Eastside Heritage Center’s oral history collection contains almost 200 interviews. In the following excerpts from his oral history, L. Joe Miller, Bellevue’s city manager from 1961 through 1977, describes his management philosophy and style.

Miller: The old, class definition of the city manager is that he’s the chief administrator of the city and doesn’t mess with policy details unless asked to. I’ll confess at this stage, I always pushed that line.

I couldn’t stay out of trying to influence public policy. I think I did it carefully, and I didn’t do it surreptitiously. It worked out, but I was an aggressive city manager in that respect.

And the council, for the most part, liked it. Once in a while, we’d wrestle a bit. But we made things happen. I’ve always had the theory that people’s dissatisfaction with government isn’t because of the things they do; it’s because of things they don’t do….

I was always considered to be a rather entrepreneurial city manager. I liked it, and it worked. We were very proactive in our management. We would tend not to do one project at a time but a whole handful.

I had the best staff of people of any city, right down the line. There just wasn’t anybody who could compare with my department heads. Then, to reward them, I required them to work short-handed, but well-paid.

Heritage Corner is a feature in the Bellevue Reporter. Material is provided by the Eastside Heritage Center. For more information call 425-450-1049.