About Dave

Dave has extensive local government management and consulting experience. Before founding Public Management Partners, he served as the director of public works for the City of Appleton, Wisconsin, and held a similar position in Oak Park, Michigan. Previously, he spent more than eight years as an engineering and management consultant working with more than 40 local government clients throughout the Midwest. Dave served as the public works and utilities specialist for The Novak Consulting Group since its inception.

As a sub-consultant for a national management consulting firm, Dave analyzed the potential for further integration of the combined Public Works Departments of the City of Louisville and Jefferson County, Kentucky. He provided similar expertise for studies in the cities of Topeka, Kansas; Manchester, Connecticut; and Fort Collins and Boulder, Colorado. He has considerable experience in organizational design, the development of processes designed to achieve established goals, and identification and development of alternatives to policies, procedures, equipment, or technologies. Dave also specializes in regional utility feasibility analysis, revenue development systems, utility rate studies, ordinance development, GIS development, and general management services.

In 2004, Dave accepted the part-time staff position as manager of the Central Brown County Water Authority, the only Joint Local Water Authority in Wisconsin. It consists of six Green Bay area communities that banded together to replace their municipal well systems with a Lake Michigan based water source. He successfully guided the Authority through a regional effort to bid and purchase advanced water meter infrastructure. Through collaboration, six participating communities were able to bid over 65,000 water meters and share physical infrastructure, software, and data hosting services resulting in a life-cycle cost savings of approximately $6 million.

Notable projects for public works and utilities include operational and organizational reviews and evaluations for the cities of Allentown, Reading, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as part of their financial recovery efforts. He performed organizational evaluations for Public Works Departments in Delaware, Dublin and Solon, Ohio, and Fredericksburg, Virginia. He also worked with the Shawnee, Kansas, Public Works Department to establish operational priorities and reallocate diminishing budget funds. More recently, he completed evaluations for the Town of Munster and the City of Bloomington, Indiana, and the City of Holland, Michigan, Public Works Departments.