WSU City/County Management Summit

Are you aware of the 7 key clusters of the economy to focus on for prosperity and future development? This session highlights these clusters and how WSU is providing critical research and applied learning in each through strategic partnerships with Deloitte, NetApp, U.S. Army, and others.

Does your community’s housing stock attract new residents or scare them away? Shocker alum Sarah Gooding will highlight new programs she’s championing to incentivize homeowners to rehab their homes, engage builders to increase the affordable housing stock, and assist first-time homebuyers.

Whether you’ve hired or supervised a chief or want to prepare to do so, this participative panel discussion is for you. Hear some tips and tricks for how best to engage with the governing body and community in selecting and overseeing their chief and how to vet candidates to prevent their backgrounds from haunting you later. Many of the best practices you will hear are also transferable to other high-profile positions (economic development director, assistant manager, etc.).

Condemnation. Eviction. Squatters rights. Absentee Landlords. Abating nuisances and preserving public health and safety especially in rental housing require more knowledge of the law and finesse in human relations than most people can imagine. Kaylyn and Nate will share some best practices in cleaning up blighted structures while working within legal requirements.

Addressing local issues can sometimes be done more efficiently when technology can provide a statewide solution. The Information Network of Kansas will share its successes to date in delivering online payment services and projects currently in development. Then let’s dream about what’s next to make life better for Kansans in all corners of the state! 

While Gen Xers occupy many positions at the highest level in local government, Millennials are now in more supervisory positions than any other generation. Many of them became supervisors earlier than their predecessors and have had less time to learn best practices from others. Let’s explore how you can best understand your supervisors, get the most out of your people (who are now primarily Millennials), and recruit from Gen Z to grow them into the leaders that we need for the future.

As city and county managers, your role is both getting necessary resources for public safety services and managing with fewer resources than ideal. You know what the chief asks for, but how do you know how much is “enough” and what are the critical issues to consider? These panelists will discuss what you should expect from your first responder departments, how to measure success, key messages to relay to your governing body, and how systems thinking can lead to more effective service delivery models.