Hi, welcome to Podsdale.

I'm your host, Holly Walter from the Office

of Communication sitting here thinking about

something, I think we all dream about, retirement!

But before we talk more about that, I am going to turn

it over to Stephanie Hirata for this episode's Fast Five.

Hi, I'm Public Affairs

Specialist, Stephanie Hirata with five fast

things happening around the city you need to know.

We started the list at number five and

the Scottsdale Unified School District.

We've teamed up with the school district to provide

free lunches for kids and teens throughout the summer.

Parents and guardians can pick up lunches in the lower level

lobby area of Civic Center Library from noon to 1:00 PM

every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday through the end of July.

Number four is all about helping others.

How?

By donating blood.

You have the power to save up to three lives with one donation.

Mark your calendars for our next blood drive from 8:30

AM to 12:30 PM on June 10th at Scottsdale City Hall.

You can reserve your spot today online by visiting bloodhero.com.

Scottsdale's back to school program is in our number three spot.

School is barely out, but we need donations now.

We're gearing up for this important program

for when kids return to school in August.

Vista Del Camino's back to school program provides essential

school supplies to more than a thousand students each year.

Students need new clothing, socks, underwear,

shoes, backpacks, and school supplies.

Learn how you can donate items or money at

ScottsdaleAZ.gov and search 'back to school'.

The Paiute Neighborhood Center is at number two.

The Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines will be

available to the public from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM on June 15th

at the center, which is located at 6535 East Osborn Road.

Registration is encouraged, but walk-ins are welcome.

Need help with registration?

Call Paiute at (480) 312-2529.

And our number one Fast five spot goes to Scottsdale!

Go Scottsdale!

It's your birthday!

Gunna to party like it's your birthday!

Did you know that on June 25th we will,

celebrate our 70th year as a municipality?

To commemorate this special anniversary, the city is

hosting several family friendly events and you're invited

to join in on the fun and learn some Scottsdale history.

Learn more and check out the lineup of events at

ScottsdaleAZ.gov and search '70th anniversary'.

And that's our Fast Five for this episode of Podsdale.

Got something for a future Fast Five?

Tell us by emailing communications@scottsdaleaz.gov.

I'll turn it back over to you, Holly.

Thanks Stephanie.

Before I get into the topic of this episode, I'd like

to announce that Appaloosa Library Branch Manager,

Sky Larsen was our recent trivia question winner.

When she correctly stated that the International

Conference and Training Seminar for Police Chaplains

is what we will be hosting in July here in Scottsdale.

Sky, watch your email, we'll be sending a gift card your

way, and you can also have an opportunity to win a gift card.

Listen to our trivia question at the end of the

episode and email Communications@ScottsdaleAZ.gov

with your answer to be entered into our drawing.

Okay, well, don't we all look forward to retirement?

I know I do, but I do have two city employees here

who are retiring and today in fact is their last day.

We have Brad Hartig, he's had 30 years with the City of

Scottsdale and he's leaving as our Chief Information Officer

and Reed Pryor, who's a Parks and Recreation Department

Director, who's been with Scottsdale for 16 years.

Can you give us a rundown of your city careers?

Where did you start?

Where have you been and what led

you both to your current positions?

I'll start with Brad.

I started at the city in 1991.

I was the Strategic Planning and Support Manager.

They hired me to build a plan or transition them off of their

mainframe to more of a modern computing infrastructure, that

was a network-based and and with a micro or mini computers.

And at the time they were just announcing PCs.

From there, in 1997, I was promoted to Enterprise Manager.

And then again, in 2000 I was promoted to a Enterprise Director.

And then in 2003 the existing CIO

stepped down suddenly and unexpectedly.

And I was tapped on the shoulder to take on the interim role.

And I did that for about, oh, probably three to

four months and ultimately my manager at the time

felt that I was doing a good job in that role.

And I was appointed, so I felt very, very fortunate.

You know, that they had the trust in me and they had

the confidence in me and you know, the rest is history.

It's been 18 years as CIO and it's,

it's been a really good experience.

I think that will be a record, 18

years in that position, that might be hard to break.

It might take awhile for that to happen.

Yeah, it definitely is.

And i'm very, very proud of my career and very proud of

the staff and hopefully the legacy I've been able to leave.

It's interesting as well, to hear

that you, something that started out as an interim

position, turned into, you know what it is today

and, and you just never know how those things happen.

Exactly.

I mean, it it's very, it was very fortunate for

me and to have had the confidence, the leadership

to have the confidence in me and put me into that

role and then to think of where we are today.

I'm very proud of what we've been able to accomplish as a team.

I'm going to turn it over now to Reed.

Why don't you provide us with a rundown of your career Reed?

All right, Holly.

I came to the city in 2005.

I started out as the Parks and Recreation Manager.

I was one of three that oversaw the

maintenance program within the department.

I had the north area parks, and all the sports

fields and just all of our community centers

and programs up in the north end of town.

And over a period of time, a couple of my counterparts

retired and my responsibilities have broadened a little bit.

So I took on a little bit of the roles that they had, and

then I volunteered to get involved with the, management of the

golf course contracts, when Tom Beet left the city years ago.

I'd had a lot of experience in the golf business.

I was a director of golf for the City of Indianapolis

for seven years, we had 12 courses there.

So it was kind of a natural fit to get

involved in what Tom had been doing.

So I did that for a number of years.

And then, another fellow retired and he was

overseeing the contract with the San Francisco Giants.

So I got involved overseeing the stadium and the professional

baseball end of our business and working with the

Giants on Spring Training and the minor league program.

And then as we went along the director who

proceeded me, it was Jan Cameron, Jan had been here

a number of years with the city and had retired.

And when she retired I applied for,

and was selected to take this role.

And I've been in this job for about a little over six years now.

It's been very enjoyable.

We get involved in a lot of things.

Everything from, you know, maintenance of the medians

and right away landscaped areas, to the Scottsdale

Soccer Complex, to the to working with the team at

TPC Scottsdale to run uh, Waste Management Open.

We also work with the folks at Westworld, particularly

now since they're part of Community Service.

So, so we actually touch a lot of different things,

but it's been really a rewarding experience.

And I have to ask you, Reed, you

must be a baseball fan or, or golfer right?

With what you do.

Yeah.

I'm probably leaning more towards the golf side.

But you know, baseball has been a pretty well tied to

the city here was spring training for a number of years.

So, we had a lot of involvement with that

program there at the stadium as well.

And together you both have collectively

46 years of experience with the city, so I can only

imagine that you've seen a lot of changes happen

over the time you've both been with the city.

I'll start with you Reed, what are some of the things that you've

seen change from the day you started with Scottsdale to today?

Well, one of the things I think we've

seen is, we've been fortunate over the years, when

I first started here, we were under construction at

the Scottsdale Sports Complex, at Hayden and Bell.

We saw the, the completion of that.

And then recently here, with some of the bond projects that

are starting to come on board from the 2019 bond election.

We're seeing some of these things that we've planned and

hoped to build at some point now actually coming true.

So that's been a great thing to see.

And then we've built some other

smaller parks around the community.

We're looking at the Indian Bend Wash project down there.

That's going to be coming probably in the next couple of years.

We've seen our programs and the recreation side greatly expand.

Our aquatics program is really, I think

one of the top programs in the country.

I think we've also got a sports program,

which is kind of second to none in the valley.

We bring in an awful lot of tournaments and events and

they're bringing a lot of people to visit the city.

We also have a very good youth program that we work

with club teams and little league groups to provide

sports activities for the local residents as well.

So I think we have a really good balance of programs.

And then we work very closely with our Human

Services counterparts and our Library counterparts

to program and do things around the city.

They're very gracious to let us use their

facilities to offer leisure ed programs.

And it's been a really, a nice thing to see

the, you know, the shared use of facilities

and programming space that we have there.

So.

I think we're pretty fortunate with what we have.

I mean, we're not the biggest city in the world

that we have an awful lot of good programs and

services for the size of the community that we are.

Oh, absolutely.

And I think it says a lot about Scottsdale that we truly

are a destination for many of these sports teams to host

competitions and you know, people want to come here.

Yes, they do.

I think this past year, you know, it's been

trying for everybody, but we worked very hard.

I had to put in place, good safety protocols

that allowed us to operate a lot of our sports

programs, where other communities didn't.

And I think it's a credit to our staff for the hard work

that they put into developing the protocols and working with

our public safety folks to get those in place and monitor

those so that we can operate the way we have this past year.

It's been a nice thing to see.

And we've got an awful lot of nice comments and

accolades from the users to be able to be out there.

Yeah, absolutely.

That says a lot.

And I know there's been a lot of work behind

the scenes to make those things happen.

Now, switching over to IT Brad, I don't know, even know where you

would start with 30 years of time and changes, but what, what are

some of the things you've seen since the start of your career?

Well when I started the career,

to kind of, my career, to put things in

perspective we had overhead projectors here.

I don't know if people remember those, but it was you'd

have your presentation and you would put it through a

copy machine with clear foils and you'd put it up there.

And that's how you did your presentations.

The Invention of the PC was just starting

and the use of networks was just starting.

So in the early nineties we implemented a fiber optic network

that we're still using today for both of our campuses.

And.

It's just been kind of a technological journey,

from one system or one technology to the next.

I think if you look at it where we were, where we

were positioned versus a lot of other cities when the

COVID came in we had the Microsoft platform in teams.

We were able to get close to a thousand workers actively working

from home and efficiently in a very short period of time.

There's been so much change and it's just incremental

over time that you have to keep out in front of it.

And that's something that I really am very proud of.

My department and my team, we always

seem to be out in front of that.

Most recently, we're finishing the implementation of a

business continuity disaster recovery site at another

location up in north Scottsdale to where we'll have

redundancy to our systems to protect ourselves, both

from a natural disaster and also from cyber disasters.

We've done a lot of hardening from there.

We've you know, this last year It's not very well

known, but we did have a cybersecurity event.

And that was actually the, probably the worst day possible.

It was the day of the Waste Management Open.

It was a morning, Saturday morning, staff was able

to get their arms around it, get servers rebuilt.

And we were back online by Sunday evening

and honestly staff didn't know about it.

And.

And neither did the press.

So those, those types of things are really rewarding to me.

I, I feel very good with where my staff

is right now and where I'm leaving things.

We have very good succession and, and depth to the team.

I know that, Scottsdale is known locally and nationally

for its technology, innovation and leadership.

Well connected, from a national level and local

level, and we've always been strong contributors

and, and participants in those types of things.

And it could be anything from the Smart Cities Initiative

we're working on right now with the connective and, and Brent

Stockwell is actually one of the regional representatives

for that, to the regional wireless cooperative, which is a

public safety radio system that was developed for the valley.

And I was very much on the ground for, of, of helping

get that established, where 19 agencies throughout

the valley have seamless radio communications.

So it's, there's just so many things I can't really hit on

them all, but those are some of the ones that I'm most proud

I can imagine that's a proud moment to have

a breach, like you mentioned, and for us as employees

to just really go forward without, without skipping a

beat and not even realizing there was a problem, it just

speaks to what your team is doing behind the scenes.

I'll also add that, that was a super bowl weekend.

So our staff had to work through the the event, but it

was very rewarding and we even had comments from our our

third party provider, who does some security workforce,

that they were very impressed that both from a public

sector or a private sector company, that we had it contained

and remediated faster than they probably have ever seen.

Well, it's, that's the true

definition of when it rains, it pours right?

Yes it is.

(Laughs)

Now, Brad, what are some of your other memorable

career moments or highlights during your time with the city?

I know you are one of our Donaldson recipients.

You know, there's been just so many large

projects and initiatives, but one that really stands

out to me is the transition of the fire department.

And that was right after I had stepped into my new role.

We basically owned all the stations, but nothing in them.

So we didn't own any of the technology in them.

Trucks, but nothing on them.

We didn't have any staff.

We bought the Wiseman Public Safety

Building, but, it, it needed a lot of work.

We ended up putting over 32 miles of a network cable in there.

And if you think about that, you stretch, stretch

it end to end, that's about how long Scottsdale is.

So we had 18 months to do it.

We put in a new radio system with all new towers

and infrastructure, which was a challenge with

our citizens to get them to understand that.

Why we needed it and how quickly we needed it.

We put in a new records management system.

We put in a new scheduling system and we onboarded,

you know, 200 plus people with new PCs and new systems.

So, and I think one of the things that was so unique about

that; we all have deadlines and, and I know Reed, you

could even probably speak to this as far as the stadium

remodel and, and you know, being ready for spring training.

But there's a lot of things within the city

that don't have a hard and fast deadline.

And it was July 1st, 2005 that we, everybody

in the city and it wasn't just IT that was

the other thing that was so neat about it.

You know, we had facilities involved, you had HR involved.

There was, there was so many players that had to

work together to take it across the finish line.

And, and we did, and it was just such a rewarding moment.

When, you know, we flipped the switch on July 1st and

everything worked and everything was very, very seamless.

So that's probably the, probably the cornerstone for like mine.

Amazing, I mean, 32 miles,

that's a visual that's in my head now.

Reed, what about, what about you, in terms of

memorable career moments or highlights that

you've had during your time with Scottsdale

Some of our facilities we've

been able to either build or renovate.

You know, Brad mentioned the Scottsdale Stadium.

That was a project that was on a pretty tight timeline.

There was not much wiggle room in the schedule.

It had to be done in order to be ready for

the Giants when they first moved into town.

We were able to do that.

We had a few glitches along the way,

but everything was able to to run fine.

And so that's been a very nice one.

We went through some renovations on some other

properties particularly the one I liked is the TBC.

We did a renovation on the golf course, and the stadium course.

We worked with the tour and the

city to do a renovation out there.

We've seen the youth sports field allocation

group has really grown in their efforts to bring

the sports into the program, into the community.

Whether it's through local competition or like, I mentioned

before, some of the teams that come in from out of town.

I mean, everybody knows Scottsdale is a tourist destination.

And I think our team and the sports group had really

done an excellent job of trying to support that effort.

Our afterschool programs and our

overall youth development programs.

We've seen those things grow over the years and we partner

with the Scottsdale Unified Schools to provide these programs.

You know, the afterschool program we provide some

of the intercession programs when they have breaks.

We also do the summer programs at the school sites.

Those provide great services to the, to the families

in town that have youth that need a place to go.

That's safe and fun for the kids.

And our staff does an excellent job of

providing locations for those programs.

Those are some of the things I'm most proud of.

And then the fact that we were able to successfully champion

the bond projects in 2019, and we've already completed a few of

those projects and two of them are under construction right now.

So seeing those things come along and start, I

think are some of the things I'm most proud of.

So many things that you do touch so many

people and places and programs throughout the city.

And on that note, and you've both mentioned this a little

bit in some of our earlier conversation, but you're

both wrapping up your careers, taking on one of the

biggest challenges any of us have probably faced both

personally and professionally, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reed, how did that change your work and

what has the past year been like for you?

Well, it really kind of put the brakes

on everything with us, for a period of time.

So many of our programs, you know, touch the public

in different ways, whether it's in one of the

recreation programs for youth or leisure ed classes

or someone just using the park or the tennis court.

We had to take a pause and we actually

went out and closed facilities.

We physically put up caution tape around basketball

courts and different facilities and signage went up

everywhere and everything just kind of ground to a halt.

And then over a period of time, you know, we would you would hear

different executive orders come out of the governor's office.

And some of those were based on CDC recommendations.

So we would take, take those things and

then we would decide, okay, we're good.

We feel we can move back into this area

and open that area back up a little bit.

So as we went through that different iterations of executive

orders and things, we would open things back up, and then we

would work with our facilities crew on additional cleaning.

And so, over a period of time, we started opening

things up and then we started looking at our sports

programs and that was, something we felt we could do.

It's outdoors, we did ask people to wear masks and,

and distance around the fields that we had out there.

And so many people were clamoring for something to

do because virtually everything else was closed.

So we were able to put together programs with our staff

and working with the special events guys in PD and fire,

and with Cheryl Sumners and her team, to develop protocols.

And then we would run those through legal, make sure

that they all agree, we were adhering to all the

executive orders and policies that were in place.

And we were able to just, slowly but surely get

back into business, but it was extremely trying.

We had an awful lot of phone calls.

Some people thought we were crazy for trying to have

anybody in the parks, but on the other hand, you'd

have equal number of calls that were so happy that

we were trying to bring some activity back to the

community that it was, we had to have a balance there.

And but it didn't seem to matter, some days you were catching

comments that were good and some days not so good, but

overall, our staff really worked hard to bring programs back.

And I think we've we've done it safely.

And I'm very proud of the fact that our team was able

to kind of stay the course with it and get the programs

out there that people really were, were looking for.

And I think we've been successful with that.

I can't even imagine the amount

of work that has gone into all of those

changes that have occurred over the past year.

I know for me personally, I don't think I would have

ever imagined seeing playgrounds and basketball courts

having to be closed as they did, but I think your group

did a fantastic job evolving as the pandemic changed.

And as you mentioned, policies changed and, and you

know, really doing your best to make our amenities

accessible to anybody who would like to enjoy them.

Brad let's move on to you.

What are some of the things that your

team worked on over the past year?

I know it's been quite a bit.

Yeah.

I think as Reed said he and his staff had to pump the brakes.

We actually had to, to put our foot on the

gas and in a very short period of time enable

our workforce to be able to work from home.

So deploying all kinds of additional resources, whether it's

phones or PCs, everybody was trying to leverage what they had.

And also in some cases, it actually, in a lot of cases things

that were more of a loner type basis, whether they're for

conference rooms or things like that we were, provisioning

those and getting people to where they could work from home.

And I think we did a very good job.

In many cases, doing things that you

wouldn't traditionally do from home.

For example, our call center right now, is remote.

And so it's not as though, they used to have to

come into the office and be in the office and we've

been able to do some technology or implement some

technology that's been able to assist with that.

And then the, I think that the biggest thing that we had

to do was really ramp up our organizational training.

There was a lot of new adoption of things, whether it be

teams or SharePoint or, or just a lot of the tools that the

Microsoft Product line had available and they were there,

but it didn't receive the adoption that it had in the past.

And I think what happened was the lights started going on.

People were a little bit intimidated with it before,

but once they, you know, kind of put their toe in the

water, they said, well, this is, this is pretty good.

And so.

I'm very, very proud of what we've been able to

accomplish and continue to accomplish at teams.

You look at the various leadership

forums that we have at this point.

And prior to this, you know, we'd go to Mustang Library

or to a Civic Center Library or, or the, the Nave.

And we'd have 60, 70 people.

We're consistently up to, you know, 120, 140 people.

And that's kind of where I see things in the future.

I know that the majority of my staff was, and

still is mobile there's those people that.

With their job, they have to be in, it's just like a

facilities person with plumbing or electrical or whatever.

Our it technicians, they need to be able to

be in the office and put hands on equipment.

And we have our, a radio team is another team or much

of our communications team that does the network.

We have those roles that are definitely require the

hands-on, but those that don't we've been leveraging the

work from home model and found it to be a highly successful.

I think one of the keys there is the communication.

I know all of my management staff has standup meetings

with their staff, typically, two to three times a week.

I know I did with my direct reports every

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:30.

We'd get together, we talk about, you know,

what we've accomplished and also what were

going to be working on in the next few days.

And I think it really, from my perspective is

probably even enhanced communications amongst

work groups and staff and even our customers.

Previously, it was very easy to, you know,

call somebody and they weren't in their office.

But now with teams being on your city phone, personal

phone on your, even your personal computer at home I found

that the ability to get hold of people and be able to do

real time work or interaction has enhanced significantly.

And then finally, and this is kind of a, this

is early on, but as part of our cares funding we

did allocate some money for video conferencing.

And the idea there is that.

We're going to enable various

conference rooms throughout the city.

We've done the first three.

We did the pilot and then two more where we're going

to be able to continue to do social distancing.

So a conference room maybe where originally you would

have 12 people in there meeting, and you couldn't,

you could use two rooms even in two campuses and

have a very real, seamless experience with high

resolution cameras and incredible voice quality.

So that's coming down the pike and

something for people to look forward to.

No.

I just want to say, I mean, I am not the most

technological savvy person by any stretch of

imagination and just seeing what is out there.

And I think what Brad's team has been able to put in

place you know, using the teams programs, using zoom for

public meetings and staff meetings and things like that.

And, and then the use of tablets and

laptops and the working from home.

It was something that was above my pay grade and

to just be able to see how that has come into our

everyday life, has really been kind of amazing to me.

And I know that your group has really

been instrumental in making that work.

and I mean, just our Park Commission meetings,

when we would struggle to try to get seven

people in the same place at the same time.

And now with the technology of using these

remote meetings, it's been wonderful.

I mean, you save untold amount of time running around and,

and, you know, hauling things from this site to that site.

And it's just been great.

I would never believed if I had to

say that, but it's, it's been great.

I think Brad's group has really been

instrumental in helping us get there.

I appreciate that.

Thank you Reed and I do, first of

all, I do appreciate, and it's something that I did

not highlight, but it is the public meetings and

the public access that we've been able to enable.

And the only other point that I would make

is I really don't see this going away.

I think it's a new way of doing business.

I do think that there'll be a time when we come back

to the office, but I believe we will still leverage

these tools in the efficiencies that Reed just

talked about, both with our citizens and internally.

It gives us a whole nother opportunity to reach a number

of constituents and people that we normally may not reach.

Just either they didn't have time or even the desire,

but if we make it as easy, as we have now, I'm

hoping that we can increase engagement significantly.

Absolutely.

I definitely echo everything Reed just said it's,

it's certainly has changed the way we work day

to day and how the city operates as a whole.

So I think those changes have been good.

Reed, what would you advise someone who is just

beginning their career at the city of Scottsdale today?

I think they need to take advantage

of everything that this city has to offer.

From, from an employee standpoint, I think.

You know, all the programs and things that are

available whether it's training, it's involvement.

You know, we have many, we touched pretty much

every aspect of the city at one point or another.

And I think if you can get in to branch out or

reach out to others, to get different experiences

for yourself, I think that is very valuable.

And I think, you know, getting to know the community.

Our community is, at times, very vocal.

But they're, that comes from them

being engaged and I think that's good.

So I think, you know, learning how to communicate with

the public and one of the best things we can do is listen.

Sometimes we may not agree with what we hear, but I think if you

let somebody talk and tell you what that is that they're after,

they can you know, you can both learn a little bit from it.

Well, I think just taking advantage of what we

have here is, is really something that I think

is very valuable to someone new coming in.

And I think you, I was lucky in my

career, I've worked a few other places.

I've worked for a fortune 500 company.

I've worked in larger communities and smaller

communities and everything else about it.

When I came here, I just, I noticed that the

environment, the work environment is different.

The people here have a great attitude about their job.

They really care about their job.

They care about the city.

And I think they care about each other a lot.

And I've seen a few other places that that's not quite the case.

Value what you have here, because it's

not always the case in other places.

And I saw that right off the bat when I

came here and I've always appreciated that.

That's solid advice.

I think, I think I noticed the same.

You know, when I started with the city as well.

How about you, Brad?

I, I think what he just

said is, is very, very solid advice.

The other thing that I would say is that we have so

many talented staff and, and departments and we all

play a role in one way or another in providing services

to our citizens and to really be a team player.

To realize that we're just one cog on the

wheel that makes Scottsdale such a great city.

And that's one of the things that I I'm very proud

of and pleased about is that Scottsdale truly is

extremely collaborative on what they do every day.

The various departments and working together it, it's

something that you want to make sure that you're doing and

I even say to my own, the new hires, that I come here, that

come into my department is that team is very important.

Whether it's within IT and our various competencies

that we have here or within IT and other areas of the

organization, just leverage that, take advantage of it.

And it's amazing what you can do.

If you do that and then that combined with what Reed said with

the, you know leveraging or taking advantage of all the resources

you have, whether it, whether it be training, whether it be just

the programs, the lunch and learns, there's just a wide variety

of ways that you can get engaged network and grow your career.

Absolutely.

Now here's the burning question.

We all want to know, to you both.

I'll start with you, Brad, what are your retirement plans?

What are you going to be doing?

That's an interesting one.

Because I had really decided to retire a couple years ago.

I put my eye on a date.

And it was well before COVID and I stuck to it

and COVID has definitely put a wrinkle in things.

So I have, I have two things right now that are kind of impacting

me doing what I ultimately want to do, which is travel the world.

I have a rescue dog that I picked up in 2012

that I'm not exactly sure how old he is.

But he's getting on in age and I really don't want

to leave him a home alone or, or put him in a kennel

or, or, and I just, we're going to kind of just enjoy

life around the house and around not even the house.

I mean, we take him all over the place.

He goes to California.

He goes to different places with

us, but kind of see that through.

And then, we want to travel the world.

But the challenge there is COVID.

I know that we could, we both my wife and I have both

been vaccinated and we're fully vaccinated, but I

want to experience the culture that the world has to

offer, not just go see the land and the buildings.

And I think right now in the current state, which I

think will change, hopefully very soon, that we'll

be able to get things back to a little bit more of

a normal, and we'll be able to take advantage or do

some of the dreams that we've had for several years.

Sounds Great!

I think things are, you know, slowly but surely

opening back up and hopefully you'll be able to

embark on some of those travels how about you Reed?

First off, I'm going to go

see my dad down in Florida next week.

He just turned 89.

So gunna go down there and visit him, play a little golf.

Maybe, hopefully do some fishing.

Golf has been something I've really enjoyed over the years.

Worked in the business for years, but also just love playing.

So, I plan on getting out and playing a lot of golf.

I just got a new set of golf clubs

as a retirement present to myself.

Haven't even hit them yet.

So I'm anxious to get out and give those things a try.

I love to fish, love to be around the water.

Probably do some fishing and boating along the way.

Maybe travel back to the Midwest a little

bit and see family and friends in Indiana.

I've got a golf tournament to play in back there in July.

I probably won't travel as extensively as Brad,

but I do hope to get out and see some of the sites.

The mountains in Colorado have always

been something I really enjoy doing.

I arrived on motorcycle up there usually about once a year.

So hoping to get up there, Pacific Coast Highway, I've got a

good friend who has a cabin in Montana, plan on visiting him.

Just trying to relax a little bit for a good period of time.

And then you know, see what, what happens.

As Brad said, my wife and I are both vaccinated now, so

we can maybe get out and do some things that, you know,

maybe we hadn't in the past, but hopefully that'll be good.

I have a 29 year old son who lives here in the

valley and then our daughter, she lives in Texas,

her and her family have a little condo in Florida

and they've invited us to come down there in October.

So I think, well, we'll probably make a trip

down there and just trying to relax and enjoy

some of the things I really enjoy doing.

That's the key, right?

With retirement, relax and enjoy the things you, you like to do.

Final question for you both.

And I appreciate so much your time with us today,

but any last words or things you would like

to share with your colleagues before you go?

Yeah, I just I think it really is with

our tagline that Scottsdale, truly does provide

Simply Better Service for a World-class Community.

The services, the, the facilities,

everything about Scottsdale is special.

And I'll never forget that.

And we are a world-class community.

You know, when you travel around the United

States, actually a lot of places in the world.

When you say Scottsdale, you don't have to say

Scottsdale, Arizona people know of Scottsdale.

And so it's been an honor and a pleasure for me to work.

For the city for 30 years, I've

learned so much from all the people.

And, and throughout my career.

And I just feel extremely fortunate.

How about you Reed?

Well, I think Brad is dead on, I think the,

you know, we are a world-class city and I think if you do

mention the name of Scottsdale, you get, like you said,

you don't have to put the, the state name behind it.

Everybody seems to be familiar with our community,

seems to know at least something about it.

I mean, I remember the snowy winters while I would sit in Indiana

and watch the Waste Management Open on TV years and years ago.

And then Barrett Jackson auction.

You know, watching those things.

And then now you know, years later, being able

to be involved in those events has just been,

you know, kind of a dream come true for me.

And I think kind of, as I mentioned earlier, I think

people need to really value what they have here as a

employer, but also to value the people that are here.

We have a tremendous workforce.

I know in our department, we have our managers, I think

virtually all of them started out as part-time employees.

And they've all been here for roughly 20 years or

more and have worked their selves, you know, in their

working career to the level that they're at now.

I think that's a testament to the, to the work environment that

is here, that people come here, they want to build a career

here and they stay, that's a very viable thing for everybody.

And I think there needs to be a good work-life balance.

I think everybody, you know, we're all guilty of getting involved

up to our ears in work, and then sometimes it's hard to separate

from that, but I think we all need to do a better job of that.

I don't know, just for your own mental and physical health.

You know, we are in a, in my instance, you know, we

are in the recreation business, you know, we need to

kind of take a little bit of our own medicine, you

know, to make sure that we're, we have a good balance.

And, and that can be true, no matter if you're in

public safety or, you know, whatever position you

may be in, in the city, but value what you have here.

And try to give yourself some time.

To enjoy time with your, your personal life,

your family, I thing that's vitally important.

Great parting words from you, both.

Well, I again appreciate your time

to be on the podcast with us today.

I will let you guys both get back to the things you're doing

and, and wrap up your days, but really we all wish you the best.

And when you talk about those great people in the city, I

would, I would definitely put you both on that category as well.

And yeah.

And we wish you the best in your new chapters in life.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thanks Holly.

Thank you, Holly.

Brad safe travels.

My friend.

You too.

Definitely.

Hopefully our paths will cross, maybe out on a golf course.

I'd love to do that.

All right.

Sounds good.

Take care.

Thank you Holly.

Take care.

And that's it for this episode of Podsdale.

But before I go, I have a trivia question for you.

What are Brad and Reed's combined years

of service to the city of Scottsdale?

Email your answer to Communications@ScottsdaleAZ.gov and