Christopher Coleman begins his job as the new city manager in Milford in August, replacing the retiring Mark Whitfield, who will officially depart the position in a few weeks. Coleman has served in public administration for 30 years, a job he says he got into by accident.
“My objective in college was to become a CPA,” Coleman said. “I went to school for accounting and, after graduation, went back home to Massachusetts. I was looking for a job and bumped into someone who worked at town hall in the engineering department. They needed a summer intern to help walk the streets of the town for the new enhanced 911 program. I started there and continued going on interviews with accounting firms.”
While he was working in the engineering department, the city finance department reorganized due to retirements and, since they knew Coleman had an accounting background, they told him about the posting, and he applied.
“I had helped them out in the accounting department when it was raining,” Coleman said. “Once I started in the job, I found my calling in local government.”
Coleman decided to apply for the position in Milford after his father, who lived in Virginia Beach, had a health scare. He is the only child to one of his parents, although he has a half-sister with the other.
“I am someone who feels very strongly about family and supporting family,” Coleman said, noting that he also had family in Wildwood, New Jersey. “So, this medical situation with my father occurred, and it took me 10 hours to get to hi,m and I was very concerned about that. I realize I could be next door and not get there in time, but it got me thinking about things. I had a conversation with my wife, spoke to some consultants, and let them know if there were opportunities in certain areas, this is what I am looking for.”
Coleman did not jump at the first posting he saw, instead deciding to do some research. Many of the postings sent to him by recruiters he did not apply for, as he didn’t feel they were a good fit. However, Milford intrigued him to the point that he decided to drive down to visit.
“One thing about Milford, it really gives you a sense of community,” Coleman said. “One of the things I did was go into City Hall and spoke to a team member there, acting as if I was just looking to relocate. I wanted to see how the interaction was, and she was fabulous. She dropped what she was doing and was super helpful. I believe she is the assistant city clerk.”
After leaving City Hall, Coleman wanted to get a feel for the community as well.
“I’m a big fan of Wawa, and that is where we went,” Coleman said. “I asked people what they thought of the community, what the pluses were, what some of their concerns were, but every person I interacted with was friendly. Not to speak negatively, but sometimes people from New York or Boston are not overly friendly to strangers, but you don’t have that down there.”
This led Coleman to do additional research on the community and, after meeting with the council and the department heads, he called his wife and told her, “this is the place, I really hope they like me.” Coleman is not a stranger to challenges, having been in public service for 30 years.
“The biggest challenge is how communities change and how residents change within a community,” Coleman said. “You have to try to meet their expectations. I’ve lived in five different communities, and each one is different. Even though we are in Massachusetts, we deal with similar issues. They don’t want to be like certain communities, but they benchmark themselves against other communities.”
After COVID, Coleman feels some have higher expectations of government, and that more people distrust what the government does. He feels that transparency is critical in order to earn the trust of the community. Coleman also understands that in the age of social media, it is harder to get in front of negative information quickly enough. Where he is now, Coleman and his team try to be as transparent as possible, something he feels is important in Milford as well. After doing his research, Coleman is aware of the challenges facing Milford as well.
“I know there was a recent vote on a park with a five-to-three vote and comments from people who have opinions on certain things,” Coleman said. “I think just getting up to speed on new projects being discussed and voted on will be the biggest challenge. Most importantly, I want to spend some time with the team members, work with the City Council, and actually get involved in community activities and some events. I’m looking forward to getting to know people.”
In his spare time, Coleman likes to work out, but his biggest joy is spending time with family. He has a son who is 24, and he is looking forward to doing more with him.
“I have some very close friends from college, where we have a trip a year, where we go out and visit, but I really just like visiting family in Wildwood, and my father will come up from Virginia Beach,” Coleman said. “We just sit on the porch, have a good time, laughing and joking.”
Whitfield has agreed to stay on in a consultant capacity in order to help Coleman get up to speed on projects that are ongoing in the city.
