Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher has new perspective since his last stint in the office

Phoenix’s new city manager started on the job in the middle of last month, but he’s not unfamiliar with the position.

Ed Zuercher is back for his second stint as city manager; he previously served in the role from 2013-2021. After leaving the city, he went to work for the Maricopa Association of Governments, or MAG, as its Executive Director.

His return to city government has been somewhat controversial, with some critics worrying about a lack of transparency in the hiring process.

Zuercher has said he wasn’t necessarily looking to come back to be city manager again, but that he was interested when approached about the possibility. Zuercher spoke on the show about what interested him about coming back and doing this job again.

Full conversation

ED ZUERCHER: It's the people at the city, it's the work we get to do. It's really those two things.

I retired in 2021, but I did not leave the city of Phoenix. I was still a resident and a customer doing other work. So I continue to experience life in the city of Phoenix, and I really love Phoenix.

But the work that gets done at local government and the work that gets done at Phoenix is just so critical to people's everyday lives. And think about water and sewer and airports and streets and police and fire service and just on and on. It's really important work and it's very interesting work that we do. And then I know the people who work here and I know they're, they do good work, they're quality, they're committed. And so the idea of coming back to work with the people that I know and getting to know some new people on issues that are really interesting was very intriguing.

MARK BRODIE: Did being a resident, sort of a civilian resident not working with the city, did that give you a different perspective that you're bringing with you to your second stint in this office?

ZUERCHER: Definitely did. You know, I took loads of trash to the dump and was a customer there and had to figure out setting up my water bill — and just all those things that you do as a resident that when you don't have the authority of being the city manager, you experience differently.

And so I saw the many, many good things that we do and I saw the places where we could improve from just being one of the folks. And I find that sort of thing really interesting.

BRODIE: Did you feel like you had unfinished business when you retired from the city?

ZUERCHER: No, I really didn't. I felt good when I left the city in 2021. The team that was here — Jeff Barton, very talented and has done a great job in the last four years. So I didn't really look backwards at all, but as I've refreshed and retooled and refueled myself here in the last four years, I've gotten back to just really enjoying the kinds of work that get done at Phoenix. And so the opportunity to come back to that work was something that I couldn't pass up.

BRODIE: So I have to ask you about the process by which you did come back because it has drawn some criticism from some members of the council, some in the public that the job wasn't really posted. Your selection was approved but just by a one vote majority. No public search, no real interviews. A lot of folks in the public say they didn't have a chance to give input on this. I'm curious what you make of that criticism and of the process that led you back to this job.

ZUERCHER: Yeah, I understand the, the critique of that, but I think it's important to know the city council hires two people. They hire the chief presiding judge of the municipal court, and they hire the city manager. And really the city manager is the one that they work with every day, every hour.

So that is their one position to hire, and they need to be very careful with how they do that. And it has to match what it is they're they're looking for. So there's no set process in the charter. It's just they have the authority to do it.

The process by which I was hired is almost exactly the same process that they used four years ago to hire Jeff Barton. So it's the purview of the council, it's the how the council desires to act. And I was happy to be a candidate for that in their mind and to meet their standard.

BRODIE: Do you think it would have been better, though, had there been a little more openness, a little more public input and transparency in this process, understanding that they are able to do it the way that they did?

ZUERCHER: I mean, that's really a question that the mayor and the council will have to answer. I think they felt that I had the skills, the talents, the background that they needed to meet the moment. And so I was happy to present myself and be the candidate for that.

BRODIE: What are the things that you think are most important for you and for the council in the city to be tackling right now?

ZUERCHER: I mean, it's the kind of things you cover on your show every day, Mark. Right? It's, it's water, it's heat, it's housing, it's affordability, it's energy, transportation, police-community relations — all those things that, that are important to residents in their day-to-day life.

And all those things are what have to be tackled. There is no sort of one thing. It's a whole bunch of things that the city is working on and that are top of mind for our residents.

BRODIE: I'm wondering if your time, sort of in between being city manager — of course, you were with MAG, the Maricopa association of Governments. Did that change your perspective on sort of Phoenix being within this region? I mean, obviously Phoenix is the biggest city, but there are other big cities in the Valley here. Did your experience with MAG help you maybe gain a different perspective on regionalism in this part of the state?

ZUERCHER: Absolutely. The ability to go to visit every one of the other cities, counties and towns in our region — there's 32 of them, Native nations as well. I got to visit every one of them. I got to know their chief elected officer, in many cases their council. I got to speak at many council meetings, see what's going on at the ground level in all those other cities.

It was very encouraging. There's a lot of really good stuff going on in other cities. And. And when you're the city manager of Phoenix or Glendale or El Mirage, you just don't have the time to go and understand what's going on with your peers. I actually had that luxury to do that, and that was part of my job. So I got to see the great work going on in the other cities as well.

But I also got a sense of just sort of what makes Phoenix distinct as the central city. It's where, as the center of commerce, as the downtown of the region, the place where issues like homelessness and human services provision really concentrate and the impact of that on the central city that is distinctively different from the other cities as well.

So just having a better perspective on how we're the same and how we're different, I think gives me a broader perspective and a deeper appreciation for the the things that are going on in the region and how Phoenix is a leader in that, but also how we're a partner in that as well.

BRODIE: How might that impact how you do your job? When you're talking about issues like water, like housing, like affordability — which of course are not just Phoenix issues but regional issues as well?

ZUERCHER: No, you captured it, Mark. The big issues that we face are really regional issues. Air quality doesn't worry about city boundaries. Homelessness does not stop at a city boundary. So having those relationship in the region, I know the city managers and I know the mayors. Those relationships, as we have to grapple with problems on a regional level, I think will serve me, the city, and all of us as well.