In a virtually connected and noisy world, it’s easy to forget that some of the most meaningful change still happens close to home in small-town council chambers, county plazas, recreation centers, and downtown streets. At the 2025 ICMA Conference in Tampa, WithCast: Voices of Leadership sat down with city and county leaders from across the country to ask them a deceptively simple question: What does community mean where you live?
Their answers were anything but generic. From college towns to dense urban landscapes, rural counties to bedroom communities, each leader described a place with its own heartbeat and a shared theme: belonging is being built on purpose.
Community as Belonging, Not Just Zip Codes
For Demetrious Harris, Chief of Police and Interim City Manager in Seat Pleasant, Maryland, community isn’t a vague civic ideal; it’s a lived obligation. As someone who grew up there he defines it as a shared responsibility:
“Community means a sense of belonging… all of us working together and being accountable to each other to make our communities not only safe but just better overall.”
In Columbia, Missouri, City Manager De’Carlon Seewood makes a similar distinction. For him, community isn’t just the city organization it’s the “big C,” the web of neighbors and groups that sustain one another:
“Community… it’s about connections. It’s about neighbors taking care of neighbors.”
And in Peoria County, Illinois, Assistant County Administrator Shauna Musselman describes community as something deeply emotional:
“I think it’s a sense of home and a sense of belonging and just where you feel the most comfortable.”
Across wildly different geographies, the leaders share a common thread: community is less about lines on a map and more about how people feel when they wake up and step outside their front door.
Tradition, Festivals, and the Power of Shared Moments
One of the clearest ways belonging shows up is through local events. In Willcox, Arizona, City Manager Caleb Blaschke lights up when he talks about their Christmas parade and holiday bazaar. It’s pure small-town charm: a craft fair, rock climbing wall, ice skating, and neighbors gathering together.
“We try to create this fun activity for our small community to gather together and enjoy our town.”
Hear more from Caleb and other city and county leaders:
In Washington, Oklahoma, Town Administrator Mica Lunt points to the community’s beloved Halloween celebration. Main Street shuts down, food trucks roll in, and residents of all ages crowd the street in costume:
“We completely shut down our main street and the town just swells with population and pride while we celebrate that holiday.”
And in Columbia, Missouri, arts and culture take center stage at the True/False Film Festival, which draws filmmakers and audiences from around the world:
“The community really comes out and grows for this event and it’s pretty impressive.”
If you zoom out, a pattern emerges: whether it’s a bicentennial art project, a 5K race, or a Halloween festival, these local traditions are infrastructure for belonging and are just as critical as roads and water lines.
Transparency Fuels Belonging
Almost every leader talked about trust. How hard it is to build, how easy it is to lose, and how central it is to any sense of belonging. In Washington, Oklahoma, Mica stepped into a community that had experienced a water crisis and long-stagnant fees. His answer was radical transparency:
“Every month I produce a financial report… and then there’s a video where I walk through and show everyone our bank balances, our transactions, and explain in layman’s terms what money’s coming in and where that money is going.”
Residents responded by overwhelmingly supporting a one-cent sales tax increase, which led to the largest state payment the town had ever received. Trust and transparency turned into literal resources for the future.
Veteran North Carolina city manager Michael McLaurin took a similar approach over his 50-year career:
“We are probably one of the most transparent governments I’ve ever worked… We have the manager’s report that comes out every two weeks, a monthly report, Facebook Live with the mayor, and coffee with the mayor.”
He adds that residents and businesses are “investors in our community”, and government’s job is to deliver a strong return on that investment through service and responsiveness.
Transparency here isn’t a compliance checkbox; it’s a relationship practice.
Tech, Access, and Meeting People Where They Are
Many of the leaders are actively reshaping how their residents find and access information.
In Willcox, the with centralized community calendar is utilized to enhance resident experience with a laser-focused on reaching:
- Residents who prefer information in Spanish
- Older residents who struggle with new tech
- Families with limited time and transportation
To do that, the city uses a centralized community calendar, multilingual event listings, text alerts, and targeted outreach. City staff meet residents where they are, even setting up information booths at basketball and football games to personally help parents register for programs.
“We have a large Hispanic demographic… and a part of our community that is elderly and not very technology savvy… So the text message service, the email portal, all of that helps us reach different audiences in a faster, more efficient way.” – Wilcox City Manager Caleb Blaschke
These tools don’t replace human interaction, they multiply it.
Belonging as a Measurable Outcome
What’s striking about these conversations is how measurable belonging becomes when you listen closely:
- In Washington, it’s the number of community members who immediately jump in to help a mom buy her son a ticket to the game.
- In Peoria County, it’s the sight of giant painted bison scattered across the region and residents coming to “bring the herd” together at a bicentennial celebration.
- In Overland Park, it’s a downtown farmers’ market designed not just as a place to shop, but as a gathering space timed to open ahead of the 2026 World Cup
- In Willcox, it’s the parents who no longer have to wait two to three hours in line to sign their kids up for the pool, because signups moved online.
Belonging is not abstract here. It’s the cumulative effect of policy choices, communication tools, and civic leaders with servant hearts. Across these conversations, a quiet thesis emerges:
Belonging is Local
It’s built every time a leader chooses transparency, collaboration, and listening. It shows up in the way we design parks, plan festivals, answer phones, invite feedback, and show kids that their city is for them too. WithCast captured these voices at the ICMA conference in Tampa but their impact is playing out in town squares, neighborhoods, and digital platforms all over the country.
If you work in local government, there’s a pretty good chance you’re writing the next chapter. If you want to hear more from these great leaders, watch our playlist.
