If Matt Zimmerman becomes Emporia’s next city manager, there’s a lot he won’t have to get used to.
He won’t have to get used to dealing with a significant minority population. His current home base of Prospect Heights, Ill., is 21 percent immigrant, mostly Hispanics and Eastern Europeans.
He won’t have to get used to dealing with rental housing issues. Truth is, Prospect Heights put in a tough rental code a few years ago requiring regular inspections by the city.
He won’t even have to get used to dealing with other local governments. Illinois has more governmental units than any other state in the nation, and Zimmerman says he has had to bargain with plenty of them.
There would be some adjustments, of course. Emporia’s bigger — about 26,000 versus the 17,000 of Prospect Heights. Emporia has some space between it and the major cities whereas Propsect Heights is essentially a Chicago suburb. And, of course, there’s that teacher’s college to reckon with.
“Emporia State has such a strong reputation,” Zimmerman, 46, told The Gazette in a telephone interview. “I talked with several people about where I was interviewing and they said ‘Oh, yeah! Where they have that teacher’s college!’”
Zimmerman is one of two candidates remaining for the Emporia city manager’s job out of 47 original applicants. For Zimmerman, getting the job would also put him closer to family. He and his wife have grandchildren in Sedgwick.
“It’s not that I was looking to leave Prospect Heights per se,” Zimmerman said. “But getting the chance to see the grandkids once a week instead of once a year has its appeal.”
Zimmerman grew up with a tradition of public service. His father worked as a school principal while his mother was the recording secretary for the planning commission and the city council. So, when he got out of college, Zimmerman went to work for his home village of Glen Ellyn, Ill., in the public works department.
It was good work. But he started getting the itch to move up.
“I wanted to be in on the decision making, not just implementing decisions,” Zimmerman said.
On the advice of his city manager, Bill Dixon, he went back to school to get his master’s in public administration from Northern Illinois University. By 1989, he was working in the city office. And from 1993 on, he was always the chief executive somewhere in Illinois — Manhattan, Elburn and eventually Prospect Heights in 2003.
He arrived in Prospect Heights in time for a battle. At the time, the city government had 10 aldermen and a mayor. Typically, Zimmerman said, four of the aldermen dedicated themselves to voting against the other six no matter what.
“It was a very contentious board,” he said. “It was a lot of ‘If you say A, I’ll say B.’”
It got so contentious, in fact, that the voters got tired of it. A referendum cut the size of the board in half and put a number of new faces in power. With the slate wiped clean, Zimmerman sat the board down and introduced them to each of the city departments, laying out what they did and what their priorities were.
“Getting people to carve three nights out of their very busy schedules wasn’t easy,” Zimmerman said. “But it worked out very well.”
An airport dispute with the neighboring community of Wheeling also worked out for the best. Both towns had oversight of what is now the Chicago Executive Airport, but when it came time for a new airport layout, things got sticky. The Prospect Heights half had always had most of the airport equipment on it, the vital stuff that didn’t actually generate money. Wheeling’s half had the growth potential.
Rather than persist in a standoff, leaders of the two communities — including Zimmerman — agreed to tear up the old agreement and start over, with a new board and an even 50-50 split of revenues no matter which part of the airport generated them.
“That encouraged more development and it took away the argument,” Zimmerman said.
The prospect of development, both commercial and industrial, is part of what attracted Zimmerman to Emporia. But growth by itself isn’t enough, he said.
“It has to make economic sense for the city,” he said. “I’m not a big believer in growth just for growth’s sake.”
To him, that means that new businesses need to justify themselves, either by adding to the tax base or by filling a niche that the city needs. If incentives are offered — not when, but if — there need to be solid guarantees that the business will stick around for a while.
Zimmerman also stressed the need to spend time and energy on a city’s downtown.
“You want to make sure it’s an attractive, friendly place and encourage citizens to say ‘Maybe I’ll run downtown to get a cup of coffee and sit on a bench,’” he said. “It becomes more of a public space.”
Phil_Dillon (anonymous) says...
Quite interesting! I assume there will be another profile of the second candidate coming out. Correct?
February 22, 2007 at 3:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
tknaak (inactive user) says...
You are correct Phil, tomorrow's Gazette will feature an interview with Ron Massey, the second candidate.
February 22, 2007 at 3:58 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )