My Story with Cassie Tucker, City of Southlake, TX

ELGL’s mission is to connect, communicate, and educate. In this ongoing series, ELGL members tell their story including how they got into local government.

Cassie Tucker (LinkedIn and Twitter) serves as the Assistant to the Director of Community service for the City of Southlake, Texas. She provides high level assistance through a variety of administrative, budgetary, research and management functions.

######

My most frustrating experience in local government is….having minimal ability to assist when a citizen request is outside of our jurisdiction or purview of services.

My top three career accomplishments are…

Writing a business plan for my department (Community Services) my first few months on the job. Knowing little-to-nothing about the department, I was tasked with composing the strategic management materials. It was a crash course in strategic management, and I learned so much about the organization–both the past and where it was headed.

Growth of green programs through Keep Southlake Beautiful. By partnering with our marketing team and working with our intern, our department was able to “amp” up some of our green programs. As a result, a number of the programs (especially our “street tree program”) have seen an increase in participation.

Establishing a comprehensive employee interviewing, hiring, and on boarding system when I worked in HR.

When no one else is in the car, I…

…..sing along to all the songs!

I aspire to….affect positive change [very cliche, but it’s true].

Right now, I am working on….updating our public art policies and ordinances.

Here are three tips for interviewing……

My favorite question to ask in interviews is:

Tell me what you know about [insert my organization here], and why you think you are a good fit for this job. Know how to answer this question by doing your research prior to your interview.

Avoid placing blame on others in any of the stories you tell, and never speak ill of a past employer or coworker.

Send a thank you. Such a basic tip, but when I worked in HR, out of 100s of interviews, I received only a handful of ‘thanks yous’.

In terms of telling the local government story, I think local government….has tremendous opportunity every day to improve the quality of life for those in the community. It has to be an “every day” thing because each day we either make life easier or harder for those we serve. We, as local government employees, have to chose each day to deliver exceptional customer service to our communities.

If I could start a non-profit to assist local government, I would focus on….strategic management consulting. So many organizations could could benefit from implementing a well thought out strategic system, tailored to their organization. Unfortunately, often organizations are unable to pay for the consulting, and implementing systems without guidance can be overwhelming. If a non-profit could provide the consulting at low or no cost, I think it would be very beneficial.

I can’t wait for….my upcoming trip to Japan.

For the next person that you interview, I would ask….“If you could pinpoint an action or event that led you to where you are now, what would that be?”

You should have asked me….“Considering how you use your education in the ‘real world,’ what college course was the most worthwhile?”