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meet goals. Community surveys for customer satisfaction. Everything has to be
Robert Lennox quantified to make progress toward a goal. Read through City of Sac strategic plans,
performance measures in the budget document is a good place to start usually—it's
Monday, March 18, 2019 9:49 AM an overview. In reports to Park and Rec Commissions and to City Council has given
annual reports and build confidence in departments effectiveness. Gives staff a
sense of pride for what they are doing so they receive acknowledgment as well.
City of Sacramento Publish the annual report so the community can see it too.
Director of Youth, Parks, and Community Engagement 7. Please describe a project in which you played a major role in creating pathways for
Phone Screen Questions improvement for those in your community.

Two examples 1) capital improvement in Menifee; water was an issue in So. CA and
city was spending a lot of money on irrigation. After looking at the utility bills (some
of the areas funded by special assessments), partnered with local water district for a
General Questions grant on turf conversion project. $1.5M grant, tore out non-functional turf and put
1. Why are you interested in the YPCE Director opportunity with the City of in drought tolerant landscaping, was an aesthetic improvement and a cost savings.
2) Menifee hired him to start a new Park & Rec/Community Dev department,
Sacramento? Why are you actively or passively looking for a new position? worked with LAFCO to detach from a park and rec community that overlapped, was
a huge cost savings for the city. Took the project on, looked at engineering reports,
Took a step away from local government a year ago to focus on starting a non-profit tax assessment documents, etc. After Council approval took it to LAFCO and it was
agency. The timing was right, so he worked on that and it is now up and running. approved. Was a very political process, a herculean task. Wanted it voted on by the
Been searching for 6 months to get back into local government. Sacramento stood constituents; City won but LAFCO put conditions on it and they are still working on
out because of the connection to the community and the youth focus. Targeting this it. Opened the communities eyes to local control and services.
opportunity in particular. Fits his background, what he feels he can bring a lot of
skills. 8. Please describe your experience in evaluating technology and operational
2. Please describe your most recent position and day-to-day responsibilities. procedure utilized in a City department and your approach to implementing
change, if needed.
Comes from a traditional Park & Rec background from capital projects to
programming and everything in between. His specialty is the community Active Net solution familiarity-implemented that system for registration and
engagement and connection. Has completed park master plans and updates to park permitting, is an expert user. Has encouraged Cities he has worked in to embrace
master plans. In So. CA. Increase to homelessness, a lot transient population; he technology. Wireless back hull project. At Menifee didn't have the fiber optics
recommended a task force (City of Menifee) and worked through the issues via needed to stay connected; surveillance, irrigation monitoring, etc. Put it on the 5
committee and developed a strategic plan. History of park experience and also has year plan to create the City's own 4g network connection; wanted to stream video
the community connection focus. surveillance for parks maintenance. He put it together as part of CIP, drafted the
RFP and got it out. Every park, especially those that were developer builds, all had a
3. How many employees do you supervise? Who do you report to? guideline for surveillance and remote operations. Now, City Public Works has
piggybacked on that for signal control and surveilling traffic flow. Not typical for City
Non-profit is a small group; government has had anywhere from 11-55 direct reports processes. In effort to set up the new department at Menifee, got the City onto
and hundreds of part-time depending on the agency and its size. Can work with social media for advertising events and classes; there was a shift in median age who
small teams as well as large teams. The focus is to deliver the vision. San is more on social media. Drafted the social media process that City Clerk's office and
Bernardino was challenging because of the budget, just prior to filing bankruptcy. Council adopted. Proficient in Granicus, Accela, Permits Plus. Most people are used
There were a lot of upset employees. When he was hired furlough was announced; to the old school way and can be resistant; sit down with Council members who
had to win over the employees. He would come into the office on his furlough didn't see the value, walked them through the benefits of it and show them how it
Fridays and go out with the maintenance crews to build trust and a connection. makes government more responsive and better service to residents. Not a lot of
Position Specific Questions resistance with City staff b/c they wanted to modernize. 1 on 1 and education.
4. Describe your experience with each of the three areas of the department: Youth, 9. Please describe the roles in which you have had a relationship elected officials, and
Parks, and Community Engagement what your role was in those examples. Can you provide an example of when you
have had to research a regulatory item and present your findings to the Council,
Youth: in his first year in Menifee, created a youth council (similar to Sac Youth Board, or Mayor?
Commission); created to get youth engaged in government. The kids had projects to
work on throughout the year, they were recognized for their accomplishments; city Laws that govern use of State parks: City had opened their first state park. It was a
was awarded Helen Putnam award in the first year. In grad school, his thesis was free use, drop in state park. They started to see vandalism and undesirable activity;
focused on how youth development builds the health and wellness of a community. the city wanted to police it. He read through the case law and talked with City
Many cities are focusing on Arts, which is good too, but kids can be forgotten when Attorney. Use of fees can be done in unsupervised manner, and meet the posting
they have to advance on their own. In City of LA, as a consultant, started a program criteria. Immunity goes away if it is supervised. Council wanted to hire staff to
called Class Parks. Focused on the impoverished neighborhoods and provided youth monitor it; had to explain the risks to Council. They didn't understand at first, then
employment, mentorship; the program is still strong today; funded by the state. they wanted to look at camera surveillance, eventually they understood and it
Been involved in many capital projects, opened buildings and facilities from small to moved forward. Also started a park ranger, sworn program to be able to issue
large. Longevity of facilities; deferred maintenance plans, etc. Programs: early on citations.
found his calling there.
5. Tell me about the riskiest or most difficult management decision you have made in Communication, Collaboration, and Personnel Management
recent years. What was your thought process that led you to move forward? 10. This position will interact with managers throughout the City as well as partner
Would you do anything differently today? organizations and individuals in the community. How do you evaluate whether
your department is providing a good level of customer service? What do you feel
In San Bernardino, had to trim $4m from his operating budget; cut from rec side and are some of the challenges to achieving a high level of customer service?
facilities. Cutting on the rec side doesn't affect personnel as much, so limited hours
as a first approach; reduced hours of part-time and kept his full-time staff. On the Surveys are great when in the midst of a program or finished a program to get
maintenance side was responsible for parks and the landscape and lighting districts information from participants; you get hard numbers and can assess measures. It is
which were maintained by contract. Also had in house personnel. Instead of a pen and paper process; missing human element. "Community partners
separating full-time employees, focused on terminating contracts on the assessment meetings;" open conference room, invite non-profits, county agencies, etc. Round
districts and shifted staff to those assignments. Was risky because of the landscape robin approach to talk about issues in the community and share calendars to not
differences. There was a learning curve and concerns that quality would be affected; step on each other's efforts. Really helps with event planning efforts; easier to see
kept them employed, took them 6 months to learn; could have been a problem for where the resources exist and what services are already being offered; creates
the citizen's paying the mela ruse taxes, but the community was ok because they economy of scale and feedback. When city wants to do something controversial
were also facing financial burdens and understand. down the road, have allies. Hold the meetings monthly. Saw that Sac wants a
published calendar; has done that before using technology. Feedback and
6. Please describe your experience in coordinating, tracking and reporting out on the connection is critical. One of the outcomes of the partner meetings was the city's
implementation of organizational goals, objectives, policies and procedures. facilities needed to be addressed (potholes, sidewalks, buildings, etc.) didn't have
technology to report these issues. Met with code enforcement, parks, IT, public
Part of the budget process is to review the balances of expenditures and revenues; works to put an app in place that was tied into GIS so that the issues could be
on a quarterly basis looks at participation and revenue efforts to see if on target to
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