The 2023 Ridge League of Cities Speakers Series begins on February 9, 2023 at the Lake Alfred Membership Dinner.  Our first guest speaker is Norton N. Bonaparte, Jr.   Mr. Bonaparte has served as the City Manager of Sanford, Florida since September 2011.  Members are invited to attend the Lake Alfred dinner to hear this outstanding public servant.

Prior to Sanford, Mr. Bonaparte served as the city manager of Topeka, Kansas, Plainfield, New Jersey, Camden, New Jersey, Willingboro, New Jersey and Glenarden, Maryland.

Mr. Bonaparte has been elected president of both the New Jersey Municipal Management Association and the Maryland City/County Management Association and has served as a board member of the Florida City and County Management Association and the Kansas Association of City/County Management.

Mr. Bonaparte has been a speaker at conferences throughout the United States and China, and has authored articles that have appeared in the International City/County Management Association’s PM Magazine and the American Society for Public Administration’s PA Times.  He has taught graduate public management courses at Rutgers University and undergraduate courses in management at National-Louis University’s School of Management and Business.

Mr. Bonaparte holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a Master of Public Administration from Cornell University’s Graduate School of Business and is a graduate of Harvard University’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program.