City clerk since February of 2005, he has fine-tuned his communication skills and become very good at empathizing with others without internalizing others’ issues.

“This job takes a person with the ability to constantly learn and adapt to a changing environment,” Billing said. “I have to be flexible enough to handle interruptions and multitask.”

Stress is only relative, and deadlines, well those are things on which he feeds.

“I have the ability to compartmentalize if needed,” Billing said. “Because of so many tasks going on at any time, distraction is always a problem. However, I would say I’m ‘pulled’ into different tasks rather than distracted.”

The thing is, though, he needs the variety to remain productive. Otherwise, he tends to tire of tasks that become too familiar.

“The administrative nature of the job includes quite a bit of interaction with the maintenance, police, fire and ambulance, so sometimes it can feel like I’m the one people really look to,” he said.

Keeping the city operating well isn’t something Billing takes all the credit for. It is a collaborative effort between the council, administrative staff, city employees and volunteers.

“Also, nothing happens without citizens’ input and assistance,” Billing said. “People have the most control over city government. It is the quickest to way respond to issues, no matter how slow it may seem.”

The time of year makes a huge impact on where his focus lies. During election time, the election procedure needs to be the most important. When working with budgets and account, financial matters are at the forefront.

 “New Richland has been a great hometown,” Billing said. “I want to see it continue to prosper.”

Ensuring that success can be daunting at times, but the chaos is what he likes best anyways. An organization management and communications major, he can get results with the best of them.

“My core is accounting,” Billing said. “I have dealt with city government as fire chief and mayor, so I have always found the inner workings of a city to be interesting.”

Prior to accepting the city clerk position, his production planner duties at SPX in Owatonna kept him busy facilitating shipment of orders in a timely manner. So when this position came available, he snatched it up.

“I knew this position and I were a good match,” Billing said.