New Assistant to Troy City Manager Gets to Work, Looks Ahead

The city of Troy's new assistant to the city manager started work earlier this month, eager to help right away on a budget and an action plan which will guide growth for years to come.

Sehrish Salah-Ud-Din, a spring master's graduate of Eastern Michigan University and a veteran of the prestigious Michigan Local Government Management Association (MLGMA) fellowship program, said that the transition to Troy has felt seamless for her.

Troy City Manager Brian Kischnick, who was appointed to the position last summer, introduced Salah-Ud-Din at a recent Troy City Council meeting with a touch of humor: "She is a very studied individual ... god bless her, she is aspiring to be a city manager."

In the meantime, Salah-Ud-Din feels like her current position—assistant to the city manager/coordinator for continuous improvement—is the right fit at this point in her career.

"I first had an experience working in the city of Farmington, where I was a budget intern. For my fellowship, last summer, I was able to work closely with the city manager of Novi. That meant a bigger city with a bigger budget, so there's a lot more to that," she said.

"Now, when I'm talking with city administrators in Troy, which is the biggest city, I'm able to tie in almost everyone with something I've worked on already, or at least studied in school."

Filling the position in itself makes for a positive environment to be around, as the city's public administration appears to be back "on an incline" after years spent reeling from the effects of the 2008 stock market crash, Salah-Ud-Din said.

She's currently working to help with the city's budget and to implement recommendations of a report prepared by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) regarding efficient use of public resources.

The former is particularly of interest to Salah-Ud-Din, who is 26 and lives in West Bloomfield, as her capstone project dealt with the topic of succession in public administration.

"Much of what I did was to assess the generation coming in after the baby boomers and how we can prepare for our future, especially in local government. I took the state as a whole and did surveys and interviewed people to see where the foundation was and where we were heading and suggested best practices from that research," she said.

Among the highlights of Salah-Ud-Din career to date include the draft of Title VI Non-Discrimination policy tied to federal road funds, for which she worked with the Michigan Dept. of Transportation and city officials in Farmington and Novi to produce for their respective municipalities.

However, Salah-Ud-Din understands as well as anyone in her position that the city of Troy will present its own unique challenges. Those details just make it all the more interesting, she said.

"It has helped me to know that when talking to people, that they know I'm not hearing things like, 'taxable value' for the first time," she said. "But when it comes to details of the city, I'm looking forward to learning more about them."

Got a shout-out for the new employee? Tell us in the comments.