Lodi’s city manager talks about running a city amid COVID-19 pandemic

In the June issue of our Life & Leisure magazine, the Lodi News-Sentinel spoke with local leaders about their efforts to “flatten the curve” in the first months of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Lodi City Manager Steve Schwabauer shared a look into some of the work of running the city amid the crisis.

Q:

What is your background?

A:

I grew up in Ventura, the fourth child of of a helicopter mechanic father and retail clerk mother. My dad worked on the helicopters that serviced the oil rigs off the coast of Ventura and on the fire and sheriff helicopters for the county, and my mom worked in the bakery at Von’s.

My dad suffered a lot of chemical and physical injuries in his career. It gave me a heightened sense of justice and I got it in my head to go to law school at a fairly young age.

I have a bachelor’s degree in U.S. history from UC Davis where I met my wife Charla Kuykendall. Charla grew up in Lodi where her parents worked at General Mills and Lodi High School.

I have my law degree from UC Berkeley. After graduation I asked Charla to consider coming back to Lodi, (which) I fell in love with on visits with her parents. I started working at a major firm in Stockton representing a combination of large corporate and government entities. I quickly found that the government work was much more personally rewarding since it felt I was doing real good for people.

So when the deputy city attorney position in Lodi opened it seemed like a perfect fit for me. It was four blocks from home, doing public work. How could I pass it up?

Q:

What led you to your current position? Has it been what you expected?

A:

I served as a deputy city attorney for four years before taking on the city attorney role in 2004. I inherited a significant piece of environmental litigation that had not been going well, and immediately set about extracting the city from the case. I will probably never have a prouder outcome in my career than knowing that Lodi’s water is clean and safe today for all the work we did to resolve that case. I think that was the first moment I saw the value of the management side of municipal work.

But I still had no idea I would ever move into this role. It’s pretty unusual for a city attorney to move into the

manager’s chair. But my experience during the great recession prepared me a lot for understanding the needs of our employees and the city, so it didn’t seem as unusual when I was asked to consider it.

Yes, I think my experience giving counsel to three different city managers have me a pretty good idea what to expect. But nothing really prepared you for how difficult it is to have to chose between competing harms. Almost everything we do has competing harms and benefits, and it’s challenging to navigate between them sometimes.

Q:

What is it like being in a leadership role during a pandemic?

A:

It’s certainly a challenge. We hear every day from people that think we are ... at the same time ... doing too much, or not enough. And all those people have real-world challenges that drive their positions. For some it’s because they are vulnerable to the virus. For others it’s because they are vulnerable to the economic impacts of the virus response. So we are working hard to balance the interests.

But it would be the height of arrogance to say I have it at all hard. First, we don’t issue the orders. The city’s job is just to enforce those orders the state and county issue. Moreover, most of us are deemed essential so we are still working and getting

paid. But it is tough to figure out our budget next year. It will not be easy and real people will lose income and important services.

Q:

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced over the past couple months?

A:

Balancing all the competing hard choices ...

Q:

Have you found ways to relax and get away from the news when you’re not working?

A:

My daughters are both back from college, and my wife is teaching high school from home as well. So we’ve begun using the lessons from PUMP Institute to get a halfhour workout at lunch most every day. (Thanks to Monty and Laurie Merrill for all they invested in training us over the years!) Just getting my blood going a little every day goes a long way to keep me calm, and it’s fun to share it with my family.

Q:

What do you see happening in the future of this pandemic? Do you have advice for our readers going forward?

A:

... I’d encourage people to follow the guidance on opening within guidelines to ensure the governor does not end up feeling a need to tighten them back down. And by all means to reach out to the City if there is anything we can do to assist you as you start moving forward!