Herocrats Spotlight: Renee Tyler Infuses Inclusion into Community Service

Renee Tyler is currently the Director of Community Services for the City of Eau Claire, WI, and this spring she will be transitioning to a position as the Director of Administration for the City of Fulton, MO. We spoke with Renee about  her career in public service, and the importance of inclusivity at every level of decision making in government. 

How did you end up working in government?

“Prior to my work in government, I worked in the finance sector in New York City. For years I wanted to help people and see a result. The thing about the private sector often is that you don't see the impact of what you're doing. 

My undergraduate degree is in social welfare, and I have never officially used it, but I use it everyday in community services. My beginning in public service was influenced by living and working in the New York City metro area; seeing how one neighborhood can be beautiful, and not even two blocks down and a block over, and it's not beautiful anymore. These experiences got me learning about service, allocations and funding, and people that were advocating for these areas. When I started this journey, I didn't think I was going to be here. No, I was just looking for a way to be more proactive and to do something that would be a part of positive change.”

After getting into government, how have you become the leader you are today?

“For me, I think that the work has grown because my voice has grown. I have now been able to expand my work, by looking at the inclusion of equitable policies that encourage women and minorities. My career path has taken on a form that is different from many, because I try to use my voice, and I try to implement policies and procedures that are inclusive. This path has allowed me to gain more confidence in speaking my truth, but also hearing, listening, and trying to be a conduit for those who are not often heard or seen.” 

Renee Tyler and City of Eau Claire staff at the 2021 Public Works Appreciation Cookout

What challenges do you face in your day-to-day work?

“Part of the concern that I have with things that are happening today in government is that we tend to still want to be status quo, and we aren’t addressing the important issues. I'm a Black woman working in a white male-dominated area. That's a lot to take in for some people. When I speak truth to light, I'm trying to be as transparent as possible and, in certain areas, making people understand that some of what I'm speaking transcends race. I ask the question, how can we move forward? If I'm in an organization and I'm the minority, but the majority of the people in the organization don't treat one another with respect, how can I expect you to treat me with respect? 

I am not here to be the Black director, I'm not here to be the Black female director. I am here to be the director. And I try to channel those things that I've experienced into my work and my advocacy.”

Can you share an example of your lived experience influencing your work? 

“Transit is a passion of mine. I grew up in rural Arkansas, a very car dependent place, and I was blessed to have reliable transportation. But so many people in my community didn't have access to transportation. Then you factor in navigating life using a mobility device, or having a visual impairment. These factors don’t stop at race, they don't stop at gender. They are equal opportunity issues. So getting people to recognize and respect the need for everybody to have accessibility in community services, to me, that's big.”

How do we do this? What can we do to bring more accessibility?

“I'm a huge advocate of succession planning. In government, most organizations and succession plans target mid-level training for mid-level employees, with the intent to help them become city managers, county managers, and supervisors. I think that's great, but what I don't see enough of is intentional succession planning focused on frontline workers moving into supervisory roles and into management positions. 

I mentor some of my supervisors, and everybody is extended the invitation. Any opportunity that comes across my desk for training or whatever, if frontline staff wants to sign up for it I say, ‘I’ve got money for it, I have the budget, let's do it’. In my work, I am trying to show what inclusion really looks like. Something that becomes disheartening is having to explain to peers what I'm doing, and why I'm doing it.” 

How should we be doing things differently in local government to make meaningful change? 

“You don't get organizational change with comfort. Change is not comfortable. If change was comfortable, we wouldn't be dealing with what we're dealing with today! 

I'm of the mindset that when everybody is sitting at the table is shaking their head yes, and we haven't even discussed the issue, it's a failure. 

When you get people talking, expressing, and you have civil discourse, that’s when change can come about. I can't fix something if I don't know anything about it. I need the operators. I need the frontline workers in the room, I need the team that's outside fixing the sidewalks and planting trees, I need their input. How can I make policy decisions or choices that impact how you do your job, if I don't know how you do your job day to day? It seems like it should be common sense, but the hierarchy of work just isn’t working anymore.”

Renee Tyler at the 2021 National APWA Conference, where she was the recipient of the 2021 National APWA Community Involvement Award.

Herocrats Spotlight: Transportation Equity Planning Coordinator Abdullahi Abdulle

Abdullahi Abdulle is a Transportation Equity Planning Coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Abdullahi’s connection to his community has been an important thread through his equity work, and we spoke to Abdullahi about how his superpowers of connection and courage show up daily in his work in public service. 

How did you come to Transportation Equity Work? 

“When I was doing traditional transportation planning work, programming and design, I felt like there was something missing. I was concerned about who had access to these transportation services, and who didn't. Being a member of the community, and having the experience of trying to navigate the transportation system as an immigrant, made me want to advocate for a specialized role in public works focused on transportation equity. I remember how difficult it was, especially in the first couple of years that I was still new to the country, to get from point A to point B. My colleagues and I in transportation shared experiences of being from the communities that we were serving, and saw a need. All of these pieces led me to where I am today as the Transportation Equity Planning Coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Transportation.” 

What does it mean to you to be connected to your community? 

“I think about this story when I am thinking about my role in government:

I had a neighbor who shared with me that she was working two jobs so that she could pay rent, buy food, and save enough money to put two of her kids through college. I think about how working two shifts does not really leave a lot of time for my neighbor to comment on all of these different transportation plans and programs that government agencies ask people to comment on. There are many people in the community that cannot be there, even if they wanted to. When those community members can’t be there, their lived experiences are excluded from the decision making process. Our role in government is to mitigate that exclusion. One way to do that is by making sure that we have representation for people of different socioeconomic backgrounds and lived experiences. So that, some people with decision-making power at the table share some of those lived experiences, even when we cannot bring everyone to the table.

My lived and shared experience with the community is a source of foundational knowledge, and a reminder to fight for equitable outcomes for my fellow community members who often are not invited to the decision-making table. When I look around, I sometimes see spaces where I'm the only person that has my background. To me, my connection to the community is not only something that grounds me, but is also a constant reminder of what is at stake, and how loud I need to be in these spaces, because staying silent is not really an option.” 

Are there moments in your work where you have to lead with courage? 

“I feel like the moment is always requiring that I need to be more courageous and share with sincerity what my thoughts are. What that really means is for me to get comfortable with that discomfort, and being comfortable having conversations with people that do not agree with me and sometimes don't see the value of what I'm saying. It's not feasible for us to only talk about the weather; we have to talk about the substantial issues. Issues like transportation, housing, and equity that make people think, ‘what is my role here?’. It’s important to me that I try my best everyday to lead with both my heart and my mind so we can have those brave conversations. 

Sometimes leading with courage means that I say something that is very uncomfortable about institutions or systems that we like. We have something in our industry that we often call ‘proven practice’. It is an understanding that there are proven methods of practice for how we do our work. But ‘proven practice’ is only proven practice for the people that have many blind spots and gaps in their knowledge and grounding with communities, and to question that takes a lot of risk and requires a lot of courageous conversations.” 

What are some projects that you are most proud of in your work? 

“I'm really most proud of a project in Minneapolis that repurposed a highway into a car-free pedestrian and bicycle connection from this high density, mostly immigrant community to downtown Minneapolis. The community advocated for that project for so many years and they were able to get it. approved and also name it to honor one of the community's core members, Samatar Crossing. If we look, I'm hoping we find stories like that. Not necessarily what the actual outcome looks like, or even the car-free nature of it, but projects that show communities and their countless hours of advocacy led to something meaningful and concrete. I’m hoping that there will be more outcomes like this that we can celebrate soon.”

Herocrats Spotlight: Mobility Manager Danielle Elkins

Danielle Elkins is the Mobility Manager for the City of Minneapolis, where she reviews mobility and transit technologies that are hitting the market, and determines if they are a good fit for the City’s mission. In her work today, Danielle juggles the dissonance of ever-changing technologies with government policy change. 

“We have a public works department that was created 150 years ago. How do you adapt something that is 150 years old to things that are changing on a six month, one year cycle now?” 

“After ridehailing launched in 2010, companies started coming to the US Conference of Mayors and National League of Cities looking to preempt cities out of regulating them. In these rooms I saw how these tech companies were treating government officials, and I saw a lack of understanding of government and how it works. I was like, ‘something is wrong here’.”

“People hate change, and everything I've ever done in mobility policy is preparing for and reacting to changes, whether it's working on projects like a high speed rail program in California, or developing new mobility programs in Minneapolis. You're also fighting an internal perception that you are changing people's jobs, and a lot of people get uncomfortable. Meanwhile, the public sees the changing landscape that the market is pushing for, and can get really angry about who they think is bringing about that change, when most of the time the government is just responding to market forces.”

“So much of this anger is rooted in fear because this work is so complicated, and it is changing so quickly. Our ability to articulate these changes to the general public has been a struggle particularly because our strength in government is not storytelling or communications. Our job now is to try to find ways to explain these changes to the public. This is a modern challenge across government, that as things become more and more complex, our current systems are not set up to handle it.”

“We need to be okay with admitting that change is going to keep happening and that we will never know 100% of what is coming. If we know what our goals and our outcomes are going to be, and if we stay aligned on anything that comes our way, we can handle it.”

Government Employee and Elected Official: Meleesa Johnson’s perspective from two sides of public service

By Piper Wood

Meleesa Johnson is the Director of the Marathon County Solid Waste Department in Marathon County, Wisconsin. She also serves on the Stevens Point City Council representing the fifth district, and was elected the council president by her peers in 2017. Meleesa’s unique role as both an elected city official and government employee in Wisconsin gives her an opportunity to see and cooperate with both sides of state and city government. In her Herocrats interview, Meleesa outlined some of the lessons that she has gleaned from both sides of the public service coin, focusing on what government employees and elected officials can learn from each other. 

“There's this intermingling of my professional life and my political life, just because of what I do for a living. But I always have to predicate, ‘I'm speaking as, not as an elected official, I'm speaking here as, a professional working for Marathon County’ or conversely. So I have to be careful to walk that line very, very carefully, but there is so much overlap.”

Despite the challenges of delineating her roles, Johnson has found it helpful to be able see things from the other side.

“From a practical perspective, I find it very helpful in my policy-making because I know what it's like to be staff. Staff needs clear direction. And when policymakers can't make up their mind, or if there's conflict, it's staff that suffers.I know what it's like to be staff when there's no clear direction. As staff, I also understand the challenges of trying to create policy when there is not agreement among policy makers. It gives me insight into those worlds that helped me understand why things move along slowly.” 

Colleagues in both positions turn to Meleesa for advice, due to her ‘birds eye view’ of policy work from a dual perspective as a staff member and an elected official. 

“It's very, very beneficial because it gives me insight that I think is very helpful in both situations.” 

Meleesa has thought a lot about how elected officials and government employees could more effectively work together. Foundationally, she sees a need for greater knowledge of the processes behind government work, and the need to identify the why of staff positions.

“There is sometimes a lack of understanding of the public policy process, even at the local level or the state level or federal level. Well, what underpins your work? What underpins your work are policies that are set forward in ordinance or statute. As staff, you need to understand the policy basis of your work, particularly if you want to get into more leadership roles.”

On the flip side, Johnson sees a knowledge gap for elected officials as well. 

“While I was talking about staff needing to understand the public policy process, elected officials also need to understand the public policy process, and understand statutory authority.”

Specifically, Johnson sees City Council as a body with influence, so long as Council understands their role in making decisions and feels empowered to make a decision, without giving into electoral fears.

“Because as I've talked with them, they said, well, it's the mayor's budget, right? No, this is our biggest policy document. And it's our budget. It's not the mayor's budget. It is the council's budget.” 

Johnson’s role as both an elected city official and a government employee offers her insight into the integral part that these positions can play in furthering and implementing policy. With these roles in mind, Johnson works as a Herocrat in her community to build capacity and increase knowledge sharing between public servants in her community in Marathon County, Wisconsin. 

Have you ever worked in a position that gave you insight into two differing roles? What was this learning experience like?