A note from Dennis Papenmeier

To all,

Many of you may have already heard, but starting at the beginning of the new year, I have accepted a new position within Mayor Ballard’s administration. I was asked to move to DPW and serve as the Executive Assistant to the Director. I will be serving primarily as the liaison to City-County Council, but will also be assisting Director Sherman with various policy issues and other special projects that may arise.

Let me assure each of you that it has been a privilege working with all of you over the past year and a half. As many of you know, I served in a very similar position under Mayor Goldsmith, so community service and working with vested neighborhood leaders are passions of mine. I believe these passions and experiences are reasons I was asked to serve in DPW and take a spirit of neighborhoods there.

One of the prerequisites I had for making the move to DPW was to make sure that I could continue to work in your areas until a replacement is found. I will bring that person to one of your upcoming meetings and introduce you to him or her. I will not let the transition be anything less than as smooth as possible. Even beyond that, I will never be more than a phone call away from the person that replaces me, anytime they might seek my thoughts on how to assist any of you.

So, this is not good-bye at all. Rather, it is the opportunity for me to ensure that “neighborhoods” become a bit more considered in how DPW plans projects and conducts business.

In the conversations that I have already had with some of you, you have told me that I was successful in one of the things I set out to accomplish. Many of you know that there is someone on the other end of the line that cares and that is willing to take the time to explain “City Hall” to any and all of you who wanted to find out how to make things happen for yourselves. City government is as local as government gets, so we ought to be fundamentally responsive to you all. I have tried to do that and, I hope, I have been at least somewhat successful in that effort. I hope that, in my new role, I will be able to continue to do that, as well.

I hope all of you have a great start to 2010…!