Douglas W. Ayres

, a retired principal of our company, has written books that may be of interest to those in local government. He has over 46 years in local government, has been Finance Director or City Manager in 3 different cities, was co-founder of our consulting company, taught at Cal State Long Beach, USC, and UC Irvine, before finally retiring to write about the previous 46 years while boating around the United States with his wife, Pam and dog, Thunder.

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Right in the City, a Dog's Tale

Instructive, inspirational, and hilarious stories from Doug's 50 years with local government. Public Administration students and practitioners alike always complain "They didn't teach this in school!" And they don't. But this book literally is a textbook of those "things" that an accomplished public administrator must learn, either by reading this book or by suffering through a traumatic period of personal trial and error.

Things you'll find hard to believe, like ---

• Why he hired a psycho who had skimmed $1.5 million from the Venezuelan government, to lead Doug in solving a bankruptcy-threatening water system problem in Melbourne, Florida.
• How he and the Inglewood Police Chief made that City a place where rock stars loved to perform, certainly far more than in surrounding Los Angeles.
• How he became close to Jack Kent Cooke, owner of The Forum, NBA Lakers and NHL Kings and, eventually, the Washington Redskins. And how Cooke and Ayres used the acquaintanceship for the personal gain of Cooke and financial benefit to the City.
• His explosive conflict with a very young Gray Davis, now Governor of California, when Davis was Chief of Staff to Governor Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown.
• Why the City Council always had first class rooms, meals and anything else they wanted when they attended the annual League of Cities convention.
  
  

There are many heroes in this book, but few were elected to their post. Most were people you've never heard about, and never had a chance to vote for. And if you had a chance you wouldn't vote for them. The "good guy bureaucrats" weren't driven by an inflamed ego that gave them color, and votes. Among the luminaries about which "kiss and tell Tales" are told are, Juan Peron, California Governor Gray Davis, former U.S. Senator Bob Packwood, Vicki Lawrence, U.S. Soccer guru Alan Rothenberg, late LA Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom, rock 'n roll promoter Bill Graham, the NAACP and the KKK, late Governor Earl K. Long of Louisiana, and scores of other elected and appointed public officials and hangers on.

To Order: (888) 232-4444 or buy online from the publisher, $25.50

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The Local Government Joke Box

Learn how to make your points with humor and get results. There is an old joke that concludes "Some can tell 'em and some can't." This book teaches ALL government speakers how to make their points with humor and provides 110 pages of 247 hilariously successful jokes, all tailored to local government needs, with instructions how, when, and where to use each.

These jokes have been met with gales of laughter and secured hundreds of millions of revenue dollars for Ayres' jurisdictions and clients. As Doug says, "How can anyone disagree with or vote against someone who makes their cogent points with humor and laughter, en route to being sold on the jokester's goals?"

This book is an absolute necessity for anyone in local government who must make a speech of any kind to any group!

To Order: (888) 232-4444 or buy online from the publisher, $15.80