart...

GovLove takes a visit to the Steel City in this week's episode. We chatted with two people from the Pittsburgh, PA Office of Innovation & Performance about their open data and innovation efforts. Debra Lam, the Chief of Innovation & Performance and Laura Meixell the Analytics & Strategy Manager discussed PGH Lab, the city's Burgh's Eye View app and more.

We take a deep dive on the administrative side of elections with Tim Tsujii the Elections Director of Forsyth County, NC. We talked what it takes to prepare for an election, common misconceptions and more.

Paul Leonard the Township Manager of Upper Dublin, PA came on the podcast to talk public safety, emergency response and his favorite podcasts. Paul has been in local government for 30 years and is still an active fire fighter.

The game that launched a thousand local government careers. From future planners to city managers, SimCity inspired lots of local government leaders to pursue their chosen career. We talked with Ocean Quigley, the Creative Director at Facebook and former Creative Director at EA in charge of SimCity.

We sit down with Nick Kittle about his work with Adams County, CO on innovation and sustainability initiatives. Nick shares how he combats "energy vampires," and shares his definition of "innovation." Nick also gets real on the podcast, sharing his life experiences and how they have motivated him to serve the public and focus on his family.

We sat down with the CEO of Archive Social, Anil Chawla to talk civic technology and the GovTech Podcast. Then the tables get turned and Anil asks Kent Wyatt about the story behind ELGL and GovLove.

George Hawkins the CEO of DC Water comes on the podcast to talk about his path to local government, the innovative things the DC water system is doing and more.

The League of Women in Government is an exciting new group working to bring attention to the issue of gender equality in local government. Specifically they've focused on raising the percentage of women in chief administrative officer positions from 13 percent, the rate it was in 1984 and 2014. GovLove interviewed three leaders involved with the group who spoke at a symposium before the ICMA confe...

The return of Between Two Interns! For their first episode they grill Anthony Hooper, the Public Works Director of Lake Oswego, OR. Our new interns, Ashley Sonoff and Madison Thesing, are both Fellows in the Portland, OR area. For the first part of the episode we get to know them and their path to local government. Then the interns talk with Anthony about being a manager, getting creative to advan...

The 2016 Election season is in the home stretch with contests at every level of government. We sat down with Promise King the Executive Director of the Oregon League of Minority Voters to talk about voter turnout, issues important to minority voters and more.

On October 21st Engaging Local Government Leaders (ELGL) held six pop-up conferences across the country involving more than 550 local government administrators. Organizers from each of the locations come on the podcast to talk about what they were inspired by and their favorite speakers and sessions.

How does blocking or muting someone on Twitter affect free speech? Angela Greben has been doing research into precisely this topic. She has been filing records requests across the country to find out who elected officials and public Twitter accounts have been muting to find out if it impacts your first amendment right.

What's it like to launch a new city website? In an interview from the 2016 ICMA Conference in Kansas City, Mike Ekey from the City of Raymore, MO and Ashley Fruechting from Vision Internet tell the story of Raymore's process and launch. From the bid process to the ribbon cutting (yes ribbon cutting of a website) Mike and Ashley give a behind the scenes look at the process.