Hello and welcome to Kalamazoo. And you. This is a program where we have conversations with city of Kalamazoo staff on important issues, events and topics in the city of Kalamazoo. I'm Mike Smith, I'm the Communications Manager for the city of Kalamazoo and your host, and we are pleased to welcome on this segment kalamazoo's new city manager, Malcolm Hankins. And city manager. Hankins has been with us since January 5, and he is now immersed in all things Kalamazoo. So welcome to Kalamazoo. Thank you Mike. Thank you. Tell us everybody. Tell everybody about who you are, your background. And while you're interested in Kalamazoo and in being here in Kalamazoo. Absolutely and thank you for having me, Mike. I'm a second generation public servant. So I've personally and professionally I've been in government now for three decades. And so beyond that, I'm a father and a husband and my wife and family and we looked at this opportunity and decided that it was a good one for us. And so we are, as you said, we're just getting immersed in Kalamazoo and getting to know the community. As I get to know the job and the people that I work with now. You've been in Kalamazoo now for three months. What have you been doing in your time in those three months. Yeah, just a lot of engagement, just trying to get out into the community and get to know people and have them have an opportunity to get to know who I am. At the same time, I've been trying to get around to our city departments and get familiar with our internal operations. But in the community I've visited a number of businesses, community groups, neighborhood associations, churches, really just trying to get out into the community, get to know Kalamazoo, driving through neighborhoods, which seems odd probably for a lot of folks. But when you do this kind of work, you want to get to know the lay of the landscape. And so just doing a lot of getting into the neighborhoods and listening to people. What are your impressions of Kalamazoo and the surrounding community. Kalamazoo is a warm community. I think one of the things I appreciated when I went through the process of recruitment is that I was able to hear from folks and the energy around supporting other people. I felt like the community really rallied around folks who may not be as fortunate as other folks. And that speaks to my values. But I also felt like there was a lot of commitment to. To you lifting up the community as a whole. The foundation for excellence, the promise, all those things that are very unique to Kalamazoo. The other thing about it is, and I'll tell you this, I think some people relate to this. It's not a big city, but it doesn't feel like a small city. And so you have a true downtown. You have the mall and a lot of the functions that you would see in big cities and big communities, but you also get to know a lot of people who you can just run into and they can remember you because it's that kind of network. It's a small city, but a big city with big city vibes. In some ways, yes. And you can't miss the education part of the community. There's the universities that are here. My wife's a graduate of Western, so a lot of this was familiar to her. Some of this is fairly new to me. You mentioned the family as well a few minutes ago. How are they adjusting to Kalamazoo. So the wonderful thing about it is I have an adult son who's been here for at least 6 and 1/2 years. And so for us, this was an opportunity to connect with him. And then our younger children, they've gotten into school and daycare. And so we go out. We do the things that families do. They're becoming more familiar with the landscape and where to go play basketball and where to get their favorite drinks and their food. And so I think we're all very appreciative of the opportunity that this has given us. A lot of people may not have a full understanding of the process and the role of city government, the leadership responsibilities and all that. So maybe you can explain to the public how that works in terms of the managerial style of government. Sure and that's a good question. It's an important one. Yeah so in Kalamazoo and most communities actually have a council manager form of government. And what that means is that the elected body, which is in our state, in our commission, the group of seven individuals, they appoint my role to handle the operations of the city. So when you see commission meetings, for example, those are the decisions that are elected officials make in determining policy direction for the city. My role as a city manager is to implement that policy. And so operationally, I work to manage the staff that are empowered to implement the policies and the priorities of the commission, and I help to facilitate those connections between those departments to make us as efficient as possible. So if you think of it this way, they set the stage and as the CEO of the city, they essentially ask me to run the operations of the city. And that's different than a lot of big cities that will have a strong mayor style of government. Yeah, there are different forms of government. So strong mayor forms of government meant the mayor functions essentially as the CEO and the operator of the city. And so this form of government which we are in is not that we essentially have a governing board of seven commissioners or six in the mayor. And then I fall in as one of the appointees that I serve at the Liberty of this commission. And so they essentially entrust me to implement the policies that they've adopted. Now, you've got a lot going on as city manager. So what are your top priorities. I think in any governance city manager, we do a few things. We're responsible for making sure the data, the day to day functions as it should. And so the things that folks might take for granted. Their water, their sewer, their streets, their public service and public safety, those kinds of things. My priority is to make sure that we're delivering high quality services and efficient services. I'm also looking at making sure that I provide avenues for the staff to do the work that they do best. I've worked in government, so I understand the benefit of being able to be put in a position where you can just do the job. And so a lot of it is doing that and getting out of the way. Kalamazoo is a very forward community. We have a lot going for us. One of the things that this community faces, like many is challenges around affordability with housing, with individuals who find themselves unhoused. And so those are things that are important to this community and important to me to try to be a part of solutions. Of course, not everything is a city of Kalamazoo solution. But because they impact things, impact our community. We are engaged. And we want to be a part of solving challenges. So those are the kinds of things we want to make sure that our community gets to know us as individuals. So as much as the commissioners, the city commission asked me to come in and help to build trust with the community and to be out in the community. I think that extends to our overall leadership and organization. You mentioned on the House, of course, and other issues and concerns that you see here in the city of Kalamazoo that are probably also happening elsewhere in the country as well. Yeah, I mean, housing is one thing, as I've mentioned, there are a number of challenges around not as much here in Kalamazoo, but communities I've served in, we've had challenges around finances and being able to provide a level of service because of limitations in our budgets. And so, some of those things are not as pressed at this moment, but we have to be always mindful that we have to be able to do and provide levels of service with the possibility that our income might not always be the same. And so that's a thing that I am mindful of. And that's the thing that I work with our staff to work through if it comes up. So what is your approach to dealing with some of these issues and concerns. As I've said, I know that we have a good staff. I know we have a team of folks who are experts at what they do. I have my own experience. I've been in I've worked my way through several levels of government, but my approach is to involve and engage the city staff who are responsible for the various departments. I know we're responsible for over 280 miles of stormwater systems, but I'm not a stormwater manager personally. And so that's one of the challenges we face in our community. And we have directors and people who work in that space that I go to and I try to find out what are the best options to solve some of the challenges we face. Is Kalamazoo similar or different from your prior role as the assistant city manager in Des Moines, Iowa. There's obviously, progressive responsibility and some differences in that. But in some ways, there are similarities. As a city manager, though, you're ultimately responsible for what takes place in the community and what takes place in your city organization. So the difference in my roles leading up to this is I've had portions of responsibility and segments of responsibilities. But now I tell my wife, if I hear public safety, public safety, vehicle siren, this is one of the few times that I've been in a space where I'm waiting to hear from the public safety chief say, hey, what was that about. Or what did I is there something I need to know. What are some of the ideas, tools, and tactics that maybe you bring to the city of Kalamazoo from your prior role. Not just from my role. I'll say it's a value. I've always leaned into service as a model of the way I like to approach things. I lead through service. I believe that as a public servant, one of our objectives is to provide quality service to our customers and our residents in the community. And so that's one of the values I have. And that's one of the things that I hope to lean into with the organization as a value. Another thing that I believe strongly in is that if you don't like the outcomes that you see in an organization, you look to the systems that lead into those outcomes, and systems do exactly what they're intended to do. So your outcomes, if they're not what you want, then you should take a look at the systems. And so part of early stage role in the organization is to evaluate how things are functioning and how systems are working, and make recommendations to departments to commission, if need be, for policy matters for changes in those systems where needed. In closing, what are the most important things or the key messages you want to bring to the city of Kalamazoo and to the entire community as the city manager for the city of Kalamazoo. I've said this. I think that the community is very thoughtful and they care about one another. And I see a lot of good work that happens outside of even city government that the community is they take on issues when it comes to on how situations. There are residents in our community driving people to shelters. And so that commitment, I'd love for that commitment to be reflected in how we come together to solve issues together. We as a leadership, our senior leadership team met early in my tenure here. And one of the things we talked about was one city, one voice. And so the thought behind that we would come together and align, and we could get a lot more done working together than apart. OK well, that ends our segment. And thank you, city manager Hankins, for joining us on this important segment. And welcome you again to the city of Kalamazoo. Thank you. And that ends our segment. And thank you again. And we'll see you next time.