Scot Simpson, City Administrator

People get into local government for various reasons. For Scot Simpson, government was not his initial career path. But after shifting course on his original plan, he found himself gravitating toward city government – and he never looked back. 

He’s spent his entire career in that field, including the past 16 years as the City Administrator for the City of River Falls. In that role, Scot has led the organization and the city through many changes, projects, and growth. He’s also the first guest on the brand-new Kinni Cast, a podcast from the City of River Falls that tells the stories of our employees and the work being done to make River Falls a better place. 

In this episode, you’ll hear why Scot was drawn to local government, why he believes organizational culture is so important, and what he sees as the future of River Falls in the next decade and beyond.

Learn more about the City of River Falls at www.rfcity.org. Follow the City of River Falls on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Transcript

Tyler Mason

Hi River Falls. Welcome to the Kinni Cast, the new podcast from the city of River Falls, where we take you behind the scenes of City Hall and hear about the stories from the people who do the work that make this community great. My name is Tyler Mason. I'm the Communications Coordinator for the city, and I'm going to be your host for the podcast, and I'm excited to be joined on the first episode by Scot Simpson, the City Administrator. Scot, I know you're, you're a pro at podcast at this point, so hopefully this will be pretty easy for you.

Scot Simpson

Yeah. You're using that term loosely. And it'll be fun. 

Tyler Mason

Yeah. Well, let's jump into it here a little bit about your background. And kind of how you got to this point. What originally drew you to work for local government? 

Scot Simpson

Well, I had a father, who was a small business operator and, and then purchased that business. So he was a small business owner, and I spent my childhood watching him volunteer for any and everything, including running and winning City Council. And he also served on the school board. So I had had a chance to get a front row seat, to local government as a kid. Mom worked in school libraries. And so that service aspect has been something that's been important in my family, instilled in my family for my whole lifetime. Given all that, I still thought I would be going to business school and a fancy corner office in a high floor in Milwaukee. I went to Carroll as an undergrad in business, and had done a bunch of interesting experiences while at Carroll with local government, including projects for the city of Waukesha and had an internship in county government and had a mentorship program, a leadership program where I got a couple days in the Milwaukee residency program and so kind of saw the on the ground local government work and thought that that would be something I'd be interested, you know, in government in general. And so then I thought, you know, I looked into a little bit what the opportunities were and really decided that I wanted to be at the local level, because I think that what was closest to the to the problems or and the people to and a lot of immediacy to solving problems once you identify them.

Tyler Mason

So that's kind of the, the focus on, city government. And you were in different local governments before you ended up in River Falls. You've been now the City Administrator here for 16 years. So when you took this job as city administrator back in 2009, what were your original impressions of the city and maybe some of the early things you hope to accomplish in this role when you started?

Scot Simpson

Yeah, it was an interesting first look. I wasn't really aware of River Falls as a community, even having been a lifelong resident of Wisconsin. Kind of never looked I guess north and west. But my early impressions were that it was kind of like maybe Mayberry on steroids. So we were living in a beautiful community in Lancaster, in the southwest part of the state, having a great time, started a young family and River Falls just looked like a great place. Change oriented, beautiful, great location. And then I also some of the first impressions were and it was siloed. We had a deficit budget, had some mixed success with tax incremental financing districts that I was interested in. So there was a lot of things, both personally and professionally, that made  me interested in the job. 

Tyler Mason

And how much bigger was River Falls in Lancaster?

Scot Simson

Lancaster was about 4,000. Okay. So much bigger, you know, 3 or 4 times the size. I was looking for that challenge. But also liked the idea of living in a smaller community, for sure. 

Tyler Mason

Yeah, I suppose bigger size means more opportunities, more challenges, and a lot more excitement maybe too Well, it seems like it's worked out well since you've been here. Maybe set the table a bit as far as just kind of the organizational structure of the City of River Falls and how the role of City Administrator plays into that, because different cities, you know, have different structures, but maybe share the structure of River Falls and then how your role fits into that. 

Scot Simpson

Yeah, so River Falls would be a Wisconsin mayor-council-administrator government. So the mayor is the CEO, the council is elected. We have a mixed system where we have at large, so council members that can be from anywhere in town. And then we still have some aldermanic districts. That's fairly common in Wisconsin to have kind of custom little systems in each city. The city council, the community, through its charter ordinances, and ordinances of vessel, all of authority and responsibility in the city administrator position here. So the model operates much like the administrator being the chief operating officer, chief executive officer with the mayor as kind of the president of the board. And the council is the board who set the policy. So my job is responsible from an org chart perspective, I'm kind of the chief unelected official. So, the top of the organizational chart not being elected. Obviously the electors are at the top of our chart, but we kind of look in our profession as managing up, down, and out. So we are responsible to work with the elected officials, work with the staff, and then work out into the community with the residents. So that's a job that I really look, look forward to every day. 

Tyler Mason

And other cities or towns may have city manager or things like that. Are those all kind of similar structures typically, or how does River falls compare to maybe either neighboring communities or other, you know, cities in Wisconsin?

Scot Simpson

Pretty similar to a lot of the communities our size in Wisconsin. Most of our neighboring communities have adopted some kind of regular professional management to help carry out the policy wishes of the elected officials. And so it's pretty similar to what we see in the neighboring communities. There are some other variations. There's very few communities in Wisconsin that have what I consider a strong mayor situation where the mayor is kind of in the office every day doing day to day supervision.

Tyler Mason

So as you look back at your 16 plus years now as City Administrator, you know, obviously a lot of change in the city, a lot of different projects that you've worked on. What are some of the things that you've been most proud of accomplishing in the role? 

Scot Simpson

Well, I think the primary goal, and it's easy to say this now is I can reflect back after, you know, 20 plus years in the profession, the primary goal is the culture. And so I'm very proud of the accomplishments that are more about the culture of service, kind of the one city culture that we've really tried to eliminate silos and city governance that we've tried to eliminate, you know, kind of this have to decipher local government so you can enter into any point in local government as a resident, as a partner, potential partner. And, and we'll get you to the right spot because we're all working together for one goal. I'm proud of the number of partnerships we've been able to foster throughout the years here, and I think our reputation is that we are good at prioritization and getting things done. So once we decide things are important, then we focus on them. And we and we kind of get there with the projects. And so that's something that I'm, I'm pretty proud of. I think project wise, just 16 years later, I look at the downtown and it's impressive about the amount of private investment, and the city plays a small role in that. And we helped with the hotel and the Family Fresh redevelopments that really, you know, kind of helped keep the momentum going. There was already some early momentum with corporate parks. We've done a lot of work. And those that I think of really strengthen the communities financially, economically, given us some diversity and also helped us find places for people to work here. Glen Park is something that I think we're really proud of. It was a pretty tired place. It's a really important community landmark. And I think the investment that was there is something we're really excited to get done. And then I'm very proud of all the infrastructure work we've done. So those are things that are less visible to the community. But I would have no problem handing over all of our infrastructure to someone else. And know that we're not leaving them with a mask or something to fix. So underneath the streets, the pipes and water, sewer, electric investments, and including our roads have been very significant over the last couple decades. And I think it shows only to a certain extent. But service reliability is really good. Our electric substations are all in great shape. And so the council has really prioritized even those are less flashy projects they get a little less credit for. We need to do them. It's really, really good shape. 

Tyler Mason

And the infrastructure is something that maybe the average resident -- I know I don't really think about it in my community -- but it's important and it's something that, you know, the city is very involved in. So yeah, that's certainly been a big one. You mentioned culture is something that you've been proud of and you've been a big proponent of kind of personalizing City Hall, highlighting the employees on our staff. I guess what would you want the River Falls community to know about the people who work for the city? 

Scot Simpson

Well, I want I want them to know that they're your neighbors, first and foremost. So whether or not they live in the city, they take their actions every day as if they do. And for a large percentage of us that live and work in the community we really care about the work that we do and the outcomes that we're, we're able to achieve. I'm very proud of the heart of service. I mean, it's universal across the city employees that they're really here to serve others. And they want to get things done. So they're not anxious to just kind of leave things for somebody else to do. So that's really important for us to see. And I'm very proud of that.

Tyler Mason

And you mentioned just living in the community. Obviously, you and your family have been, you know, a big part of this community for a long time too. Is that something that, you know, I'm assuming you don't take lightly that this is your community as well, and you obviously want to make it better for your family and friends and that sort of thing?

Scot Simpson

Yeah, I think we have a big legacy that we've been given. The community, you know, is a great community. It was great before my family came here, and hopefully what we're doing is setting up for future generations, so that it can continue to be great going forward. And so that I think you see that ethic in the staff, again, whether they live here or not, they really feel a lot of ownership to what the impact of our services are and how it feels to live in River Falls on a daily basis.

Tyler Mason

Yeah. Well, there's some big projects that are going on right now that the city is involved in. And looking at the library renovation has already started, the fire station is going to be renovated soon. There's some other things that, you know, kind of behind the scenes. What excites you most about the work being done on some of those current projects?

Scot Simpson

Yeah. I mean, it excites me because of the culture stuff that I enjoy doing. It really excites me when you see these projects and they're multi department or multi skill sets, multi employees that are working together to kind of achieve this goal. And so that's exciting for me every day, the kind of interaction, communication, coordination amongst all the different departments and skill sets that we have to get these very, very big projects. Most cities our size would be lucky to do one of these projects every three years. We do 2 or 3 of these projects every couple of years. And so it's exciting that people kind of dig in and get to work. The library is going to be that project and extend the life of that space for the community. I mean, it's something that's going to be a game changer, kind of a refresh from a physical standpoint. But again, if you think about all the life environments going on in those buildings, the library project really is giving us, you know, kind of a breath of fresh air into that space. And we know that the library staff and the community can and the partners can do great things with the space we already have. And so think about the potential there is pretty exciting. And the fire department, really, it's important to do the project with the fire department because it's a demonstration of our commitment to those dedicated volunteers. So what excites me about the fire station is that we can, you know, use some of the investment that we've had in the past and do some additions, some newness to it, but it's really to get that space in a situation working to serve the community, and serve those dedicated volunteers who are providing that service.

Tyler Mason

And we'll dive in on future episode to those projects with Tanya Misselt from the library and Justin Wilson, the new fire chief, talking about the fire station renovation. So stay tuned for that. We'll get a little deeper into those on some of those episodes as well. When you look ahead 10, 20 years from now, what do you envision as the future of River falls? 

Scot Simpson

Yeah, I think what I try to keep in focus is that the vision is a safe and vibrant connected community. And we want to get to that goal by embracing the opportunities that we have in front of us. And ultimately, those are the kind of decisions, the forks in the road that you have as a community that can determine what the future is. So the vision is, if you look 20 years out there, we took advantage of the opportunities or presented us to ourselves. We prioritize what things we thought were going to be most advantageous to our future, and we did something about it. And then, you know, ultimately, if you want to boil that down and say, I want a place where my children think that this is a place where they can be and raise their children, so that's a personal thing for me. And it's a guide, you know. Is this the kind of place that my children want to be raising their kids? Now, they may not know that now as teenagers or young adults. But if you look 20 years down the road, you want to be, you know, I, as a professional, want to look back and say, hey, you know, we did that together. Look what our team helped build with the community. And we were able to embrace those opportunities. 

Tyler Mason

Yeah. Well, last question, and this will be kind of the theme throughout this podcast. But I'm curious what impact you hope your work has on the people of River Falls, Scot? 

Scot Simpson

I hope that the impact that I'm having in the organization and in the community is that we're achieving our highest potential, so that where we otherwise may not take some risks that we should take. And then as an organization, I want to make sure that I'm supporting those that are supporting us so that the services that we provide all have a component of personal touch to them. And so we want to make sure that we're supporting those people that are caring for the community and getting our services out. And so that's the impact, you know, can I impact us as both a community and as the organization and that staff reach the highest potential that we have? 

Tyler Mason

Well, we'll let you off the hook with that. Thanks for being the guinea pig on the first episode, Scott. I appreciate sharing about, your work here and the time you've spent with the city and.

Scot Simpson
Yeah, thanks again. It's been great. And, I'm available. My email, phone and I'm out in the community, so I'm happy to chat with people about their hopes and vision for the community also. 

Tyler Mason

Absolutely. Yeah, you can find Scott's information and find him at many of our events throughout the year too. So if you ever have a question for him, you know, you know how to find him. Well, thanks everyone for tuning in to this inaugural episode of the Kinni Cast. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can find it really wherever you get your podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. You can find it on the City of River falls website at rfcity.org. There's a tab for the podcast as well. And be sure to share this with others in the community so they can hear more of these stories from the city staff and learn about the important work that is going on at City Hall and beyond all over the city. So thanks again for tuning in and have a great one, River Falls.