David Brandt is an MRG affiliated consultant with over 30 years of public sector leadership experience. He has served as the City Manager of Redmond, OR, and as City Manager of Cupertino, CA. He has also served as the Assistant City Manager of Alameda and held multiple positions as legal counsel for Alameda public sector organizations. Most recently, he was the Executive Director of Housing Works, the regional housing authority for Central Oregon. David has been affiliated with MRG since 2025.
What should your clients know about you from the start?
My strength is in service as a problem solver. I’ve always been a strategic and tactical thinker. It doesn’t really matter what the problem is; I’m usually pretty good at getting to the bottom of it and working out a reasonable solution, or even a menu of solutions.
Typically, difficult problems are compounded by a bunch of smaller issues which you cannot uncover until you break the problem into pieces. Once you pull it apart, you can usually find simpler solutions for the sub-problems and make good progress on the larger issue.
Do you have a motto? Is there a phrase that people associate with you?
I’ve often been described as “unflappable”. I rarely panic about anything. It doesn’t matter what the issue is. I’m pretty level-headed, and I break things down analytically and come up with a solution.
That’s kind of our job as leaders. When you’re a City Manager, you have two jobs: to keep elected officials and staff focused and calm, and then to find solutions for whatever problem they’re coming up against.
What other career paths have called to you?
I was a lawyer for the first 15 years of my career and I loved it—it was hard to give that up. I sort of got “wooed” by a former City Manager colleague of mine who said, “A City Manager role is such a great opportunity. You’ll never miss being a lawyer.” And I actually do miss being a lawyer sometimes, but it’s a different role. You’re in the hot seat when you’re not the legal counsel, right? The legal counsel gives advice, and the client can take it or leave it. But when you’re in management, you actually own that decision. So that was the main distinction with me in terms of that choice. Although I do love practicing law, I haven’t practiced for a while.
When you go to law school, they teach you how to be an issue-spotter, which is a really valuable skill. It allows you to look forward, sometimes years in the future, to anticipate things that might come about because of your decisions. It allows you to avoid landmines, political and legal and sometimes practical. It’s not a flawless skill—you don’t always see everything, but it’s a skill that is taught in law school, and it’s pretty valuable for non-lawyers too.
What inspires you about working in the public sector?
It’s serving the public. When you’re a private-sector lawyer, you’re serving your client, and you’re hoping your client’s going to be successful, which usually means they’re going to earn money and do great things for the organization. Whereas when you’re a public lawyer or a public manager, you serve the public and your job is to better the community.
Electeds represent the community, but the City Manager is able to implement the way they want the community to change and grow and be great. If this is done well, you serve your elected officials, they represent their community and at the end of the day, when we play our roles well, everybody feels like they’re better off than they were before you got there.
What made you want to affiliate with MRG?
MRG has a great reputation. You always want to work with the best, and they’re certainly up in the major leagues.
I think one of the things that’s nice about working on MRG’s projects is that you get to work with other peers that are extremely qualified. MRG has the ability to attract top people, like Steve Rymer. I’ve known Steve for 10 years and I someday hope to be on a project with him.
Lastly, MRG has access to some really, really interesting and challenging projects and I just love that kind of work.
Does your public sector organization need help overcoming organizational challenges? Reach out to MRG at info@solutions-mrg.com to start the conversation and connect with world-class consultants.