This morning as I was pulling into the parking lot of City Hall, I was greeted by a pair of beautiful deer.  They were standing around doing nothing when they recognized my car, and when they realized the City Manager had arrived they figured they’d better get moving. Okay, that’s a little management humor. But a picture of two deer is not what inspired me to write today’s blog.

The inspiration was a letter penned to the editor at Crain’s Detroit Business by one of our City Council Members, Bob Kittle. He wrote a letter in response to an article written by Mary Kramer from Crain’s about the shortage of workers’ that continues to grow. Councilman Kittle wanted to make certain that attention was also drawn to the shortage in the public sector, so he wrote a letter to the editor to make that point.

If you’re still asking yourself, what about the deer?  I’m getting to that. Auburn Hills is a great place to work. We have modern facilities, we provide great office environments and technology, and our people will tell you they love what they do because they know what they are doing makes a difference. Another perk is our municipal campus. Coming to work at our municipal campus is like coming to work in the middle of a park. We have beautiful mature trees, lots of hills and valleys, walking paths, nature trails, and vast green areas. In fact, on some days, you will pull into the office and be greeted by deer. And there you go!  The deer!

As Councilman Kittle points out, there are many disciplines that can be practiced in local government. We have police officers, firefighters, accountants, graphic designers, supervisors, managers and executives, and the list goes on and on. Within all of our departments, you can use a variety of skills and abilities to generate good public policy and methods of delivering great service. We are constantly working to improve upon our work culture and to innovate. You don’t have to take my word for it. Ask one of our employees. We have unique meeting spaces to gather people together to tackle day-to-day issues and to coordinate our projects. We also provide individual workspaces that allow our employees to have their own personal space with a certain amount of privacy. If this sounds like a place you might like to work, check us out! From time to time we have openings on our staff and we’re always looking for the next great member of our team.

Thomas A. Tanghe, City Manager