Valley Citizens League

On Thursday I attended a luncheon sponsored by Valley Citizens League. The league is a non-partisan organization that facilitates a healthy discourse regarding the issues and politics facing Arizona.  During lunch we listened to a panel discuss the role of social media in politics, particularly as it regards the current election cycle.  The panel consisted of Dennis Welch from The Arizona Guardian, Doug MacEachern of The Arizona Republic, Donna Gratehouse author of the Democratic Diva Blog, and David Lebowitz.  Listening to the panel discussion I felt like I was experiencing a live episode of one of the local political talk shows like Horizon or Sunday Square Off.  Generally, it was great to  be in a room of Intergovernmental Directors from Cities and interest groups, representatives from the media, and Republican and Democratic elected officials having an interesting conversation about social media and politics.  It provided a welcoming contrast to the negativity inundating this election cycle.

Public Works

Today I shadowed the personnel in the Public Works Division.  I woke up at 4am to join them when they start work at 6:30 am.  Florescent green vest in hand, I rode along to the park where they needed to move sign twenty feet away from where they located it a week prior.  It was interesting to see the small front loader tractor excavate the sign and an auger dig the new hole for the sign.  We then ventured to one of the neighborhoods that consisted of one way streets that need better signage to help citizens comply.  We dug another hole for a "One Way" sign, but this time they let me help direct the auger into the grass and dirt and back out again.  It was interesting to note that it is surprisingly more difficult to dig into grass with the auger than dirt.  Perhaps the moisture from watering the grass compacts the dirt making it more difficult to penetrate?  Once the second sign was in place, I got to see them use a new tool for banding the "Do Not Enter" sign to an existing light pole.  The guys used a tool called a Band It that enables them to place two bands around the pole with attached brackets where the sign can be bolted in on the top and bottom.


After the experience of installing street signs, I rode along in a water truck.  We drove up and down one of the sixteen remaining dirt roads in town to help the other staff member grade it.  It was interesting to see how the water truck was filled by literally sucking the water from a nearby canal through a hose and it took fifteen minutes to fill it up.  My last ride along was with a street sweeper.  I was fascinated to learn how it worked.  Apparently the little brooms on each side of the truck sweep the trash inward where it is caught up by the big broom in the back.  From there the trash is elevated into a holding tank located just behind the driver and passenger seats.  I just looked behind me through Plexiglas to see what the truck collected.  The last job before lunch was to fill the sweeper with water.  It was cool to see the sweeper get filled with water from a nearby hydrant.

Generally it was great to have this opportunity to ask a bunch of questions and experience a glimpse of the work done in Public Works.  It was also great to spend the morning with seven guys who really like their jobs.  Their tasks change daily depending on the needs of the City.  The morning I shadowed was focused on maintaining dirt roads and installing street signs.  When need arises other days they may repair traffic signals, put out traffic barricades, or clean up the right of ways.  The guys seem to be just as interested in my job with the City as I was with theirs.  I think this experience developed a better mutual understanding. 

Strategic Plan

The strategic plan represents one of the guiding documents for the City of Maricopa.  It includes the City Council's broad priorities and more specific objectives in the areas of Economic Sustainability, Quality of Life, Transportation Connectivity, Public Safety, and Managing the Future.  Annually the City Council meets to make updates to the plan and determine which priorities and objectives will be the focus of the year, in turn, what associated action items staff should develop and accomplish.  Given the establishment of priorities, the strategic plan document and retreat provides the foundation for the upcoming budget cycle as well.

This past Friday and Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the Maricopa City Council's strategic planning retreat.  In attendance was the City Council, the media, City Manager, City Manager's Office staff, and Department Heads.  The retreat was moderated by a third party to make sure the time was being used efficiently.  Friday was spent reviewing the previous year's action items and determining which ones were completed and which would need to be incorporated in this year's plan.  Corresponding staff members provided the City Council with updates on action items which helped them work through this process.  On Saturday the City Council ultimately decided which objectives they want the City to focus on this year. It was interesting to see the advisory role the City Manager and City staff played with the council.  The next step is for City staff to develop specific action items before final approval by the City Council by January.

During the MPA program we read and learn about the strategic planning process and the interaction between the City Manager and City Council; however, it is even more interesting to see it in action.

ICMA 2010 Conference

This past week I traveled to San Jose California to attend my first International City/County Management Association meeting.  I flew in on Saturday in order to be sure to attend the activities Sunday morning.  This also allowed me the opportunity to explore a little bit of downtown San Jose that afternoon.  Since I stayed in a hotel closer to the airport, I needed to take a ten minute light rail trip to get downtown.  Since San Jose's light rail approximately 20 years old, it was possible to see the established transit oriented development along the route.  The downtown was full of interesting walkways, restaurants, and green spaces. My friend and I also took the bus in search of an area three miles away from downtown called Santana Row.  She was so right in what she said during the ride with "You can feel the pulse of a city by riding its buses".


Starting Sunday morning, the ICMA conference encompassed a mixture of networking and professional development opportunities.  The first experience was doing speed coaching which like dating gives participants ten minutes to ask questions of a City Manager before switching.  It offered me the opportunity to get additional guidance from managers across the country in how to develop skills and experience to eventually become a city manager.  However, I found it as equally helpful to interact with managers during the breakfast and lunch breaks and mixtures.  Through these venues, I networked with managers across the country and Canada

I went to a variety of sessions as well.  I found panel discussions that were able to generalize specific examples so they can be applied to other cities along with the round table discussions to be the most beneficial and interesting.  Of the panel discussions, my favorite would have to be the one on making the best hiring decisions.  The panel approach worked very well in affording a variety of interesting methods used to hire Department Heads, Assistant City Managers, and City Managers.  The first approach appeared to be pretty straight forward, however, the others consisted of a multiple day affair that consisted of a combination of socials, group interviews, and individual interviews. 

One of the most interesting round tables focused on communicating budget cuts to the public.  I liked the honest dialog of a variety of methods used by multiple municipalities and why they were or were not effective.  My other favorite round table session focused on ethics.  We worked as a group through a case study that challenged us incorporate identify and utilize the applicable tenants of ICMA's code of ethics.

There were so many sessions provided during each of the time slots throughout the conference that it was difficult to attend all that I was interested in.  I appreciated the fact that ICMA gave conference goers a CD that included the power point presentations from all of the sessions so I could get the basic information about the sessions I could not attend.  

More Sustainability

In addition to attending monthly climate briefings, other projects have derived from my early work drafting a  sustainability plan.  These projects include participating in Sustainable Cities Network, working on Think Green Pages, and helping complete sustainability surveys. 

Beginning this summer, my supervisor began including me in Sustainable Cities Network meetings to garner a better understanding of the sustainability initiatives occurring in cities across the Phoenix metro area.  Now I regularly attend the Best Practices Committee meetings.  I am learning about the best practices across the Phoenix metro area that helped formulate the draft of Maricopa's sustainability plan.  Furthermore, I can offer value to the committee in the recent research I conducted of sustainability plans and practices across the country and within Maricopa's organization.

 The idea to incorporate "Think Green Pages" to Maricopa's website originated from the Public Information Office around the time I was doing research for the sustainability plan.  I collaborated with the Public Information Office, and the Planning Division to develop content and outline the design of the pages.  In particular I researched existing practices occurring within each city department and division that we could feature in the pages.  In addition, I found links to websites that would help citizens save money while becoming more energy efficient. 

More recent projects that I have undertaken include helping my supervisor complete sustainability surveys for ICMA, Alliance for Innovation, and Sustainable Cities Network. The sustainability practices collected from the Think Green Pages project provided valuable information to accurately complete these surveys. In order to complete this task successfully, I also depended on the relationship I built with the Planning Division during the Think Green Pages project.  Collaborating with them enable the most accurate information to be shared regarding the City's newest solar and green building initiatives. 

Upon reflection of these projects I determine that working on them helped develop the sustainability plan just as much as my work on the sustainability plan helped complete these tasks.  This work enabled me to continuously build on sustainability knowledge that allows me to know have a more worldly understanding of how sustainability can be incorporated in all facets of the organization.

October Awareness

One does not realize how much awareness occurs in the month of October until you work in government.  Over the course of the week, the Human Resource Department has gradually transformed City Hall.  HR staff incorporated pink and purple decorations and bulletins throughout the hallways in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month and Domestic Violence Awareness month.  None of the cubicles were spared from a pink ribbon nor the work room from the pink and purple decor. 

In addition to the awareness efforts the month of October brings, Human Resources is also sponsoring a Health Fair for employees.  Amidst the pink and purple; street signs and construction cones emerged to designate each booth for the health fair.  I must give kudos to the HR department for their creativity regarding the decorations.  I hope the awareness efforts and health fair turn out to be successful since they are worthy causes.

Working up Front Again

Today was my second day spending some time at the front desk.  Compared to last Tuesday, today was a lot busier.  A good amount of people walked in and called with questions and other needs.  The predominate question I received regarded property taxes.  People wanted to know where they pay their taxes and questions about their assessments answered.  Unfortunately, the County Assessor's office is located in the County seat of Florence, an hour or so away from Maricopa.  Needless to say, this was not the most popular response.


Despite the help I provide in answering phones and directing citizens to the right city staff members, I have limitations.  I do not have access to the software that processes and print receipts for citizens' payments.  Therefore, when several citizens came in to pay bills, I was of little help.  I felt bad that citizens had to wait longer to be served because of this.  I feel frustrated when I come across my limited capacity in certain areas like this.  Despite my frustration, I enjoy interacting with the citizens and will continue to increase my helpfulness in anyway I can.

Water and Climate Briefing

It is interesting how working on one big project leads to work and participation on a variety of related activities.  This effect occurred in relation to my work on a sustainability plan.  Other related projects and activities will be discussed in later blog entries; however, one such activity occurred today.   Today I attended the ASU Decision Center for a Desert City's monthly Water and Climate Briefing on behalf of the City of Maricopa.  The typical attendance at these briefings include representatives of local governments along with faculty and graduate students with ASU's School of Sustainability.   This month's topic pertained to the public awareness and knowledge regarding water issues in Arizona.  The panelists leading the discussion included Donna DiFrancesco with the City of Mesa, Shaun McKinnon, a reporter with the Arizona Republic, and Amber Wutich, an Assistant Professor of Anthropology with ASU.


The discussion covered the challenges faced by government officials and leaders in improving the discourse with citizens regarding water conservation.  One of the key themes of the discussion focused on the issue of fairness. Despite all of the technology and mechanisms available for individuals to reduce their water consumption, what are the true motivators? Research conveyed that some citizens question why they should conserve when their neighbor has a green lawn or a new golf course that was constructed down the street.  Given the validity of these concerns, it appeared that there should be more effective communication and explanation to citizens regarding the equity of policies as it regards these issues.  This leads to the other major theme of the briefing which included trade offs.  Perhaps the golf course down the street will utilize far more water than a home owner can conserve, yet the trade off is the creation of jobs and sales tax revenue from the tourists that play on the course.  This discussion lead us to understand that policies need to incorporate this balance.  Though this issue of balance may seem like part of the solution, it is also a big challenge for issues like the golf course example provided above.  Perhaps the most interesting part of this discussion regarded the needed balance in policies aimed to tackle the converse issues of water conservation and the urban heat island effect. 

These briefings do not allow participants to walk away with implementable solutions which is frustrating from a city employee perspective.  However, it provides additional issues and consequences to consider with local government decision making.

New Experience at the Front Desk

 For the past four months, I have spent most of my time at work either interacting with fellow employees in Maricopa or city employees across the Metropolitan area or Pinal County during regional meetings.  My interaction with citizens has been limited to a couple of specific meetings and City Council meetings.  That all changed today.

In an effort to increase my interaction with the citizens of Maricopa, I volunteered to work an hour and a half a week at the front desk. My first day was today.  My tasks include answering the phone and inquiries from citizens who walk into City Hall.  Considering the wild weather today, it was pretty slow.  The calls that I answered just required me to transfer people to a specific staff member or department.  I spent most of the time getting to know the front desk and city clerk staff.

Perhaps today was not the most exciting day for this new task, but I hope it provides me a different perspective of Maricopa city government and the day to day concerns of its citizens.

Balancing Act

One suggestion from my managers that I have taken to heart is maintaining a good work and life balance.  Though I love what I do for the City, I know that having outlets outside of work helps reduce stress and prevents burnout.  Two of my biggest extracurricular activities currently include serving as the Vice President of Events for ASU's Students of Public Affairs Network  playing intramural softball.


Students of Public Affairs Network is a graduate student organization that provides social, professional development, and networking opportunities for its members.  We host happy hours after our classes on the First Thursday of the month at different venues across downtown Phoenix.  This Thursday we will be at Carly's Bistro and we are asking all that attend to bring a canned food item that we can donate to St. Mary's Food Bank. The happy hours enable students to relax, socialize, and network with fellow students after long days of work and class.  Myself and fellow SPAN officers are in the process of planning future social, community service, and alumni mixer events.  If you are interested in learning more about SPAN or joining our group check out our website http://span.asu.edu/ or facebook page. 


Intramural softball, on the other hand, is a lot of fun since I have played the sport most of my life.  Playing defense on the field and throwing the ball feels so natural despite not playing for a couple of years.  Unfortunately, intramural softball is slow pitch and during most of my softball career, I played competitive fast pitch.  Because of this, I continuously struggle with my timing when I bat.  However, the sport has taught me to drive myself to continuously improve with each practice and game.  Therefore, I feel I have the self determination to be successful in the batter's box.  It just might take a few more visits to the batting cage to get the timing right.