Results tagged “Maria Dadian” from Press Corps

Heading a city with just a little over 16,000 residents and a meager budget, Artesia City Manager Maria Dadian is used to doing more with less.

Dadian, who's been at the helm for nine years, chats with PublicCEO.com reporter Debbie Sklar about how her city isn't different from larger cities.

"Large cities operate with the impression that smaller populated cities that may contract services (police, fire, etc.) are not subject to the same fiscal challenges to serve their communities," Dadian said. "Smaller communities have a difficult time rallying to achieve all what is necessary to ensure that the public (residents and business) in the jurisdiction is served.  Funding and advocacy is lost or limited to small jurisdictions because it is the numbers (population) that gets the attention."

Dadian also said Artesia relies primarily on its investments and conservative budgeting and not on funding from the state.

"We have always struggled to make it financially as a city. We budget and operate conservatively," she explains. "We have never relied on the funds of the State, we have scrimped and saved. Then, through the State's irresponsible manner of managing money we become their 'loan institution?' As the front line to our residents how do we serve them?"

She adds that it's challenging to "simply hold on to the dollars that we have generated through investments in improving our infrastructure and working with those who select to do business and reside in our city."

Read more about the interview here.