Utility IT Coordinator Dave Miller

Utility IT Coordinator Dave Miller said one of his favorite parts of the job is “breaking things”.

Dave is responsible for ensuring the technology for the utilities divisions works the way it’s supposed to and responding when it isn’t working. He’s also involved in cybersecurity for the city.

“I think of myself as an engineer,” he said. “I write scripts sometimes, solve telecommunication networking problems, (and) a lot of my work lately has involved the city’s cybersecurity policy.”

Before moving to central Missouri, Dave lived in California and owned a cable-laying company. He enjoyed building a client base and working with new clients. Now, he’s largely working with the same people all the time and has found a new favorite part of the job.

“If you’re not breaking something, you’re not trying hard enough,” Dave said. “Usually, when you’re doing something technical, you learn from your mistakes more than from your successes. When you break something, you have to fix it; to fix it, you have to understand it. Usually you broke something because of a faulty understanding of what you’re working on.”

Outside of work, Dave enjoys fly fishing, woodworking and metalworking, and he recently took up playing chess again. Dave and his wife also maintain a vegetable garden, and he’s started listening to classic music.

“You wouldn’t be surprised to know that I’m a computer geek,” he said.