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Deputy City Manger Weldon Rucker is getting ready to take the helm of the city as interim City Manager. In this, the second of a three-part interview, Rucker talks to the Daily Planet about the Neighborhood Services Initiative, a plan to divide the city into quadrants, with a NSI manager in each. 

DP: What’s happening with the Neighborhood Services Initiative? 

RUCKER: That’s still very real and very close to implementation. I think part of the delay has been the transition with the manager leaving. We haven’t finalized some of the decisions, such as who the individuals (who get the jobs) are.  

DP: Have you narrowed it down? 

RUCKER: Yes, it’s pretty much narrowed down. We had it down to about six individuals and we interviewed those six. 

DP: And it will be four that are chose. 

RUCKER: Yes, so I would say sometime before (City Manager) Jim (Keene) leaves or shortly after Jim leaves, we’ll make some announcements. 

DP: So he could play a role in the final selection. 

RUCKER: He’s still, technically, he’s the city manager up until next week, so... 

DP: Isn’t that a little strange for him to make such a major decision right before he leaves? 

RUCKER: Well, I think if we’re in agreement, it shouldn’t be that difficult. He’s been involved throughout the process and I’m sure that he would like to have his input into making the decision. But I would doubt that we would have huge differences, if any. Part of the problem has been the difficulty of just having the final discussion, because of his time schedule and my time schedule.  

DP: Why did the council never discuss this issue? 

RUCKER: Why did they never discuss it? I don’t quite follow you. 

DP: This is a major internal bureaucratic change. Why did the City Council never discuss this? They discuss moving fences, and they discuss signs and they discuss all sorts of things. 

RUCKER: They actually discussed it on June 6, I believe. 

DP: It was presented to them, but unless I’m having a major memory lapse, it was not discussed. It was presented. 

RUCKER: I think, yeah 

DP: They had a whole budget to discuss that night. 

RUCKER: It was presented as a package, under the customer services umbrella and I think that the neighborhood services is a piece of that. It will be coming forward. 

DP: It will be coming forward to the council? 

RUCKER: In terms of different pieces. To purchase the software for the City Center, the telephone system, things of that nature. I think in terms of the staffing, I think we will provide them with our decision on how we were able to fund it within existing resources. So, because it is really like a managerial kind of decision and a managerial kind of proposal. 

They (the council) are pretty much in tune with it, I would think. They know what’s happening. Then when we had discussions about me taking this position – not talking out of closed session – we discussed this being an important component of the whole customer service and community relationship. 

So, we’ll see. And plus it’s like, we’re moving toward the implementation stage, but it’s still a work in progress. It’s not like, this is the done deal and keep out. We still have some work to do and some engaging and so forth.  

One thing we did, with the staff a week or so ago, was have a number of staff – I would say we had over 50 staff outside the police department. The police department has this National Night Out program and they always have their personnel go around to these various venues, but this year we accompanied the police and with that, a number of people were out engaging with the community that never get out there. And so there were over 50 people from across the organization.  

People like myself – well, I’m out there a lot – (Deputy City Manager) Phil Kamlarz, (City Attorney) Manuela Albuquerque, (Information Technology Director) Chris Mead, Barbara Attard from the Police Review Commission, (Fire Chief) Reggie Garcia, from just the leadership team and then there were others like the (Service Employees International Union) 790 clerical chapter president and the 790 maintenance chapter president, then you have staff from finance and health and human services and public works workers.  

It was just, “Hey, how are you doing, I’m so and so, good to meet you.” It was just getting to know people. 

DP: Were people pretty pleased with that? 

RUCKER: They were excited. It has been a one-dimensional police activity. They’ve done a great job, attempting to relate and build community relationships, but here comes these other folks. You move around to different venues. They had these things all over town. So we divided up, sort of like they did with the police and went around.  

Someone like a Manuela out there or a Barbara Attard to see the community to see the police from a different vantage point rather than the adversary. It is like just talking to people. It was great to see people. There were a few situations where people said they had a problem with this or that and there were situations where we were able to determine that we need to do some work on and “We’re missing the boat, here.” 

For example at 63rd and California streets. I couldn’t believe the number of children that reside right on that block in the area near that mini park. OK Fred Madrano, something is wrong with this picture. We have this health disparity, issues around health. We have health personnel. We have youth personnel, recreation personnel. How do we start maximizing our resources to deal more strategically and intelligently and engaging the community more. As a result, there’s a small group that’s going to follow up to see about developing a project about bringing that all together. 

DP: What group is that? 

RUCKER: Fred is going to be involved. Arietta Chekos. As a matter of fact, she went out to get with some of the other health people and recreation people. 

DP: That’s (census tract) 4240, isn’t it? That’s the target census tract. (Targeted by the health personnel as the first census tract to impact, because of its poor health outcomes, low income and other disparities.) 

ROCKER: It’s like right where we’re supposed to be. It was very educational for us as well as for the community. 

The group on Alcatraz, in the 1600, 1500, 1400 block, where they did a lot of work with installing the new street lights, working with the community. They were very delighted to see us out there, very appreciative of the work that’s taken place over the last couple of years. They were really empowered from the standpoint of them growing and feeling of some sense of community. 

When they initially started the process, they were only able to select maybe three or four individuals to participate. Now they had over 40 people, the group leader said, that met at the new Over 60 Community Center, another enhancement to that particular neighborhood. 

Just the sense of the city being interactive and engaging and the neighborhood growing in a way with its own power, so it can start taking care of some things, and there’s an exchange of information. That was a plus. 

In general, the people were just out having a good time, very pleased to see us out. I think the police were very encouraged and pleased. Again, they’ve been carrying this community involved policing which is a way of interacting with the community. 

They’ve been carrying the baggage for a long time. That’s what we really want to accomplish, getting the work force more involved, and out there, participating, getting to know on their turf and their level, really establishing a partnership, solve problems, generating some creativity around issues.  

It was a very inspiring process. And I think it’s going to jump start us. Because there’s some fear about it – “Oh you’ve got to deal with the community.” This is a major organizational shift. For us to be out the, whoa, that was a major step. For some staff to even be in the police squad room. 

DP: I bet it was the first time some of them had been at California and 63rd street. 

RUCKER: Oh, definitely. For that exchange and that action to take place, that part was worth while. We’ll be in a great position to jump start (the Neighborhood Services Initiative). And I’d say that next year at this time, we won’t have to rely on just the National Night Out. We can have regular engagements and encounters and interactions with the community in a very positive way. These are the people that we serve. We don’t have to be fearful of the community. These are the people that we serve.  

Our purpose for being is to serve them. Are how are we going to understand them just from where we sit in the organization? 

It’s like from 1900 Addison, 63rd Street looks pretty good from here. And then when you get down there, you say, “Whoa, we have some work to do.” I think, people pulling together broke down a lot of the barriers, “Well, this is just my area,” “This is my concern.” 

That was great.