Staff report

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Salisbury City Manager Lane Bailey will be installed as southeast regional vice president of the International City/County Management Association today during the organization’s 103rd annual conference.

He was elected to a three-year term on June 23.

The association’s mission is to advance professional local government management worldwide through leadership, management, innovation and ethics. The organization’s more than 11,000 members from 32 countries include appointed chief administrative officers, assistant and deputy administrators, and other employees who serve local governments and regional entities around the world.

ICMA’s membership also includes educators and students.

“We are honored that Lane will join the ICMA executive board as southeast regional vice president,” said Marc A. Ott, executive director of the association. “The individuals who serve on the ICMA executive board are outstanding leaders, not only in their own communities but also in the field of professional local government management. These individuals are committed to moving our organization and our profession forward, and we appreciate the time, energy, enthusiasm and thoughtfulness that Lane and the other newly elected members of the board will bring to ICMA.”

ICMA’s 21-member executive board oversees the organization’s financial, member-related, and programming affairs. The board also enforces the organization’s code of ethics, which governs the professional and personal conduct of the membership.

Executive board members attend four board meetings annually.

“At the end of my junior year (in college), I was trying to decide whether I wanted to take the LSAT and become an attorney,” said Bailey. “One of my friends who was going to Appalachian State University was doing his internship in public administration, and he showed me all the things that he was doing. It looked a whole lot more interesting than being a lawyer. So I talked with my professors, and they advised me to finish my current degree, because it was too late to do the local government track, but then to stick around for another couple of years and get my MPA. I did that, and I’ve never looked back.”

Bailey said he has worked as a professional local government manager for 28 years, both as a city and county manager in North Carolina.

“I think the job is harder now than it’s ever been before but, because it’s so hard, it’s essential that we have good men and women working in the profession, and I am so proud to be part of that,” Bailey said.

As one of 18 vice presidents, three of whom are elected from the organization’s southeast region, Bailey will represent ICMA to state associations of local government management and maintain relationships among other affiliated organizations. The southeast region includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

The southeast region is one of five ICMA regions in the United States; three vice presidents are also elected from countries outside the U.S.

Bailey began his career in 1989 as a city manager intern in Galax, Virginia.

He went on to serve several North Carolina communities in positions that included budget analyst in Gaston County and assistant county manager and county
manager in Polk County.

In 2000, Bailey was named city manager of King, a position he held for four years until he became city manager of Lenoir.

He became city manager of Salisbury in 2015.

Bailey has been a member of ICMA since 1989 and has served on the organization’s conference planning committee, international committee, leadership mentor program and legacy leaders program.

He earned ICMA-credentialed manager status — the highest professional designation bestowed by the association — in 2002, and received an ICMA service award in recognition of his 25 years in local government in 2014.

Bailey has served as an association board member, vice president, president and past president. He is currently an ambassador for the Alliance for Innovation, a partnership that involves ICMA and Arizona State University created to inspire community innovation.

Bailey earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Appalachian State University in 1987 and a master of public administration from ASU in 1989.