Podsdale Episode 5: So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye

Holly Walter: 00:00:10

Hi, welcome to Podsdale.

Holly Walter: 00:00:11

I'm your host, Holly Walter from the Office

Holly Walter: 00:00:13

of Communication sitting here thinking about

Holly Walter: 00:00:16

something, I think we all dream about, retirement!

Holly Walter: 00:00:19

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

Holly Walter: 00:00:23

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

Stephanie Hirata: 00:00:27

Hi, I'm Public Affairs

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Specialist, Stephanie Hirata with five fast

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things happening around the city you need to know.

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We started the list at number five and

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the Scottsdale Unified School District.

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We've teamed up with the school district to provide

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free lunches for kids and teens throughout the summer.

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Parents and guardians can pick up lunches in the lower level

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

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

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Number four is all about helping others.

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How?

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By donating blood.

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

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

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

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

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

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School is barely out, but we need donations now.

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We're gearing up for this important program

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for when kids return to school in August.

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Vista Del Camino's back to school program provides essential

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school supplies to more than a thousand students each year.

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Students need new clothing, socks, underwear,

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shoes, backpacks, and school supplies.

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Learn how you can donate items or money at

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ScottsdaleAZ.gov and search 'back to school'.

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The Paiute Neighborhood Center is at number two.

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

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

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

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Registration is encouraged, but walk-ins are welcome.

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Need help with registration?

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Call Paiute at (480) 312-2529.

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And our number one Fast five spot goes to Scottsdale!

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Go Scottsdale!

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It's your birthday!

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Gunna to party like it's your birthday!

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Did you know that on June 25th we will,

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celebrate our 70th year as a municipality?

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To commemorate this special anniversary, the city is

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hosting several family friendly events and you're invited

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

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Learn more and check out the lineup of events at

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ScottsdaleAZ.gov and search '70th anniversary'.

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

Stephanie Hirata: 00:02:31

Got something for a future Fast Five?

Stephanie Hirata: 00:02:33

Tell us by emailing communications@scottsdaleaz.gov.

Stephanie Hirata: 00:02:37

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

Holly Walter: 00:02:40

Thanks Stephanie.

Holly Walter: 00:02:41

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

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to announce that Appaloosa Library Branch Manager,

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Sky Larsen was our recent trivia question winner.

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When she correctly stated that the International

Holly Walter: 00:02:54

Conference and Training Seminar for Police Chaplains

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

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

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

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Listen to our trivia question at the end of the

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episode and email Communications@ScottsdaleAZ.gov

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with your answer to be entered into our drawing.

Holly Walter: 00:03:19

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

Holly Walter: 00:03:22

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

Holly Walter: 00:03:26

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

Holly Walter: 00:03:29

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

Holly Walter: 00:03:32

Scottsdale and he's leaving as our Chief Information Officer

Holly Walter: 00:03:36

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

Holly Walter: 00:03:39

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

Holly Walter: 00:03:43

Can you give us a rundown of your city careers?

Holly Walter: 00:03:46

Where did you start?

Holly Walter: 00:03:47

Where have you been and what led

Holly Walter: 00:03:49

you both to your current positions?

Holly Walter: 00:03:51

I'll start with Brad.

Brad Hartig: 00:03:54

I started at the city in 1991.

Brad Hartig: 00:03:57

I was the Strategic Planning and Support Manager.

Brad Hartig: 00:04:02

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

Brad Hartig: 00:04:06

mainframe to more of a modern computing infrastructure, that

Brad Hartig: 00:04:11

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

Brad Hartig: 00:04:15

And at the time they were just announcing PCs.

Brad Hartig: 00:04:19

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

Brad Hartig: 00:04:26

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

Brad Hartig: 00:04:33

And then in 2003 the existing CIO

Brad Hartig: 00:04:39

stepped down suddenly and unexpectedly.

Brad Hartig: 00:04:42

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

Brad Hartig: 00:04:47

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

Brad Hartig: 00:04:52

four months and ultimately my manager at the time

Brad Hartig: 00:04:58

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

Brad Hartig: 00:05:02

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

Brad Hartig: 00:05:05

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

Brad Hartig: 00:05:10

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

Brad Hartig: 00:05:13

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

Brad Hartig: 00:05:16

it's been a really good experience.

Holly Walter: 00:05:19

I think that will be a record, 18

Holly Walter: 00:05:21

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

Holly Walter: 00:05:24

It might take awhile for that to happen.

Brad Hartig: 00:05:26

Yeah, it definitely is.

Brad Hartig: 00:05:28

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

Brad Hartig: 00:05:34

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

Holly Walter: 00:05:39

It's interesting as well, to hear

Holly Walter: 00:05:40

that you, something that started out as an interim

Holly Walter: 00:05:43

position, turned into, you know what it is today

Holly Walter: 00:05:47

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

Brad Hartig: 00:05:52

Exactly.

Brad Hartig: 00:05:52

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

Brad Hartig: 00:05:56

me and to have had the confidence, the leadership

Brad Hartig: 00:06:00

to have the confidence in me and put me into that

Brad Hartig: 00:06:02

role and then to think of where we are today.

Brad Hartig: 00:06:04

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

Holly Walter: 00:06:08

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

Holly Walter: 00:06:10

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

Reed Pryor: 00:06:14

All right, Holly.

Reed Pryor: 00:06:14

I came to the city in 2005.

Reed Pryor: 00:06:18

I started out as the Parks and Recreation Manager.

Reed Pryor: 00:06:20

I was one of three that oversaw the

Reed Pryor: 00:06:24

maintenance program within the department.

Reed Pryor: 00:06:27

I had the north area parks, and all the sports

Reed Pryor: 00:06:30

fields and just all of our community centers

Reed Pryor: 00:06:33

and programs up in the north end of town.

Reed Pryor: 00:06:36

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

Reed Pryor: 00:06:39

retired and my responsibilities have broadened a little bit.

Reed Pryor: 00:06:44

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

Reed Pryor: 00:06:47

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

Reed Pryor: 00:06:53

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

Reed Pryor: 00:06:57

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

Reed Pryor: 00:06:59

I was a director of golf for the City of Indianapolis

Reed Pryor: 00:07:01

for seven years, we had 12 courses there.

Reed Pryor: 00:07:03

So it was kind of a natural fit to get

Reed Pryor: 00:07:05

involved in what Tom had been doing.

Reed Pryor: 00:07:07

So I did that for a number of years.

Reed Pryor: 00:07:09

And then, another fellow retired and he was

Reed Pryor: 00:07:13

overseeing the contract with the San Francisco Giants.

Reed Pryor: 00:07:16

So I got involved overseeing the stadium and the professional

Reed Pryor: 00:07:21

baseball end of our business and working with the

Reed Pryor: 00:07:24

Giants on Spring Training and the minor league program.

Reed Pryor: 00:07:27

And then as we went along the director who

Reed Pryor: 00:07:30

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

Reed Pryor: 00:07:33

a number of years with the city and had retired.

Reed Pryor: 00:07:37

And when she retired I applied for,

Reed Pryor: 00:07:39

and was selected to take this role.

Reed Pryor: 00:07:41

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

Reed Pryor: 00:07:45

It's been very enjoyable.

Reed Pryor: 00:07:48

We get involved in a lot of things.

Reed Pryor: 00:07:50

Everything from, you know, maintenance of the medians

Reed Pryor: 00:07:54

and right away landscaped areas, to the Scottsdale

Reed Pryor: 00:07:56

Soccer Complex, to the to working with the team at

Reed Pryor: 00:08:00

TPC Scottsdale to run uh, Waste Management Open.

Reed Pryor: 00:08:05

We also work with the folks at Westworld, particularly

Reed Pryor: 00:08:08

now since they're part of Community Service.

Reed Pryor: 00:08:09

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

Reed Pryor: 00:08:12

but it's been really a rewarding experience.

Holly Walter: 00:08:15

And I have to ask you, Reed, you

Holly Walter: 00:08:18

must be a baseball fan or, or golfer right?

Holly Walter: 00:08:22

With what you do.

Reed Pryor: 00:08:23

Yeah.

Reed Pryor: 00:08:24

I'm probably leaning more towards the golf side.

Reed Pryor: 00:08:27

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

Reed Pryor: 00:08:32

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

Reed Pryor: 00:08:35

So, we had a lot of involvement with that

Reed Pryor: 00:08:38

program there at the stadium as well.

Holly Walter: 00:08:40

And together you both have collectively

Holly Walter: 00:08:42

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

Holly Walter: 00:08:47

imagine that you've seen a lot of changes happen

Holly Walter: 00:08:49

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

Holly Walter: 00:08:52

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

Holly Walter: 00:08:54

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

Reed Pryor: 00:09:00

Well, one of the things I think we've

Reed Pryor: 00:09:01

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

Reed Pryor: 00:09:05

I first started here, we were under construction at

Reed Pryor: 00:09:07

the Scottsdale Sports Complex, at Hayden and Bell.

Reed Pryor: 00:09:10

We saw the, the completion of that.

Reed Pryor: 00:09:12

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

Reed Pryor: 00:09:17

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

Reed Pryor: 00:09:21

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

Reed Pryor: 00:09:23

hoped to build at some point now actually coming true.

Reed Pryor: 00:09:27

So that's been a great thing to see.

Reed Pryor: 00:09:29

And then we've built some other

Reed Pryor: 00:09:31

smaller parks around the community.

Reed Pryor: 00:09:33

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

Reed Pryor: 00:09:37

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

Reed Pryor: 00:09:41

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

Reed Pryor: 00:09:45

Our aquatics program is really, I think

Reed Pryor: 00:09:48

one of the top programs in the country.

Reed Pryor: 00:09:50

I think we've also got a sports program,

Reed Pryor: 00:09:53

which is kind of second to none in the valley.

Reed Pryor: 00:09:55

We bring in an awful lot of tournaments and events and

Reed Pryor: 00:09:59

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

Reed Pryor: 00:10:02

We also have a very good youth program that we work

Reed Pryor: 00:10:06

with club teams and little league groups to provide

Reed Pryor: 00:10:09

sports activities for the local residents as well.

Reed Pryor: 00:10:12

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

Reed Pryor: 00:10:15

And then we work very closely with our Human

Reed Pryor: 00:10:17

Services counterparts and our Library counterparts

Reed Pryor: 00:10:21

to program and do things around the city.

Reed Pryor: 00:10:24

They're very gracious to let us use their

Reed Pryor: 00:10:26

facilities to offer leisure ed programs.

Reed Pryor: 00:10:30

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

Reed Pryor: 00:10:33

the, you know, the shared use of facilities

Reed Pryor: 00:10:36

and programming space that we have there.

Reed Pryor: 00:10:37

So.

Reed Pryor: 00:10:38

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

Reed Pryor: 00:10:40

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

Reed Pryor: 00:10:41

that we have an awful lot of good programs and

Reed Pryor: 00:10:43

services for the size of the community that we are.

Holly Walter: 00:10:46

Oh, absolutely.

Holly Walter: 00:10:47

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

Holly Walter: 00:10:50

are a destination for many of these sports teams to host

Holly Walter: 00:10:53

competitions and you know, people want to come here.

Reed Pryor: 00:10:57

Yes, they do.

Reed Pryor: 00:10:57

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

Reed Pryor: 00:11:00

trying for everybody, but we worked very hard.

Reed Pryor: 00:11:02

I had to put in place, good safety protocols

Reed Pryor: 00:11:06

that allowed us to operate a lot of our sports

Reed Pryor: 00:11:09

programs, where other communities didn't.

Reed Pryor: 00:11:12

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

Reed Pryor: 00:11:15

that they put into developing the protocols and working with

Reed Pryor: 00:11:19

our public safety folks to get those in place and monitor

Reed Pryor: 00:11:23

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

Reed Pryor: 00:11:26

It's been a nice thing to see.

Reed Pryor: 00:11:28

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

Reed Pryor: 00:11:32

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

Holly Walter: 00:11:36

Yeah, absolutely.

Holly Walter: 00:11:37

That says a lot.

Holly Walter: 00:11:37

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

Holly Walter: 00:11:39

the scenes to make those things happen.

Holly Walter: 00:11:41

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

Holly Walter: 00:11:44

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

Holly Walter: 00:11:49

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

Brad Hartig: 00:11:53

Well when I started the career,

Brad Hartig: 00:11:55

to kind of, my career, to put things in

Brad Hartig: 00:11:57

perspective we had overhead projectors here.

Brad Hartig: 00:12:01

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

Brad Hartig: 00:12:03

have your presentation and you would put it through a

Brad Hartig: 00:12:06

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

Brad Hartig: 00:12:08

And that's how you did your presentations.

Brad Hartig: 00:12:12

The Invention of the PC was just starting

Brad Hartig: 00:12:16

and the use of networks was just starting.

Brad Hartig: 00:12:20

So in the early nineties we implemented a fiber optic network

Brad Hartig: 00:12:26

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

Brad Hartig: 00:12:29

And.

Brad Hartig: 00:12:31

It's just been kind of a technological journey,

Brad Hartig: 00:12:34

from one system or one technology to the next.

Brad Hartig: 00:12:38

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

Brad Hartig: 00:12:41

were positioned versus a lot of other cities when the

Brad Hartig: 00:12:45

COVID came in we had the Microsoft platform in teams.

Brad Hartig: 00:12:50

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

Brad Hartig: 00:12:56

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

Brad Hartig: 00:13:00

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

Brad Hartig: 00:13:02

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

Brad Hartig: 00:13:04

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

Brad Hartig: 00:13:07

My department and my team, we always

Brad Hartig: 00:13:10

seem to be out in front of that.

Brad Hartig: 00:13:12

Most recently, we're finishing the implementation of a

Brad Hartig: 00:13:18

business continuity disaster recovery site at another

Brad Hartig: 00:13:23

location up in north Scottsdale to where we'll have

Brad Hartig: 00:13:26

redundancy to our systems to protect ourselves, both

Brad Hartig: 00:13:29

from a natural disaster and also from cyber disasters.

Brad Hartig: 00:13:33

We've done a lot of hardening from there.

Brad Hartig: 00:13:35

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

Brad Hartig: 00:13:41

known, but we did have a cybersecurity event.

Brad Hartig: 00:13:45

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

Brad Hartig: 00:13:48

It was the day of the Waste Management Open.

Brad Hartig: 00:13:51

It was a morning, Saturday morning, staff was able

Brad Hartig: 00:13:54

to get their arms around it, get servers rebuilt.

Brad Hartig: 00:13:56

And we were back online by Sunday evening

Brad Hartig: 00:13:59

and honestly staff didn't know about it.

Brad Hartig: 00:14:02

And.

Brad Hartig: 00:14:03

And neither did the press.

Brad Hartig: 00:14:06

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

Brad Hartig: 00:14:11

I, I feel very good with where my staff

Brad Hartig: 00:14:15

is right now and where I'm leaving things.

Brad Hartig: 00:14:18

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

Brad Hartig: 00:14:22

I know that, Scottsdale is known locally and nationally

Brad Hartig: 00:14:26

for its technology, innovation and leadership.

Brad Hartig: 00:14:30

Well connected, from a national level and local

Brad Hartig: 00:14:33

level, and we've always been strong contributors

Brad Hartig: 00:14:36

and, and participants in those types of things.

Brad Hartig: 00:14:40

And it could be anything from the Smart Cities Initiative

Brad Hartig: 00:14:43

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

Brad Hartig: 00:14:47

Stockwell is actually one of the regional representatives

Brad Hartig: 00:14:50

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

Brad Hartig: 00:14:56

public safety radio system that was developed for the valley.

Brad Hartig: 00:15:01

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

Brad Hartig: 00:15:04

get that established, where 19 agencies throughout

Brad Hartig: 00:15:07

the valley have seamless radio communications.

Brad Hartig: 00:15:11

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

Brad Hartig: 00:15:15

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

Holly Walter: 00:15:18

I can imagine that's a proud moment to have

Holly Walter: 00:15:20

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

Holly Walter: 00:15:24

to just really go forward without, without skipping a

Holly Walter: 00:15:27

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

Holly Walter: 00:15:30

speaks to what your team is doing behind the scenes.

Brad Hartig: 00:15:34

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

Brad Hartig: 00:15:36

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

Brad Hartig: 00:15:42

was very rewarding and we even had comments from our our

Brad Hartig: 00:15:46

third party provider, who does some security workforce,

Brad Hartig: 00:15:50

that they were very impressed that both from a public

Brad Hartig: 00:15:53

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

Brad Hartig: 00:16:00

and remediated faster than they probably have ever seen.

Holly Walter: 00:16:03

Well, it's, that's the true

Holly Walter: 00:16:04

definition of when it rains, it pours right?

Brad Hartig: 00:16:06

Yes it is.

Brad Hartig: 00:16:08

(Laughs)

Holly Walter: 00:16:08

Now, Brad, what are some of your other memorable

Holly Walter: 00:16:11

career moments or highlights during your time with the city?

Holly Walter: 00:16:14

I know you are one of our Donaldson recipients.

Brad Hartig: 00:16:19

You know, there's been just so many large

Brad Hartig: 00:16:24

projects and initiatives, but one that really stands

Brad Hartig: 00:16:26

out to me is the transition of the fire department.

Brad Hartig: 00:16:31

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

Brad Hartig: 00:16:34

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

Brad Hartig: 00:16:38

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

Brad Hartig: 00:16:40

Trucks, but nothing on them.

Brad Hartig: 00:16:41

We didn't have any staff.

Brad Hartig: 00:16:43

We bought the Wiseman Public Safety

Brad Hartig: 00:16:48

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

Brad Hartig: 00:16:52

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

Brad Hartig: 00:16:59

And if you think about that, you stretch, stretch

Brad Hartig: 00:17:01

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

Brad Hartig: 00:17:05

So we had 18 months to do it.

Brad Hartig: 00:17:07

We put in a new radio system with all new towers

Brad Hartig: 00:17:11

and infrastructure, which was a challenge with

Brad Hartig: 00:17:14

our citizens to get them to understand that.

Brad Hartig: 00:17:17

Why we needed it and how quickly we needed it.

Brad Hartig: 00:17:19

We put in a new records management system.

Brad Hartig: 00:17:22

We put in a new scheduling system and we onboarded,

Brad Hartig: 00:17:26

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

Brad Hartig: 00:17:33

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

Brad Hartig: 00:17:36

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

Brad Hartig: 00:17:40

could even probably speak to this as far as the stadium

Brad Hartig: 00:17:43

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

Brad Hartig: 00:17:47

But there's a lot of things within the city

Brad Hartig: 00:17:49

that don't have a hard and fast deadline.

Brad Hartig: 00:17:51

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

Brad Hartig: 00:17:57

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

Brad Hartig: 00:17:59

the other thing that was so neat about it.

Brad Hartig: 00:18:02

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

Brad Hartig: 00:18:05

There was, there was so many players that had to

Brad Hartig: 00:18:09

work together to take it across the finish line.

Brad Hartig: 00:18:13

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

Brad Hartig: 00:18:16

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

Brad Hartig: 00:18:20

everything worked and everything was very, very seamless.

Brad Hartig: 00:18:24

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

Holly Walter: 00:18:28

Amazing, I mean, 32 miles,

Holly Walter: 00:18:30

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

Holly Walter: 00:18:34

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

Holly Walter: 00:18:36

memorable career moments or highlights that

Holly Walter: 00:18:38

you've had during your time with Scottsdale

Reed Pryor: 00:18:42

Some of our facilities we've

Reed Pryor: 00:18:43

been able to either build or renovate.

Reed Pryor: 00:18:48

You know, Brad mentioned the Scottsdale Stadium.

Reed Pryor: 00:18:50

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

Reed Pryor: 00:18:54

There was not much wiggle room in the schedule.

Reed Pryor: 00:18:56

It had to be done in order to be ready for

Reed Pryor: 00:18:58

the Giants when they first moved into town.

Reed Pryor: 00:19:01

We were able to do that.

Reed Pryor: 00:19:03

We had a few glitches along the way,

Reed Pryor: 00:19:04

but everything was able to to run fine.

Reed Pryor: 00:19:07

And so that's been a very nice one.

Reed Pryor: 00:19:11

We went through some renovations on some other

Reed Pryor: 00:19:13

properties particularly the one I liked is the TBC.

Reed Pryor: 00:19:17

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

Reed Pryor: 00:19:20

We worked with the tour and the

Reed Pryor: 00:19:22

city to do a renovation out there.

Reed Pryor: 00:19:26

We've seen the youth sports field allocation

Reed Pryor: 00:19:30

group has really grown in their efforts to bring

Reed Pryor: 00:19:34

the sports into the program, into the community.

Reed Pryor: 00:19:37

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

Reed Pryor: 00:19:40

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

Reed Pryor: 00:19:45

I mean, everybody knows Scottsdale is a tourist destination.

Reed Pryor: 00:19:48

And I think our team and the sports group had really

Reed Pryor: 00:19:51

done an excellent job of trying to support that effort.

Reed Pryor: 00:19:54

Our afterschool programs and our

Reed Pryor: 00:19:56

overall youth development programs.

Reed Pryor: 00:19:58

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

Reed Pryor: 00:20:01

with the Scottsdale Unified Schools to provide these programs.

Reed Pryor: 00:20:05

You know, the afterschool program we provide some

Reed Pryor: 00:20:08

of the intercession programs when they have breaks.

Reed Pryor: 00:20:11

We also do the summer programs at the school sites.

Reed Pryor: 00:20:15

Those provide great services to the, to the families

Reed Pryor: 00:20:18

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

Reed Pryor: 00:20:21

That's safe and fun for the kids.

Reed Pryor: 00:20:24

And our staff does an excellent job of

Reed Pryor: 00:20:26

providing locations for those programs.

Reed Pryor: 00:20:29

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

Reed Pryor: 00:20:31

And then the fact that we were able to successfully champion

Reed Pryor: 00:20:34

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

Reed Pryor: 00:20:39

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

Reed Pryor: 00:20:43

So seeing those things come along and start, I

Reed Pryor: 00:20:47

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

Holly Walter: 00:20:49

So many things that you do touch so many

Holly Walter: 00:20:51

people and places and programs throughout the city.

Holly Walter: 00:20:54

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

Holly Walter: 00:20:58

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

Holly Walter: 00:21:00

both wrapping up your careers, taking on one of the

Holly Walter: 00:21:03

biggest challenges any of us have probably faced both

Holly Walter: 00:21:06

personally and professionally, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Holly Walter: 00:21:10

Reed, how did that change your work and

Holly Walter: 00:21:13

what has the past year been like for you?

Reed Pryor: 00:21:16

Well, it really kind of put the brakes

Reed Pryor: 00:21:18

on everything with us, for a period of time.

Reed Pryor: 00:21:22

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

Reed Pryor: 00:21:25

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

Reed Pryor: 00:21:27

recreation programs for youth or leisure ed classes

Reed Pryor: 00:21:32

or someone just using the park or the tennis court.

Reed Pryor: 00:21:35

We had to take a pause and we actually

Reed Pryor: 00:21:37

went out and closed facilities.

Reed Pryor: 00:21:39

We physically put up caution tape around basketball

Reed Pryor: 00:21:41

courts and different facilities and signage went up

Reed Pryor: 00:21:45

everywhere and everything just kind of ground to a halt.

Reed Pryor: 00:21:50

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

Reed Pryor: 00:21:54

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

Reed Pryor: 00:21:58

And some of those were based on CDC recommendations.

Reed Pryor: 00:22:01

So we would take, take those things and

Reed Pryor: 00:22:03

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

Reed Pryor: 00:22:05

We feel we can move back into this area

Reed Pryor: 00:22:07

and open that area back up a little bit.

Reed Pryor: 00:22:09

So as we went through that different iterations of executive

Reed Pryor: 00:22:14

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

Reed Pryor: 00:22:17

would work with our facilities crew on additional cleaning.

Reed Pryor: 00:22:21

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

Reed Pryor: 00:22:25

things up and then we started looking at our sports

Reed Pryor: 00:22:26

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

Reed Pryor: 00:22:29

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

Reed Pryor: 00:22:34

and distance around the fields that we had out there.

Reed Pryor: 00:22:38

And so many people were clamoring for something to

Reed Pryor: 00:22:42

do because virtually everything else was closed.

Reed Pryor: 00:22:45

So we were able to put together programs with our staff

Reed Pryor: 00:22:48

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

Reed Pryor: 00:22:51

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

Reed Pryor: 00:22:56

And then we would run those through legal, make sure

Reed Pryor: 00:22:58

that they all agree, we were adhering to all the

Reed Pryor: 00:23:00

executive orders and policies that were in place.

Reed Pryor: 00:23:03

And we were able to just, slowly but surely get

Reed Pryor: 00:23:06

back into business, but it was extremely trying.

Reed Pryor: 00:23:10

We had an awful lot of phone calls.

Reed Pryor: 00:23:12

Some people thought we were crazy for trying to have

Reed Pryor: 00:23:15

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

Reed Pryor: 00:23:18

have equal number of calls that were so happy that

Reed Pryor: 00:23:21

we were trying to bring some activity back to the

Reed Pryor: 00:23:23

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

Reed Pryor: 00:23:27

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

Reed Pryor: 00:23:31

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

Reed Pryor: 00:23:34

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

Reed Pryor: 00:23:37

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

Reed Pryor: 00:23:40

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

Reed Pryor: 00:23:42

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

Reed Pryor: 00:23:46

out there that people really were, were looking for.

Reed Pryor: 00:23:49

And I think we've been successful with that.

Holly Walter: 00:23:51

I can't even imagine the amount

Holly Walter: 00:23:53

of work that has gone into all of those

Holly Walter: 00:23:56

changes that have occurred over the past year.

Holly Walter: 00:23:58

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

Holly Walter: 00:24:00

ever imagined seeing playgrounds and basketball courts

Holly Walter: 00:24:04

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

Holly Walter: 00:24:06

did a fantastic job evolving as the pandemic changed.

Holly Walter: 00:24:10

And as you mentioned, policies changed and, and you

Holly Walter: 00:24:13

know, really doing your best to make our amenities

Holly Walter: 00:24:17

accessible to anybody who would like to enjoy them.

Holly Walter: 00:24:20

Brad let's move on to you.

Holly Walter: 00:24:22

What are some of the things that your

Holly Walter: 00:24:24

team worked on over the past year?

Holly Walter: 00:24:26

I know it's been quite a bit.

Brad Hartig: 00:24:28

Yeah.

Brad Hartig: 00:24:29

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

Brad Hartig: 00:24:35

We actually had to, to put our foot on the

Brad Hartig: 00:24:38

gas and in a very short period of time enable

Brad Hartig: 00:24:43

our workforce to be able to work from home.

Brad Hartig: 00:24:45

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

Brad Hartig: 00:24:51

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

Brad Hartig: 00:24:57

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

Brad Hartig: 00:25:02

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

Brad Hartig: 00:25:05

conference rooms or things like that we were, provisioning

Brad Hartig: 00:25:09

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

Brad Hartig: 00:25:12

And I think we did a very good job.

Brad Hartig: 00:25:17

In many cases, doing things that you

Brad Hartig: 00:25:19

wouldn't traditionally do from home.

Brad Hartig: 00:25:21

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

Brad Hartig: 00:25:26

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

Brad Hartig: 00:25:29

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

Brad Hartig: 00:25:31

been able to do some technology or implement some

Brad Hartig: 00:25:34

technology that's been able to assist with that.

Brad Hartig: 00:25:37

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

Brad Hartig: 00:25:41

to do was really ramp up our organizational training.

Brad Hartig: 00:25:47

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

Brad Hartig: 00:25:51

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

Brad Hartig: 00:25:56

Microsoft Product line had available and they were there,

Brad Hartig: 00:26:01

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

Brad Hartig: 00:26:06

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

Brad Hartig: 00:26:10

People were a little bit intimidated with it before,

Brad Hartig: 00:26:13

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

Brad Hartig: 00:26:17

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

Brad Hartig: 00:26:19

And so.

Brad Hartig: 00:26:20

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

Brad Hartig: 00:26:23

accomplish and continue to accomplish at teams.

Brad Hartig: 00:26:25

You look at the various leadership

Brad Hartig: 00:26:29

forums that we have at this point.

Brad Hartig: 00:26:31

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

Brad Hartig: 00:26:37

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

Brad Hartig: 00:26:42

And we'd have 60, 70 people.

Brad Hartig: 00:26:46

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

Brad Hartig: 00:26:50

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

Brad Hartig: 00:26:53

I know that the majority of my staff was, and

Brad Hartig: 00:26:58

still is mobile there's those people that.

Brad Hartig: 00:27:02

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

Brad Hartig: 00:27:07

facilities person with plumbing or electrical or whatever.

Brad Hartig: 00:27:10

Our it technicians, they need to be able to

Brad Hartig: 00:27:13

be in the office and put hands on equipment.

Brad Hartig: 00:27:16

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

Brad Hartig: 00:27:20

of our communications team that does the network.

Brad Hartig: 00:27:23

We have those roles that are definitely require the

Brad Hartig: 00:27:26

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

Brad Hartig: 00:27:31

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

Brad Hartig: 00:27:35

I think one of the keys there is the communication.

Brad Hartig: 00:27:38

I know all of my management staff has standup meetings

Brad Hartig: 00:27:44

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

Brad Hartig: 00:27:48

I know I did with my direct reports every

Brad Hartig: 00:27:51

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:30.

Brad Hartig: 00:27:54

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

Brad Hartig: 00:27:56

what we've accomplished and also what were

Brad Hartig: 00:28:00

going to be working on in the next few days.

Brad Hartig: 00:28:03

And I think it really, from my perspective is

Brad Hartig: 00:28:06

probably even enhanced communications amongst

Brad Hartig: 00:28:10

work groups and staff and even our customers.

Brad Hartig: 00:28:14

Previously, it was very easy to, you know,

Brad Hartig: 00:28:17

call somebody and they weren't in their office.

Brad Hartig: 00:28:19

But now with teams being on your city phone, personal

Brad Hartig: 00:28:23

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

Brad Hartig: 00:28:29

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

Brad Hartig: 00:28:32

real time work or interaction has enhanced significantly.

Brad Hartig: 00:28:38

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

Brad Hartig: 00:28:40

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

Brad Hartig: 00:28:43

did allocate some money for video conferencing.

Brad Hartig: 00:28:46

And the idea there is that.

Brad Hartig: 00:28:49

We're going to enable various

Brad Hartig: 00:28:52

conference rooms throughout the city.

Brad Hartig: 00:28:53

We've done the first three.

Brad Hartig: 00:28:54

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

Brad Hartig: 00:28:57

to be able to continue to do social distancing.

Brad Hartig: 00:29:00

So a conference room maybe where originally you would

Brad Hartig: 00:29:02

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

Brad Hartig: 00:29:05

you could use two rooms even in two campuses and

Brad Hartig: 00:29:07

have a very real, seamless experience with high

Brad Hartig: 00:29:12

resolution cameras and incredible voice quality.

Brad Hartig: 00:29:15

So that's coming down the pike and

Brad Hartig: 00:29:17

something for people to look forward to.

Reed Pryor: 00:29:19

No.

Reed Pryor: 00:29:20

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

Reed Pryor: 00:29:22

technological savvy person by any stretch of

Reed Pryor: 00:29:25

imagination and just seeing what is out there.

Reed Pryor: 00:29:29

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

Reed Pryor: 00:29:32

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

Reed Pryor: 00:29:37

public meetings and staff meetings and things like that.

Reed Pryor: 00:29:41

And, and then the use of tablets and

Reed Pryor: 00:29:44

laptops and the working from home.

Reed Pryor: 00:29:47

It was something that was above my pay grade and

Reed Pryor: 00:29:50

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

Reed Pryor: 00:29:53

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

Reed Pryor: 00:29:57

And I know that your group has really

Reed Pryor: 00:29:59

been instrumental in making that work.

Reed Pryor: 00:30:01

and I mean, just our Park Commission meetings,

Reed Pryor: 00:30:03

when we would struggle to try to get seven

Reed Pryor: 00:30:05

people in the same place at the same time.

Reed Pryor: 00:30:08

And now with the technology of using these

Reed Pryor: 00:30:11

remote meetings, it's been wonderful.

Reed Pryor: 00:30:14

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

Reed Pryor: 00:30:19

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

Reed Pryor: 00:30:22

And it's just been great.

Reed Pryor: 00:30:24

I would never believed if I had to

Reed Pryor: 00:30:26

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

Reed Pryor: 00:30:28

I think Brad's group has really been

Reed Pryor: 00:30:29

instrumental in helping us get there.

Reed Pryor: 00:30:31

I appreciate that.

Brad Hartig: 00:30:33

Thank you Reed and I do, first of

Brad Hartig: 00:30:35

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

Brad Hartig: 00:30:38

not highlight, but it is the public meetings and

Brad Hartig: 00:30:40

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

Brad Hartig: 00:30:42

And the only other point that I would make

Brad Hartig: 00:30:44

is I really don't see this going away.

Brad Hartig: 00:30:47

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

Brad Hartig: 00:30:51

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

Brad Hartig: 00:30:53

to the office, but I believe we will still leverage

Brad Hartig: 00:30:56

these tools in the efficiencies that Reed just

Brad Hartig: 00:30:59

talked about, both with our citizens and internally.

Brad Hartig: 00:31:04

It gives us a whole nother opportunity to reach a number

Brad Hartig: 00:31:08

of constituents and people that we normally may not reach.

Brad Hartig: 00:31:12

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

Brad Hartig: 00:31:16

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

Brad Hartig: 00:31:19

hoping that we can increase engagement significantly.

Holly Walter: 00:31:23

Absolutely.

Holly Walter: 00:31:24

I definitely echo everything Reed just said it's,

Holly Walter: 00:31:26

it's certainly has changed the way we work day

Holly Walter: 00:31:29

to day and how the city operates as a whole.

Holly Walter: 00:31:32

So I think those changes have been good.

Holly Walter: 00:31:35

Reed, what would you advise someone who is just

Holly Walter: 00:31:39

beginning their career at the city of Scottsdale today?

Reed Pryor: 00:31:43

I think they need to take advantage

Reed Pryor: 00:31:47

of everything that this city has to offer.

Reed Pryor: 00:31:49

From, from an employee standpoint, I think.

Reed Pryor: 00:31:53

You know, all the programs and things that are

Reed Pryor: 00:31:54

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

Reed Pryor: 00:32:00

You know, we have many, we touched pretty much

Reed Pryor: 00:32:03

every aspect of the city at one point or another.

Reed Pryor: 00:32:06

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

Reed Pryor: 00:32:09

reach out to others, to get different experiences

Reed Pryor: 00:32:12

for yourself, I think that is very valuable.

Reed Pryor: 00:32:14

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

Reed Pryor: 00:32:20

Our community is, at times, very vocal.

Reed Pryor: 00:32:23

But they're, that comes from them

Reed Pryor: 00:32:25

being engaged and I think that's good.

Reed Pryor: 00:32:28

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

Reed Pryor: 00:32:31

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

Reed Pryor: 00:32:35

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

Reed Pryor: 00:32:37

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

Reed Pryor: 00:32:41

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

Reed Pryor: 00:32:45

Well, I think just taking advantage of what we

Reed Pryor: 00:32:46

have here is, is really something that I think

Reed Pryor: 00:32:50

is very valuable to someone new coming in.

Reed Pryor: 00:32:53

And I think you, I was lucky in my

Reed Pryor: 00:32:55

career, I've worked a few other places.

Reed Pryor: 00:32:57

I've worked for a fortune 500 company.

Reed Pryor: 00:32:59

I've worked in larger communities and smaller

Reed Pryor: 00:33:01

communities and everything else about it.

Reed Pryor: 00:33:03

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

Reed Pryor: 00:33:05

environment, the work environment is different.

Reed Pryor: 00:33:07

The people here have a great attitude about their job.

Reed Pryor: 00:33:12

They really care about their job.

Reed Pryor: 00:33:13

They care about the city.

Reed Pryor: 00:33:15

And I think they care about each other a lot.

Reed Pryor: 00:33:18

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

Reed Pryor: 00:33:22

Value what you have here, because it's

Reed Pryor: 00:33:25

not always the case in other places.

Reed Pryor: 00:33:29

And I saw that right off the bat when I

Reed Pryor: 00:33:31

came here and I've always appreciated that.

Holly Walter: 00:33:33

That's solid advice.

Holly Walter: 00:33:34

I think, I think I noticed the same.

Holly Walter: 00:33:36

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

Holly Walter: 00:33:38

How about you, Brad?

Brad Hartig: 00:33:40

I, I think what he just

Brad Hartig: 00:33:41

said is, is very, very solid advice.

Brad Hartig: 00:33:44

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

Brad Hartig: 00:33:47

many talented staff and, and departments and we all

Brad Hartig: 00:33:53

play a role in one way or another in providing services

Brad Hartig: 00:33:59

to our citizens and to really be a team player.

Brad Hartig: 00:34:03

To realize that we're just one cog on the

Brad Hartig: 00:34:06

wheel that makes Scottsdale such a great city.

Brad Hartig: 00:34:10

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

Brad Hartig: 00:34:14

of and pleased about is that Scottsdale truly is

Brad Hartig: 00:34:17

extremely collaborative on what they do every day.

Brad Hartig: 00:34:22

The various departments and working together it, it's

Brad Hartig: 00:34:26

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

Brad Hartig: 00:34:28

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

Brad Hartig: 00:34:32

come into my department is that team is very important.

Brad Hartig: 00:34:37

Whether it's within IT and our various competencies

Brad Hartig: 00:34:42

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

Brad Hartig: 00:34:47

organization, just leverage that, take advantage of it.

Brad Hartig: 00:34:51

And it's amazing what you can do.

Brad Hartig: 00:34:54

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

Brad Hartig: 00:34:57

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

Brad Hartig: 00:35:01

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

Brad Hartig: 00:35:06

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

Brad Hartig: 00:35:10

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

Holly Walter: 00:35:15

Absolutely.

Holly Walter: 00:35:16

Now here's the burning question.

Holly Walter: 00:35:18

We all want to know, to you both.

Holly Walter: 00:35:20

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

Holly Walter: 00:35:23

What are you going to be doing?

Brad Hartig: 00:35:25

That's an interesting one.

Brad Hartig: 00:35:27

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

Brad Hartig: 00:35:30

I put my eye on a date.

Brad Hartig: 00:35:33

And it was well before COVID and I stuck to it

Brad Hartig: 00:35:37

and COVID has definitely put a wrinkle in things.

Brad Hartig: 00:35:40

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

Brad Hartig: 00:35:44

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

Brad Hartig: 00:35:48

I have a rescue dog that I picked up in 2012

Brad Hartig: 00:35:53

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

Brad Hartig: 00:35:56

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

Brad Hartig: 00:35:59

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

Brad Hartig: 00:36:03

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

Brad Hartig: 00:36:08

life around the house and around not even the house.

Brad Hartig: 00:36:10

I mean, we take him all over the place.

Brad Hartig: 00:36:12

He goes to California.

Brad Hartig: 00:36:13

He goes to different places with

Brad Hartig: 00:36:14

us, but kind of see that through.

Brad Hartig: 00:36:16

And then, we want to travel the world.

Brad Hartig: 00:36:19

But the challenge there is COVID.

Brad Hartig: 00:36:23

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

Brad Hartig: 00:36:25

been vaccinated and we're fully vaccinated, but I

Brad Hartig: 00:36:28

want to experience the culture that the world has to

Brad Hartig: 00:36:33

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

Brad Hartig: 00:36:37

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

Brad Hartig: 00:36:40

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

Brad Hartig: 00:36:44

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

Brad Hartig: 00:36:46

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

Brad Hartig: 00:36:51

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

Holly Walter: 00:36:54

Sounds Great!

Holly Walter: 00:36:55

I think things are, you know, slowly but surely

Holly Walter: 00:36:57

opening back up and hopefully you'll be able to

Holly Walter: 00:37:00

embark on some of those travels how about you Reed?

Reed Pryor: 00:37:04

First off, I'm going to go

Reed Pryor: 00:37:05

see my dad down in Florida next week.

Reed Pryor: 00:37:08

He just turned 89.

Reed Pryor: 00:37:10

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

Reed Pryor: 00:37:13

Maybe, hopefully do some fishing.

Reed Pryor: 00:37:15

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

Reed Pryor: 00:37:19

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

Reed Pryor: 00:37:22

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

Reed Pryor: 00:37:25

I just got a new set of golf clubs

Reed Pryor: 00:37:27

as a retirement present to myself.

Reed Pryor: 00:37:29

Haven't even hit them yet.

Reed Pryor: 00:37:31

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

Reed Pryor: 00:37:34

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

Reed Pryor: 00:37:36

Probably do some fishing and boating along the way.

Reed Pryor: 00:37:39

Maybe travel back to the Midwest a little

Reed Pryor: 00:37:41

bit and see family and friends in Indiana.

Reed Pryor: 00:37:43

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

Reed Pryor: 00:37:46

I probably won't travel as extensively as Brad,

Reed Pryor: 00:37:48

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

Reed Pryor: 00:37:52

The mountains in Colorado have always

Reed Pryor: 00:37:55

been something I really enjoy doing.

Reed Pryor: 00:37:57

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

Reed Pryor: 00:38:00

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

Reed Pryor: 00:38:04

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

Reed Pryor: 00:38:08

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

Reed Pryor: 00:38:12

And then you know, see what, what happens.

Reed Pryor: 00:38:14

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

Reed Pryor: 00:38:17

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

Reed Pryor: 00:38:20

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

Reed Pryor: 00:38:24

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

Reed Pryor: 00:38:27

valley and then our daughter, she lives in Texas,

Reed Pryor: 00:38:31

her and her family have a little condo in Florida

Reed Pryor: 00:38:34

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

Reed Pryor: 00:38:37

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

Reed Pryor: 00:38:39

down there and just trying to relax and enjoy

Reed Pryor: 00:38:41

some of the things I really enjoy doing.

Holly Walter: 00:38:43

That's the key, right?

Holly Walter: 00:38:44

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

Holly Walter: 00:38:48

Final question for you both.

Holly Walter: 00:38:50

And I appreciate so much your time with us today,

Holly Walter: 00:38:52

but any last words or things you would like

Holly Walter: 00:38:55

to share with your colleagues before you go?

Brad Hartig: 00:38:59

Yeah, I just I think it really is with

Brad Hartig: 00:39:02

our tagline that Scottsdale, truly does provide

Brad Hartig: 00:39:08

Simply Better Service for a World-class Community.

Brad Hartig: 00:39:11

The services, the, the facilities,

Brad Hartig: 00:39:15

everything about Scottsdale is special.

Brad Hartig: 00:39:17

And I'll never forget that.

Brad Hartig: 00:39:19

And we are a world-class community.

Brad Hartig: 00:39:21

You know, when you travel around the United

Brad Hartig: 00:39:24

States, actually a lot of places in the world.

Brad Hartig: 00:39:27

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

Brad Hartig: 00:39:28

Scottsdale, Arizona people know of Scottsdale.

Brad Hartig: 00:39:31

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

Brad Hartig: 00:39:35

For the city for 30 years, I've

Brad Hartig: 00:39:38

learned so much from all the people.

Brad Hartig: 00:39:41

And, and throughout my career.

Brad Hartig: 00:39:43

And I just feel extremely fortunate.

Holly Walter: 00:39:45

How about you Reed?

Reed Pryor: 00:39:47

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

Reed Pryor: 00:39:50

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

Reed Pryor: 00:39:53

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

Reed Pryor: 00:39:55

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

Reed Pryor: 00:39:58

Everybody seems to be familiar with our community,

Reed Pryor: 00:40:02

seems to know at least something about it.

Reed Pryor: 00:40:05

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

Reed Pryor: 00:40:07

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

Reed Pryor: 00:40:11

And then Barrett Jackson auction.

Reed Pryor: 00:40:14

You know, watching those things.

Reed Pryor: 00:40:15

And then now you know, years later, being able

Reed Pryor: 00:40:18

to be involved in those events has just been,

Reed Pryor: 00:40:21

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

Reed Pryor: 00:40:23

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

Reed Pryor: 00:40:26

people need to really value what they have here as a

Reed Pryor: 00:40:31

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

Reed Pryor: 00:40:35

We have a tremendous workforce.

Reed Pryor: 00:40:37

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

Reed Pryor: 00:40:41

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

Reed Pryor: 00:40:44

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

Reed Pryor: 00:40:47

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

Reed Pryor: 00:40:51

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

Reed Pryor: 00:40:53

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

Reed Pryor: 00:40:56

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

Reed Pryor: 00:40:59

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

Reed Pryor: 00:41:04

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

Reed Pryor: 00:41:07

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

Reed Pryor: 00:41:11

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

Reed Pryor: 00:41:15

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

Reed Pryor: 00:41:19

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

Reed Pryor: 00:41:23

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

Reed Pryor: 00:41:25

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

Reed Pryor: 00:41:28

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

Reed Pryor: 00:41:31

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

Reed Pryor: 00:41:33

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

Reed Pryor: 00:41:35

public safety or, you know, whatever position you

Reed Pryor: 00:41:38

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

Reed Pryor: 00:41:42

And try to give yourself some time.

Reed Pryor: 00:41:45

To enjoy time with your, your personal life,

Reed Pryor: 00:41:47

your family, I thing that's vitally important.

Holly Walter: 00:41:49

Great parting words from you, both.

Holly Walter: 00:41:51

Well, I again appreciate your time

Holly Walter: 00:41:53

to be on the podcast with us today.

Holly Walter: 00:41:56

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

Holly Walter: 00:42:00

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

Holly Walter: 00:42:04

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

Holly Walter: 00:42:07

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

Holly Walter: 00:42:10

And yeah.

Holly Walter: 00:42:11

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

Holly Walter: 00:42:14

Thank you so much for being here.

Brad Hartig: 00:42:16

Thanks Holly.

Reed Pryor: 00:42:18

Thank you, Holly.

Reed Pryor: 00:42:18

Brad safe travels.

Reed Pryor: 00:42:19

My friend.

Brad Hartig: 00:42:20

You too.

Brad Hartig: 00:42:21

Definitely.

Brad Hartig: 00:42:21

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

Brad Hartig: 00:42:24

I'd love to do that.

Reed Pryor: 00:42:25

All right.

Reed Pryor: 00:42:26

Sounds good.

Reed Pryor: 00:42:26

Take care.

Reed Pryor: 00:42:27

Thank you Holly.

Brad Hartig: 00:42:27

Take care.

Holly Walter: 00:42:28

And that's it for this episode of Podsdale.

Holly Walter: 00:42:30

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

Holly Walter: 00:42:34

What are Brad and Reed's combined years

Holly Walter: 00:42:36

of service to the city of Scottsdale?

Holly Walter: 00:42:39

Email your answer to Communications@ScottsdaleAZ.gov and