Michael Van Milligen

Over decade, Van Milligen finds his way

by BRIAN COOPER
TH: I noticed in the TH article on your first day of work that you were a little late getting here because you actually drove past City Hall on your first pass.
MV: One of the things that happened over time is, I always had people asking me, "Where's City Hall?" I thought, my gosh, some of these people have lived here so long - many of them for all their life - and they ask me, "Where's City Hall?"
When we did the exterior remodeling two years ago, we figured out why. Because there was no signage for City Hall. Now we've put up two signs where some people can find City Hall. TH: So that caught you, too.
MV: That's right.
TH: What else do you remember about that first day of work?
MV: Well, I don't remember a whole heck of a lot about the actual first day of work, but I remember the beginning of being employed here. My biggest impression was the people that I was meeting that I was going to be working with and working for.
I thought, what a great group of people. The employees here are just top caliber people and very caring. They really care about what happens with their customer. That was very exciting for me because, you know, you don't know what you're going to walk in to when you come to a new place.
TH: Was it a challenge to get buy-in from the city staff that you inherited when you came on board?
MV: I'm happy to say no, it wasn't. We've got people here that, in any other organization or any other community - maybe a larger community - could achieve greater things as far as pay or position. But they've made a choice that they love Dubuque and they want to live here and work here. And so they have a tremendous ability to contribute.
Our employees have a very caring attitude. They care about people and the customer. The guiding principles really focus on that. I'd say it's like second nature to a lot of the people that work here, so, no, it wasn't difficult at all.
TH: One of your first occupations was as a police officer. Did you have any jobs before that or did you go into law enforcement right out of school?
MV: Well, I worked in college as a police cadet at the campus police department. Then when I got out of college, I started right away as a police officer for the city police in the same community.
TH: In Carbondale.
MV: Carbondale, Ill., right. Then I went to Skokie, Ill., as the administrative assistant to the police chief. Then after doing that for two years, I ended up getting promoted into the city manager's office as the public information officer and then became the assistant city manager. Then, of course, ended up here in Dubuque.
TH: Where did your master's degree come in?
MV: While I was a police officer for seven years, I was working on my Master's degree for most of that time. I would work 5:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. and then I would go to school during the day.
TH: That's a pretty rigorous schedule, too.
MV: It was rigorous, but it was very enjoyable to stay connected with the University. I enjoyed it.
TH: About what is the projected financial impact on property owners through user fee for a stormwater utility?
MV: Actually, we don't know yet. The citizen's action committee is working through all that information right now. It's a $24.5 million project, so it's going to be expensive; there's no way around that. But I don't think they have yet come up with numbers. The original number we estimated was in the beginning, it would be about $2 per month per household. I don't know exactly what number they're going to end up at.
TH: You mentioned transportation and that reminds me of the airport. In the past, you advocated for the city and city council to have more oversight over the airport, as well as the library. Do you still feel that that's the right way to go for city government?
MV: Well, I'm very respectful of the form of government that we have here, which is the council manager government. The mayor and the city council set the policies.
At one point in time, probably about eight years ago, I made a recommendation about my concerns about having independent bodies who were spending public dollars. And the council said, "No, we're going to choose to keep them like this." I respect that decision. The council, along the way, added where one of the five airport commissioners is a city council member. I think that has been very healthy. John Markham has served that role wonderfully.
We have a great working relationship with both the library and the airport. Both the library director and the airport manager act as members of the city management team, where they attend our meetings, participate and it's working out very well.
Copyright 2003 Telegraph Herald
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