Mike Geisel has been with Chesterfield since Day One. On May 1, his peers across Missouri said that matters.

The Missouri City/County Management Association awarded Geisel its 2026 Jay T. Bell Professional Management Award at the group's annual spring conference in Osage Beach. The honor is the association's highest recognition for a local government manager, given annually since 1982 to a member who demonstrates outstanding professionalism and ethical leadership.

Mayor Dan Hurt nominated Geisel. In his nomination letter, Hurt wrote that Geisel "has not simply managed a city; he has helped shape a community. From incorporation to post-flood reconstruction to sustained economic vitality, his fingerprints are on every chapter of Chesterfield's evolution."

Geisel joined the city as Director of Public Services in October 1988, just months after Chesterfield incorporated. He was there in 1993 when the Monarch levee broke and floodwater swallowed the Chesterfield Valley. He kept two thick binders of photographs he personally took of the disaster. He stayed through the rebuild, as the Valley grew from 240 businesses to more than 900 and roughly 15,000 jobs.

He became City Administrator in August 2016. Today he oversees more than 240 full-time employees and a budget exceeding $45 million.

Geisel called the recognition a surprise, saying it "re-energizes your commitment and energy."

He is the second Chesterfield administrator to receive the Jay T. Bell Award. His predecessor, Michael Herring, won it in 1999.

No public celebration of the award has been announced by the city.