Thank you, Casa Grande!

I had so many influential people that I was able to work under during my time with Casa Grande. Ben Bitter, Richard Wilkie, Jim Thompson, and Larry Rains were the four most frequent mentors I had while there and they each made different impacts on my future career. Instead of writing individual letters, I feel like an organizational letter would better suffice.

To the City of Casa Grande City Manager's Office: 

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to grow and learn in the field of city management. Municipal governments serve a great purpose in the community and the Casa Grande City Manager's office is unparalleled in their level of service. I was able to observe an agency full of people passionate about what they do and the work they believe in, as well as a community they are proud to be a part of. I learned the value of a strong City Manager and Deputy City Manager and the benefits of having a positive relationship with the City Council. The staff is equally as important as the management and the drive and persistence the management city staff had was refreshing! I appreciated the assignments that I was given and I learned so many skills that I will be able to take forward in me career and expand on.

Thank you again for this opportunity and giving me the change to grow with your organization. 

Best, 
Cassie Johnson

In the end....

 This entire internship experience was so beneficial! I learned so much and I grew with the variety of projects and assignments I was able to work on. My initial goals after my interview were as follows: 

• Learn of various departments of the City, especially those I know I wouldn't necessarily enjoy (aka, water treatment). I continuously want to expand my comfort zone and learn about things that don't necessarily come easily to me or appeal immediately to my interests. 
• Present to City Council in a formal setting. Although my previous internship had me presenting to superiors regularly, there is a difference when presenting in a public setting with elected officials. Learning the skills and needs of public presentations and practicing those skills is imperative for a future career in city management.
• Better understand the needs of a smaller community. I'm a Arizona native and frequently visited Casa Grande while growing up. However, it's certainly a different type of city than where I grew up in Mesa or when I worked in Scottsdale. I wanted to better experience and understand the differences between the communities I knew and the one I would be working in. 

I The City gave me the opportunity to work with or observe multiple departments in the city, even if I didn't do a project with them, I was able to tour or learn about their projects. This variety in assignments allowed me to go outside of City Hall and experience the differences in the community structure from what I was accustomed to. I had opportunities to talk to community members and see what a tight-knit community feels like. My last day with City of Casa Grande I was able to present to City Council on a lease agreement that needed to be approved with Casa Grande Mainstreet. City Council meetings are televised and put online for public viewing afterwards. It was an interesting experience to be sitting up with council in the front of the room as a staff member presenting. They asked a couple of questions in a joking manner and it passed 7-0. Talk about a great first experience presenting to council! 

All in all, it was so much better than I ever could have imagined. I had opportunities that I never could have imagined that will undoubtedly benefit me in the future. 

Fire Data

One of my assignments when working with Casa Grande involved a brief but potent research project doing a comparative look at other departments. It was a lot of phone calls, messages and emails but I eventually got all of the information I needed. 

Week 13:

Friday I began a quick research project for the Deputy City Manager. It involved calling local municipality fire departments to find out some information regarding their annual calls for services, clarifying how many stations they have in use and the number of frontline units they have available to them. From that information I am able to determine the population served per unit, the annual responses by population and the number of incidents per day per population. Because of it being Friday and many individuals who work in public safety work different schedules, I have to continue the assignment next week. Most individuals work 4-10’s, meaning they work 4 10-hour days per week rather than 5 8-hour days. 

Week 14: 

It took a few days to get contacts back from the various cities about the fire data, but eventually, I got most of the answers I was looking for. I also drafted letters to all of the recipients of soccer cards from RECon (it’s the project that keeps on giving) and had a meeting regarding the wrap up of RECon 2013. I met with Richard and Ben and discussed what worked and what didn’t for this past year as well as what to make note of for next year.

Week 16: 

Beginning a new project is always exciting, as is wrapping up a project. I have meetings this week with both the assistant fire chief and the deputy city manager to go over the data I have compiled in regards to the Arizona municipal fire departments. It was interesting information to compile and I’m looking forward to taking it forward. 

In addition to the spreadsheet I had made, I also met with the GIS department to see about getting a map for our local CFS (calls for service) data. The CAD software we used wasn't like what I was used to with Scottsdale Public Safety and so GIS had to go in and individually select each kind of call I was interested for different time periods. My time with Casa Grande was quickly coming to an end because of my relocation to Los Angeles and the maps came in a couple of days before I left. When I got them, we needed some changes made so I was unable to see the final product. I don't like leaving projects left undone, but the Deputy City Manager had the information he was most interested in and was able to use it moving forward. 

What makes you strong?

I think that Casa Grande's biggest strengths can be found in their people. I think organization not only has strong leaders in the leadership roles, but also strong leaders in all other levels of the agency as well. The people who work for the organization work towards bettering their community and the region. They look towards the future and through innovation.

I think that the organization operates on a well managed budget that promotes growth while not going outside of their means. The city is growing at a steady rate that will only strengthen the economy and the agency is matching the growth demands through the services offered as well.

I think that strengths come in many forms but aren't always acknowledged or appreciated, however, I think that CG makes efforts to acknowledge the strengths they offer, especially in their staff.

Public servitude & the world of urban governance

Seeing as how my internship was with the City Manager's office, everything that we did was done as public service in the form of urban governance. All of the various city departments, together, worked to give the citizens of Casa Grande what they needed from their government. I worked on projects that involved surface streets and funding, interstate exits, economic development, public safety, the legalities surrounding the airport and its tenants...the list goes on and on. 

Everything that I found myself working around was done for the public. And it made me incredibly happy, every day. Some people grow up wanting to be business professionals, or athletes, astronauts, or writers. I have always wanted to work for the public good. One could say my public service motivation ranks fairly high. 

Leadership. Is it a thing?

I think that the current 'Government Shutdown of 2013' is an interesting time to be thinking about leadership, specifically leadership in the public setting of the government. Although, I think that there are a few things that need to be differentiated between what is going on in the federal setting and the role of municipal government. 

There are many who lump government together as one entity...POTUS and the City Mayor are the same, your council members are to blame for what takes place in the house, etc. Civic engagement is something that I am spending a lot of time looking at in my current position and it's fascinating to see how few people pay attention. Right now, the whole world is looking at the United States and are in an uproar about what is taking place. But still people have absolutely no clue about what is going on (take note with this lovely example). 

That snip it aside, the public reaction can be summed up in one statement: Our leaders aren't leading for the People.

What is leadership? Peter Decker said "management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." In this instance, our federal leaders aren't really appearing to be managing and they certainly aren't leading. Yes, there is a need to make sure that what passes is correct for the constituents, however, being stubborn isn't the answer either. 

That is one of the things that I find so wonderful about being involved at the city level. Leadership and management take on a different role. Sadly, citizens don't get involved enough to know the difference. 

In Casa Grande, I truly believe that the city is run by leaders. The Council and the Mayor run in a way that benefits their constituents and the staff works in the same manner. I was given ample opportunity to showcase leadership skills through the freedom and flexibility I was provided in my time with the City. The freedom, as an intern, to be allowed (and expected) to do my job, and do it well, however I saw fit for the task at hand, allowed me to put my experience as a leader to use. I was surrounded by individuals who did their job not just because it was "in their job description" but because they were civically minded with their citizens best interest in mind. 

Hey, I want to be you someday!

Seeing as how I am not placed in my internship anymore, I can't exactly do a winning interview. However, it only took a few days of observing Jim Thompson's office to know that I would really enjoy a career in city management. 

My first introduction to Jim, I won't even try to deny that I was incredibly nervous afterwards about my ability to do anything in a city manager role. Not because he's an intimidating, mean man. Rather, he's brilliant and I wasn't sure I had what it takes. My first time meeting him I was observing a budget meeting and he knew specific numbers that weren't on the print out in front of him. And I mean, to the dollar, in big budgets. He is so knowledgable and has so much experience that he is spectacular at his job. 

Jim Thompson is city manager of Casa Grande, Arizona. He has worked for various cities in Washington, Colorado and Arizona in his career. He received his bachelors from Indiana in the realm of finance and business. He has his masters, as well as his PhD which he received for organizational behavior. He is responsible for overseeing the operations of the City of Casa Grande and is the liaison between the council and Mayor and the cities departments. He works with the financial department to create an operational budget for each of the departments, oversee's the requests of the city needs and works for the citizens and the staff. His job isn't easily wrapped up into a nice, neat job description. His task is to take the resources available to the city and extend them to make Casa Grande the best version of itself. He has been with Casa Grande for a number of years and has a good relationship with the council and staff. 

Like I said previously, I was at first intimidated and briefly thought I would not be able to do the job of a city manager. But there were a few things he said after the budget meeting that quickly brushed away the fear. He stated, in so many words, that the job of the city manager isn't to always be the nice guy. It's to be the person who sometimes says no, but know that you are doing it because you have to. You won't always be favored for your decisions because everyone feels that their department needs something more importantly than another, you can't always give everyone everything. Instead, know your numbers, know what your city needs and work with that in mind. Say no, but work with them to give them everything they need to succeed. When they succeed, so do you.

I don't need to have a photographic memory to be a city manager, I have different skills that will benefit me and any agency I work for. But I do have to have the drive and the service state of mind. If I retain that, I can do well with whatever I decide to do.