Page 130 - SAC - DYPCE - AMB 04 11 19

interim park manager and ops manager voluntarily asked to get more experience on the rec side; she
Shannon Brown
Monday, March 18, 2019 9:49 AM
City of Sacramento
Director of Youth, Parks, and Community Engagement
Phone Screen Questions
General Questions
1. Why are you interested in the YPCE Director opportunity with the City of Sacramento? Why are you
actively or passively looking for a new position?
This is the position that she came into wanting to be a Director. Sac has given her the opportunity to
grow and to be part of the organization and is excited to be part of the process and have a chance.
Wants to be part of the youth­based direction.
2. Please describe your most recent position and day­to­day responsibilities.
Since 1/15/19 to present has been the interim, is responsible for the daily supervision, maint. Admin,
public safety 15 divisions that oversee parks, cemetery, programming, lead for org update,
implementation of new strategic plan and mission to serve the youth, multiple advisory groups, parks
commission, County of Sac park district board member for the parks of the area she lives in served as
the chair in 2012, also volunteers in the community; before that was the operations manager was
appointed by the CM for that role, oversaw the divisions, and the budget, responsible for the
emergency warming and cooling centers, leas and manage all of the HR functions, skelly officer,
participated in negotiations for the union contact. Was the parks maint manager before that, which
was the start to her City career. Is unique in that she is one of the few people to rise up through
maint side of the operations.
3. How many employees do you supervise? Who do you report to?
Currently in a challenging situation b/c 5 out of 7 managers are retiring; she has 15 direct reports,
normally 10, but a lot of the superintendents are having to report to her b/c of the retirements.
Before it was 10 direct reports. She is still doing the ops manager job b/c it hasn’t been filled.
Position Specific Questions
4. Describe your experience with each of the three areas of the department: Youth, Parks, and
Community Engagement
Youth is extremely important. When she came on as rec manager in 2008, half of the staff and
resources were taken away due to budget cuts. Wanted to beef up some of the programs to offset
the loss of staff on maint side. Youth were brought in to work in parks department, job experience,
and they learned how to use tools and gained exposure to interview skills. Also instrumental in
getting youth into learning parks to give women and girls exposure to the industry and its jobs. As
has learned about the after­school programs and the quality of those programs. City Council
acknowledges the needs and has adopted youth campaign plan; she just did a youth job fair, focusing
on service work. For community enrichment, advocate for volunteerism; part of her bachelor’s
degree had to write a thesis, focused it on community engagement in parks. Parks is a great way to
connect and to learn from them on how to improve. Love parks, loves the outdoors. Every citizen has
the right to safe, clean, and green parks. Have a sig amount of deferred maintenance which concerns
her, partnering with community to put in safe playgrounds.
5. Tell me about the riskiest or most difficult management decision you have made in recent years.
What was your thought process that led you to move forward? Would you do anything differently
today?
There was a time when the dept was going to be disbanded and just be a youth focus department.
Instead ended up doing an internal reorganization, which was very stressful for staff. Goal was to take
anything youth focused and put it into one division. Took a year and a half of her leadership to get the
new org structure in place. Came in heavy handed in the beginning and learned that she had no right
to come in and say what she feels and thinks when it impacts every person in the department.
Learned to be more of a listener an take a backseat. Be there to support and then be there to make
the final decision to move things forward. The team is now ok with the process.
6. Please describe your experience in coordinating, tracking and reporting out on the implementation
of organizational goals, objectives, policies and procedures.
Tracking is extremely important. Focused on developing the strategic plan; team realigns to the
strategic plan every 3 months to track and measure progress; getting ready for 19­20 budget and plan
to put the measures in; regular Monday meetings with executive team. Monthly meeting with the
managers and check in on the strategic plans. Briefs council and parks and rec commission regularly;
gives those presentations to staff so that everyone understands where the department is headed.
Makes sure there are good metrics for collecting data.
7. Please describe a project in which you played a major role in creating pathways for improvement
for those in your community.
One of the challenges, sand cove park, one of the few places could still park for free. Too many
parties in the neighborhood and too much garbage; Council asked what could be done, should the
park be closed altogether. At the County, always charged parking to offset revenue for park maint.
Explored implementing a parking fee; 4 hour parking or 8 hour parking; reduced the number of
patrons at the park and allowed the collection of monies to put back into the park for maint and
repairs. Isn't a typical regional park, so residents are already paying taxes, so she was concerned; but
residents were very happy and the fees helped with the maint and the community was pleased with
the reduction of nuisance noise and loitering. Has also been able to implement at other regional
parks.
8. Please describe your experience in evaluating technology and operational procedure utilized in a
City department and your approach to implementing change, if needed.
When she was in park maint., the were just exploring a 311 works system; was embraced by public
works but not her maint staff. She was asked to begin to track monies spent on the parks, she needed
more resources. She acknowledged that the team wasn't excited about it, but she helped them
understand that tracking will help to get more resources. They bought in to the work order system,