Who would have thought that managing a city could be so funny? “The Mayor Married Who?” provides a fun insider’s look at the daily challenges, unexpected curve balls, occasionally embarrassing failures and successful triumphs that local elected officials and professional administrators face every day in our city halls and county halls of administration.

Have you ever given 24-hour notice and walked out on your job? Have you ever had an outdoor campsite named in your honor or a plane pull a banner thanking you for your public service? Have you ever opened a successful, but illegal business, and have state authorities shut you down? Have you ever negotiated a serious business deal wearing a clown costume, full face makeup and a multi-colored wig? Have you ever broken your boss’s arm? Have you ever built a 14,000 square foot building on a property that you did not own? Have you ever cost your employer $900,000…or $3.75 million…and kept your job?

Through short stories capturing a 40-year city management career, Tim Casey’s sense of humor, passion for public service and compassion for others permeate every chapter of this book. “The Mayor Married Who?” is a must read for local government officials and employees, public administration educators and students, and anyone who has ever had occasion to contact their city hall with a complaint or request for service. But even if you can’t name your mayor or city executive or have never had any dealings with your city/local government, Tim’s stories are sure to bring a smile to your face. Enjoy the read!!

The paperback version can be purchased through Amazon for $15.95 or for $14.36 directly from Outskirts Press through the author’s webpage.

The Kindle version can be purchased through Amazon for $9.99.

The PDF Download can be purchased for $5.00 directly from Outskirts Press through the author’s webpage.

When Sheryl Sculley was recruited to serve as San Antonio's new city manager in 2005, the organization she inherited was a disorganized mess.  City infrastructure was crumbling, strong financial policies and systems were nonexistent, many executive positions were vacant, public satisfaction was low, ethical standards were weak, and public safety union salaries and benefits were outpacing revenues, crowding out other essential city services.  Simply put:  San Antonio was on the verge of collapse.

Greedy Bastards tells the story of Sheryl and her new team's uphill battle to turn around San Antonio city government.  She takes you behind closed doors to share the hard changes she made and the strategies she used to create mutually beneficial solutions to the city's biggest problems.

Many of the issues Sheryl found in San Antonio are present in cities across the U.S.  Packed with wins and losses, lessons learned, and pitfalls encountered, Greedy Bastards is a guidebook for any city official tasked with turning around a struggling city.

Sheryl has been a highly regarded leader within the professional city management ranks for several decades. Her experience, ethics, and courage have enabled her to tackle some of local governments biggest challenges in Phoenix and San Antonio, two of the largest council-manager cities in the United States. Sharing her vast experience in this book will certainly benefit thousands of local government professionals.
— Marc Ott, Executive Director, International City/County Management Association

Mike.Conduff@TheElimGroup.com | 940-453-3116 (Mobile) | 940-382-3945 (Office) | www.TheElimGroup.com

While life in the fishbowl of public management is never easy, it is often especially challenging for women professionals.  In many cases a woman has been a “first” or even an “only” and being the "first" or the "only" can be demandingly difficult – and also remarkably rewarding.

Following on the incredible success of Democracy at the Doorstep – True Stories from the Green Berets of Public Administrators, this collection of more true stories deals exclusively with women professionals and showcases the exceptional commitment that these “special forces experts” bring to their field.  The stories are inspirational, insightful, and instructional.  You will laugh out loud at some, cry at others, and be amazed at them all with the barriers experienced and overcome, the innovations instituted, and the lessons learned and taught.

Democracy works because local government works and women professionals are a key component of both!

Price: $19.95 plus shipping and handling (All net proceeds go to the Life, Well Run! campaign). Contact Mike Conduff at mike.conduff@democracyatthedoorstep.com for purchase information.

If I was to re-write the title of this book (available at Amazon.com) to one more specific  for the local government manager it would read- Finding the Energy to Serve My Community: How I Countered the Impacts of Cancer, Cynicism and Age with the Healing Practice of Way of Harmony Qigong. Qigong is an ancient Chinese art translated in English as “energy work”. The slow, meditative, deep breathing and stretching movements of Qigong allow practitioners to tap into the potential healing energy within their bodies as well as the universal energy without. I give the practice of Qigong a lot of credit for helping me heal and recover from 3 cancer surgeries and radiation treatments. While I started traditional Qigong practice to help heal and support the survival of my physical body, I created the Way of Harmony Qigong System, including 7 simple exercise forms, to support my political and emotional survival as a Town Administrator.

Out of necessity my role as local government administrator is often one of coordinator, facilitator, harmonizer and balancer of interests. Without a strong daily disciplined emphasis on finding authentic harmony, remaining open and vulnerable in relationships, and a willingness to forgive and be tolerant I could not survive in my role, nor could our local community or body politic.

Way of Harmony Qigong helps me to start each day filled with the positive energy (physically and spiritually) I need to serve my community. I hope local government managers will find the insights and movements of Way of Harmony Qigong valuable as they work at the front lines of our democratic republic and are key figures in determining whether our country’s political future will be one of harmony, collaboration and unity or distrust, divisiveness and separation.

You can purchase the book here.

A History of Community Sustainability and Beginning the Elimination of Racial Redlining in the St. Louis Metro Area 1959 - 1975 describes this inner ring suburb of St. Louis’ remarkable achievements in sustaining a middle class (middle income) society while successfully creating a very racially diverse community starting in the early 1960s and still continuing today. Following and even before the UCity council resolution declaring the policy of equal rights to housing in UCity, the community had been demonstrating daily that black middle class families are as or even more willing to maintain their homes and yards in well maintained neighborhoods.  By the 1970s all residential neighborhoods were well maintained and have remained so for the next 40 years and most are multiracial. 


Also in the early 1970s UCity’s Delmar Boulevard and its business district, which extends from the city of St. Louis into UCity, started to and continues to flourish.  UCity had by then completed several renewal projects, and had succeeded in eliminating within its borders racial redlining by the federal government.  By 2007, its Delmar Loop was designated by the American Planning Association to be one of the ten great streets in America.  Thus, for at least the last 30 years, this community has sustained a healthy real estate market with property values within its entire 5.88 square miles appreciating with the national economy trends.

Obviously useful to city managers and other local government officials are the many described programs and techniques for preserving structures, landscaping, entire neighborhoods and the city itself.  The most effective of which has been the Occupancy Permit Program.  Already many cities in St. Louis County have installed such in order to preserve both their schools and city neighborhoods.  Also, in the late 1960s, Pasadena and other California cities adopted, and still use, the Occupancy Permit Program.

sdlazenby@gmail.com | 503-894-1448 | http://www.scottlazenbybooks.com

The Human Side of Budgeting explores the relationship between budget systems and the overall management of the organization.  It approaches the budget from a local government management point of view, and makes the case that traditional budget systems work against almost everything we know about good management (i.e., that most of our employees are not, in fact, lazy and stupid). It is written both as a text for students in graduate programs and as thought-provoking essay for more senior managers who wonder why their budgeting systems produce such pathological behavior in their staff and governing bodies.

Price: $4.99 PDF; Print: $14.99 (www.Amazon.com); Kindle e-book: $0.99 (limited time)

hobbsmngt@aol.com | 209-640-4100 |

Ben Leiter presents professional-life snapshots of conflict, corruption, betrayal, murder, suicide, drug running, spying, sex scandals, courage, communists, Nazis, several heroes, and a monkey on the loose. Most days were meetings. He is a gray man and encountered the best and the worst in people. This is his story as a municipal bureaucrat, spanning forty-four years.

Local government is where we live, work, and die. It's a wild ride. Dare to take it.

Price: Print: $7.97 (Amazon.com); Kindle e-book: $0.99; $7.97 (Tower.com)

$7.97

“Flying Lessons for Leaders and Managers” is an engaging series of essays on leadership and experiences from a nearly 40 year management career in public service. Mr. Nordby is a second generation city manager with a gift for storytelling and humor. Managing a public organization is often a lot like piloting an airplane: handling headwinds, crosswinds and the occasional tailwind while maintaining situational awareness and navigating your organization to reach its destination.

Through his own management experiences and observations, coming of age in the home of his city manager father, the author provides insight and inspiration for anyone in a leadership position, whether in the public or private sector.

During a career in public management the author found value in using storytelling to illustrate a point or to empathize with others. These are some of his stories.

This volume of anecdotes on the profession of public management has been assembled from the author’s contributions to various publications of the Municipal Research and Services Center and Public Management, the journal of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). The title, “Flying Lessons for Leaders and Managers” is taken from one of the articles.

The author gratefully thanks MRSC and ICMA for permission to reuse material originally published by them. 

• eBook - Amazon: $5.99 https://www.amazon.com/Flying-Lessons-Leaders-Managers-Government-ebook/dp/B015JNIPSQ  
• Print Version: $16.95 http://booklocker.com/books/8493.html 

aperry83@comcast.net | 630-388-8127 | http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000371211/Blueprint-for-Building-Community.aspx

American cities are a basic part of the fabric of our democratic traditions.  Many of these cities are served by professional city managers and administrators.  Cities that succeed at an outstanding level often employ professionals.  Yet the average American knows little about the role of these professionals.  City managers have seldom written about their experiences.

Blueprint for Building Community is a rare look at the career of a city manager.  This career portrait is set in two Illinois communities --Park Forest and Woodridge--communities which hold high aspirations for their residents.  City managers, partnering with elected leaders and citizens in these communities, have worked to fulfill those aspirations.  This book highlights the values and relationships that must be cultivated by the city manager to successfully build community.  Although the focus is on the role of the city manager, other key participants such as the elected officials, citizens, and employees can gain from the insights.  Community building requires connecting the key groups in the community to the mission and “sacred things” dear to residents.  Harnessing the energy of all the players produces tremendous results. For the many people who worked to build Park Forest and Woodridge, and so many communities across this country, this book is a tribute to their efforts.

This book is written to encourage the next generation of city managers to pursue the challenge of building communities.  The author chronicles the lessons and principles that add to success as a city manager.  He conveys the inspiration, passion and excitement to those who consider public service. 

Price: $6.99 - $17.95 (depending upon form) http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000371211/Blueprint-for-Building-Community.aspx