Members' 25-Year Reminiscences

S. Michael Thompson, AICP

Salisbury, Maryland

I was invited by the American Planning Association to comment on my career since I am an AICP who began his planning career prior to the merger of ASPO and AIP — in short, I am a planning geezer.

I lucked into planning at a time when environmental protection was in its infancy. Prior to knowing what planning was, I worked during summer vacations for a natural gas pipeline company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. My father was the Vice President of Engineering there and had represented his company with a consortium that was attempting to build a natural gas pipeline from Dead Horse, Alaska to Chicago — through Canada. The environmental impact statement associated with that project caused him to encourage me to head in the direction of what today we call "ecology." More interesting than that, for this discussion, is that the offices where I worked were in the Peoples Gas Building at 122 South Michigan Avenue — now the offices of the American Planning Association. I am certain that there is some kind of irony there, but I can't figure it out. What I am certain about is that the office location across the street from the Art Institute is wonderful — every planner should make a point of a visit.

With a B.A. majoring in physical and biological science, I tried to get a job in Chicago. My best offer was a full time position with Motorola testing picture tubes. My second best offer was with the Planning Section of Illinois Bell Telephone Company. The engineers there encouraged me to go back to school in planning.

I wiggled my way into a master's program at my alma mater with a one semester shot to do or die — I think the graduate school was unimpressed with my academic history. My Kansas State University colleagues in planning school couldn't figure out why I was there — no doubt some of the professors were similarly perplexed. Nevertheless, Vern Dines, the Department Chair, supported and guided me through the two year program leading to a Master of Regional and Community Planning in 1968. At the oral exam for my thesis, one of the examiners, the Chair of Architecture, noticed I had taken the course, "Racial and Cultural Minorities." His unbelievable question was, "If I get an applicant who is wearing an Afro hair style, do I have to hire him?" Where do you start with a question like that?

At graduation I had two job offers: the first with the Defense Intelligence Agency and the other with the Delaware State Planning Office. Being a secret organization, the DIA, couldn't tell me what I would be doing, where I would be working, or any other details of the assignment. I had just seen the film, Three Days of the Condor — which was about a guy with a job like I was offered who was chased around the word by assassins — and so I figured that Delaware had to be safer. And, since I had only intended to be on the East Coast long enough to start my career and find a permanent placement in the Midwest, how bad could it be?

The Delaware State Planning Office job lasted eleven years. I was a circuit rider helping municipalities and counties with "701" plans and I helped draft the first Delaware Coastal Zone Plan. The office was part of the Governor's Office and so was an exciting place to be — what with some brilliant colleagues, cutting-edge work, and acknowledgement of the office's contribution to the State. However, when you push the envelope there are those who don't like it. In a southern county, one of my jobs was to conduct a housing study for the government. In my research, I found that the main housing problem was racial discrimination — African-Americans could not buy quality houses because they could not buy houses in white areas. The chair of the planning commission agreed with the report, then told me to gather up all the studies, destroy them and then gave me the admonition, "If you ever come back to our county with a report like that, you won't be leaving." It's all different now.

With one of the changes in state administration came a planning director who relegated planning to a support function by changing the office name to Office of Management, Budget and Planning. For several years, an aggressive planning staff fought for survival with a director who, some thought, abused his position. Several of his staff began collecting evidence of his activities and turned them over to the local inquiring reporter. Naturally, when the story came out there was a witch hunt, but unless the director was to fire everyone he couldn't do much about it. Because of his personal behavior, the planning director got a public reprimand from the Governor and incongruously a promotion to a higher level position (the Governor was a cousin). From his new vantage point, although he couldn't fire everyone, he was able to eventually have his old office abolished and the staff scattered throughout State government — he even got on a bulldozer and pushed the Planning Office building into a heap. Delaware went the next 20 years without a state planning function.

I could see the writing on the wall and moved my career to the Kent County Planning Office under the leadership of Robert W. O'Brien. O'Brien was to become the county's first county administrator and I was tapped to be the county's first community development director. By that time, I could see that planning in Delaware was a dead-end street and, because I had a large family that was committed to residing in Delaware, I began a Master's in Business Administration program so I could change careers to something other than planning. It was great timing because my career moved away from being a technician to a manager while I was taking courses in management.

With every new course, I experimented with my program and we eventually dominated our C.D.B.G. arena. O'Brien could see opportunity and asked for my help in other county organization projects. I would move into an agency, and through organizational development, would train the staff and develop procedures that made the function more efficient and effective. At various times during my eleven years with Kent County I was also Planning Director, Personnel Director, Chief Building Official, and Acting County Administrator. Then the party changed in Kent County and I felt gentle pressure to move on.

In 1991, the Great State of Delaware initiated an early retirement option, which had the effect of clearing out all the top managers in state government and the school districts. I accepted a position as a school business administrator in a rural school district. Again the planning and management education kicked in and before I knew it, I was in charge of school finance, human resources, building and grounds, food service, transportation, even the swimming program, as well as the supervisor of all secretaries and paraprofessionals. Since I came from a non-educator background, I advanced my education through another after-hours program — this time a doctorate in Educational Leadership. Damn those elections. After seven years at the school, a group came in with the express purpose of "sweeping clean," which they did. Again to escape the ax, I took a position with a computer consulting firm that was redesigning the Delaware Financial Management System around a People Soft product.

At this time my personal life became unstable with deaths of good friends and my father, and I chose to put career aside to focus on family. I took a job with a local realtor, which afforded me time flexibility. I sold property and took care of my home responsibilities. While it was lucrative (I made four times the money I ever made in government), making money is not the most important thing to me. So, I went back to employment in the State of Delaware. However, at this point in my career I decided that it was time for a change in my work ethic — I decided to find a boss worthy of what I had to offer. I quickly moved from a social services agency where I was in charge of financial management to an air quality management agency, where I was in charge of a planning group trying to improve the air shed stretching from Delaware to Maine. I had been ruined by having real management responsibilities in organizations that were in front of change; moving papers from one box to the next was too tedious now.

With family and friends dead, kids gone to college and a modest retirement earned, I felt released from my obligations. I had an opportunity to figure out how I could spend the rest of my career doing what I enjoyed most. I had really liked my experience in local government, but I also knew that I was a better inside person than an outside person — put another way, I was a very successful number two person supporting a worthy boss. So, I looked around and found just such a position in Maryland, 50 miles from my home, as the Deputy County Administrative Director for Wicomico County. The move kept me in the vicinity of my children, gave me a new mission in life helping to solve difficult problems that are complex and cut across the sum and substance of my education and professional experience and, when combined with my meager retirement income, is financially remunerating.

I have been here two years and I expect to continue in county administration seven more years until full retirement. Of course, if you want to make God laugh, show him/her your plan. Elections have a way of disrupting employment where you serve "at the pleasure" of an elected official. Nevertheless, the training and experience I had as a planning practitioner has provided the foundation to a very interesting and fulfilling career — as I trust it will continue to do as long as I feel I can make a contribution.

A few adages capture the whole experience. Love many, trust few, always paddle your own canoe. The lead dog has the best view. Never think you work for … (the county, the state, the consultant); you work for yourself. And, "Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience." — Adam Smith