The City of Englewood has announced that Tim Dodd will serve as the new assistant to the city manager.

Dodd will be responsible for leading and monitoring the execution of the Englewood Strategic Plan, a document that guides Englewood City Council's prioritization of funding for the city budget and five year capital improvement plan, and will play a role in addressing homelessness through the Tri-Cities Homelessness Policy Team, a team of public officials working to address homelessness in Sheridan, Littleton and Englewood.

Dodd recently worked as chief performance officer for Santa Monica, California and performance manager for the City of Baltimore, where he developed the city's first performance evaluation system for managers and an organizational development and training program.

He has a doctorate in law and policy from Northeastern University, a master's in history from Providence College and a bachelor's in history and political science from American University.

Dodd talked to the Englewood Herald about his new job, his passion for local government and more. Here is what he had to say.

Why did you want to relocate to Englewood and take this job?

My interest in moving to Colorado started 10 years ago when I first visited the state. The high quality of life, as well as personal interests such as skiing and hiking, are the main reasons why I enjoyed visiting and why I became interested in moving here.

While looking at professional growth opportunities, I looked primarily in Colorado and was incredibly excited to find an opening for the newly created position of assistant to the city manager in Englewood. The position allows me to continue to use my expertise in strategic planning and project management while also playing a role in providing assistance to all departments in delivering core services to the Englewood community. I appreciate the city's location, its interesting history, and unique assets such as Pirates Cove Water Park.

Describe what your role will be in the Tri-Cities Homelessness Policy Team.

While working as the chief performance officer for the city of Santa Monica, California, I played a role in developing the city's Homelessness Plan of Action and creating a process to monitor our work in alleviating the challenges caused by homelessness.

In Englewood, I will help to coordinate our efforts, participate on the Tri-Cities Homelessness Policy Team meetings and work with city departments on this issue. Working as a team, we hope to better understand the root causes of homeless individuals in our community and to work on mitigating the effects of homelessness.

How do you see yourself being able to benefit a community like Englewood?

The role of the assistant to the city manager is to facilitate organization-wide projects, oversee initiatives such as strategic planning and customer experience and to support the great work of the city's departments. I hope to use my 14 years of experience in local and state government, as well as my extensive experience in strategic planning, to help to operationalize the city's strategic plan, achieve the goals set forth in the plan and communicate our successes to the community. Setting and achieving goals through the recently approved strategic plan will ensure our organization is aligned in delivering key outcomes for our residents in areas such as infrastructure, local economy, safety, sustainability, neighborhoods and transportation.

Tell us about the classes you teach at John Hopkins University.

I teach courses for government officials and other interested parties in the Govex Academy within Centers for Civic Impact, a training center designed for and dedicated to improving the data skills of the public sector workforce. Most of the classes I teach focus on how local and state governments can more effectively access and utilize data and create programs that use data and performance metrics to drive results.

What do you enjoy about working in local government?

Local government has been my passion as long as I can remember. My mother is a public school teacher, my father was a member of my town's Board of Selectmen (similar to a board of trustees) when I was born, and all four of my grandparents either worked for or volunteered for their community. Growing up in an environment focused on public service, I moved to Washington, D.C. for undergraduate studies at American University, hoping to learn as much as I could about government in our nation's capital. While many of my friends stayed in Washington, D.C. and worked in the federal government, I decided to work at the local level because of my passionate belief in the positive role that government can play in the lives of its residents. Local government is the governmental entity with the closest connection to the people given the role that it plays in the everyday lives of residents.

This interview was edited for clarity.