Have you ever played SimCity? It’s a video game in which you manage a virtual municipality of your own creation. You can build roads. You can zone industrial districts. You can even raise taxes, which is fun when you’re the one doing it.
The greatest challenge to SimCity isn’t creating a clean, safe and beautiful city where residents are delighted to live and work. It’s resisting the urge to build a dozen nuclear power plants in the heart of downtown and then setting the annual budget for utilities to $5. More than one glowing craters named “Davetopia” are still saved on my hard drive.
Thank goodness the world provides responsible folks to manage real cities. Case in point: Rick Getschow, whom the great state of Wisconsin graciously provided to Eden Prairie.
“I was always drawn to government work, which drove me to earn my Master of Public Administration at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,” said Rick. “After interning under the city manager for West Allis, I was certain I’d found my calling. I was fortunate to become city manager of Hector, Minnesota in 1996. From there I continued on to Lauderdale, and then Hopkins, and then to Eden Prairie which I’ve had the honor of managing for almost 14 years.
“A city manager never lives the same day twice. On one day they might work on an economic development project. On the next, a community outreach program, or a park improvement project, or an initiative for the police and fire departments that could save lives. Better yet, a city manager gets to enjoy the fruits of their labor in real time. When they do their job right, the world around them grows a little bit better with each passing day.
"As chief executive of Eden Prairie, I have the privilege of working directly with all six city departments: Administration, Community Development, Fire, Parks and Recreation, Police, and Public Works. In a sense, I work shoulder to shoulder with more than 1,000 great people who make Eden Prairie the shining light of the Twin Cities metro.
“Our employees truly are the heart and soul of this city. Some perform services you might easily take for granted, although people would soon take notice if our town’s three liquor stores suddenly became unstaffed, or our community center’s ice rink suddenly became un-zambonied. Others have enthusiastically volunteered to do harder jobs than I could ever imagine doing myself, like the members of our utility services who move mountains to make this little patch of Midwest habitable.
“Many of our city employees epitomize the virtue of selflessness. I’m talking about the brave men and women of the Eden Prairie Police Department and Eden Prairie Fire Department, whose heroism truly is awe inspiring. When I say I work ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with these public servants, I’m really doing them a disservice. Whether they’re rescuing ducklings from a storm drain – or rescuing a baby from the second story of a blazing townhome – they’re shouldering far greater burdens than a city manager would ever dare.
“So I thank them: each and every one of them, from the bottom of my heart, for creating the Eden Prairie I envision as part of my job. And as you give thanks for all the good in your life this month, I hope you’ll extend some of them to the recreation staff, the snowplow drivers, the street maintenance workers, the engineers, the building inspectors, and everyone else we owe our fantastic city to. You’ll feel the same sense of gratitude I’m blessed to feel every day.”