Welcome to OCCMA from President Dan Huff

Thank you all for the honor of serving as the OCCMA President in 2024. Being on the Board has created opportunities for connections and growth. We have great leaders in our profession, and I have had the privilege of working with Scott Derickson in 2023. Scott will continue as Past President during 2024 and is a wealth of advice and thought-provoking perspectives for all who dare! Martha Bennett has graciously jumped in as our President-Elect for 2024 and we should be in for a good year!

All of you who have volunteered your time on the OCCMA Board and Committees, thank you! We are a member driven organization and we are only as strong as the people willing to slice out valuable time and make local government a better place. We have four conferences to organize in 2024 and all of us need the connections, support, and professional development.

The Board has taken an altered perspective for this year, and it begins with asking the question, “What do City Managers need?.” “Are we a Club of titles or are we an Association that supports the profession and people at every stage?” (November 2023 OCCMA Board Retreat) 

What came out of the November 2023 Board Retreat was a willingness to question what we are doing as an organization and an unwillingness to keep doing the same thing because that is how we have always functioned. The following nuggets are an excerpt from those discussions:

• Support for Managers – What does this mean for City Managers/City Administrators? What does this mean to you?
• Networking – Informal connections. Develop relationships.
• Academic Training in core competencies – OCCMA has promoted and supported Civic Education. Beginning with the Summer Conference in 2022, OCCMA has made Civic Education a priority. Democracy thrives off an informed and active community (various) and we need this to support what we do.
• Ethics Training for Elected Officials and dealing with misinformation and polarization.
• Amplify our voice with LOC and the State of Oregon and strengthen our relationship with LOC.
• Conference and Professional Development – Stay tuned here and get involved.

Our 2023 summer conference was in Pendleton and even though it was extremely hot, I appreciated the hospitality Pendleton provided all of us. This year, we are again crisscrossing the state from Seaside to Klamath Falls to Hood River and over to Bend. I like the variety and new communities we have a chance to experience. I have not been to Klamath Falls since my son’s final high school baseball tournament and that was just a few years ago!

I encourage you all to become involved in OCCMA and consider what it is that would benefit you as a City Manager/City Administrator. Pick up the phone and have a conversation with a colleague. Do not wait until someone calls you. City Managers are a resilient bunch and more than likely we are all experiencing something that has reared its head in another community.

Our commitment to professional, ethical, and effective local government is paramount within the chaos at the State and Federal Government levels. Thank you and I hope to see you at one or more of the professional development opportunities in 2024!