Doug Krieger takes reins in Naperville
Deodorant, stomach medicine, ear plugs, breath mints and hair dye fill Doug Krieger's survival kit, a gift from his staff.
Undoubtedly, Naperville's new city manager will have his hands full, with a $5.1 million budget deficit that is projected to grow to $11 million next fiscal year. There are also 140,000 residents, eight city councilmen and a mayor who will demand his attention.
But Krieger, the city's director of finance since 2003, calls this new post his "dream job." He says he will be a city manager who collaborates with employees to make Naperville even better and plans to be visible and accessible to residents.
Krieger, 44, officially took the job Dec. 2 to replace Peter Burchard, who announced his resignation abruptly in November 2007 to take a position in the private sector. Assistant City Manager Robert Marshall has been filling in since that time.
Krieger's resume includes nine years with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Coopers & Lybrand in the audit and business assurances services group. He is also a former naval officer with a bachelor's degree in political science from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MBA with a concentration in finance and accounting from the University of Chicago.
Krieger recently sat down with the Daily Herald to talk about his vision for the city. Here is an edited version of that conversation:
Q. Why did you want this position?
A. This slot is really a dream job for me. Naperville is home, it's been home for 14 years. I love this community and to be able to play such a critical role in the community having a position where I can make a difference means a lot to me.
Q. What will you bring to the job and how would you describe your management style?
A. I'd like to think I bring a lot to the job. One of the things that is probably a differentiator between previous city managers is the breadth of experience I've had and it's been about 50/50 public sector and private sector.
Even within the public sector it's been very varied, from service in the U.S. Navy to consulting for federal agencies in Washington, D.C., to auditing in Springfield to auditing local governments and municipalities and consulting with those.
I view my management style as very collaborative. That's a huge plus here in Naperville because of the quality of those surrounding me, starting at the top with the city council to Assistant City Manager Bob Marshall to the members of the directors leadership team and really carrying down to every employee here.
Everyone has a great deal to offer and with a style like that you can take advantage of all the wonderful ideas throughout the organization.
Q. Have you received advice from any other city managers?
A. I did speak with Peter Burchard regarding this opportunity and in his clever way he provided some advice. He was one of the first people I notified once I was fortunate enough to get the position.
His advice was really to be myself. Don't try to portray myself as what I might think the city council is looking for, just to be myself. He felt that I had earned their trust and that a change in me, my personality and vision, was not something they were looking for.
There aren't a lot of positions where you have nine direct bosses and this is one of them. That's what makes the job tough, but that's also what makes it fun and interesting.
Q. What's your first priority as city manager?
A. Right out of the gate would be the continuation and completion of budgetary cuts so the budget will be reflective of city council's direction, which was to budget expenditures for a flat tax rate with an additional $1 million cushion built in. That process started in earnest probably about four months ago and as it stands we're not there yet.
We've taken several actions and measures, some easy, some in the areas of personnel that are much more difficult. And those are still in progress. But we haven't reached our goal yet, so we're really still working on that.
The first cuts and reductions are the easiest. As you dig deeper, they get tougher.
Q. The latest plan the council has discussed involves cutting spending in every department and job reductions in the upper 40s, almost half of which are already vacant. Will you continue with that plan?
A. The severity of the shortfall for next budget year was such that there wasn't really a single solution. What it really came down to was a solution with several components.
We had one of those and still have one of those in place - to balance the budget with a flat tax rate. We have not yet identified sufficient cuts to provide the additional $1 million cushion, however I'm confident before the budget workshop season rolls around we'll be there.
Our original estimates of the shortfall have not improved, but on the plus side they haven't gotten any worse. So from a personnel standpoint, the level and depth of the cuts currently remains unchanged.
Q. In general, what can the city do better?
A. I think everyone to the person has room for improvement on an incremental basis, whether that be as a cashier dealing with a resident at a window to a public safety officer responding to an emergency to a snowplow driver. We are continuing to stress the area of continuous improvement.
What you will likely not see that you may have seen in the past is the roll out or extension of new programs or services being offered by the city simply because of the tough economic times.
Q. How do you view your relationship with the community at large?
A. I love this community, I love the city and I love talking about both. I was at Rotary, with one day under my belt, talking about the city and I would expect that to continue. I just enjoy telling our story because we've got a great story to tell.
I think it's very important the city manager be a very visible member in the community in terms of providing the transparency in government.
Q. Is there anything the city can or should be doing to help residents and small businesses through these tough economic times?
A. There has been discussion by the city council on the topic of economic incentives. That is one of the topics that's being considered.
One of the things we can always do, and this isn't really a change, that really helps everyone is to be very aggressive in providing a low tax rate. We have been successful in providing that compared to our comparable communities and the city council direction is very clear that they expect that to continue.
Q. Recently several councilmen suggested the city rethink building a parking deck at Nichols Library in 2010 due to the economy. Do you believe the city should continue to move forward with the project?
A. We have the current direction from city council. Each of our major construction projects - of which the parking decks are, if not at the top of the list, then near the top in terms of both dollar value and importance - are reviewed annually and will be reviewed next month as part of the capital improvement program city council workshop.
Several factors come into play in determining which one and when. Economic climate is one, both from a spending perspective and a demand perspective. A poor economic climate will reduce demand, which can alleviate part of the problem. Within the last month we just opened the Van Buren parking addition, so we have made some pretty significant steps this year already.
We are having at a minimum, weekly meetings with Moser Enterprises and Marquette Properties regarding the Water Street project and although they have pushed back the timing of it a little bit, they're not giving us any indication there would be a significant delay in that project.
Q. But do you think the Nichols deck specifically should be delayed?
A. Each individual deck cannot be viewed in isolation. Each additional space we put in, no matter where it is, helps alleviate the problem.
What we strive for is to provide an adequate supply of parking at the most efficient cost to the taxpayer. And because two of the projects, one that is just wrapping up now and also Water Street, are public-private partnerships the timing isn't 100 percent within our control.
Q. Traffic congestion comes up regularly as an area the city needs to improve. What do you believe needs to be done?
A. We issue a citizen survey every couple years to provide ourselves with a report card on how we're doing and traffic is typically at or near the top of the list. We understand it's a problem. It has some unique characteristics in that ... improvements are oftentimes not 100 percent within the control of the city.
The most significant project we have going on now is at 75th and Washington streets. That's a joint project so we've got to get several different agencies on board before we can break ground on expansion or widening projects. We often have to deal with adjacent property owners.
The other significant differentiator for traffic solutions is that they are very expensive. Although there's a lot of federal funding out there and people work very hard to obtain as much of that as we can, typically the city's share is pretty significant as well.
One of our major legislative priorities is Route 59 widening. That will be a multi-multi-year process. Just because it's hard and takes long doesn't mean that it's not important. It's key.
Q. Red light cameras are being installed this month at Route 59 and North Aurora Road. How widespread would you like to see the cameras become?
A. I think the importance of red light cameras really focuses on how effective they are as a deterrent. The program is about safety. We will get wonderful data from North Aurora and Route 59 and based on that data, if it shows it's having a significant impact on safety, I would assume we would extend that to other parts.
Q. Councilmen Grant Wehrli recently suggested cutting the city's food and beverage tax in half, which would ease the burden on taxpayers but at the same cut the amount available for cultural grants. Do you believe the city should cut the tax?
A. For items that have yet to be decided by city council, I'll have an opinion when all of the facts are gathered. We can develop an opinion and at that point in time that becomes a staff recommendation. So for all the new items out there that are still in progress, I don't want to jump to conclusions until all the facts are gathered.
On the flip side, you can't wait for 100 percent of the facts to be done before you send something up or you'll never get there. I feel I've got a pretty good handle on the depth and breadth of information that city council needs to make these decisions.
It's our role to lay the facts out clearly, concisely, make sure we include both sides of the story and provide a recommendation that has the residents' best interest at heart.
Doug Krieger's Faves
Family: Wife Elaine, son Eric, daughter Kirty
Favorite book: "Slaughterhouse Five"
Baseball team: White Sox
Favorite band: Led Zeppelin
Fun facts: Spent summer of 1986 programming Tomahawk cruise missiles in Germany. Also was a qualified nuclear engineer aboard a submarine
Way he relaxes: Walking his 103-pound golden retriever, Psych
Leaders he admires: Locally, Ozzie Guillen. "He takes his job seriously, knows how to motivate and loves what he's doing."
Nationally, Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines. "He's got a wonderful philosophy, which is all about two things - customer service and doing what's right for your employees."
<p class="factboxheadblack">What the city council says about Krieger</p> <p class="News">"Doug Krieger brings to the table a wealth of knowledge of the finances of the city of Naperville that is irreplaceable at this point in time. He has a good head on his shoulders, vision, passion for the community. We have set the bar high for him and I think he'll do an admirable job in clearing it." - Councilman Grant Wehrli</p> <p class="News">"He's going to do well because right now our main concern is finances and who better knows that than him after being here for five years. He's got such vision and he's got the answers." - Mayor George Pradel</p> <p class="News">"He's going to do a great job. Part of what (former City Manager) Peter (Burchard) did is surrounded himself with good people. Having (Assistant City Manager) Bob Marshall there, Doug Krieger there, Don Carlsen (director of management services) there, they were all very qualified and Doug will do a great job. He's exactly what we need as city manager." - Councilman Darlene Senger</p> <p class="News">"I think he has natural skills in organizational management, motivating people, chain of command, plus if you're in a submarine under water for how-many-months at a time, you can't be a jerk and survive." - Councilman Robert Fieseler</p>