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DAVID FIERKE, CITY MANAGER
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David has over 25 years of municipal management experience with his last 13 years as Manager for the City of Fort Dodge. In his current position he is responsible for the daily operations a municipal corporation employing approximately 185 people full time in 13 departments with a total annual operations budget of approximately $30 Million. As the City Manager, he is appointed by the City Council, and is responsible for carrying out their policy direction. His key role is to implement the City Council's strategic plan while cutting operational costs and improving service delivery using Lean tools and principles. |
Before Fort Dodge, he was the Manager of Richton Park, Illinois, and Savoy Illinois. Before Savoy, he was a Program Specialist of a suburban Chicago Council of Governments, and held several intern positions.
David earned a BA in Political Science, and an MA in Public Administration from Western Illinois University.
AWARDS:
2016 Iowa Lean Consortium Lean Champion
The Iowa Lean Consortium was proud to name David Fierke, City Manager for the City of Fort Dodge, as the 2016 Iowa Lean Champion. The award was created to honor a leader who has made significant contributions to Lean practices and/or led a Lean journey for 10 or more years. The award was presented at the ILC’s annual fall conference on October 12th, 2016.
“David has been a strong Lean leader in government. His belief in the transformative power of Lean is evident through his actions and we are pleased to honor his work and achievements,” Jeff Dahm, ILC board president and factory advisor at Deere & Company.
As the City Manager, David Fierke inherited a tough situation when he arrived in 2006. Like other Midwestern “blue collar” towns, Fort Dodge had endured the loss of major employers resulting in a declining population, downtown vacancies and aging infrastructure. Tax and fee receipts were not matching expenses with projections showing the gap widening. But David had a vision and a strategy for realizing that vision. He had done his homework on Lean, realizing that it was not simply a toolset but rather a means for transforming culture. And he understood that it started with him.
David is a member of the Fort Dodge Rotary. He is also the Past President of the Iowa City/County Management Association.
In January, 2016 BusinessWire recognized Fort Dodge as one of the 15 semi-finalists in their America’s Best Communities $10M Competition.
The results are also evident in the top level metrics tracked as part of the Fort Dodge 2010 strategic plan which contained seven top level goals to be realized by 2015:
• Reduce the crime rate by 8% (FBI Category 1 UCR); Actual reduction 11%
• Increase sewer revenue by 20%; Actual increase 56%
• Increase water revenue by 20%; Actual increase 90%
• Increase hotel/motel tax by 20%; Actual increase 51%
• Increase average wage by 15%; Actual increase 20%
• Increase property tax base by 10%; Actual increase 11%
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