{"id":468,"date":"2026-07-20T13:24:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T18:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/?p=468"},"modified":"2026-07-20T13:25:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T18:25:01","slug":"gfg_ep94","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dual Roles of a Town Manager and Clerk (with Austin Simko) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 94"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this conversation, Hugh Plappert speaks with Austin Simko, a deputy town manager and town clerk in Andover, Massachusetts. They discuss Austin’s unconventional journey into local government, the dual roles he plays, the challenges and rewards of working in this field, and the importance of community engagement. Austin shares insights on budgeting, consensus building, and the impact of unfunded mandates on local governance. He emphasizes the variety of career opportunities in municipal government and encourages others to consider a career in this vital sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ready to explore your own local government career options?<\/strong> Download this free guide on how to transition into a successful career in local government: https:\/\/icma.org\/documents\/breaking-local-government-guidebook-career-transitions<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Working in local government can be a winding career path.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Volunteering can lead to unexpected career opportunities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Dual roles in local government provide a comprehensive view of operations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Local government is about being close to the community.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Challenges in local government can arise unexpectedly.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Long-term projects require patience and problem-solving skills.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Budgeting is a critical aspect of local government operations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Consensus building is essential in a diffused power structure.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Unfunded mandates can complicate local governance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. Municipal government offers diverse career opportunities for various talents.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Summary In this conversation, Hugh Plappert speaks with Austin Simko, a deputy town manager and town clerk in Andover, Massachusetts. They discuss Austin’s unconventional journey into local government, the dual roles he plays, the challenges and rewards of working in this field, and the importance of community engagement. Austin shares insights on budgeting, consensus building, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technolgies","tag-audiopodcast"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Dual Roles of a Town Manager and Clerk (with Austin Simko) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 94 | PhoneLive Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hugh Plappert speaks with Austin Simko, a deputy town manager and town clerk in Andover, Massachusetts. They discuss Austin's unconventional journey into local government, the dual roles he plays, the challenges and rewards of working in this field, and the importance of community engagement. Austin shares insights on budgeting, consensus building, and the impact of unfunded mandates on local governance. He emphasizes the variety of career opportunities in municipal government and encourages others to consider a career in this vital sector.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Dual Roles of a Town Manager and Clerk (with Austin Simko) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 94 The Dual Roles of a Town Manager and Clerk (with Austin Simko) | Ep. 94\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hugh Plappert speaks with Austin Simko, a deputy town manager and town clerk in Andover, Massachusetts. They discuss Austin's unconventional journey into local government, the dual roles he plays, the challenges and rewards of working in this field, and the importance of community engagement. Austin shares insights on budgeting, consensus building, and the impact of unfunded mandates on local governance. He emphasizes the variety of career opportunities in municipal government and encourages others to consider a career in this vital sector.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PhoneLive Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PhoneLive.io\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-20T18:24:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-20T18:25:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/PL_Site.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hugh Plappert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Dual Roles of a Town Manager and Clerk (with Austin Simko) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 94\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PhoneLive_io\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@PhoneLive_io\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hugh Plappert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hugh Plappert\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f45f58a0a738f6be4e4ef0519f99d117\"},\"headline\":\"The Dual Roles of a Town Manager and Clerk (with Austin Simko) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 94\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-20T18:24:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-20T18:25:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/\"},\"wordCount\":216,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Podcast\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Technologies\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/\",\"name\":\"The Dual Roles of a Town Manager and Clerk (with Austin Simko) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 94 | PhoneLive Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-20T18:24:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-20T18:25:01+00:00\",\"description\":\"Hugh Plappert speaks with Austin Simko, a deputy town manager and town clerk in Andover, Massachusetts. They discuss Austin's unconventional journey into local government, the dual roles he plays, the challenges and rewards of working in this field, and the importance of community engagement. Austin shares insights on budgeting, consensus building, and the impact of unfunded mandates on local governance. He emphasizes the variety of career opportunities in municipal government and encourages others to consider a career in this vital sector.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Dual Roles of a Town Manager and Clerk (with Austin Simko) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 94\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"PhoneLive.io Church Tech Blog\",\"description\":\"Turn your live stream into a phone call. Phone streaming for churches and local governments \u2014 reach seniors and offline members, no internet needed.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"PL - Church Tech Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"PhoneLive.io\",\"alternateName\":\"PL\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/New-Logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/New-Logo.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"PhoneLive.io\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PhoneLive.io\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/PhoneLive_io\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/phonelive\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@PhoneLive\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f45f58a0a738f6be4e4ef0519f99d117\",\"name\":\"Hugh Plappert\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/32555a63035a9b779ebc61330c883b660034bf089be5a5d0cac05919ea27b117?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/32555a63035a9b779ebc61330c883b660034bf089be5a5d0cac05919ea27b117?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Hugh Plappert\"},\"description\":\"Hugh Plappert co-founded PhoneLive with his son David, building the phone-streaming platform now used by 1,200+ churches and local governments to reach members and residents who cannot get online. Drawing on 41 years in ministry and operations, Hugh leads PhoneLive's operations and customer success, keeping the technology simple enough for any volunteer to run so homebound and offline members are never left behind. Based in Saint Paul, Minnesota.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/plappert\/\"],\"jobTitle\":\"Co-founder & Chief Officer, PhoneLive\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Dual Roles of a Town Manager and Clerk (with Austin Simko) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 94 | PhoneLive Blog","description":"Hugh Plappert speaks with Austin Simko, a deputy town manager and town clerk in Andover, Massachusetts. They discuss Austin's unconventional journey into local government, the dual roles he plays, the challenges and rewards of working in this field, and the importance of community engagement. Austin shares insights on budgeting, consensus building, and the impact of unfunded mandates on local governance. He emphasizes the variety of career opportunities in municipal government and encourages others to consider a career in this vital sector.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Dual Roles of a Town Manager and Clerk (with Austin Simko) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 94 The Dual Roles of a Town Manager and Clerk (with Austin Simko) | Ep. 94","og_description":"Hugh Plappert speaks with Austin Simko, a deputy town manager and town clerk in Andover, Massachusetts. They discuss Austin's unconventional journey into local government, the dual roles he plays, the challenges and rewards of working in this field, and the importance of community engagement. Austin shares insights on budgeting, consensus building, and the impact of unfunded mandates on local governance. He emphasizes the variety of career opportunities in municipal government and encourages others to consider a career in this vital sector.","og_url":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/","og_site_name":"PhoneLive Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PhoneLive.io","article_published_time":"2026-07-20T18:24:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-07-20T18:25:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/PL_Site.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Hugh Plappert","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"The Dual Roles of a Town Manager and Clerk (with Austin Simko) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 94","twitter_creator":"@PhoneLive_io","twitter_site":"@PhoneLive_io","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hugh Plappert","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/"},"author":{"name":"Hugh Plappert","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f45f58a0a738f6be4e4ef0519f99d117"},"headline":"The Dual Roles of a Town Manager and Clerk (with Austin Simko) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 94","datePublished":"2026-07-20T18:24:59+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-20T18:25:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/"},"wordCount":216,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Podcast"],"articleSection":["Technologies"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/","url":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/","name":"The Dual Roles of a Town Manager and Clerk (with Austin Simko) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 94 | PhoneLive Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-07-20T18:24:59+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-20T18:25:01+00:00","description":"Hugh Plappert speaks with Austin Simko, a deputy town manager and town clerk in Andover, Massachusetts. They discuss Austin's unconventional journey into local government, the dual roles he plays, the challenges and rewards of working in this field, and the importance of community engagement. Austin shares insights on budgeting, consensus building, and the impact of unfunded mandates on local governance. He emphasizes the variety of career opportunities in municipal government and encourages others to consider a career in this vital sector.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/gfg_ep94\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Dual Roles of a Town Manager and Clerk (with Austin Simko) | Ground Floor Government Ep. 94"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/","name":"PhoneLive.io Church Tech Blog","description":"Turn your live stream into a phone call. Phone streaming for churches and local governments \u2014 reach seniors and offline members, no internet needed.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#organization"},"alternateName":"PL - Church Tech Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#organization","name":"PhoneLive.io","alternateName":"PL","url":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/New-Logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/New-Logo.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080,"caption":"PhoneLive.io"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PhoneLive.io","https:\/\/x.com\/PhoneLive_io","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/phonelive","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@PhoneLive"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f45f58a0a738f6be4e4ef0519f99d117","name":"Hugh Plappert","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/32555a63035a9b779ebc61330c883b660034bf089be5a5d0cac05919ea27b117?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/32555a63035a9b779ebc61330c883b660034bf089be5a5d0cac05919ea27b117?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Hugh Plappert"},"description":"Hugh Plappert co-founded PhoneLive with his son David, building the phone-streaming platform now used by 1,200+ churches and local governments to reach members and residents who cannot get online. Drawing on 41 years in ministry and operations, Hugh leads PhoneLive's operations and customer success, keeping the technology simple enough for any volunteer to run so homebound and offline members are never left behind. Based in Saint Paul, Minnesota.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/plappert\/"],"jobTitle":"Co-founder & Chief Officer, PhoneLive"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469,"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions\/469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phonelive.io\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}