My Last Week

This was my last week and I have so much to be thankful for, especially for what I learned. Before this week I never received a call from the 12th floor that includes the City and Deputy City Managers' offices. My second to last day included a call from Suzanne the Assistant to the Manager. She requested that I meet with Jerome on my last day at 9am. I thought it was to go over the last of my projects and clue in those who will continue to work on them. However, when I arrived the next day both Brandi and Jerome were waiting by my office to take me for coffee. While eating my bagel and drinking coffee, they applauded all my work during the internship, gave me advice for the future, and gave me a parting gift. It meant so much to me that I became all teary eyed.

My last lunch was with Karen, John Wayne, and Jeff at 5R Cha down the street from City Hall. Jeff does not work in the office, but he is a lawyer and lobbyist who know Karen and John Wayne from past work. It was a fun lunch where we chatted about shows we watch and movies that were worth seeing. The food was delicious since Thai is one of my favorite foods. They have mild to super super super spicy levels of heat. I went medium and it was still a lot of heat for my tastebuds. After lunch we went back to the office where I continued to work but since it was Friday we really did not have much work.

After our weekly strategy meeting, Karen left for a meeting and everyone else was out of the office or off to meetings so John Wayne said to call it a day. We decided to walk down the street to Lucky Strike to celebrate my last day and meet the legislative liaison from the League of Towns and Cities. Since I had to work at my other job I could only stay for one drink. While there JW and I discussed my internship and he gave me his advice on where I should go next. He told me what firms were good places to work for and his experiences in how it shaped his career. His advice were very helpful and in the end I'm glad he was my supervisor.

Even though this was my official last week, I still worked on my projects since we had to wait for the City Council to come back off break. The first few Council meetings involved the budget and we gained more interest from other Council Members who wanted to participate. I'm happy they asked me to stay on to see these projects through, it means so much that they wanted me to stay on. The City taught me so much and I'm looking forward to applying my knowledge gained to future internships and jobs.

Weekly Strategy Meetings

Held every Friday! This meeting is light and basically an overview of what happened this week. This week was rather easy since we did not have many meetings but the office reviewed the next two weeks and it is very busy. I'm coming to an end with my internship so I'll miss those meetings. The Government Relations department has to submit to the City Manager a recap of what happened in local, county, state, and federal levels of government and where we are with the projects and lobbying. Whatever was discussed in the meeting was inserted in the memo. We also watched a short film (below) and the office said bye to me and the other intern.

Our office motto is Keep Calm and Carry On. The reason for why I named my blog "Keep Calm and Carry On" is for when we became frustrated or overloaded with work, we repeated this saying. We all have a notebook or picture of the poster on our desk. Karen made sure everyone had it near them and even a few people have it as their background on their phones. Lobbying is a stressful job as I heard stories from Karen, John Wayne, and Thomas. One story included a passage of a bill and the office stayed all night to prepare for a meeting with the Governor early the next morning. One intern came in early just to drive everyone to the meeting at the State Capitol. Every strategy meetings includes a trivia question or video. At this meeting we found out what Keep Calm and Carry On meant.

This is the video we watched about the origins of Keep Calm and Carry On. Enjoy!

love the little things

What I love about my internship is the reading of periodicals like New York Times, Arizona Republic, Governing, AZ Capitol Times, AZ Business Weekly. The office receives paper and on-line subscriptions to various newspapers and periodicals. We read them to stay up to date on what is being said in the media. I'm used to reading NY Times on a daily basis but stopped when they started the 10 articles per month rule. Since my internship ended I have not had the time to keep up with reading daily due to this rule so I miss my daily opportunity to read.

Another thing I love about my internship is the location of the nearest Starbucks. It is located on the first floor of City Hall. On my first day I was taken on a tour of the building and we ended at Starbucks. I love Starbucks so much that I have a gold member card where I earn rewards for drinking coffee so much. The staff are very friendly and if someone goes there a lot they remember your drink order. What is special about this location is that half of the sales goes to St. Joseph's Children's Hospital and the other half to the staff's wages. Starbucks very rarely gives away charitable locations such as the one in City Hall so Phoenix is lucky. I was always hesitant about paying $5 for a cup of coffee but not at this location.

Interview Skills

The Career Center offers students help with interviews, cover letters, resumes and anything else related to finding a job. I attended a seminar about a new resource. The resource is called Interview Stream. It is a website that allows a student to perform a series of mock interviews by videotaping through web cam. The student is asked a series of interview questions and then the program allows them to review the responses for performance evaluation. The software is easy to use and if still having trouble there are tutorials of what to do. The program also offers training modules that a student can watch to learn helpful tips on how to ace an interview. There are also expert tips to give general tips on succeeding during the entire interview process. This software is genius as it provides a student a chance to practice anywhere and at anytime.

Federal RFP

The whole office needed help with researching different firms that were looking to represent (lobby for) Phoenix in Washington. I liked this assignment because I had to the chance to dig up dirt on those wanting to represent. Each office member split up firms so every person had to research. Since the City put out a federal request for proposal (RFP), this information was beneficial to those who made the final decision in hiring. Since Phoenix does not have an office in Washington, we felt that it was important to find a firm that could accurately represent us and fight for our needs. The decision was not made until after I ended my internship but I read in the Arizona Republic that Phoenix decided on two law firms to represent us. I'm happy with the two firms they chose since each one has different qualifications to bring to the table.

Hello Governor (in my excellent English accent)

I was able to attend a meeting with one of the Governor's task forces at the State Capital. It is the Transaction Privilege Tax Simplification Task Force (TPT). Gov. Brewer signed an Executive Order establishing TPT. The task force consists of tax experts, municipal representatives, business owners, and others who have an influence on Arizona's sales tax code. The sales tax code is considered to be the nation's most complex and the TPT works to simplify taxpayer frustration. Following the Executive Order Gov. Brewer signed HB2815 into law, which is a tax-reform package aimed at increasing job creation and economic development. The TPT must report their findings to the Governor, Speaker of the House and Senate President no later than December 31, 2012.

The first meeting of the task force included an overview of Arizona's tax system, an introduction into TPT, differences between the model city tax code and state statute. They also decided on future meeting times and who would break up into working groups. The public also had time to ask questions then the meeting was adjourned. During the meeting, I had an embarrassing moment. I turned my phone to silent but did not know that I had an alarm set. Even though my phone was on silent it went off due to the alarm. Sitting in front of the room I disrupted the entire meeting and felt terrible. I now know to check all settings, or just leave my phone at the office or in my car.

Website for TPT:
http://www.azgovernor.gov/TPT/index.asp

Oh look more meetings!

I loved every meeting I've attended, whether it was at MAG, the League, or the Chamber of Commerce, but today's meeting almost put me to sleep. Sorry John Wayne. This meeting was at the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce with the Tax and Budget Committee. It was the first meeting of the season and they were meeting to edit their guidelines and vision. JW explained to me that this was a room full of lawyers and lobbyists that make our laws, so every word and sentence had to make perfect sense and not be redundant. The whole document explaining their mission, goals, vision, and guidelines took a couple hours to edit. What seemed like a good sentence to me was not good enough for the room full of committee members. The meeting ended at 3 and there was still more edits to be made so they saved them for the next meeting.

Dressing up for a Conference Call

Following my research on Phoenix being a healthy city and menu labeling, the city was invited to be a part of the Let's Move Campaign committee. The committee involves other cities, the First Lady and her staff, the White House's head chef, and a few other organizations. My superiors thought I would be helpful in attending the conference call because of the research I did and could give my opinions. I was able to listen in along with the Chief of Staff for a Council Member. Even though it was a conference call, I dressed up for the meeting because of who would be present. I value what was discussed because various organizations are working together to lower obesity rates in America by starting with children. If the children learn what is good and bad eating then it is possible to lower the nation's obesity rates.

The website for Let's Move:
http://www.letsmove.gov

Smart Choices

Following the research I did for Phoenix and the healthy cities rankings, I was asked to do research on cities implementing menu labeling and write an executive summary. I liked the work asked of me because it helps Phoenix become a better city for future generations. While on vacation in California I noticed the menus and how it had calories for every item and I thought this was an innovative way to help citizens order consciously. I like the idea of menu labeling because it enticed me to order healthier items.

This is the executive summary that I wrote:

Menu Labeling Executive Summary

Existing Laws Regarding Menu Labeling

• City
• New York City, Nashville, and Philadelphia have passed menu labeling laws.
• In July 2008, New York City became the first U.S. city to ban restaurants from using artificial trans fat, and required calorie counts on menus.
• Philadelphia passed the nation’s strongest menu labeling law, requiring chain restaurants with more than 15 restaurants to disclose nutritional information.
• County
• King County, WA (Seattle), Multnomah County, OR (Portland), Ulster County, NY, Westchester County, NY, and Suffolk County, NY, are the five counties to pass similar laws.
• King County, Washington requires chain restaurants with more than 15 national locations and $1 million in annual sales to display calorie, saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, and carbohydrate information.
• 18 months after the King County law started, the calorie content in foods dropped. It fell by an average of 7% at sit-down restaurants, while the declines were smaller at fast food establishments.
• Researchers believe the changes are due to smaller portion sizes, and restaurants substituting in lower calorie ingredients.
• State
• California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Oregon are the four states to pass menu labeling laws statewide.
• In June 2009, Oregon’s governor signed HB 2726 becoming the third state to require chain restaurants with 15 or more locations to post calorie information on menus and menu boards.
• Federal
• Section 4205 of the Affordable Care Act requires FDA to create menu-labeling regulations that affect all restaurant chains with 20 or more U.S. locations.

The Issue with Menu Labeling

            Studies were conducted to evaluate healthier eating choices when adding nutritional information to menus; research is inconclusive regarding the efficacy of menu labeling.

The Studies

• Pediatrics journal (Jan. 2010) reported that mothers made better choices for their children when provided with menus showing calorie information, but did not make the same decisions for themselves.
• Parents ordered an average of 102 fewer calories for their children than a control group not given calorie information.
• Stanford University studied customer habits at some Starbucks locations in New York City from January 2008 to February 2009 (straddling the period when the city’s menu labeling laws went into effect).
• After adding menu labeling, average calories per transaction decreased 6%, almost all of it related to food not beverages.
• Food calories per transaction decreased 14%.
• Of the calorie decrease, 75% came from buying fewer items and 25% from choosing lower-calorie items.
• Health Affairs journal surveyed 1,156 adults eating at fast-food restaurants in low-income, minority New York City neighborhoods.
• About half of the people noticed the calorie labeling, and of those, almost 28% said the information influenced their ordering.
• However, when researchers examined receipts, they detected no difference in calories compared with people surveyed in an area of New Jersey where the law did not apply and nutritional information was not available.
• American Journal of Public Health studied 303 people eating dinner, where they were randomly assigned to choose from a menu that had no calorie information, one that had calories, or one that had calories plus prominently displayed information on the recommended daily calorie intake for an average adult.
• The two groups with calorie information ordered 14% fewer calories overall at dinner than those without it.
• The group supplied with just the calorie information that were careful during dinner, consumed more calories later in the evening and ended up eating just as much as the no-calorie information group.
• Those who had a menu with the daily recommended calorie intake ate an average of 250 fewer calories during and after dinner.

Other Issues

• Restaurant foods are typically high in calorie content.
• The recommended calorie intake for an adult is 2,000 calories daily, and huge restaurant portions cause overeating leading to obesity.
• From studies conducted, it seems there is a lack of change to healthier eating when adding nutritional information to menus.
• Researchers believe menu labeling does not work but over time will potentially be effective. When it does become effective, the city might need to be prepared for decreased revenues.
• There is widespread confusion among consumers about how much they should consume in a day. How many calories it takes to maintain a healthy weight, is the question to be considered when implementing menu labeling.

The lbs. I'm gaining just walking in the door

It seems that every week there's a retirement celebration, birthday, someone bringing bagels and donuts, or "I just wanted to bake something." What goes along with all these celebrations are sweets. For someone who is training for a half marathon it was difficult to say no and keep up with the healthy eating. There are a few co-workers who showed extreme self-control and did not eat any desserts because of their dieting. The short breaks were always welcomed since we were working and looking forward to it. This was one way I was able to meet others who worked in different departments.

Cover Letters

Today I attended a session on creating the perfect cover letter. Since I'll soon be applying to internships for next summer, I need to make sure my cover letters are up to par with everyone else. I always find writing cover letters to the most difficult over interviewing and writing resumes. Cover letters are pretty much the only way to allow an employer to get to know you as a person and qualified candidate. The speaker gave good examples of cover letters and what not to put in them. I'm grateful that I attended this session since I wrote one today and it went fairly well. Let's hope I receive an interview!

The future of our light rail

During my internship I was able to attend several MAG meetings. The one that I found most interesting was the future of our transportation system specifically with the light rail. At this meeting, all the City Managers from Maricopa County were present and heard the report of where the future routes of light rail should go and what system we should use. The review of the report was very technical so I only understood about half of what was being discussed. Valley METRO and METRO Light Rail I believe works together to operate the light rail. I was impressed at how well all the cities work to make the light rail a success. They also work with other organizations like ASU. The light rail will hopefully extend to the ASU west campus in the next few years, which is impressive to know that someday all the campuses could be connected.

A request from above

This week Tom asked me to do some research for Jerome Miller, one of Phoenix's Deputy City Managers. Jerome is busy with overseeing several departments so I worked mainly with Brandi, his assistant, to complete the tasks assigned to me. At first this request did not seem like much fun but as time moved forward it become a project that I've become very proud of. This project and the following one both became resume builders that I can use in future internships or career. The first part of the project was to research the healthiest cities in America and where Phoenix falls into the ranks. Following my research I was asked to write an executive summary of my findings so I could present it to Council Member Valenzuela. This is what I wrote:

Briefing Council Member Valenzuela

Healthy City Rankings Review

The Issue

A literature review of electronic resources shows that Phoenix generally ranks mid-pack in terms of the “healthiest” largest city in the U.S.

AFI / The Measures

The American Fitness Index (AFI) is an initiative of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) that aims to assess the overall health and fitness of U.S. metropolitan cities. Scores are assigned by comparing various indicators to the national average and rewarding or penalizing the cities as appropriate. The scoring falls into two categories: 1) personal health indicators and 2) community and environmental indicators. The AFI report reflects a city’s preventive health behaviors, levels of disease conditions, health care access, and community resources and polices that support physical activity. The indicators that make the difference between a healthy, fitness-friendly city and one that ranks poorly is banning smoking in public places, adding parks, walking trails and bike trails, and prioritizing healthy habits. Many publications use various studies and reports, but the AFI is the most consistent report used. Forbes, NBC, Huffington Post, and other resources cite to the AFI where Phoenix ranks near the middle of all metro cities studied.

Another study is the Centrum Healthiest Cities Study which issued a “health report card” of U.S. cities. The 50 largest metro cities were tested against each other in five categories where Phoenix ranked 21st. Also, the Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index is another study to measure a city’s rank of happiness and health. The poll has surveyed more than 300,000 Americans and questions 1,000 people on a daily basis. The survey includes questions about jobs, finances, physical health, emotional state of mind, and communities. Phoenix ranks 69^th out of 190.

Phoenix

The AFI ranks Phoenix 32^nd among the 50 largest metro areas. Phoenix has the highest percentage of residents with asthma at 11.9%. Way below the average of 93.2, Phoenix only provides 71.0 health care providers per 100,000 residents. According to the AFI, 82.6% of Phoenix’s population reported participating in a physical activity in the last 30 days. With a decent amount of parkland, Phoenix fails in the number of recreational facilities provided leading to a 44^th ranking in community/environmental indicators.

Areas where Phoenix excels include: lower death rate for cardiovascular disease, lower death rate for diabetes, higher percentage of city land area as parkland, and more acres of parkland per capita.

Improvement priority areas for Phoenix are: higher percent with asthma, higher percent with angina or coronary heart disease, fewer farmers’ markets per capita, lower percent using public transportation to work, lower percent bicycling or walking to work, fewer ball diamonds per capita, fewer dog parks per capita, fewer playgrounds per capita, fewer golf courses per capita, fewer parks per capita, fewer recreation centers per capita, fewer pools per capita, fewer tennis courts per capita, lower park-related expenditures per capita, lower number of primary health care providers per capita. 

League Resolutions Sub-Committee Meeting

Today I had the chance to attend a meeting at the League of Towns and Cities. It's located next to the State Capital in an old white square building. I went with John Wayne to the Resolutions Sub-Committee Meeting where many city and town managers or government relations liaisons were present.     The topic was about the upcoming legislative session and possible 17 resolutions that may be presented to Legislature for consideration. The resolutions are issues from all over the state, where a group or single community wants Legislature to address and fix by supporting the resolution. Following this meeting, I had to prepare the documents needed for when the Mayors had their meeting at the end of August to discuss the Resolutions. It was an eventful meeting because every resolution was discussed, and in the end it with either amended, accepted, or rejected. In the end, all the resolutions were accepted or accepted after amendments were made. John Wayne explained to me that the resolutions were very tame as to what was presented in past years, and most likely all the resolutions will be accepted by Legislature. I'm looking forward to seeing how many are passed.

Nom Nom Nom

What I love about Downtown Phoenix are all the eateries. One of the ladies in the RWC was moving to another office, and we all decided to have lunch before she left. We went to Chloe's Corner, the first Downtown restaurant I've been to while interning. The menu choices were amazing and I always had the hardest time deciding what to order. During my first visit, I order the Chicken Pesto sandwich and it was so delicious. They also serve Iced Green Tea as an option and I love that! There are many other options for a quick lunch that I had a chance to enjoy including: 5R Cha Thai, any hot dog vendor, the 10th Floor Cafe in City Hall, Hoagie Factory, Chipotle, Five Guys Burgers, and a pizza shop. With Downtown expanding, there will be plenty of more options of restaurants to choose from and I cannot wait to try them out!

GRIC grants

This week I helped prepare the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) gaming revenue sharing grants. As part of the state's approval for gaming, all tribes with casinos must share 12% of their annual gaming revenues to either local or state governments. Each tribe can choose who they give their 12% to. GRIC decided to share their 12% with the City of Phoenix. The City receives the final prepared grants from City programs and local non-profits within the boundaries of Phoenix, and sends them to the GRIC grant reviewer. It was my duty to make sure there were 8 copies of the grant application and all the required documents. I then had to put them all together and have them ready for John Wayne to deliver to GRIC. We set a deadline early enough for the grants to be delivered on time. Many of the grants were over the maximum page limit but John Wayne said we had to deliver them as is, so we do not alter the documents. It was an interesting project because I was able to understand the different types of funding requested and what organizations need aid to better help the City.

What works in public works?

While waiting for John Wayne to finish a meeting with a Councilman, I sat in on the last part of the City Manager's Sub-Committee Meeting on Public Works. Three Councilmen and City Manager were heading the meeting with an audience of City employees and the public. When I first sat down to listen, the sub-committee was discussing the new change for collecting both recycling and trash. It was decided to move both collections to the same day since it would save the City money and also make it more effective. Moving from the same day collections, the sub-committee had someone come discuss the possibility of moving towards charging for plastic bag usage in stores. The speaker knew much about the topic as she discussed how well California and New York's program are working. The two main reasons for implementing such a program would be to increase revenues and become more sustainable. During the summer, I had a chance to visit L.A. and every time I went to a store I was charged 15¢ for using a plastic bag. After a while, I had to decide whether I needed the bag or could just take the items with me. I understand how this initiative could help the environment but I'm not sure what the public will think.

Meeting Our Mayor

During the first week I had the chance of meeting our Mayor and his staff. He asked about the MPA program and how I was liking the internship so far. He also asked my bosses about the meeting we just came out of and how I liked the meeting. His schedule is so busy and I had few opportunities to interact with him during my internship so I was happy we chatted quickly.

What I noticed is that he has a motivated staff and is rarely seen stressed or tense. He likes to constantly be up to date on what is going on with the City. I had the choice of two internships with the City, either with the Mayor's Office or Government Relations. I believe I made the right decision but sometimes wonder what it would have been like to intern in his office.

While with the City, the Mayor made national news from his accident playing basketball against the Phoenix Mercury team. It even made it onto TMZ, a celebrity gossip site, where the Mayor interviewed with the owner of the site. The owner tried to ask questions that would ruffle feathers but I believe he did a good job in answering all the questions in a professional manner. Our office had a laugh and joked about the Mayor's accident but it was good to see he was a good sport about the injury.

Who's it gonna be in 2012

With our department, politics plays an important role, especially during election season. Understanding who will run for Senate or House of Reps at the state level is key in deciding what issues will be affected that the City wants to push forward or change. At the beginning of every legislative session, the department meets with City elected officials in deciding where they want to go. Also, at the end of each session, the department writes an end of session report about every issue the City worked on, whether it passed or needed to be reworked into the next session. Knowing who will run in each district is important as to understanding whether they are a blue or red seat. With the unknown seats, they are colored yellow. I had to create a Legislative Race Candidates form that included all possible candidates and follow up with a Power Point map of both House and Senate to show Karen what's seats are open. Karen is a visual person so the map is really helpful in understanding who is the majority, but it is known that Arizona is a heavily Republican state. This assignment helped in my better understanding of state politics, and I am happy to say that I follow the race a little bit more.

Native Americans in Arizona

Whenever I'm not in a meeting or researching for the department, I'm updating the Native Americans in Arizona database. As discussed earlier, the big green binder is not used much but when it is is very helpful. The first assignment with the binder was preparing a document for the Mayor by using the Ft. McDowell Yavapai Nation's section. Being Navajo, I was interested and started looking through the binder noticing that the Navajo Nation was not included and it was out of date. Not many tribes have an up to date website and using ITCA's (Inter Tribal Council of Arizona) information isn't much help either. I found it rather difficult to update the information without calling the tribe itself and request what I needed. Making a long distance call is hardly ever used in the department because we are charged for every minute. Since the budget is consistently cut every year, the department needs to watch where it makes unnecessary expenditures. So with the information I already had and what I could find, I rewrote almost all of it but upset that I couldn't complete the binder. I had a lot of fun learning about the 22 tribes in Arizona, never knowing the smaller ones and understanding the larger ones from the governmental side.

Federal Lobbying

I haven't posted in two weeks so now I'll catch up. Tom asked me to sit in on a conference call with one of our federal lobbyist teams, McBee Strategic. Some larger metropolitan cities are able to keep an office in Washington D.C. to conduct their own lobbying but Phoenix does not. We have two teams lobbying for issues concerning Phoenix like: Infrastructure, Aviation, Transportation, Water, and Environmental. The City hires lobbyists depending of their specialty and as we need specific or more general concerns addressed.

The conference call lasted about an hour where we simply went over the latest issues that happened since the previous call. A new technology is being used by the City called Sharepoint, that allows for people to have meetings across the country without actual meeting in person. We can make instant changes to documents on Sharepoint, view presentations, schedule future meetings through calendar, and view past notes on meetings. What I like about Sharepoint is that we are able to all see the same page and not be confused about what is being discussed.

One topic that I found interesting in the meeting was the Brownfields. At the time I did not know what they were and researched the topic. The Brownfields is a term used to describe real estate that is contaminated or perceived to be contaminated by hazardous substances or petroleum in soil or groundwater. The complexity and cost of cleanup creates an obstacle to redevelopment or reuse of the property. The cleanup and redevelopment of the Brownfields bring many economic development benefits to a community. The benefits of redevelopment include: job creation, increase of property values, reduction of potential health risks, and revitalization of neighborhoods.

To learn more about the Brownfields look here:
http://phoenix.gov/greenphoenix/land/brownfields/index.html

What is the RWC?

The Regional Wireless Cooperative (RWC) is an independent, multi-jurisdictional organization which manages and operates a regional radio communications network built to seamlessly serve the interoperable communication needs of first responders and other municipal radio users in and around Central Arizona's Valley of the Sun. Formerly known as the Phoenix Regional Wireless Network, the RWC has expanded to service a still growing list of 18 cities, towns, and fire districts, along with many other area entities who serve public safety needs. The RWC was formed through a governance structure founded on the principle of cooperation for the mutual benefit of all members. The RWC was placed within the Government Relations department due to the importance of its mission. The staff is small and comprised of four people who work towards improving public safety radio communications in the Valley. 

My first task!

My first day was an eventful one! I had intentions of learning more about how tribes work with other governments and organizations, like Phoenix, but didn't expect it to happen this fast.

Before I start, I wanted to mention my blog posts. Since this is fall semester and my internship was this past summer, I may refer back to the day as if it happened today. I kept a detailed journal and use it to write my blog.

When I first came into the office most of the staff was not in yet so I learned how to open my email and login to the system. Every morning, the department comes in and reads daily publications and periodicals to learn about what is happening in the political world. I read a few articles John Wayne thought would be beneficial to the issues I would learn about. They also answer correspondence and go over what happened the day before. Karen must submit at the end of the week a "weekly" report to David Cavazos about what happened during the week. It includes bill tracking and issue reporting relating to the city on the local, state, and federal level. We also have within our department the RWC or Regional Wireless Cooperative. I'll discuss the RWC in another post. Following an introduction into the department and taking a tour, I was given my first task.

The department has a thick binder about the Native American Communities in Arizona. It includes maps of all the tribes, election dates, leadership positions, and any information relating to the tribe. If a tribe has a Constitution or other relevant document, it is also included in the binder. The binder has not been updated in a while and needed to be. I worked on this binder throughout my internship and still left a few sections needing to be updated.

The first tribe I updated in the binder was Ft. McDowell Yavapai Nation. President Pattea was coming to meet Mayor Stanton the next day, and Stanton wanted to learn more about Ft. McDowell and the President. I researched Ft. McDowell and rewrote the section so it could be included in the daily packet that Stanton reads to be prepared for his next day's meetings. Since being in his position, Stanton has met with businesses, governments/organizations, and tribal communities to become acquainted with their work. Meeting with tribal community heads is an area he finds important. After submitting my research, John Wayne informed me that I would be sitting in on the meeting between Stanton and Pattea. The meeting was very informational and I was honored to be there to see how the city works with tribal governments, like Ft. McDowell. Due to sensitivity and confidentiality of the information, I cannot discuss what was said during the meeting.

Where I'll be during the summer months

The City of Phoenix is Arizona's capital and the sixth largest city in the United States. With over 15,000 employees, the city takes care of more than 1.4 million residents by various departments and services funded from the budget. In 1913, Phoenix turned to a council-manager form of government.

This is a link to a pdf file that will show the organizational chart for the City of Phoenix:
http://phoenix.gov/citygovernment/facts/facts/index.html

As you can see the Public is highest in the organizational chart because the Mayor, City Council, and underlying positions and departments make decisions based from and for the public. The chief administrator who operates the city on a daily basis is the City Manager; he has several managers that help in the process. Since Phoenix is undergoing management change due to two retirements, there are interim and newly placed managers.

The Government Relations department falls within the responsibilities of Karen Peters, who is the Senior Executive Assistant. She is also the director of the Government Relations department. This is where I interned for the summer and was able to see how the city interacts with the federal government, the state of Arizona, other cities and towns, tribal communities, Maricopa County, and various agencies and organizations. At the same time, the department provides grant coordination to organizations within the city.

Staff within the Government Relations department are:
Karen Peters - She is a former lawyer who has many years of experience in water law, and once was a partner at a successful law firm in Phoenix. With the help of others in the department, she is able to stay updated on all government actions that affect Phoenix and present them to the City Manager, Mayor, and Council.
Thomas Remes - He works mostly on federal issues affecting Phoenix, especially interacts with the lobbyists that we use in Washington D.C. Focus areas for our federal lobbying are: transportation, infrastructure, water, and environmental.
John Wayne Gonzales - He is the main person I worked with because he oversees the interns. John Wayne is the Intergovernmental Liaison (or lobbyist) for the department and during session spends most of his time at the State Capitol. Working mainly with state and tribal communities, John Wayne has over 11 years of experience with the department. He also oversees the tribal gaming revenue sharing that the city receives from the various tribes that have casinos.
Kathya Hidalgo - David Cavazos, City Manager, believed Phoenix could work more on finding grant funding so he had our department hire someone specifically to work on grants. Kathya is the lady who has this responsibility.
James Orlowski - James is our administrative guy who works a lot on our department budget. This summer I took Budget and Finance, and he helped explain how the budget works for our department which was tremendously beneficial. He also conducts research for the department as needed. Other than that I'm not too sure what he does since I did not work with him or Kathya as much.
Terrie Wimberly - One of the sweetest lady's I have ever met, she is Karen's assistant and office administrator to our department. From the beginning of my internship, she has helped in any way possible whether it was setting up my email or making sure my badge worked properly.

Before we get started

Hello!

My name is Jacqueline. I'm pursuing an MPA with a concentration in Urban Management, and will finish this upcoming May. I'm one of the few people in Phoenix, AZ to say they were born and raised here. Most of the people I meet are from other places who moved to Arizona for the dry predictable weather. It's what I love about Arizona; how we have all sorts of people and backgrounds. I have two dogs, Missy (a Pug) and Stan (a Shih Tzu), they are the oddest pair since Missy is 16 and Stan is 1. Outside of school I like to watch tv and movies but I also bartend and serve at a restaurant, so most of my time is devoted to studies and work. Favorite movies include: Steel Magnolias, Dazed and Confused, Groundhog Day, 25th Hour, The Departed. Favorite tv shows are: Suits, True Blood, Grey's Anatomy, Sons of Anarchy, Friends. My favorite basketball and baseball team are the Boston teams (Celtics and Red Sox). I'm a Sun Devil fan for life, which is hard on half my family who are Wildcat fans. With all my life experiences, I hope to find a job that keeps me happy but try to be realistic. Currently, I would like to pursue a position with a tribal or local government in intergovernmental relations/affairs and policy/legislative analysis. After interning this summer, my decision became more firm of working in the public sector.

Thanks for reading and I hope to show insight into my internship with the Government Relations department at the City of Phoenix!