As seen in The Volante<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last May, residents of a small town in southern New Mexico hired on a USD graduate student to manage their city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andrew Finzen is the city manager of Elephant Butte, a city of less than 1,500 residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finzen described it as a \u201csupport town\u201d for nearby Elephant Butte Lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finzen, who\u2019s originally from Sioux City, earned his bachelor\u2019s degrees in political science and philosophy from USD in 2013 and his master\u2019s degree in public administration, with an emphasis on state and local government, in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While completeing his bachelor\u2019s degree, Finzen was the president of Phi Delta Theta and had completed a few internships prior to the completion of his master\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He began applying for permanent employment during the final semester of his master\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I was in the application process, I sent apps across the country,\u201d Finzen said, adding that his job search spanned from the east coast to the west coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the first responses to his application were city officials from Elephant Butte. When he became one of the finalists for the job of city manager, he was flown to the city for an in-person interview and was offered the job one week later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so, only two weeks after receiving his master\u2019s degree, Finzen moved to Elephant Butte and was sworn in as city manager May 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe city manager is the chief administrator of the city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Much of the day-to-day operations of the city are his responsibility, Finzen added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\u2019s is in charge of policy implementation, developing and implementing budgets, personnel management, project oversight \u201cand a whole lot in between,\u201d Finzen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though somewhat young to be in charge of a city, Finzen is actually older than the community of Elephant Butte itself, which was incorporated in the summer of 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Similar to the city of Sturgis, SD, Elephant Butte is a quiet and small community much of the year, but swells to contain more than 100,000 tourists on big vacation days like the Fourth of July, Finzen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Southern New Mexico is \u201cdefinitely different\u201d than Iowa or South Dakota, Finzen said, though it\u2019s similar in the ways in which its citizens value individual liberty and gun rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finzen said he\u2019s met USD graduates, in addition to many individuals from North Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota, in Elephant Butte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Finzen said being a city manager is \u201cnot as glamorous as it sounds,\u201d he did admit it\u2019s a \u201chigh profile position.\u201d Finzen said the sunny climate of southern New Mexico is \u201ca lot more manageable\u201d than the weather of his native region, with temperatures there presently ranging between the 40s and 70s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of Finzen\u2019s former instructors, Matthew Fairholm, described Finzen as a \u201cvery committed and hardworking\u201d student. Fairholm, a professor of public administration, said a number of USD graduates go on to become civic leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the whole goal \u2013 many of our students are now managing cities,\u201d Fairholm said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While many USD graduates become city managers in the Midwest, Fairholm said Finzen went further away than the typical USD grad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m impressed by him,\u201d Fairholm said, adding that because Elephant Butte is such a new community, \u201che gets to shape how the government is run.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As seen in The Volante Last May, residents of a small town in southern New Mexico hired on a USD […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[507],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pursuit-of-greatness"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n