"I don’t favor chasing whatever economic development deal you can get.”
Kansas City, Missouri city manager interview with Milton Dohoney Jr.
Kansas City, Missouri is undergoing a critical hiring process right now. The City Council and Mayor are interviewing potential City Manager candidates. With our strong City Manager form of government, this hire is extremely important for future of the city.
I wanted to try and recap the candidates’ public interviews as much of possible. I realized I have my limitations so the recap/review I’ll be giving is based off of the public interview with the City Council and Mayor (there were two other public sessions) and a general glance at their bio. So not comprehensive but hey! I have a day job and a crazy toddler running around.
Watching the first interview, I realized there are really four big buckets that we should be evaluating these candidates on:
Revenue creation and fiscal management
Land use, physical development, and infrastructure
Business environment and economic development
Managing city staff and relationships with other organizations
All of these “buckets” should be layered with focuses on equity and sustainability.
What I’m Looking For
To be transparent, what I’m looking for in the city manager is someone who believes in a strong public sector that can deliver basic public services and create and execute effective policies that guide the city and its development. I also want them to be creative with the private sector and other organizations but to be tough and consistent in defending taxpayers’ interests. Big topics for me are housing, infrastructure, equitable development, and climate change.
First up is Milton Dohoney Jr. who interviewed September 21st. You can view all the videos and submit your feedback here.
Biography
Milton Dohoney Jr., Assistant City Manager, City of Phoenix, Arizona
Milton Dohoney currently serves as Assistant City Manager for the City of Phoenix and is responsible for Police, Fire, Law, Government Relations, Human Resources, and Emergency Management. Prior to that, Mr. Dohoney worked for seven years as city manager of Cincinnati, more than three years as chief administrative officer for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government in Kentucky, and he held a variety of positions with the City of Louisville, Kentucky, including Assistant Community Services Director, Chief Administrative Officer and Public Safety Director. Mr. Dohoney earned his Master of Personnel Management/Human Resources Degree from the University of Louisville and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from Indiana University Southeast.
What He Said
Here are some quotes and paraphrased statements from his interview with the City Council and Mayor. I broke them up in my four “buckets.”
Revenue creation and fiscal management
Much of what was discussed revolved around the current and future budget crisis at the city due to the recession and pandemic. Dohoney stated he did not have to lay off anyone during his Cincinnati tenure, which occurred during the Great Recession.
He said to do that he:
reduced services and costs but didn’t eliminate services, including public safety which has been a contention here locally.
did paycuts for all staffs
cut all department budgets
most interesting, he mentioned they reviewed contracts and development agreements and did “clawbacks” returning close to $14 million from deals that were not living up to their agreements. This was really interesting given the fact that City Hall often gets bullied by the private sector and I have not heard Kansas City doing a “clawback” since I have lived here. He said, “we have a number of development agreements…we reviewed existing contracts…we found some contracts that had up to $14 million in clawbacks, so we took it.”
He also mentioned that he was “data influenced” not “data driven.” In the age of “big data” but also bad decisions, I thought this was a relevant and good point.
Land use, development, and infrastructure
Dohoney has had a diverse experience in Cincinnati, a midwestern city, and now in a sprawling Phoenix.
When questioned about how to address land use, development, and infrastructure, Dohoney said:
it is “not solved within a single budget cycle”
he favored folding in infrastructure improvements based on opportunity and quality of life in neighborhoods.
he would also need to assess the fiscal situation and how to find solutions to address the problems.
On development of the urban core and “severely distressed” census tracts, Dohoney would start with:
land use—how much is available for development?
then, how much of the developed land is eligible for redevelopment?
He wasn’t in “favor [of] change whatever economic deal you can get” and wanted to prioritize “city [and neighborhood] interests” as well as who development serves.
Business environment and economic development
Dohoney seemed like a dealmaker but one that was more aggressive in protecting city interests than more recent city leaders.
He discussed:
using clawbacks on development deals
leveraging development that “was going to happen” for surrounding the neighborhood. He gave the example of a casino that was moving into Cincinnati and how he worked to leverage the inevitable development for investment for the surrounding neighborhood. He talked about it being a public-private partnership but it seemed more like a community benefits agreement.
he said he wanted to leverage development and create additional growth but allow citizen to “see [themselves] in that growth.” This theme arguably launched Mayor Quinton Lucas into office.
Some critical quotes included:
“developers in general have no problem asking the city for whatever they want in order to make the deal happen…the city is well within its rights to ask in exchange for the investment you are looking for from us we also are trying to do these other things can you help us with that?”
“on jobs: who is going to be eligible to be hired? if we say, we are only going to chase high-tech jobs but only 9% of the population with the graduate degree then that tells you all the jobs can’t be high-tech.”
Managing city staff and relationships with other groups
When it came to talking about managing city staff, Dohoney focused a lot on being “about excellence” just not about getting by and providing community leadership.
He made a comment about having someone with no content knowledge involved in projects to check the communicability of the project to the public. As that person at my work, I know how critical that “layman” role is.
His mother was a community organizer with LBJ’s War On Poverty and he grew up going to community meetings. He said he wasn’t afraid to get out in the community and how he doesn’t just say “no” but tries to say “no..and” or “no…but” to help give on- and off-ramps to community groups and concerns.
The big and confusing issue for these candidates is the police. We don’t have control over the police department in Kansas City and in the interviews I’ve watched that has thrown them for a bit of a loop. (It should because it’s absolutely crazy.)
Dohoney, notably on police and public safety, negotiated the Consent Decree in Cincinnati. He said it made the Police Department:
more transparent;
if a critical incident occurred within 24 hours they were in front of public talking about it;
video was released even though picture was not complete we showed it;
and manager’s advisory group (15 and 20 people) would be called if there was an incident.
The City Manager will hopefully navigate us to a point where we have local control but they need to know how to deal with the Police Department and reduce crime without having literally any control over the police.
What I Think
Dohoney came across as someone with a lot of experience but was guarded with giving examples on how his experience has played out.
I think his experience in the midwest and in the sprawl of Phoenix gives him valuable perspective but it could also hamper him in regards to thinking outside the box.
He seemed like a “dealmaker,” which Kansas City has not been great at. We are more in need of solid policies that guide development with little thought and debate. The policies require the thought and debate.
I was encouraged by his references to clawbacks and really working to leverage development that he might not agree with but couldn’t stop.
The police will continue to stump these candidates because we are such a unique (and bad) example of how to run a police department. Having a tough city manager who can go to the mat for taxpayers and citizens is key.
I wasn’t wowed by Dohoney’s performance but was was encouraged by how he described his approach and some of the tough decisions he has made.
I’ll be reviewing candidate Janice Jackson of Augusta, Georgia as soon as possible but in the meantime please subscribe!