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Each year, I dedicate our November newsletter to sharing my gratitude and appreciation for local government and its special place in my life and the lives’ of our teammates. Hot off the presses, it’s the 2024 edition!
As I look back on all that has happened this year, I’m blown away by how much has been accomplished. From another full roster of conferences, to outreach work on 12 local ballot measures, to budget books and financial primers and five new brands for public agencies, the wheels of local government keep turning, and Tripepi Smith is working hard to help them turn with speed and efficiency.
The journey of Tripepi Smith to deliver positive impacts for our local government community is made possible by a team of rockstars. As I hear from our clients when at conferences, they love our team and recognize the quality of the people at Tripepi Smith. I agree! The first rockstar, however, will always be my brilliant wife and CFO, Nicole, who has helped me build Tripepi Smith from the ground up. I am thankful for her high level of patience with me, excellent counsel and willingness to accept my inability to clean up my office.
There have been instrumental conversations and pearls of wisdom shared by people with more experience than me that have propelled our growth to over 200 local government clients. There are a TON of people to thank for this, but at the risk of not covering them all, here are three that come to mind that I will be thankful for this Thanksgiving:
Wade Mckinney - Wade was the President of CCMF when the city manager community came under scrutiny, and he included me in a robust discussion with future city manager luminaries to address the profession’s concerns. He later brought me into Indian Wells to assist with their communication efforts. All the while he gave me solid advice and introduced me to a ton of great people.
Fran Mancia - The first large client we ever had was MuniServices (now Avenu). Fran Mancia hired us to help with marketing and representing the firm. I staffed the MuniServices booth at my first MMASC conference and the contract gave us the confidence to hire Jessica Balandran - employee number one!
Pat Martel - Pat was the city manager of Daly City when we first connected through multiple city manager circles. Her work and mine overlapped in several ways that ultimately gave me helpful alternative viewpoints on various challenges. She was our second Peninsula Division client after Millbrae (Thanks, Marcia Raines!). Pat broadened my perspective and made me a better executive as our firm grew, plus connected me into a more national platform through ICMA.
There are hundreds more to be thankful for - life is full, and I am blessed.
Gobble-Gobble,
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