Departing City Administrator: Wentzville Needs Strong Leadership, Civic Involvement

Today, Friday, Feb. 15, is the last day of work for Wentzville's Interim City Administrator, George Kolb. Patch sat down with Kolb and asked him about his time in Wentzville, his accomplishments and challenges.

Patch: How much did you know about Wentzville coming into the job? Did you research it?

READ MORE: Wentzville Hires Interim City Administrator

George Kolb: I did research on the demographics, the size, a little history, where did Wentzville come from? I was very surprised to find out it was a slave town. I think they could capitalize on that for tourism and economic development.

I also read your articles (on Patch). One was particularly interesting, on the audit last summer. You had a copy of the audit. I couldn't find it on the city website, I couldn't open it up, but it was right there with the article.

Patch: What do you think was your biggest challenge coming in?

GK: I had several challenges. One was to come to grips with the political structure of the organization. The organization, in terms of the staff, sorely needed leadership. Then to establish and figure out what the various roles of the political body (the mayor and board) were and how it impacted on the organization.

Patch: You've worked in the managment of a lot of different cities. Was there anything about Wentzville that struck you as being more of a challenge than most?

GK: There's really no one in charge. The mayor is the political head of the organization just like in any city, but he's also given some administrative responsibilities for the organization. But when you dig a little deeper, then the board is also involved—they are not a true policy-making board.

In typical cities, you have the city council or board of aldermen who make ordinances and set policy for the city organization and the community (traffic laws, zoning and things like that). Then you have someone, either a strong mayor or city manager who actually carries out those polices and runs the day-to-day operations. Wentzville has suffered from not having a strong administrative leader.

The board recommends or hires department directors, they report to a city administrator who has responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the city, according to the ordiances. Then that person is supervised by the mayor.

That's the way fourth class cities are set up, for the most part, but it's an awkward way to run a city that's growing this large, this fast.

Patch: What is the biggest challenge you see facing Wentzville as a community?

GK: Growing pains. When you grow this large, this fast, you tend to become isolated. You have these pockets of parochial groups. The biggest challenge is to get through that period and come together and be a community and get engaged in what's going on. That's going to make you a better community.

Civic involvement—community engagement—is going to be big hurdle this community is going to face in the immediate future.

Patch: What challenges do you see for the the city's leaders and city staff?

GK: The organization is going through a transition. It was a small town, and you dealt with the issues of a small town. Now that it's growing up and changing, you can not use the same techniques and methods that you used to manage a small town. In dealing with a more complex community and more complex organization, you have to evolve into more sophisticated ways of delivering service.

Patch: What are you most proud of accomplishing during your time here?

GK: I think the staff has coalesced and organized itself. They're more thoughtful about service delivery. They're thoughtful about budgeting. Instead of an accounting exercise, they're really looking at what outcomes they're going to give the community in a given period of time.

They'll eventually learn that you don't look at budgets one year at a time, you look at five years at a time. How is your operation going to improve over that period of time?

That kind of discipline, I'm glad I was able to bring to the city. The budgeting itself was an achievement.

I'm just glad I was able to help the community get through a very challenging time. I'm proud of that.

Patch: Do you have any words of advice for incoming City Administrator Mike McDowell?

READ MORE: Wentzville Hires New City Administrator

GK: Be flexible—and thoughtful—before you move forward. And be prepared for anything. 

Patch: Where do you go from here?

GK: I'm going home. That's my near future. I'm going to take a break. If another city comes along, I will take a look at it.

Patch: Do you have a hobby?

GK: Golf. Summer's coming up.

Patch: Thanks for talking with us, and best of luck in the future—and with your golf game.

GK: That's going to have to get better!