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Madis
EASTPOINTE — Following a search that began shortly after the former city manager left in March, Ryan Madis was sworn in as Eastpointe’s city manager during a ceremony Dec. 1.
The City Council selected Madis from four finalists. The council’s first pick, Brian Wood, declined the position, so an offer was extended to Madis, who accepted.
Through his contract, Madis is paid a yearly salary of $140,000. He also receives four weeks of paid time off and membership fees to a professional organization. If he moves to Eastpointe, he will also receive a $30,000 relocation incentive.
Madis grew up in Marysville, a town north of St. Clair and south of Port Huron. After he graduated high school, he attended St. Clair County Community College for a year before transferring to the University of Michigan, where he majored in history.
From there, he received a Masters of Public Administration at Western Michigan University before he moved up north, where he worked in higher education and nonprofits in Roscommon County. He mostly worked in student services, he said.
“So, I was the admissions guy, so I got to drive around a lot, which was really nice. I’d just visit communities basically from Saginaw to Sault Ste. Marie. It was fun,” he said.
While he liked the work, Madis said, he decided to get into government work.
“Anybody coming to campus was (with me), so, mostly fun things. But I realized, I liked it, but it wasn’t government enough for me,” he said. “So, I wanted to figure that out.”
Madis left his job and moved out-of-state to work on a presidential campaign.
“I realized federal government is not as much fun as local government, so that’s why I’m eager to get into local government,” he said.
Madis worked in Oscoda Township, doing community and economic development, before becoming the village manager in Ortonville, where he worked for more than three years. Then, he worked as Flint’s economic development program manager before coming to Eastpointe.
While still in the early days of his position in Eastpointe, he said the two jobs were “a little different.”
“In Flint, there was more getting buy-in from administration to move things forward. It was more processes,” he said. “And here I’m learning that processes exist, I’m just in a different seat at the table.”
He added that having an experienced City Council is helpful, as well as having an assistant city manager and other internal people to lean on.
Madis said having city staff with institutional knowledge has been helpful. He also thinks taking up the position during the holidays was good because it’s helped him to be able to get involved with community events.
“I came in at a good time, because there’s a lot of fun, like holiday things, and there’s stuff going on,” he said.
While the community events have been good, he said the city slowing down a bit in December has helped him to learn more about what’s happening in the city and its needs.
“I’ve been kind of treating these first couple weeks, like, teach me, tell me what’s going on, or talk me through the backstory, or what currently do you need? We can start to future forecast a little, but just getting up to speed on things,” he said. “I think after the first year, it’ll become more of a, like, ‘OK, now we’re starting to make a plan, let’s work that plan.”
Madis said his plans are to look at existing plans in the city that seem to be working and to grow them, while looking at other things that may be able to be improved.
“From the gardening aspect, there’s some weeding that has to happen always. There’s some stuff that has already taken root and it’s going really well, and there’s some stuff that is being planted. … It’s a good time to do some of that gardening,” he said.
