good evening ray so thankful that you came here on this globally february evening now that we have a failing time today over with celebrate the fifteenth together but we hope that the love continues we're going to have presentations from the three candidates for city manager here and and they'll be presenting when a time i'll introduce each individually after that introduction from each then we'll break out for a casual conversation with the candidates you're welcome to get in line and talk with what with them about whatever you like and there are sheets of paper over in the back corner there with kylie has and amy and you're asked to please fill one of those out with your responses to the different candidates if you so desire and that information along with the information from all the interviews that happened during this day will be getting to the city manager search committee this evening and tomorrow morning at eight thirty th search committee will meet to decide the final two to send to council for hopefully a final decision then on the twenty eighth of february so today if you didn't know there were four teams of interviewers that interviewed each of the three candidates so each candidate was interviewed four times by four different groups in those groups were made up of council members the city manager search committee members and community members so it was quite a broad section of people and there are a lot of a lot of things happening on a lot of questions going on so we really appreciated all the people that were here today to help us  a great job in deciding this very important decision for the city of holland so tonight we're going to go in alphabetical order so our first person is victor bana and he is here as the assistant city manager in nov i'm mistaken now he's been there since two thousand and ten before that he was a village manager in brooklyn michigan and before that assistant to the city manager at oak park michigan and he interned with in indianapolis indiana and also st clair shores michigan undergrad at grande valley and his master's was in public administration from indiana university so we really appreciate your involvement today victor and for your being here this evening so come on down participate in the interviews i really appreciate your involvement today and i think i speak for the fellow applicants thank you to amy selling her her team so every has been really smooth and i shared earlier is one of the smoothest process i ever been involved in so thank you for brewery we met some very nice people they're nice couple and we're talking with them and shared nice and i saw a little bit and then my family time to go back to the hotel so we walked down a street and made it to central and he's tapping behind us like what's happened to this woman that we were talking with ran sprinted in sandals down the street to give us tickets to go to dutch village for me my family and i'm like i took a look at my wife and this is fantastic this is i mean this is a great community so that is kind of just instilled in us what a fantastic environment this is and how great it was sense of community there is so i want to just talk about how excited i am by this opportunity about how much holland is such a full service community with endless resources the faith come here for years to come about me i'm committed to lifelong learning and continuous improvement i've been fortunate to participate in doing education programs that at virginia versity and harvard university most recently i strive to operate a high performers ation where leadership can be exhibited at all levels from the employee on the street to the labor down the manhole to the office or if she's out of control or the anyone answering any of the phones at the city hall all of them have the opportunity for it to show leadership leadership is not it is not down it's bottom up i work to pull everyone together in the same direction to compete for a common goal to provide the best service to our residents that we serve i strive to make government as easy as it is and as trustworthy as possible and we all have these cell phones in these computers that we always accept and those terms of agreement they use those that technology and that resource so i want to make government i strive for government to be that easy all those forms that people take out and fill out we want to make sure that that is trustworthy from the disease that touching that button on your phone when you download something new government should be that easy to interact with and i think that's what our citizens need and want and strive for looking for big best practices shouldn't stop here in michigan or the united states i've been fortunate and have the opportunity to visit other countries in europe asia and down under for innovative ideas and solutions those contacts that i've made would be more than happy to come here visit holland and see what other great things are happening here with the snow melt in the civic center and all the other great programs i'm a huge advocate for cut the college experience i have despite my appreciation my devotion to grand valley i tell all seventeen eighteen year olds are considering where to go to college go where it feels right they're going to spend the next several years there the same is for me and my family the community this community the how a community is a place that my wife and i want to the next ten plus years because it feels right i was the committee good luck in their deliberations as they have three very qualified candidates choose thank you so much victor now we're going to hear from tracy schultz colebrook kobe lars her he she is from redford michigan and is now the township supervisor there and has served since two thousand and eight in that capacity before that she was a township trustee from two thousand and four to two thousand and eight also served on their zoning board of appeals and before that was an h r director and a guidance center in southgate michigan and several other other business opportunities that she pursued going back to ninety or eighty six oh sorry she did that when she was three years old and she attended central michigan for her undergrad and head further training at michigan state university so we're really glad to have tracy with the city and thank you we'd like to hear from you so a little joke for you is that i'm not really tracy my name is victor because when i met keith in the hallway this morning obviously i'm one of the candidates for the position and he walked up and said you must be tracy so no i'm victor so it's been the kind of the joke all that i mean sorry i had to take it right i had to take it so in may i was here for the tulip festival this is an art ok it is not used to speaking into the microphone believe it or not in may i was here with my daughter for the tulip festival and she lives in kill mazu she works for pfizer and literally i am not exaggerating we were tiptoeing through pink tulips literally doing that and it was a beautiful sunny day and i looked at amy and i said amy i love it here this is where i need to be and amy looked at me and said mommy do you do this is where you're supposed to be so i don't know what it is but something about this area is where i need to be ok mom go for it right that was in may fast forward to december and i learned of this position and the very first person i called was my daughter and said honey guess what they've got this spot in holland this is what the job is and amy was like oh honey i think i'm one of three you know well we have to take it time by time step by step but when i decided to apply for this position i took a pretty big risk to even apply as the mayor told you i'm the supervisor in another community that community is eleven point two square miles it's forty eight thousand people and i'm the day to day administrator that's my job in that job i do both i serve in an elected role and in the city manager role simultaneously that's how government works on that side i'm not so sure about it over here but  i knew that once i committed to filling out those documents and sending them to amy and kiley actually to kiley first i knew that the jig was up tracy's really serious because i knew that just by applying would put the career that i have on hold at risk to consider and be considered for this one i was willing to take that risk and i took that risk with a leap of faith because i know what's in my heart in my heart is the separation of elected and city management that's what i do i have to follow my heart and i have to bring you the skills that i have that i've acquired in government over fifteen years to work with the council to work with the public to work with the department heads to better this community this community is on the right track we have challenges here certainly we have a strong history we have a lot of new people who are coming in who might want to rock the boat a little bit which is great but you can't rock the boat in have a capsized right we need some stability we need we need a vision we need respect for the way things were we need to honor the way that things are and we need to hope that things are going to be even better that's good management that's good governance and i can bring that to you  i've done it before i think that you would be interested in my style i understand that the mayor and i have a common love for shoes so being able to add a to my collection would be pretty incredible i'm excited about that but my heart is on the west side of michigan i may come from over here where i border the city of detroit and i may come from an environment that you might not truly understand but anybody who has ever worked with me or for me has learned quickly that i am extraordinarily open minded that i am a team builder that my preference is to work through consensus and collaboration not a top down type of methodology and my teams will speak for themselves in terms of their respect for each other and how they broke through silos how they brought new people into the mix and how we turned retford around from a ten million dollars deficit to a community that now has a fund balance that has fifty percent of the owner occupied homes change in the last ten years and that we're still seeing transit rates in our schools that are affecting how we're treating kids and families so i have that experience and i would really love to bring all of those things to you and i have dry mouth so i'm going to sit down thank you thank my name is victor administrator in kent wood from two thousand to two thousand and eight and before that he was the kenwood clerk he was also an assistant to the city manager as an intern in greenville michigan and before that worked with christian youth and family services for about six years he went to school calvin for his undergrad anyway went to g b s you for his master's in public administration so really glad to have keith here this evening to share some thoughts with us thank you keith thank you mayor thanks so much for all of you being here tonight just having this many people that is interested in this process and interested in the community is a great reflection on this community thank you for all the panelists that served in the interviews that we went through today it was it was a tough day but i think both victor and tracy would agree it was an energizing day because the vision and the passion for this community is just very evident in the people that we've come across thanks for this process thanks for being here tonight just as an introduction i was asked to kind of talk about three different things it's not a three point sermon but how try to make it quick right so what's my interest in th position what are my qualifications for the pick for the position and how can i contribute to the vision for how in moving forward so first my interest in the position i've described it to friends and family that i've asked that this is really the intersection of my passions so what does that mean first i was born in this community the values the integrity that i learned i learned that from institutions in this community and more importantly from people in this community one of those values was service in more particularly public service so i've been honored to work in public service for over twenty years my wife and i  lean sitting right here she loved being at this meeting by the way say thank you to her it was her birthday on valentine's day right in the middle of this process so we chose five years ago to move back to this community it's where we wanted to make our roots it's where we wanted to raise our family and we love being here i'm also popular with my mom who lives in zealand she's in a condo in royal park so that wasn't bad also so my daughter yes i will admit sorry dr bolton and she is a freshman at that other college in grand rapids right now my son ethan splay in basketball right around the corner here yet  tonight you all know the unmatched quality of life that we have in this community that's why we came back that's why we're here and i've spent twenty years dedicated to this profession it's what i do it goes back to that public service that i believe in so it's the intersection of all those things that i believe is present in this opportunity what are my qualifications for the role of you know there's technical qualifications that a manager needs to have and there's also leadership qualities technically i was the city manager of the city of count would without the title and those aren't my words those are the two mayors that i work for  they were fantastic in giving a young man an opportunity and giving him our challenges in this field city of can't what is a community now of fifty thousand people a lot of the operations mirror how and quite frankly a lot of the challenges in the opportunities when you take a look at a mix of commercial residential and in industrial look a lot like highland demographic changes and some of the challenges that that introduces to the community fantastic opportunity serving for kent would then nine years ago i came to our county and i serve still today as the deputy county administrator very proud of our service set out our county i think out of  county is viewed as a leader in the state nearly a thousand full time employees thirty two different departments elected officials and courts and i'm very proud of the track record of fiscal discipline high levels of service collaboration innovation not accepting that's the way we've always done things as being an answer and also interaction and support with the community the mayor said though i tell people all the time the best training that i drop in every day is still my training at wedgwood family services interacting with kids that i youth there that were juvenile in delinquent that were just came from a different place than i had dealt different difficult things in their life and being able to see the world through their ice listen to them understand where they were coming from and helping them to achieve their goals and move forward that's a skill set that i draw upon every day and it really leads into leadership the other qualities that i firmly believe that we're outlined in the characteristics for this job and were a lot of questions about that today in the interviews clearly the mayor and the elected council are the leaders of this organization they set policy and the manager's job is to work along with staff to support and carry out the vision that the council and the mayor set but some people believe that the manager that's where the role and but very clearly interviews today this community and the council and mayor are looking for a leader also in the manager's role and i have experience working with two different communities that worked with an elected board that said what is the vision that we have from the community how do we have some types of tough dialogue about difficult answers whether people have different opinions on what that vision looks like how do you work through consensus building so i'm really proud of the work that i've done with great teams in kentwood and  our county working through those issues you know a lot of it deals with conflicts sometimes and i have had the opportunity to teach several courses at cornerstone in the past years on conflict management and resolution and one of the key things that we talk about in that class is not avoiding difficult conversations but actually to lean into difficult conversations some time and come out the other side with a better unity sometimes those difficult conversations there are disagreements but a key thing in those disagreements is you can still disagree but you learn not to be disagreeable so i would hope as a leader in this community a city manager to be available to the community to learn that lesson at wedgwood that i want to listen first and really generate meaningful dialogue around the challenges of the community and i really look forward to working with a fantastic staff just really impressed not only in my interactions with at our county was staff but in the last several days just meeting more staff members community  fantastic dedicated public servants and i would hope to be able to work alongside them so the final thing was a vision for the city of how and i love the question wasn't what is my vision for the city but how can i contribute to the vision that the city has for itself and i need to tell you that living here i know the kind of some of the conversations right but in the last several days in the homework that i've done even more degree over the last several months this community is asking the right questions and it's doing many of the right things and it has a history of doing the right things what are some examples of that the how and energy park and the new natural gas plant that you built is a fantastic example of making decisions today that will serve the community well into the future taking care of pension liabilities in dealing with that today so you can clear the deck for making good decisions in the future fantastic decisions conversations that are emerging now of let's take a look at the campbell plant and we're going to decommission that but what does that look like what is the future vision look like how do you go down the six tree core door and say how are we going to redevelop those areas how and we all know has a fantastic history of public private and nonprofit partnerships and having those people around the table to talk about those conversations to take a look at what the future vision of how it is is really exciting to be part of the final two things that i mentioned that are a topic of conversation definitely in the interviews today but it's a i know it's a topic of conversation in the community and they really both work topics that i know are our conversations with the corporate corporations of the of the area the prosperity that they bring to the region and jobs and and philanthropy is that we need talent that we have businesses right now that are struggling to provide the tail end to not only meet the current needs that they have but to develop and continue to have more opportunity so our kids so are neighbors so our friends can stay here but also that we can attract others here and really those are two things one is affordable housing we know that we struggle not as the city of holland but as a region to have an amount affordable housing necessary to support the talent that lives here and that's something i've been proud to be a part of that conversation at the county at the united way where i serve as a board member and community spoke a local organization that really started having that conversation in a different way and i'm really excited about where that conversation continues as we've moved into action now where we've hired a full time person that moving the conversation into action city of how and will be part of that conversation but it's a regional conversation and so regional solution and then the last thing i'll say is we also need to pay attention to making sure that we're a welcoming community i believe we all know that there are the conversations and there is the harsh reality that not all people feel welcome in holland and that's something we need to have honest conversations about i'm proud that at our county we've dealt with that we've done a lot of trainings with our own staff but recently we even made a change we did a low we did a brand redo right and sometimes it's like ok you get a new logo or something but we attach to tape going to that and the take line we attach to and that we go by now is where you belong and that may be more aspirational in some ways but i think it's something that we need to strive for  community because we need to be a place where everyone that comes here is welcome is valued and is respected and i couldn't be more honored to be part of this opportunity this process with some great finalists with a great process and continue to contribute to the vision for how in this larger region thank you keith and you're more than welcome everyone to stay and talk with each other and talk with the candidates help yourself to something to drink at something to eat and please fill out what your responses are to the various candidates we really appreciate your feedback we appreciate you taking the time this evening to be a part of this very important decision for the future of the city so thank you have a good evening