Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
When someone close to him was diagnosed with cancer, Vincent Roy, then superintendent of Needham’s Water, Sewer and Drains Division, put his master’s in public administration program at Clark University on hold.
Then he learned about the local government certificate program offered by Suffolk University in partnership with the MMA.
Today, Roy is the public works director for the town of Upton, a job he got after graduating from the Certificate in Local Government Leadership and Management program (www.mma.org/certificate). He’s also the proud holder of an MPA from Suffolk, where he continued his education after finishing the certificate program.
“I thought I had peaked being a superintendent,” he said. “I have over 30 years’ experience. You think you know it all, but there’s always room to grow. Because I worked my way up through the rank-and-file years ago, this certificate program helped make me a more well-rounded manager.”
The 25-week program, through which participants earn up to 12 graduate credit waivers at Suffolk, is one of seven certificate programs offered by the university’s Moakley Center for Public Management.
The idea to offer the certificate programs in conjunction with various partners was born 15 years ago. Sandy Matava, the Moakley Center’s current director, and professor Clarence Cooper were concerned about the next generation of public service managers. She and Cooper had begun their careers when there was abundant financial support for continuing education beyond a bachelor’s degree, and when tuitions were not nearly as high as today.
“Senior leadership was beginning to look toward the golf course and the beach, while the middle level had folks who had lots of work experience and were certainly motivated, but many didn’t have the opportunities that a couple of decades earlier were available to get advanced education,” Matava said. “We needed to put something on the table that’s different than training, which is a little more short-term and a little more focused on particular topics.”
The Moakley Center began with two certificate programs, for public health center workers and human service providers, offering participants the same graduate courses offered through Suffolk’s master’s program. The school partnered with the Massachusetts League of Health Centers and the Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers, respectively, which purchased spots in the program for its members as “community services” at a drastically lower cost than the regular tuition rate.
Targeting local government officials
About six years ago, Marshfield Town Administrator Rocco Longo and Moakley Center Associate Director Nicole Rivers began working on creating the certificate program specifically for local government officials. They secured a commitment from Norwell to host the program and recruited Richard Kelliher, who was finalizing his retirement from the Brookline town administrator post, to teach the course.
“Most people don’t grow up thinking we’re going to work in local government,” Longo said. “We don’t do a good job promoting our profession, and we don’t do a good job of promoting local government service.
“Growing up, I didn’t know what a town manager was or city manager was. By not doing a good job at that, many people then embark on other careers.”
After working in the private sector, Robin Stein moved into her current role as chief of staff to Methuen Mayor Stephen Zanni about two years ago and entered the certificate program.
“I’m an attorney by trade and made a transition into general government,” Stein said. “I was looking for a way to round out my experiences as a practitioner of municipal law to general government.”
The certificate program “was kind of perfect fit to do that,” she said. “This program provided me with some opportunity to get some very succinct academic training in a broad range of government areas.”
Foxborough Assistant Town Manager Mary Beth Bernard was the human resources director in Westwood when she entered the local government certificate program, which seemed like a “big commitment” at first, attending each Friday from September through May.
“I quickly realized the benefit I was going to get,” she said. “It was well worth the commitment.”
Learning to build a budget was helpful for someone coming from a human resources background, Bernard said. And a course on theories of management style and adapting to fit the type of community being served was an eye-opening lesson that “helps me every day.” Another benefit was meeting and connecting with colleagues from across the state.
“One of the most valuable things for me was gaining this network of friends and colleagues that I can call from so many communities, whether library directors or facilities people, police, someone from every department, and I can contact them and ask them a question,” she said. “We stay in touch and learn from each other all the time.”
Retaining talent, creating leaders
MMA Executive Director Geoff Beckwith was a guest speaker during the first prototype program in Norwell, and the MMA became the sponsoring partner through Suffolk’s Moakley Center.
Kelliher, who still teaches a leadership course as part of the curriculum, said the program not only helps each individual’s career, but helps municipalities retain talent by giving mid-career employees an opportunity to advance and expand their knowledge base.
“The folks who have worked traditionally in public works, public safety, public health, libraries, are often people who haven’t heard an explanation of what free cash is,” he said. “In terms of getting an in-depth understanding of what it’s all about, and 21st century budgeting and finance, both theory and practice, it’s a bit of a revelation for them.”
Vincent Roy pointed to the budgeting class in particular as something that provided value for him as a life-long public works employee.
“Putting together a budget, doing revenue forecasting and everything involved with that, that has absolutely helped me,” he said. “The whole idea of the MMA certificate program was it was all municipal stuff.”
Roy said he had “a lot of field experience,” but was lacking on the municipal operations side.
“That was a certainly a big plus that helped me prepare for the position I have now,” he said.