Interview with a Vampire. Er. Supervisor

Interview one of your supervisors.
For this blog post, I was tasked with interviewing a supervisor, so I chose Lorizelda Stoeller (not a vampire or even close to a bloodsucker, like so many in government). She is my supervisor and an Administrative Assistant II in Solid Waste. 


What are her main job responsibilities? 
Lorizelda manages the budget for the Special Projects division. She maintains the positions in Specials Projects, working with HR to code them correctly. She is in charge of monitoring all contracts. Solid Waste have vendors to do everything from washing trucks to buying ice for drivers. She does other duties as assigned, such as working on the Reimagine Phoenix campaign and Chapter 27 (City Code related to Solid Waste).

How did she choose this career? 
Lori actually never thought that she would be in solid waste. She got her undergraduate degree in marketing and worked in the private sector for 5 years, for companies such as Pepsi. Her goal was to get an MBA and become a CEO. However, after getting laid off in 2008, Lori wanted to choose a new career path. Jaded by the private sector, Lori had always enjoyed volunteering and helping others and discovered the MPA degree. She went back to school, pursuing the ASU MPA degree. While at ASU, she did an internship in government relations for the City of Phoenix, which gave her a great introduction to local government. At the City, she discovered that Solid Waste had a need for her marketing skills and interned there for a while. She pursued the prestigious City Management Internship with the City of Phoenix after graduation, and after her year of interning for the City, was offered a job in Solid Waste. She hopes to eventually move on to city management.

What type of education or training is needed for this position? 

• Bachelor's degree

• Good project management and time management skills

• Willingness to learn

• Contract management knowledge is helpful

• Be able to handle sensitive financial information

What advice would she give to someone interested in this field? 
Lori's advice is to be willing to start from the bottom. A lot of staff in Solid Waste started at the bottom and worked their way up (many started as garbage truck drivers). She also said it is helpful if you are willing to do all kinds of work to help you learn, and be open to field experiences such as ride alongs. She often does invoices herself, even though she could assign them to someone else. This is so she understands how to do them so when she is supervising others, she has firsthand experience. 

Does she notice any new trends in the field? 
The biggest trend in solid waste is a focus on efficiency. Solid Waste is constantly analyzing drivers, routes, and services to see where we can cut down and be more efficient. Another trend is more transparency in government, and more interaction with City Council. City Council is more involved with Solid Waste than ever. There is also great focus on the goal of diverting from the landfill- Phoenix's goal is 40 by 20 (40% diversion rate by 2020).

Leadership in my Internship

How does leadership play a role in your internship? Are you able to demonstrate any leadership skills? How do your co-workers or supervisor display leadership capabilities?

This is a great internship because I get the chance to demonstrate my leadership abilities. I am definitely not running errands, making coffee, or collating copies. I am given projects to work on, and I must decide how to approach them and who I need to contact to get information. I work independently a lot, and I must be self-directed and self-motivated.

Last week, the other intern Patricia and I led a meeting to discuss communications and messaging for the city's new smaller trash container size. We presented our ideas and had a great discussion with several of our co-workers about different ways to explain and promote the new program to the public. Next Monday, we will present these ideas to the Assistant Public Works Director at a Solid Waste meeting.

My supervisor Lori demonstrates leadership capabilities in her job by guiding Patricia and I in our internship program. She supervises several other of my co-workers and is responsible for budgets and contracts. She has a very friendly and supportive leadership style, and so I really enjoy working for her.

Two Ride Alongs One Day

I had another 5:30 am work day, where I headed to the Salt River facility to meet up with a driver for my first ride along. This time I rode in a side-loading truck, which is the truck that picks up the residential trash cans on the street and in the alleys.

It was a lot bumpier than my last ride, with many starts and stops Albert, my driver, was a friendly guy who had been driving for 8 years. Like Zoolander, garbage trucks avoid left turns, so the route seems like you are just going in circles. However, as I learned when I spoke to analysts back at the office, these are actually the most efficient routes.

After riding around in the garbage truck for a few hours, I met up with the other intern and Ramon, a MET specialist. MET used to stand for Mobile Enforcement Team but now it stands for Mobile Engagement team (much friendlier). This unit deals with customers and various problems that come up with trash pickup. A common problem is that people's trees are overgrown and hanging out in the street. Not only is this a hassle for the drivers, but it is dangerous, as a low-hanging branch could break a windshield. The specialist talks to the resident, and if they do not address the problem within 7 days, they could receive a Notice of Violation.

Another issue was with an alley. Alleys have the large 300-gallon bins. This alley is next to private businesses, and there are a lot of problems with illegal dumping in their bins. To solve the problem, the City is proposing to give the 9 houses that use the alley their own green bins to put in the front of the house. We went door to door to give residents a survey. At least 75% of them must respond to the survey with a "yes" to the change before it can be put into effect. Some residents were home, and Ramon spoke to them about the survey. For the rest, we left the surveys at the door. We met the sweetest elderly lady ever, who was very friendly. Most of the residents seemed like they agreed that dumping is a problem.

To be honest, I am surprised the city does this kind of customer service. I would think they would just switch the street to curbside service, instead of gathering customer input in such a personal way. It's a great team that I had no idea even existed before I got into Solid Waste.

Luckily, no one slammed the door in our faces or yelled at us while we were out with Ramon. Plenty of customers get upset and are very sensitive about people coming onto their property. Ramon is a very personable and patient guy, so he is really good at dealing with all kinds of people.

This work "out in the field" has definitely been eye-opening, and hopefully I'll get to do more trips like this in my internship.

Reimagine Phoenix Campaign

Last Thursday, I attended a meeting with staff from Solid Waste and the consultants that are helping the City with its "Reimagine Phoenix" campaign. Their job was to come up with ideas for communicating this campaign to the public. It was pretty interesting for me to see the marketing side of city government.

Reimagine Phoenix is all about reducing, reusing, recycling, reconsidering, and reimagining. The consultants had some very visually appealing ideas for print ads and billboards using the pinwheel pictured above. The ads featured 2 items: one that can be recycled into the other, like tires into colorful sneakers.

The consultants also had ideas for radio, TV, and a website for Reimagine Phoenix, encouraging residents to think of trash as something that can be reused or recycled rather than thrown out. I really liked the website design, and I liked how they connected to social networks, especially Pinterest. I am a big Pinterest fan, and people post so many crafts and ideas on how to reuse items on that site.

One of the issues we discussed at the meeting was the magnets. In the past, Phoenix gave out magnetized laminates that describe the items that residents can recycle. However, the magnets are expensive to mail out to everyone. We were trying to think of new ideas of how to encourage people to recycle and also to recycle correctly. Some thought the magnets were still the best, and other ideas included a printable pdf, or a decal on the bottom of the recycling bin lid.

I am currently working on communications and messaging for Phoenix's pay-as-you-throw garbage program, which will roll out next year, so this meeting was very useful to me. I am excited to see the Reimagine Phoenix campaign roll out.

Career Services Write-Up

For my career services blog entry, I will be writing about my visit to see Maryjo Zunk, the School ofPublic Affairs’ career counselor. Although I was somewhat familiar with the resources available to me through ASU, Maryjo showed me how to use these resources to my advantage.

SunDevil CareerLink has a large amount of job listings to sort through. However, you can make job searching easier by selecting specific employers; you can see if they have hired anyone at ASU and they often have an ASU alumni contact. This includes many public service employers at every level of government as well as nonprofits.

Maryjo also showed me more ways to use LinkedIn. I have had a LinkedIn since I was an undergraduate, when I learned of its existence at an 85 Broads conference. However, I have not really used it much or kept it up to date. There are several ASU group available to join, and you can list skills that your connections can endorse, while you can endorse others’ skills. This is a good way to build up your profile. You can also connect to Maryjo, who is constantly connecting to alumnae and employers.

I am still working on my LinkedIn, but feel free to connect with me: www.linkedin.com/pub/megan-o-brien/4/b87/129