After making it through my emails and phone messages of last week, I found a recurring request that pops up every now and again. The request normally comes from a high school or college student who is working on a project. Sometimes the question is more personal “How did you become a City Manager?” But most of the time it is a more generic, “What does a City Manager do during a week?”

This is one of the reasons we started the Blog in Davison. We have found that most people do not understand how their local government works. Not just what does the City Manager do, but how local regulations go through the open government process, how projects get prioritized, what effect non-funded mandates have on local services, and the list goes on and on.

We hope that these short blogs help give some insight on not how things happen, but also why our local government makes the decisions we make.

But for those curious on what your City Manager does in a week, here is what this week looks like:

Monday
9:30 AM Weekly Department Head meeting where the management team updates each other on projects, challenges and other issues such as scheduling.

Afternoon is blocked off for negotiations with two bargaining units that contracts expire June 30, 2007.

7:00 PM to 11:00 PM City Hall for City Council workshop.

Tuesday
8:30 AM Appointment with knee surgeon

11:00 AM Preliminary meeting between staff and developer about expansion of facilities within the city.

1:00 PM Sub committee meeting on countywide infrastructure and how Federal and State funding can be divided to ensure “best bang for our buck” countywide.

3:30 PM Meet with staff on project updates.

5:30 PM Meeting with Fire Department Master Plan work group.

6:30 PM Fire Department Personnel Committee Meeting

7:30 PM Fire Authority Meeting

Wednesday
7:30 AM Office work to produce requested correspondence to regional board.

9:00 AM Genesee County Water/Waste Advisory Board Meeting

9:45 AM Genesee County Storm water Task Force Meeting

10:00 AM County Sewer Sub-Committee meeting.

2:00 PM GAIN (County Police Task Force) meeting on state funding issues.

Thursday
10:00 AM Budget meeting with Library Board chair.

Friday
10:00 AM MML Public Safety Committee meeting

All the above is scheduled things to do. As you may see, the week can fill up awfully quick. Between meetings there is still a ton of work to be done. We are fortunate in Davison to have a quality staff that continues to get things accomplished when delegated the task.