Now that Robert Layton is planning to leave the city he has managed for nearly 25 years, officials in that city, Urbandale, Iowa, are saying things like “that leadership will certainly be missed” and “whoever steps into his position will have large shoes to fill as one of the leaders not only for Urbandale, but the whole region.”

That’s according to a Des Moines Register article published today. The story is headlined “Metro officials shower Urbandale’s Layton with praise.”

Meanwhile, Wichita officials are geared up for contract negotiations, which they expect to begin at any time. But while Layton assembles his contract requests, he’s also dealing with pressing budget issues, including questions about whether to raise taxes or a hiring freeze to add fire staff to reduce response times, which he says are comparatively slow. Read more on that here. Whatever he learns from the debate will probably also apply to Wichita, which has also debated whether some fire engines should have three or four firefighters and how to staff its stations as three new ones are built.

Layton is also interviewing police chiefs — see more on that here. You might recall, one of the things the out-going police chief told The Eagle was that he had disagreed with Layton on the size of the police force. Nonetheless, the chief said all police departments want more officers, and he praised Layton for Urbandale Police Department’s slow growth and for Layton’s leadership.