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City manager looks back on challenging year

Historical challenges have been City Manager Tom Barry’s first hurdle in moving Minot forward

Jill Schramm/MDN Minot City Manager Tom Barry stands outside City Hall Dec. 8.

Tom Barry was looking for a new challenge when he took the helm as Minot’s city manager on Dec. 12, 2016. What he encountered was a steady stream of challenges that continue to keep him on his toes a year later.

“I don’t feel like this job is challenging from a skill and capability level. I think it’s challenging because there’s so much to do,” Barry said. “There’s a lot of historical challenges. We have a lot of things that are just spilling over from the flood.”

Those issues include flood control financing, buyouts, parking ramps and the 16th Crossing development. There’s more recently a dispute with Earth Recycling and financial issues with North Dakota Port Services.

“The list is just massive. The way you approach those things is you have to do the best you can to understand all sides. Sure, I work for the city, and, sure, I am going to be told the city side from the city staff, but I have been around the block enough to know there are many sides to a story and the key is to try to understand as many of those as you can. It doesn’t have to do with distrusting anybody. People just look at things differently. For me, I value getting as many perspectives as I can on an issue to help me understand it,” Barry said.

Finally achieving the buyouts of Home Sweet Home and Open Gate Church after extended negotiation are examples of forgetting about past impressions and moving forward to resolve issues, he said.

“I think when you sit down with people and you genuinely try to understand and you are open to listening and you are open to engaging in productive and constructive conversation, you can get some things done. That’s kind of what’s going on with the parking ramps right now,” he said. Negotiations to achieve completion of the downtown ramps requires sensitivity to not just the city’s issues but the developer’s concerns, he said.

“If we only look at problems and come up with solutions that are good for one side, we tend not to get conclusion to those issues. So it’s really important that we do what we can to again try to understand and develop win-wins for everybody,” Barry said.

The number of issues requiring his attention has frustrated Barry to a certain extent because it ties up time he would rather spend working on improvements he envisions for Minot.

“There are a lot of things we are moving forward on, but there’s areas that we still need to progress in. I feel like I am being held back with these historical challenges. I would like to get as many of those resolved as soon as I can to move forward. Unfortunately, some of these are so complex and so challenging that quick solutions aren’t really likely to result,” Barry said.

One of Barry’s goals is to increase community engagement. As a start, he initiated a city newsletter this year and added a communications assistant in the public information office. His vision includes town hall meetings that bring discussions on city topics into the neighborhoods and greater youth involvement and integration with schools.

“There’s so much we are not doing. I want to develop a community engagement strategy that encompasses a variety of different touch points for our citizens to get engaged with their government. Some of those touch points are as simple as simply transferring information – public education for example. Others are getting people involved in decision making,” Barry said.

He wants to introduce citizen satisfaction surveys and is planning an event involving a State of the City address in February. He believes the city needs more of a presence in the State Fair Parade and more events that build a sense of pride. Community pride was his intent in promoting a celebration of the 130th anniversary of Minot’s city incorporation in July.

Originally planned to attract 200 people, the event drew 800. It was a small success mixed in with some bigger successes this year, such as the $200 million in state funding obtained for a flood control project that is preparing to break ground next year. Barry also sees progress being made with the city’s finances.

“I would say I was taken aback a little bit when I got here on the city’s financial situation,” Barry said. “I was concerned about the debt and I was concerned about the use of reserves.

“We made some significant adjustments this year, and we know that was hard. When you are the new guy, you don’t want to be the person who comes in and says, ‘Well, we have to raise taxes and we have to let staff go and we have to cut benefits. Nobody wants to do that so I felt awful having to make some of those recommendations. But my first and foremost duty is to ensure the financial viability and long-term sustainability of the city, and finances are a huge component of that,” he said.

Barry conducted educational budget workshops for the council and public. He directed staff to develop five-year budgets to create a financial projection model so incremental budget adjustments can be made to accommodate bigger financial hurdles later.

“Being strategic is important. There’s been some areas our city has been strategic and has done well, and there are other areas where we haven’t,” he said. “If we can become a more data-informed organization and if we can improve the way that we communicate with our residents and businesses, I think we will see the support for the city continue to elevate.”

Barry proposes to organize a council retreat in the new year to write the city’s mission and vision statements, determine core values and develop strategic planning and tactical plans.

Minot restructured its government in 2017, leaving Barry nervous about whether he would still be the right fit for the city and whether he might still have a job after the June changeover. He said he feels fortunate the transition to the new council has gone smoothly.

Another transition that’s gone smoothly has been his family’s integration into Minot.

Barry, his wife, Alisha, and their four children battled drifts to their front door in arriving in Minot after spending two days stuck in a snowstorm in Dickinson on their way from Idaho, where Barry had been public works director in Meridian. He said they figured people wouldn’t venture out of their homes until spring, but they discovered plenty to do even in the winter.

“I think that’s what’s great about this community is there is an awful lot going on,” he said. He said he’s been surprised by how welcoming the community has been and how quickly his family was able to connect and get involved.

While the number of challenges he’s had to face as city manager were a bit of a surprise as well, Barry is optimistic.

“I am very excited about our future. We are going to have some dark days ahead of us as it relates to dealing with some of these historical challenges, and I am going to need the community to kind of help us through that because it’s not going to be easy. We have some really tall challenges to address. But on the other side of all that and looking forward into our future, I see tremendous opportunity, and that’s really why I am here. I didn’t want to work in a city that was stagnant. I didn’t want to work in a city that didn’t have anything to do. I didn’t even want to work in a city that was doing everything right because what fun is that?” he said. “I still feel like I am young in my career and I have a lot to learn. I can’t learn if I don’t throw myself into challenges that provide those opportunities, and Minot is full of those.”

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