Sarah Frey: 0:08

Welcome back for another edition of the Rouse Review. We're so excited to have you guys today. You are joined by me, myself, and I. Sarah Fry the public information office. Serve for the city of Winchester. And later on we're gonna be joined by our, um, newly appointed interim city manager, John Piper, who you all probably know from his time as both Winchester's, chief of Police and also Deputy City Manager. So we're gonna be talking to him a little bit later, but first we're gonna get into what's coming up at council tomorrow. So what's coming up at Council tomorrow is a lot of second readings. We're gonna be talking Snow emergency routes. We're gonna be talking about the neighborhood design district for Cider Hill, and a couple of quick easement things the public services is bringing about in new business. We're gonna have an appeal from the Board of Architectural Review for a mural on the walk mall. A conditional use permit. And then we're gonna top it all off with a work session around what is the best path forward for Bosco and Street. So that's what's coming up at council. And next we're gonna get into what's coming up in the city. Stick around. It's spooky season. It's cool, it's crisp. The leaves are starting to fall off the trees, and that means it's almost Halloween. Which is also important because the city does not set trick or treating days or hours that is decided by you and your neighbors in your neighborhood. We do encourage everybody to be safe, make sure kids are wearing reflective clothes, glow sticks, all that good stuff, but have fun. Next up, we hope that you can join us all this weekend for the North End Block Party to celebrate the completion of the work along North Kent Street and to unveil our new North End welcome sign. We'll be out on North Kent Street. Starting at the intersection with Elk Street from 1230 to four, there's gonna be food, music, fun, inflatables, all kinds of cool stuff. So come out and join us to celebrate. And finally, we hope that you can join us to celebrate a salute to our veterans on Thursday, November 6th at 11:00 AM at Jim Barnett Park at the P-O-W-M-I-A Memorial. You can register for the ceremony, which will be followed by a free lunch for our veterans and their guests at www. Winchester va.gov/salute. Once again, that is our salute to our veterans. On Thursday, November 6th at 11:00 AM at the P-O-W-M-I-A Memorial in Jim Murt Park. All right, coming up next, we'll be talking with John Piper. This new city's new interim city manager. Stick around now. We're back with our very well known, but not as much on the warehouse review. Interim city manager, John Piper. Hi John.

John Piper: 3:13

Hi, Sarah, how are you?

Sarah Frey: 3:14

I'm doing fine. Thank you so much for joining us today. Yeah, thanks for having me. Um, have you ever actually been on the podcast before?

John Piper: 3:20

Yes, when I was police chief and I think once as Deputy City Manager. Okay. It's been a while though.

Sarah Frey: 3:24

I was gonna say it's been at least two and a half years.

John Piper: 3:26

Mm-hmm.

Sarah Frey: 3:27

So we'll give you a little break for that. But John has been with the city since 2017. Since 17, yep. And you first came on as the city's chief of police? I did. And. Talk to me about how you ended up in Little Winchester and what your background was. Obviously you started as police, as chief of police, but tell us a little bit about how you got here and what drew you to Winchester.

John Piper: 3:53

Yeah. My wife and I came here in 2017. I, I competed for, and was offered the position of chief of police. Um, before that I spent an entire career in the county of Fairfax and I worked there as a police officer from 1994 until the day before I came to Winchester. I had a. One day retirement and started out here,

Sarah Frey: 4:12

a one day retirement. That's not the way to do that

John Piper: 4:15

at a, uh, a much bigger police department, of course, in Fairfax County with, uh, almost 2000 employees might be over that now. And was blessed to have a really wonderful career there. And I finished as our director of our training academy.

Sarah Frey: 4:29

Oh, fantastic. Mm-hmm. Um, so. What made you decide that you wanted to come out to Winchester?

John Piper: 4:36

Yeah, so I've been to Winchester a little bit, uh, throughout my working career, but I wasn't really greatly familiar with it. Gotta be honest, I've been out here when I used to have a motorcycle when I was a little bit younger, but I, I knew it was a beautiful area filled with a lot of rich history and, and really good people. And of course, you know, the chief of police jobs don't open up every day. And I was ready to challenge myself and find something new in my law enforcement career at the time. And it seemed like the best of both worlds. A, a great community, um, a great opportunity to serve as a police chief somewhere, and a city that also has its, its challenges and, and is a growing city. So. We were excited to come out here at the time, and I've been out here for a little over eight years now. It's hard to believe.

Sarah Frey: 5:22

Wow.

John Piper: 5:22

Yeah.

Sarah Frey: 5:23

That's crazy. Um, so. After you were chief of police, um, you started under, um, two city managers go, correct? Yes. Yes. All right. So how did you end up in the deputy city manager seat?

John Piper: 5:38

So, when Dan Hoffman was city manager up until about two weeks ago, uh, he had a discussion after being in the seat as our city manager for. A few months and, uh, after, actually it was, it was closer to two years, he decided to do some reorganization and created, uh, a position that didn't exist directly before. And it was a deputy city manager for public health and safety. And that was a position that he occupied or that, um, that he offered to me and I accepted. October of 2022, and it wasn't a, a new full-time position that was created. It was a position that was reclassified from the police department. Um, so we didn't, we didn't fund, uh, a whole new position. Uh, but uh, the idea was to create a little bit more of direct reports for departments that were public health and safety. So that included, of course, the police department. Um, the fire department, emergency management and the Department of Social Services and having somebody with my background at the time, you know, I had had almost 29 years of law enforcement experience. It created a great opportunity for the city manager, um, Mr. Hoffman at the time, to be able to limit the direct reports that he had to make his job a little bit more manageable and to create a little better working relationships between those departments. In the city that has to do with public health and safety.

Sarah Frey: 7:07

Fantastic. Um, and before that, had the city ever really had Deputy city managers?

John Piper: 7:14

Yeah, so Mary Blow is our deputy city manager for, um, finance, and she's also our Chief financial officer. So I think at the time, uh, Dan had, uh, upwards of 11 direct reports. Wow. Uh, and so. I think he was looking for an opportunity as the city grew to better manage his workload and to better manage the flow of how we do business here in, in Winchester. So that was kind of the, the genesis of that. And there was some other reorganization that was done. By Mr. Hoffman at the time, by Dan at the time. And, um, and so it wasn't a standalone decision. There was also some reorg. He just needed a little bit of time in the seat, I think, to kind of figure out what worked best for him and for the city.

Sarah Frey: 7:59

Yeah. Um, so while we're talking about that, let's talk about kind of how the city is structured, because now you're finding yourself, city council officially appointed you as our interim city manager. Yes. Um, so can you talk to us a little bit about. How the city's structured and how you're gonna be kind of leading us forward and what that looks like.

John Piper: 8:19

Right. So, uh, for as long as I'm in this role as the interim, I, um, I very much want to keep the city moving in a positive direction. I'm really blessed that we have a fantastic staff, a fantastic leadership team, and I don't say that lightly. I, I have worked in local government for 31 years now. And I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly, and we've got it really, really great. Right now. We have people leading our departments and people in, um, in our executive team that have a vast amount of experience, a knowledge of how city government works, how to be transparent with our community, and had to do this job to a very high level. So I, I named, um, Paula Nofsinger, our, our chief of staff as the acting deputy city manager. So she's gonna help me and Mary below, kind of lead the team forward during this transitional time. But other than that, I don't anticipate any significant, uh, staffing changes or reorganization. I think my job in the interim role is just to listen to council, listen to the community, and to make sure that we're plugging forward in a positive direction.

Sarah Frey: 9:27

That's fantastic. I know that during times of transition, it's always nice to have that steady level force and, um, I'm sure that. Staff feels comfortable knowing that you're there, having had you around for long enough to kind of, you're a known entity

John Piper: 9:41

Yeah.

Sarah Frey: 9:41

Among people, hopefully residents feel the same.

John Piper: 9:43

Yeah, I hope so. Um, you know, my wife and I live in the city. We've been here for over eight years now. I really, uh, grown to call Winchester our home. Enjoyed our time out here and, and I enjoy being out in the community. Whether it's walking around downtown or, or going to different events throughout the city, there'll be more opportunities I know for me to do that in the interim role. And I look forward to meeting more and more people in the community that perhaps I haven't met yet.

Sarah Frey: 10:08

Fantastic. Um, before I let you go, I wanna ask some fun questions about your time with the city. Yeah. So, like we said, you've been around for almost a decade at this point. What are like your top three favorite things that you've seen happen in the city since you've been here?

John Piper: 10:23

Yeah. Well, because I live in the fourth ward, I am very, very excited about the redevelopment going on in the city, um, or surrounding Ward Plaza. Uh, it's, you know, people that have been driving by there have seen the progress. Hopefully they've seen the, uh, the site work that's starting and, and very soon, in the coming months, we're gonna start seeing things actually being built, which is tremendously exciting. I know, uh, my friends, my wife, and I, uh. A family always talk about the fact that we definitely, definitely need a grocery store out there. We're looking forward to getting Publix out there and just, uh, a more walkable, livable community out there in that part of Ward four. So, you know, as we look forward, and I know you'll be talking, uh, to others about this, but our neighborhood design districts are an exciting part of, you know, the community's strategy for growing Winchester, but doing it in a way that respects the history. And the culture here, but doing it in a way that is gonna make our city hopefully more walkable, a safer place to live, and a place that has the amenities that this community needs. So that's really exciting to me. And I think, um, there's been a lot of people obviously, that have been involved in those plans, and that will be in the future. But those are some of the things that jump out at me.

Sarah Frey: 11:38

Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for joining us on the review today. Um. Everybody's gonna be seeing you, especially at your first City council meeting. Yeah, tomorrow night as officially as the interim, uh, city manager. I know you've done it in your role as acting deputy before, but it'll be a little bit of a different position for you. So yeah. Good luck tomorrow night. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you so much for helping us.

John Piper: 12:00

Thanks, Sarah.

Sarah Frey: 12:11

All right. That is. Our edition of the Ralph's review. So until next time, we'll see you around City Hall.