DAVENPORT, Iowa — After nearly a year, Davenport has a full-time city administrator. The position has been filled on an interim basis since Corri Spiegel stepped down last November.
City Council approved the hiring of Doug Maxeiner, who has also served Moline and East Moline as city administrator.
It's been more than four years since a Davenport city administrator spoke to News 8. Maxeiner spoke to News 8 after the meeting where he was officially hired.
With more than 30 years working in government, six of those in the Quad Cities, Doug Maxeiner thought he was ready to retire last fall. But after stepping down as East Moline's city administrator, he found out he still had more gas in the tank.
"To be quite honest, I was kind of bored," Maxeiner said. "I was sitting there kind of doing this armchair quarterback thing, watching events happen in all of the communities in the Quad Cities, and thinking, 'Boy you know, I kind of miss that, I miss working with the people, the employees, elected officials, I miss working with the communities.'"
His selection for the position was announced last week. He's sat in on the last three City Council meetings.
"There’s been a little bit of an erosion of trust, and we’ve seen a little bit of that frustration at some of the City Council meetings," Maxeiner said.
His plan to build back that trust? A solid communications plan. That's so the right information can get to the right people while staying transparent. He said he wants to work with the city's new communication staff on trainings for other Davenport elected officials and staff.
"I would like to have a communications plan not only for the day to day operations but for crisis management, for crisis communications," Maxeiner said.
He knows the city has challenges, but he said Davenport has a lot of opportunities, too.
"I’d love to be able to focus on those and have some successes and win out of the gate here fairly quickly, and get some momentum going," Maxeiner said.
He said he's ready to get to work.
"I think we can make a difference, and I'm looking forward to working with the elected officials to make that difference," Maxeiner said.
Compared to his previous work at Moline and East Moline, Maxeiner said Davenport has a lot more employees. That means it also has more resources to address the challenges it faces and a talented staff to help out.
Maxeiner starts working on Oct. 28.