Craig Malin-Outstanding Manager of the Year

As the longest economic expansion in the nation's history drew to a close, Davenport, Iowa continued to
struggle against twenty years of economic stagnation and population decline. It also began its search for a
new City Administrator. After an open recruitment process that included a series of community meetings
and final interviews held in public, Crag Malin was selected. He reported for work in August of 2001,
following service as Adminitrative Coordinator for Douglas County, Wisconsin, where he gained
recognition as American City and County Magazine's County Leader of the Year. His time in Douglas
County followed ten years of work for Vernon Hills, Illinois, where he won ICMA's Buford Watson Award
for Excellence as Assistant Village Manager. Were he to be successful in Davenport, Craig would need to
demonstrate all the skills he could muster. His ability to lead the transformation of one of 
the most resurgent communities in the Midwest is testament to the professional skill and personal
commitment that recommend for recognition as ICMA's Outstanding Manager of the Year. Nominating
Craig Malin for the award is a great opportunity to demonstrate to him and others how Davenport values and
supports his incredible leadership.

At the time of Mr. Malin's hiring, the State of Iowa had approved the City's "Vision Iowa" application for a
"River Renaissance" downtown redevelopment plan totaling 113 million dollars. However, a petition for a
referendum was filed that required at least a 60% vote for the plan to move forward. The referendum was
considered by many impossible to win. But with an open approach to government that moved beyond
responsiveness to inclusion and actually welcoming critique of City plans, Craig facilitated a balanced public
information campaign allowing advocates to have their say and detractors to have their question answered.
In the end, the advocates for progress held the day, and the River Renaissance referendum won with 73% of
the vote county-wide, with Davenport thus becoming the only city in Iowa to hold a successful Vision Iowa
referendum.

The same open approach to government held sway in other crucial City projects. Prior to Mr. Malin's
arrival in Davenport, a land planning controversy resulted in a wholesale change of the City Council, with
only three of ten Alderman being returned to office. This "new" City Council attempted to resolve the issue
but could not come to a consensus solution. When the Council handed this problem to Craig, he undertook
an elegant approach; he listened. Not just to the development community, but also to members of a group
who had sued the City to stop implementation of the TIF financed, sprawl oriented plan.  


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More than just listening, through Mr. Malin's guidance a detail rich and tranparently open planning process
was launched. Leaving the "planner-speak" aside, at one meeting citizens simply looked at pictures of a
range of development outcomes, and voted for their preferences. At another community meeting, each
participant got a chance to draw their own plans for the 630 acre area, with the common themes melded into
the final plan. To reach out to citizens that did not or could not attend the public meetings, a city-wide
survey was conducted. As the plan neared completion, over fifty citizen-planners took advantage of an
opportunity to visit model, smart growth developments over the course of two days in a tour Craig guided
accross three states. At the end of the tour, one of the participants noted that the citizen-planners had formed
"their own community on the tour bus", and this community of former adveraries responded by supporting a 
model, new urbanist plan now moving into implementation. Moreover, this new found community ability to 
work through issues in a collaborative manner and aspire to lofty visions has transcended the 630 acre
planning area on which it was focused. Davenport is now proceeding with the first update of its
comprehensive plan in 27 years and, with its sister city across the Mississippi River of Rock Island, Illinois,
has launched "River Vision" riverfront redevelopment planning process, a process unmatched in bi-state
waterfront scope anywhere in the nation.

This ability to find consensus in formerly contentious voices has served the comunity well. The downtown
that had languished for decades now has a pleasantly new problem to solve; how to temporarily re-route
parades through a downtown bursting with construction sites. From the first downtown office tower in
twenty years, to the renovation of the fourth oldest active professional ballpark in America, to the opening of
an American Roots Music museum and world class art museum, to a "New Ventures" business incubator, to
the adaptive re-use of formerly vacant industrial buildings into loft residences, Davenport is enjoying a
renaissance. Even in the midst of an economic downturn, Davenport has leveraged nearly $400 million of
new investment.

The progress is all the more amazing given the budget pressures Davenport, like most cities, has experienced
in the past few years. Mr. Malin's leadership has permitted the City to do more with less, through a strategy
of inclusion, innovation and personal commitment. As Craig puts it (and his business card reads) "open,
agile and purposeful". Inheriting a City government with a reputation for being closed minded, Craig set out
to fundamentally change the culture of the organization. He did so by leading by example, and personally
leading a training series for City personnel. His first order of business was to get the City to engage its
citizens rather than fight them. Craig conducted a training session for City staff where he exposed them to
over 100 different public engagement techniques, counseling managers that he would leave selection of
the most suitable technique to them for each situation, but made clear he expected that citizen input would be


                                                                                                        
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sought, respected and serve as the foundation for City policy. This transformation has been so complete that
citizen input is directly sought on matters as routine as park improvements, to matters as impactful as police
operations and annual budgets (with citizens providing direct input on budget choices through small group
exercises).

With Davenport government ever more open to citizen input, City Administrator Malin next led a training
series on "agility theory". Craig has adapted this theory, more typically taught to fighter pilots and Marine
Corps officers, to local governance, facilitating swift response to changing conditions and innovation at
every level. The innovation this open and agile approach has fostered has permitted the City to improve
service levels even as the workforce has been reduced by nearly 10%. Indeed, the most recent survey
information finds citizen service satisfaction has risen 12% during Craig's tenure. When asked if the City
was on the right track or wrong track, fully half of Davenporters used to repond "wrong track" in 2001.
Now, less than a third of citizens asked the same question in city wide polling respond in negative fashion.

Part of this transformation has to do with Craig's focus on the third strategic change in Davenport
governance-to be "purposeful". That is, to align actions, both symbolic and substative, to visions and
goals. Now serving with his third City Council in less than three full years (Davenport has two year election
cycles) Craig has achieved every goal established by the Council, no matter how difficult, no matter how
diverse. By leading a performance management restructuring of Davenport, through membership in the
ICMA Center for Performance Measurement, through newly crafted 360 degree evaluations, through
partnering with union leaders and the private sector alike, Davenport has become the most efficiently 
managed large city in Iowa, with the lowest percentage of management staff of any Iowa city with more than
500 employees. Not surprisingly, this efficient governance now results in the second lowest tax rate of any
comparable city, even with capital improvements continuing at twice the historic rate in order to address
needed infrastructure repairs.

In Davenport City government today, "business as usual" doesn't exist. Expectations have been raised, and
continue to be raised with each new success. As one example, it's not enough to hold crime at bay. Now,
crime is expected to fall, as the open and agile Police Department achieves CALEA accreditation and
reduces crime by 12% in the same year. Employees aren't expected to receive health insurance for free, they
are expected (and through collective bargining now do) contribute to health insurance premiums.
Davenport isn't expected to continue to stagnate. It is expected, and now does, succeed at attracting
investment and population.


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These raised expectations have much to do with the high standards City Administrator Malin holds himself
to. Make no mistake, 2003 was a difficult year for Davenport. State actions and market conditions caused
millions of dollars of damage to the City budget. Then after the City certified its budget with the State, the
legislature cut an additon $1.7 million. Position reductions and belt tightening were as unpopular as they
were necessary, just as the two year election cycle loomed.

In the midst of this, Mr. Malin was a steadying and guiding force. His loyalty, work ethic and dedication to
the City are notable. To date, he has not taken a sick day. In fact, in his second year of employment, he
didn't take a single full day off work, ensuring the momentum Davenport had achieved would not dissipate
with the troubling state actions that wracked city budgets accross Iowa. He gave his unused vaction days to
his department heads as compensation when he had to defer management bonuses due to budget pressures.
He more than doubled his own health insurance payments to set an example as the City worked its way
through collective bargaining on this issue with six unions. When another city offered to hire him at a
substantial pay raise, he declined, reaffirming his commitment to Davenport. He made sure every single
employee received a wage increase before he did, as management increases were deferred for budget
balancing reasons.

When the outgoing City Council conducted its performance evaluation, Craig exceeded performance
standards in 44 of 46 categories. He met performance standards in the other two- nobody's perfect. To
underscore his commitment to open government, City Administrator Malin release the results of his
performance evaluation to the press. As the 2002-2003 City Council transitioned to the new City Council,
another indicator of Craig's steadying influence was evident- in a city with a historically high degree of
elected official turnover, only one incumbent running against a non-incumbent challenger lost (by 12 votes).
One of the first orders of business for the (somewhat) new 2004-2006 City Council was to recognize the
commitment Craig had demonstrated in the prior year by approving a new and improved employment
contract. Further demonstrating his commitment to Davenport, the contract contains a number of voluntary
restrictions on his career mobility. Further demonstrating his commitment to leading by example, he has
voluntarily withheld a portion of the raise granted in the new contract as the City continues to get its financial
house in order.

For his impeccable leadership, boundless energy and exceptional commitment to Davenport, Craig Malin is
enthusiastically recommended for recognition as ICMA's Outstanding Manager of the Year.









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