Evanston city manager Wally Bobkiewicz was sworn in Wednesday as midwest regional vice president of the International City/County Management Association.

The association aims to advance local professional government management globally through “leadership, management, innovation and ethics,” the organization said in a Tuesday news release.

Bobkiewicz was elected to a three-year term on June 23, according to the release. He said in the release that people need to alter their view of local government, and as an ICMA midwest regional vice president, he hopes to implement that change.

“This is a critical time for local government,” Bobkiewicz said in the release. “The jobs that we do are getting tougher and tougher, and too few people, particularly young people, look at local government and see themselves or understand what it is that we do.”

Bobkiewicz told The Daily he thinks there is a misconception of the role of professional staff in local government and the importance of a trained local government manager.

One of the misconceptions includes who performs day-to-day operations. Bobkiewicz said many people believe that job rests on the elected City Council and mayor.

“As we know, here in Evanston,” Bobkiewicz said, “the council provides policy leadership, but it’s the professional staff hired to run the city every day.”

As one of 18 vice presidents — three of whom are also from the Midwest — Bobkiewicz will represent the organization to state associations of local government management, and will maintain the group’s relationships with similar organizations, the release said.

Bobkiewicz said his new role will be more broadly focused than when he served on specific committees, and he will look at issues that affect the organization internationally. The organization comprises about 11,000 members from local governments across the U.S. as well as 32 other countries. Educators and students are also members.

“You’re looking at the business of the association,” Bobkiewicz said. “There’s as much of a governance piece to it now as there is a programmatic one.”

Bobkiewicz has been a member of the association since 1985 and has served on a number of the organization’s task forces, committees and advisory boards. In 2014, he was awarded the ICMA Service Award in recognition of his 25 years of service to local government. He spent 15 of those years as a city manager, eight of which were as Evanston’s.

Bobkiewicz said it felt like the logical next step for his involvement to put his name forward as a candidate for the regional vice president position. He said because the midwest states rotate eligibility every eight years, he is the first candidate from Illinois in several years.

“We are honored that Wally will join the ICMA Executive Board as Midwest Vice President,” ICMA executive director Marc Ott said in the release. “The individuals who serve on the ICMA Executive Board are outstanding leaders, not only in their own communities but also in the field of professional local government management.”

One of Bobkiewicz’s goals going forward is to encourage a more diverse group of people to enter local government, he said.

“There are not enough women, not enough people of color who are choosing this as their profession,” he said. “Since we are in the business of democracy, I think it’s difficult to manage that in an equitable and fair way if the people making the decisions on a staff level don’t share the same life experiences as the people they serve.”

Rishika Dugyala contributed reporting.

This story was updated at 11:55 p.m. on Friday with comments from Bobkiewicz.

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