Sustainability Initiatives

From my first days with the City of Maricopa it became clear that there was an interest in sustainability.  The City Council incorporated elements of sustainability throughout the strategic plan and mention sustainability during the council meetings.  The first long term project I was assigned was to draft sustainability initiatives that incorporate the three legs of the stool; environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

My process began with reading Maricopa's strategic plan and general plan to begin to understand the organizational and community goals.  I then proceeded to read through a dozen or so sustainability plans from municipalities across the country and develop an inventory of key elements from them that could be incorporated in Maricopa. A challenge I found early on is that many of the cities' sustainability plans focus on the environmental components and less on social and economic. This meant that it took more time and research to find plans that provided more ideas regarding social and economic sustainability.  The most helpful plans I found were from the cities of Vancouver Washington, Minneapolis Minnesota, Boulder Colorado, and El Paso Texas. 

In addition to researching sustainability plans across the country, I also gathered existing sustainability practices within the City of Maricopa.  I contacted all of the department heads and particular staff members I found were interested in sustainability to retrieve the information.  I also re-read the strategic plan and inventoried all of the sustainability components of it.

The finished draft successfully incorporates the best practices from cities across the country along with the Maricopa's priorities.  Now all I can do is wait to see where the plan goes from here.

Career Fiesta

Today I went to ASU's Career Fiesta.  Though it is one of the largest career fairs ASU offers, I realized early on that it may not be the right fair for me.  I am working to complete my Master of Public Administration and I am interested in working in city government.  Conversely, most of the employers at this fair were from the private sector or federal government.  In turn, this particular career fair was probably too broad to capture my specific interest. 

Nevertheless, I made the most out of the opportunity.  I had some good discussions with the Alumni Association and AmeriCorps at their booths.  I did not realize that AmeriCorps has a VISTA program that provides volunteers for non-profits, educational institutions, or tribal or public agency working to combat poverty in their community.  I feel that this is a good resource to keep in mind from the government perspective as well as share with any of my friends interested in public service.

Perhaps the most beneficial experience at this event was getting my resume critiqued at the Career Services booth.  The lady made several great recommendations for improving my resume. One that struck me was including results with each job description.  Such results could include how many people were impacted by the project or how did my work help the organization become more efficient and effective.  Through my discussion with career services, it became clear that this poses a challenge for those of us working in the public sector.  Many of the projects we work on have either long time lines or are part of bigger, more complex projects. This makes it challenging to capture concrete results when the project may not been completed or implemented to know its impact to the community or organization as a whole. Despite these challenges, I think this is an important consideration in developing a resume and incorporating wherever it is applicable. 

A Little Bit about the City of Maricopa

Before delving into the particular activities I will partake in over the course of this internship, it would be helpful to know a little bit about the City of Maricopa. Starting with some of the basics, the city is located roughly twenty miles southwest of the Phoenix metro area.  Ironically despite its name, the City of Maricopa is located in Pinal County not Maricopa.  The City limits encompass fifty square miles surrounded by the Ak-Chin and Gila River Nations.


Despite the areas' history which dates back to Father Kino when the community was known as Maricopa Wells, the modern city and location has only been incorporated since 2003.  Since incorporation, our population has skyrocketed to roughly 45,000 people.  The City continually works to catch the infrastructure up to the rapid population growth it experienced.  Given this situation, the decisions made today will have significant impacts on how the city will look and function in the future.  This makes it an exciting place to intern.

If you are interested in knowing more about the city check out their website at www.maricopa-az.gov

Expectations

My first year of my MPA was full of anticipation. Interning at the Alliance for Innovation and shadowing city managers, I gained a sense of what it would be like to work in a city government.  Despite these invaluable experiences, I could not help but wonder what my experience would ultimately be like, what type of employee and manger would I be? I was eager to know how it would work and feel to start working on projects from their infancy and see how they progress and ultimately impact the community.

The anticipation is finally over.  In the three months I have spent in the City of Maricopa thus far, my experience has exceeded my expectations.  My experience has been fun, challenging, and at times overwhelming.  It is not only the work that makes this so, but simultaneously learning about the community and the organization in order to develop greater context for the day to day operations and decisions.  Through personal management of projects and observations, I am beginning to realize my work style and ultimately what kind of manager I hope to become. I look forward to sharing my experiences and thoughts as they progress throughout the semester.