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Jouni Eho: Thank you for your trust Riksu!
A while ago, I was elected as the new mayor of Riihimäki.
First of all, of course, I would like to warmly thank the Riihimäki City Council for their trust. Unanimous decisions in both the board and the council give great conditions to work as city manager. I accept the task with gratitude, humbleness and enthusiasm!
With this blog post, I want to introduce myself above all to the townspeople. My text is based on the presentation I gave to the council as part of the application process on Monday 27.6.2022 June XNUMX.
The structure of my writing is the same as in the council presentation, i.e. the first section contains a brief personal introduction and the second section contains my thoughts on the future of Riihimäki. I feel it is important that a person in a public leadership position presents himself openly and opens his own thoughts to the townspeople as well. Modern communication technology gives it an excellent opportunity today.
Who am I, what is my educational and work background and what strengths do I think I bring to Riihimäki?
In my passport, the place of birth is Utsjoki. I grew up in Rovaniemi and my roots are strongly in Lapland. My family consists of my wife, three teenage children and a few pets.
The thing that marks my identity is that I worked hard to become a basketball player from Rovaniemi (in a sport that is not known to be among the strongest in Rovaniemi) all the way to the men's national team. I have always been at my strongest in the role of the underdog, which I think also well describes Riihimäki's position in the competition between Finnish cities. In my opinion, Riihimäki is a challenger with a chance to surprise. The fresh strategy also refers to a "big little town", which is alive with the desire to jump from the provincial league to the main league level.
I have two academic final degrees. I completed the first one as a basketball scholarship in the United States, at Davidson College, in North Carolina. Opinahjo is one of the most prestigious Liberal Arts Colleges in the country. My major was political science, where I focused on international politics. The time spent studying as a European in the United States between 2000 and 2004 gave me an excellent perspective on the global world order. I was a university intern at the planning and research unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the summer of 2003, where I studied the EU's common foreign and security policy and the NATO+ agreement. The most current topic. My studies continued at the University of Joensuu, where I completed a master's degree in social sciences in the interdisciplinary Islam and the West — Cultural Diversity program, majoring in sociology.
My career and CV
I would summarize my career and CV (which can be found in my LinkedIn profile) as follows:
- more than 16 years of experience in management positions in regional and municipal development.
- versatile public-private expertise
- management of business policy and networks.
I had the pleasure of serving as the municipal manager of Pyhtään municipality for more than three years. Under my leadership, we went through the strategy process, the main idea of which was "Put yourself on the map," that is, stand out from the Finnish municipal field by doing something active and outward-oriented. Here are some takeaways from the results of the cooperation and the implementation of the strategy:
- Kymenlaakso's peak in the measurements of the municipal barometer of Suomen Yrittäjie in years 2020 ja 2022.
- Sale of the old municipal office and transformation into a cultural center
- The concept of depth-oriented growth and YLE's A-Studio story about Pyhtää last June
- Can welfare be created without population growth? (Yle, Areena 3.6.2021 June XNUMX)
I pointed out in the interview that my strengths are communication and interaction skills, result and goal orientation, my versatile work experience in regional development and a combination of visionary and executive ability, without forgetting humanity. With these qualities and experiences, I will start the role of Riihimäki mayor, with an open mind.
What will Riihimäki look like in 2030?
As part of the presentation to the council, we candidates for mayor were given the task of telling what Riihimäki will look like in 2030. I will state the same here as I also stated to the councilors — I think it is unfair to assume that a person from the outside could credibly tell anything about the future of any city in an interview situation.
I don't have a magic wand, rabbits in hats, or silver bullets, and I don't believe in them. I state that, according to my experience, optimism, working together, courage and decision-making ability play a decisive role when talking about the success of cities in the future. No one else will make Riihimä's future either, you have to build it yourself. During the selection process, I have been convinced that Riihimäki has everything it needs to succeed in the intensifying competition between cities.
Strengths that are good to build on
I have identified clear strengths on which the future of the city of Riihimäki can be built. I base these views on a good week's (note! very short time) background material analysis, discussions with my predecessors, and naturally comprehensive my work experience in the development of Finnish provinces, regions, cities and municipalities. For each identified strength, I have also identified a question or two, which I hope will provoke more thoughts and discussion in translating the identified strength into concrete change.
Excellent location
It goes without saying that Riihimäki, as a railroad town between the metropolitan area and Tampere, has the potential to build sustainable growth. However, location alone is not enough (just like height alone is not enough in basketball), but the core question is - how boldly does Riihimäki dare to profile itself among medium-sized regional towns? What would be a suitable international benchmark for the successful transformation of the downtown area of a railroad town the size of Riihimäki?
An exceptionally dense urban structure
Emphasis on the word exceptional. More than 90 percent of Riihimäkel residents live within a three-kilometer radius of the train station. When examined globally, railside cities have excellent conditions for flourishing. The core question is: How boldly and in what timeframe do we dare to implement the general plan of the station area? Which partners can we get involved in development?
High-quality basic services
Municipalities and cities play a huge role in the basic pillars of people's everyday life, even after social and health services move to welfare areas: early childhood education, primary school, library, sports and youth services, preventive health promotion... Riihimäki's city strategy emphasizes the smoothness of everyday life in a positive way. However, the financing of basic services is challenged by population development forecasts that plague the entire Finnish municipal sector. The core question for Riihimäki is: How do we get the decisions from the service network to the finish line and implement them in an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable way?
Selected and cropped vertices
I like that there is a choice in the city's strategy robotics as one of the top of high competence. The province of Kanta-Häme lacks its own university, and that is exactly why it is important that Riihimäki find concrete ways to instill high competence. The interaction between regional cities and higher education was recently investigated in the report commissioned by the Government. Riihimäki's mission is to strengthen HAMK's position in the city and to network closely with business life and the science university field in order to strengthen the city's knowledge base.
In Riihimäki, in addition to AMK and secondary education, there is also the defense forces electronic warfare (ELSO) training. Could Finland's NATO membership open up new opportunities for Riihimäki at the interface of civil and military applications of robotics? Indications for the future are given by the recent NATO's 1 billion euro investment in so-called "dual-use" technology startups. Could Riihimäki be involved in resourcing a new research manager resource for HAMK or starting a endowed professorship in cooperation with industry in the region? I will definitely raise these questions when I learn more about the region's innovation ecosystem.
A clear choice in the strategy is also to "educate future theater experts." I also consider this choice of strategic recording extremely fine. Creative industries and fostering youth culture are important factors for the vitality and staying power of cities. The core question is right - do we dare to build world-class cultural experiences alongside robotics? Do we understand the true meaning of culture alongside economic policy? What kind of international partnerships Riihimäki Youth Theater could you apply in the future?
Business policy in your own hands
The city has its own business company Riihimäen Tilat ja Kehitys Oy, whose managing director is also the city's economic director. In my experience, a structure in which business services are close to the city's decision-making is a good starting point for implementing business policy. One of my first congratulators was the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of the Riihimäki-Hyvinkää region. The mayor of Riihimäki is a key influencer in the economic area's chamber of commerce. Riihimäki must strive for close cooperation in business and business matters both provincially and supra-provincially, but at the same time, of course, also pursue the city's own interest. The core question is - how do we fare in the competition for new industrial investments? What kind of new structures or forums could we develop to further develop the interaction between companies and the city?
In the same picture
I challenged the council at the end of my interview with a couple of pictures (below). In the pair of pictures, on the left side is the architect's impression of the future Riihimäki station area, and on the right side is the Riihimäki youth theater. I stated that the architects' vision pictures can be dangerous and "distrustful" to the locals, who are used to their own city looking the same year after year. I also stated that such vision images are at the same time extremely important signals from the city to the outside, because they breathe from a city that has a level of ambition to move forward.
An at least equally important signal, especially for the city residents themselves, is that the city wants to invest in the art and cultural activities of young people. Riihimäki Youth Theater is a great example of this kind of activity. It is important that young people in cities have meaningful communities that support their growth and development in a meaningful way. In addition to the theater, there are certainly others, let it serve as an example here.
I myself want to believe that at Riihimäki, these two visions of the image couple "fit into the same picture." We need a level of ambition and we need locality. We need economic policy and we need culture. We need visions and we need feet on the ground. We need movement, energy, dynamism, diversity. And above all, a constructive dialogue about the future direction of the city is needed. Discussion and even critical examination of issues belong to the greatest extent to local democracy. It would be dangerous if the future discussion was not used.
Finally
When you look at what's happening in the world, you can't help but worry about the state of democracy. Dividing lines are growing, commenting has become more and more aggressive and people prefer to remain silent rather than express their opinions.
For my part, I want to build a culture of interaction in Riihimäki, where different points of view can be brought into public discussion in a way that respects other people.
My predecessor, Jere Penttilä, managed to serve as the mayor of Riihimäki for about a year. It is a short time. Expectations for the mayor's commitment are naturally high. It's humane, to say the least.
Recently, a lot has been written about the profession of city and municipal leaders. The theme has been rather that one "windy places" of the profession, what more amazing recruiting processes or lack of trust between councilors and managers.
Through my own experience, I have developed a great respect for this profession.
Personally, during my almost three and a half years of experience as a municipal manager, I have not had any major frictions with trustees, colleagues or municipal residents. I am confident that in Riihimäki we will also find common ground in cooperation. I promise to do my best for the citizens of the city and for the trust that the council has placed in me by electing me as mayor.
Although city managers are often expected (at least based on job application notices) to play the role of rainmaker and perform miracles "immediately", I myself have learned to apply the wisdom that a person has two ears and one mouth for a reason when entering a new position. It's good to take over a new environment by listening.
With these words, I look forward to meeting you. Together, let's make Riksu (in accordance with the new strategy) an irresistible city, the home of the creators of the future and a community of sustainable growth.
At your service (beginning of September),
Jouni Eho.
The author is the new mayor of Riihimäki.
Publication: 2022
Subjects: Rhymes from Riihimäki ,
Keywords: Vitality , Living , Administration ,
All articles: Articles for Riihimäki residents