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“Few things are more important during a change event than communication from leaders who can paint a clear and confidence-inspiring vision of the future,” said Sarah Clayton, an English industrialist in the 1700s. In Longmont, this quote describes Sandi Seader, assistant city manager, and explains why she was awarded the 2020 Assistant of the Year award.
Each year the Colorado City and County Management Association, or CCCMA, identifies city managers and assistant city managers for the work they have done in the previous year. Nominations are submitted by each city’s staff.
“To be awarded from a group of my peers, the assistant city manager of the year award is such a good feeling that those who do the same work that I do and understand the trials and tribulations, the scope, sometimes, the pressures, for them to recognize my work in that effort means a ton to me,” Seader said.
Typically the award is given to only one person, however, 2020 was an unusual year. This year the award was shared by Seader, Jenn Ooton, of Glenwood Springs — a former Longmont resident — and Travis Elliott, of Snowmass.
“I think in the year of COVID, they (CCCMA) saw so many amazing things happening in our profession across the state that is why they awarded a couple of them (awards), which I think is great. The more the merrier,” Seader said.
Seader joined the Public Works Department at the city of Longmont in 1998 as a management analyst. She moved to be the assistant to the city manager in 2003 until 2012 where she assumed her current position, according to a news release.
As assistant city manager Seader oversees 13 divisions under the shared services branch of t the city which includes human resources, information technology, fleet management, communications, city clerk’s office, flood recovery, finance, budget accounting, risk management, utility billing and sales tax.
This is the third disaster Seader has been assistant manager for, the other two were floods in 2013 and 2015. Also in her tenure, she has lead the team that worked to gaining the All-American Award for the city of Longmont in 2006 and 2019.
During the pandemic, Seader has made it a priority to increase communications with the public and city staff. She had specific concerns about staff being left behind as many took to working remotely.
Seader was part of a weekly conference with the staff to update them on the rapid changes and updates about the COVID-19 virus. She saw to it that the meeting was scheduled twice on those days to make sure everyone on staff had a chance to participate. Seader took it a step further and sent out notes from the meeting to all staff members.
“I think that was totally upping our communication game … to be able to have additional layered communication has been important for the staff and me because I want our employees to be the most knowledgeable about what is happening,” Seader said.
Seader knows that many residents come in contact with city staff from all departments and may not see all the city-wide communication. As such, it was important to her that the staff acutely inform the public. “The more that they are informed the better off the whole community is,” she said.
“I tried to lead by example and tried to make sure that people had clarity in their jobs even when everything else in the world was not clear so that they can get their work done,” Seader said.
In addition to increased communications, Seader took on more responsibilities as the city faced the challenge of incorporating the Longmont Housing Authority, or LHA, into a city department. Early in 2020, Harold Dominguez, Longmont city manager, was named executive director of the LHA after its previous executive director left for another job.
Dominguez had to learn how LHA operated and discover best practices to making the organization stronger and serve the community better.
“When you have COVID that you are dealing with and you are working with your fellow administrators and you are dealing with the Housing Authority and you are doing this, she picked up a ton of work,” Dominguez said. “In my mind, there is no one more deserving of this award than Sandi ... The quality of her work is so high that you don’t worry about it ... her caring attitude really keeps me grounded when I am working through things and talking through things.”
Seader also took an idea from Councilmember Joan Peck and created the Strongmont Token grant. She worked with the Longmont Area Chamber of Commerce and the TinkerMill to create wooden tokens that were given to low-income families. Each token was worth $25 to spend at a local restaurant.
“It helped the restauranteurs, it helped low-income families at a time when both of those groups were struggling,” Seader said.
“Imagine a person with the best qualities of the most effective leaders you know, then imagine the best qualities of your favorite people. Roll those qualities together and you get Sandi Seader,” said a number of her Longmont colleagues on the nomination form they filled out for the award, according to the news release.
“I know it is a little bit cliche but you hear ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff, but it is all small stuff,’ that’s right. In my mind being able to help the community during times of serious disaster, when people lose their homes or in this disaster where they have lost their jobs or their income … those are big deals so to be able to lead an organization to support the community through those kinds of things is the greatest honor that could ever have in my career,” Seader said.
