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Zack Daniel is looking forward to his new role as assistant city manager, especially with growth and change on Eudora’s doorstep.
Although Daniel will be new to Eudora, he said his familiarity with surrounding areas makes him more prepared for the role. He is now the assistant city manager in Edwardsville, a town of about 4,700 people about 20 miles from Eudora.
Daniel was also friendly with former City Manager Barack Matite, which helps with his existing knowledge, he said.
After Matite’s departure earlier this year, Daniel started looking into Eudora and realized how increasingly appealing the prospect of joining the team looked. The commission made a good choice by selecting Kevyn Gerofor city manager, further maintaining internal consistency with so much change coming to the area, he said.
“It’s got a lot of opportunity out there and then more than that, you know, in my interactions with the staff and from the community, Eudora is aware of its kind of strategic positioning in the region, and wants to leverage all this growth in a proactive way to where they’re not kind of losing that essential piece that makes them Eudora,” he said.
His interactions with the city staff have been a major appeal, too, he said. The staff all seem to be on the same wavelength with all the departments in support of each other.
“It’s just a really good solid group that are motivated by the right things and really seem supportive of each other,” he said.
Gero said in a statement to the Times that his extensive experience in local government will be an asset to the city, and they are confident that his passion for public service aligns with Eudora’s goals.
“With his remarkable track record, including his role in managing an $8 million budget for the city of Edwardsville, Zack brings a strong financial experience that will aid in Eudora’s continued growth and sustainability,” Gero said in her statement.
Daniel has been involved with multiple local Kansas governments since 2010 and grew up in Derby, Kansas.
He has been assistant city manager of Edwardsville, a city in southwest Wyandotte County,for the last eightyears. He served as finance director with a focus on developing and presenting the budget. He hopes his expertise with budget planning will be helpful to Eudora as well.
As assistant city manager, Daniel focused a lot of his time on developing and expanding parks and rec services, he said. He is focused on community outreach and civic pride.
“That is really, outside of the roads that people are driving on, the parks and the trails are the pieces of public infrastructure that have the most amount of public involvement,” he said.
Edwardsville has a significant youth sports scene, but Daniel was able to help diversify the programming within the park system to help bring in more people to the area instead of having to travel further to the metro, he said. Even though the area is limited in space, the city has been able to implement new features like the disc golf course to follow the trail system.
The city now has a futsal court, disc golf course and basketball courts. Daniel has also worked to secure funding to improve trail systems within highly populated parts of town to connect with the park.
Daniel’s experience relates to Eudora’s desire to implement new youth sports and activities through the STAR bond district.
Daniel also worked on a project to start an adopt-a-planter project for the nearby cemetery to help the area look nicer and promote a sense of community. He also helped produce a biweekly newsletter to let community members know what is going on within town.
“It’s been a really big priority of mine to be present and active in these different areas and bodies that help community – groups that meet and discuss community needs and projects and things like that,” he said.
He was a board member on the city’s Chamber of Commerce, various school oversight councils and met with economic development and regional councils to be a present, visible part of the city.
Prior to Edwardsville, Daniel was a management fellow for the city of Wichita for two years after receiving his master’s degree in public administration from Wichita State University.
Daniel got his undergrad at Emporia State University while working as a city manager intern for the city of Emporia.
He is most looking forward to getting to know the community and figuring out what the priorities for the city are.
“Getting to know the direction that these different stakeholders want to head in and seeing how I’m gonna fit into that landscape,” he said. “It’s just a lot of exciting prospects on the horizon in a number of different capacities that I’m excited to jump into.”
He begins his role in Eudora on Sept. 6.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected].
