Page 162 - CSD - PUD 02 28 19

Arizona State Retirement program and then moved to Sant Fe. My ultimate goal was to get into
San Diego - and I temporarily finished up my career there.
5. This position requires staff to work between multiple divisions of the Department and multiple
City departments. How would you enable your organization to deliver an increasingly cohesive
customer experience internally, including clarity, timeliness, and responsiveness?
This goes with my ability to work with people, I learned a lot there about delivering high-quality
services both to our external customers and our internal employees. A lot of that had to do with a
strong focus on the internal values of our organization. People had to understand the values we
were operating from and how we were going to get from point a to point b. San Diego is huge, and
when I was there I really got a sense of the challenges that you encounter when you have to work
within the structure of beauracracy. If I am selected for an interview to talk about the senior
management there to talk about some of the obstacles. It's really a matter - one of the things that
I've learned over the years is for most employees their view of the organization is their direct
supervisor. I've always felt that it is imperative that you invest in your front-line supervisors
because they are so important to address your goals. A lot of times front-line supervisors were
promoted into their position because they were really good at doing a task or role they were
assigned, and then they get put into a supervisory position and they're not really prepared. SO I've
always tried to prepare them and invest in them. When I was in San Diego our wastewater plants
were operating at a 50% reliability rate, partly because the plants weren't always needed, but the
plants had declined. As we tried to get equipment back online we started to run into purchasing
issues with the purchasing department. You are immediately hit with a situation in which you
want to move your department forward but you have to adhere to the City's purchases
department.
6. Please describe a situation in which you had influence on increasing the effectiveness of
a team of people or a department. What measures did you take to contribute to
employee motivation and staff development?

That's an ongoing work in progress. One of those principals is that you want to develop a
culture where there is mutual respect between employees and the management team.
You don't want to settle into this paternal, parent child relationship with your employees.
You want to treat everyone as an adult who can contribute to the organization in a special
way, where they have unique insights and skills in their position where they are seeing
things that you are not seeing, that they are really a part of the overall organization. That
is one of my management philosophies for bringing the teams together. When you make
a decision, make sure you are explaining it to people so they understand where you are
coming from.

7. 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?
I've been working with elected officials since 1997 when I first moved into management positions,
and I was responsible for taking forward funding. I have worked with all kinds of boards, citizen
panels, when I was working for San Jose I was directly responsible for the Buckman Board of
Directors. So I was reporting to both county supervisors and county members. When you are an
elected official you may not have the knowledge in all of the areas you are managing, but you are