Page 134 - VFWD -DOACotB - AMB 03 01 19

Anthony Valdez

Monday, February 25, 2019 2:01 PM

Vallejo Flood & Wastewater District
Director of Administration / Clerk of the Board
Phone Screen Questions

General Questions

1. Why are you interested in the DOA opportunity with Vallejo Flood & Wastewater? Why are you
actively or passively looking for a new position?

First off, I received my Master's in Public Administration almost two years ago. I have been working
in public policy and then in public administration. At this point I want to develop my career further,
and this seemed like a wonderful opportunity. I have been in my last position for a little over three
years. I have shown that I wsant to build a relationship and stay for awhile for each job that I have. I
feel like it is time to learn more now that I have my Master's. What made this position seem so great
is the match that the description has with my background and the District has such great reviews. It
seems attractive and is in the Bay Area, and I want to expand in my career in public administration.

Position Specific Questions
2. Please describe your highest level administrative support role to an Executive, Director, General
Manager and/or Board.

The highest level role that I've had in administration. I used to - I have worked in all levels of
government. I worked for Nancy Pelosi in Washington D.C. as an intern, I worked as a legislative aid
to a state senator. Now that I moved from legislative to administrative, as the liaison between the
director which oversees the Department. It is a large City and a very high profile department because
of climate change and concern around the environment. I am the liaison between the director and
the commission. The city charter require that all communications with the commission go through
me and the Director. I manage all of the commission meetings. I work with staff to answer the
questions. I am also the person from legal at the department, I make sure the department dots its I's
and T's with legal requirements. I am in charge of records retention, all of the really important
administrative responsibilities - I make sure the department is doing it's due diligence and taking
care of public meeting laws.

There are six full commission meetings each year, and a couple of commission meetings each month.
Commissioners are invited to events and they have questions for me. Of the seven commissioners, I
will talk to everyone of them per day, getting all of their questions answered. We have a variety of
advisory commissions - I'm the person who staffs all of these bodies. SF has some of the most
progressive open government laws in the nation if not the world. I oversee all of the public comment
which I know is a big part of the clerk of the board job. I probably have more public facing job in the
department.

Report and the Commission - they hired me together. The San Francisco Department of the
Environment. I clerk the meetings I run and help in the meetings, I script the entire thing from the