Expedition Reviews

Meeting the City Manager and Her Team pt. 1 - by Maggie Anderson

On Stuart Hall’s most recent expedition day on April 19th, the fourteen or so students took a trip to visit the city manager’s office in city hall – among other things. The students met with the City Manager, Leslie Beauregard, who held the position of Assistant City Manager from 2019 to 2022, as well as the Vice City Mayor, and a student intern. 

Beauregard explained that, as her duty, she runs the day to day operations in the city, thus most of what you see everyday is the product of her and her assistant’s work. “…you flush your toilet, you run your water, your trash gets picked up – we’re responsible for all of that.” 

The City Manager, Ms. Leslie M. Beauregard - who held the position of Assistand City Manager from 2019 to 2022 -,  works for the seven-member city council board: “I execute their policies and their plans… I make sure the city keeps going.” She gave a list of her responsibilities, including police, finance, community, and economic development. She supervises department heads, making sure that everything in the city is up to date and working as it should. “Every day’s a little bit different... we don’t sit behind our desks all day, we are literally out and about doing things – working on things,” as she put it. She explained that Staunton’s government is always at work to ensure the city is in tip-top condition.

Along with that, Beauregard discussed how down-to-earth the City Manager’s office is: “Our office gets a lot of phone calls from citizens…” She talked about how easy it is for citizens to call them, and how easy it was for them to talk to her and her assistants, elaborating on how great she thought it was to have such a friendly–neighborly office. 

It was clear that Ms. Beauregard cared about the city and its people. “Everyday you see the fruits of your labors, you see the improvements around you, you don’t see that when you work for the state or federal government," she commented. She said she loved small-scale government, and greatly preferred it over large-scale government such as a whole country or nation: “So I know it doesn’t sound that exciting, but when you’re in this chair it is really exciting.” Above all, Ms. Beauregard loves her job and probably won't be leaving anytime soon.

Meeting the City Manager and Her Team pt. 2 - by Ingrid Anderson

In regard to the Assistant City Manager, Amanda Kaufman, her work is to (of course) assist the city manager. As opposed to 

the City Manager, who has direct coordination with the City Council, the Assistant City Manager, though having some coordination, is separated from the City Council, mainly focusing on the day-to-day operations of the city and involvement with the departments. These departments will report to her and she will aid them in these aforementioned day-to-day operations, such as assisting with the budget, plans, and special projects. Then, the departments will ultimately report back to the City Manager. In other words, the Assistant City Manager is responsible for the everyday operations of Stuanton.

Amanda Kaufman described working as the Assistant City Manager to be “where the rubber meets road,” in being able to see just how a city can operate every day and understanding what gives it the ability to do so. She went on to describe how Staunton, a community of this size, allows one to “really see the thick of it” -- what the city team did and how a community of this size was so special in that understanding. Though having only worked as the Assistant City Manager for two months, she clearly has a wonderful place in it and has found some of the beauty of Staunton through it.

In regard to internship, interns are also given duties as part of this local government. The current intern, Ms. Summer, explained these. Some of her duties in the city manager’s office are to update the citizens' guide, which is a pamphlet detailing Staunton, aid with daily tasks, and occasionally do a little research with the city manager and assistant city manager. She discussed how interning in local government had given her a broad view of all the departments associated with local government: IT, tourism, community development, economic development, and management. Similar to the assistant city manager, she talked about how, looking at the local government as opposed to the national government, one can truly see how something functions and the departments involved on the local level, saying there are “many options that [she] feels like are endless”.