Ed Zuercher is the city manager of Phoenix since 2014. In this role, Mr. Zuercher is the chief administrative officer for the City of Phoenix and oversees the largest council-manager form of government in the United States, with 14,500 city employees, including seven employee unions and associations. He encourages city employees to focus on working smarter, saving money aggressively and treating residents kindly in order to maintain residents' high public approval ratings for city services. Working with the Mayor and City Council, he is responsible for a city budget of $3.5 billion, including airport, water/wastewater, solid waste, convention center and hotel, transit system and general city services. Mr. Zuercher's 20-year career with the city started as a management intern and grew to include assistant to the city manager, public transit director, deputy city manager, mayor's chief of staff, and assistant city manager. He holds a B.A. in English/secondary education from Goshen College in Indiana and he received his Master of Public Administration from the University of Kansas.