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6. What is your experience working with mayors, elected officials, and their staffs? What insights
do you have about interacting with elected officials and working in a political environment?
36 years of local government, 24 years as Director. Weekly interaction with Council. Every place
I've been has had Council meetings. I have been in front of Council hundreds, hundreds, hundreds
of times You're building trust that you have answers, that you have done your research, that you
have thought through your recomnendation. I met with Council members and their staff was well
in anticipation of that. More in San Jose thanin Sunnyvale. I would meet with Council Members
every few months just to talk about what's going on, "what's in the pipeline". This would help
build relationships. In San Jose there was the Mayor and 10 Council Members, and everyone of
them had three staff. I didn't always meet with all of them. I would meet with the ones who were
interested. What I was able to do with both Sunnyvale and San Jose is build relationships, build
the understading of where the politics were. I dealt with the plastic bag ban. There was huge
opposition to that. Really working through that, it past pretty comfortably. We built trust with
Council, both informally, and formally. I have been succesful I getting every recommendation than
one approved.

There have been many cases where I have gone out into the community with Council Members.

7. What is your experience working within a union environment/with a unionized workforce/with
union leaders?
Kansas City was fairly strong union, San Jose was a strong union, Sunnyvale was a pretty strong
union. I have had experience with different union involvement. With Sunnyvale it was all
bargaining units. I have certainly managed staff that were members of bargaining units. There
were several bargaining units involved. I have also been involved with the negotiations with
bargaining units. With larger cities they tend to have a designated bargainer. I have helped work
through solutions that need to be addressed. I have worked with the management of unionized
staff, like performance issues. And have pretty successfully done that. I have years and years of
experience. Sunnyvale and San Jose we almost had a strike. I think I had a good understanding of
what my role was and what I couldn't say and what I could say. Often my staff would say, we
understand you and hear you, but the union is calling on us to do "this." I would add that part of it
is, a really important thing that I have done in my career is be present, listen to them. Take their
advice, Management never really listens ot us. I always try to not be in that situation.

8. This position will interact with managers throughout the City as well as other
organizations and individuals throughout the community. How do you evaluate whether
they are receiving the expected level of service? What do you feel are some of the
challenges to achieving a high level of customer service?

First of all, let's talk about who the customers are. The general public - the water and
wastewater utility is 1.4m people, people. That requires a couple of things. First of all, a
concerted effort in getting information out. A lot of different media. Why are the water
bills high, get the information out about what's going on. The second part is being
responsive when someone calls or has a complaint. That's building that skill and that
emphasis in the department. Both with the people that are directly involved with that,