Municipal Leaders: Develop Faster, Lead Stronger, Build Better
Every week, you’ll get insights and actionable steps to help you navigate personal growth and professional success.
Episode 267 of The HaltingWinter Podcast
Brought to you by Tyler Technologies
Some cities live at a steady hum. Carbondale, Illinois, often lives at full volume.
With a major university, a long history of activism, and national issues regularly surfacing on local streets, Carbondale is one of those rare communities where protests, politics, and public pressure are part of the weekly rhythm. And for City Manager Stan Reno, that’s not a crisis — it’s the calling.
Episode 266 of The HaltingWinter Podcast
Brought to you by Tyler Technologies
Most people spend their careers trying to avoid storms.
City managers don’t get that luxury.
In this week’s episode of The HaltingWinter Podcast, I talk with Rebecca Grill, City Manager of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, a leader whose entire career has been shaped by one defining principle:
When the storm forms, don’t wait for it to pass. Run toward it.
Episode 264 of The HaltingWinter Podcast
Brought to you by Tyler Technologies
When cities talk about homelessness, the conversation usually turns toward capacity, compassion, and cost. But very few leaders talk about navigation—how impossible it is for someone without ID, transportation, or support to move through a maze of agencies, forms, and requirements that even seasoned professionals struggle to understand.
And that’s exactly where this week’s guest shines.
Episode 263 of The HaltingWinter Podcast
Brought to you by Tyler Technologies
If you’ve spent any time in local government, you know the job isn’t just about projects, policies, or paperwork. It’s about possibility—the possibility that a city can grow, adapt, and serve its people better tomorrow than it does today.
Episode 261 of The HaltingWinter Podcast
Brought to you by Tyler Technologies
Most people think Thanksgiving revolves around one table—the dining room table where we gather with food, family, and the stories that shape our lives. But there’s another table that rarely gets noticed. It’s the table that holds up our cities, our counties, and our communities every single day.
This week on The HaltingWinter Podcast, I stepped away from the interview format to offer something different: a simple, direct thank you to the people who keep our communities running.
Episode 260 of The HaltingWinter Podcast
Brought to you by Tyler Technologies
When most people think of leadership in local government, they picture policy debates, budget battles, and the relentless pressure of public scrutiny. What they rarely see is the quieter work—the listening, the learning, the steady presence—that actually holds an organization together.
That’s the work Paul Nerland has committed his life to.
In Episode 260 of The HaltingWinter Podcast, “The Leader Who Never Stopped Listening,” Paul shares the surprising and deeply human story behind his leadership journey. And in doing so, he offers a masterclass for anyone serving in local government today.
Episode 258 of The HaltingWinter Podcast
Brought to you by Tyler Technologies
Some leaders plan every move. Others stumble into their calling through a series of detours that somehow make perfect sense in hindsight.
Micah Gaudet belongs to the second group.
Now the Deputy City Manager of Maricopa, Arizona, Micah never set out to work in local government. His path ran through military intelligence, state emergency management, and county public safety. Yet each step—though unplanned—prepared him for the exact kind of leadership cities need today: grounded, self-aware, and purpose-driven.
Episode 257 of The HaltingWinter Podcast
Brought to you by Tyler Technologies
Most leadership stories highlight the victories: the growth, the vision, the change.
Matt Stiles’ story starts in the struggle.
He grew up in poverty, raised by a mother fighting severe mental illness, in a town where every day was about survival. He wasn’t supposed to lead cities. But that’s exactly what makes his story so powerful, because it’s grounded in the realities that most leaders quietly carry.
Episode 255 of The HaltingWinter Podcast
Brought to you by Tyler Technologies
When José Madrigal arrived in Durango, Colorado in 2020, he stepped into an organization still recovering from the pandemic, from burnout, and from the aftermath of an internal embezzlement that had shaken public trust to its core.
He didn’t walk in with a new mission statement.
He walked in with two words: effort and intent.
Episode 254 of The HaltingWinter Podcast
Brought to you by Tyler Technologies
There’s a moment in every city manager’s career when the work changes.
Not because the budget shifts, or a new project breaks ground but because something forces you to see the world through a new lens.
For Craig Owens, City Manager of Lawrence, Kansas, that moment came years ago while serving in Clayton, Missouri, as the unrest in nearby Ferguson unfolded.
