Public Works: Good Enough Isn't

Mike sits down with Public Works Director Ann Stillman just before her well-deserved retirement after 38 years with the department. Ann describes her winding journey to the director's seat, the great variety of Public Works duties and some of the wisdom she has gathered along the way.

Transcript

Catching A Legend Before Retirement

Speaker 1 0:00

I had to grab her before she ends her 38-year incredible career as a director of public works here in San Mateo County.

Speaker 2 0:10

There is a lot. Our department does a lot. The breadth of what we do, it's amazing. I think about my dad often, and one of the things that he said was, good enough is it. Nobody can be perfect. Nobody is perfect. But really strive for your best. I think it's really important.

Open Mic Returns And Introduces Ann

Speaker 0:30

Welcome to Open Mic, a look inside the County of San Mateo with your host, County Executive Mike Callagy.

Speaker 1 0:42

Hi everyone. Welcome back to Open Mic. It's fantastic to have you with us again. We've actually taken a little bit of a hiatus here, so it's great to be back with all of you. And we have got a fantastic guest with us here today. I'm so excited. This is someone I've wanted to bring on for a while, but she's extremely busy. So I had to grab her before she ends her 38-year incredible career as the director of public works here in San Mateo County. Ann Stillman is a legend. She's an engineer who has risen through the ranks and is now at the very top of the Department of Public Works as our director. And I am so excited to have you here with us. Ann, how did you become the director of public works? I would imagine as a teenager in high school, you didn't aspire to be in public works and end up as a director someday. Tell the audience a little bit about your path to get here and what you went through. And obviously you're an engineer. That's so interesting. Talk a little bit about your path to the top.

From Curious Kid To Engineer

Speaker 2 1:48

Okay. Well, it it is a path, and I don't want to bore people with it. But I do even think back to being young and being fascinated with the way water flows in the gutter. Not sure everybody does that, but being able to see what interferes with the proper flow of water was something that I even remember to this day, because I found that fascinating. For me, part of it was I didn't I didn't feel like I excelled or was particularly excited about math in high school. But when I started college, really giving that another try with math, with physics, having a physics teacher that was amazing and opening my mind to physics and all the different possibilities, and then continuing through and building off of that to the point where I really needed to decide on a major. And I had really narrowed it down to natural resources or engineering.

Speaker 1 2:47

You chose engineering.

Speaker 2 2:49

I did. I selected engineering and for one of my senior projects, I made an appointment to see somebody at the County of San Mateo because I grew up in unincorporated County of San Mateo area.

Speaker 1 3:01

And a homegrown girl. You gotta love it.

Speaker 2 3:03

I know. Yes, that's where I grew up. And one of the things that fascinated me was in the county-maintained area, there was a landslide. And from my parents' kitchen window, I could look out up the hillside and see this landslide where the earth was just eroding or moving from below a house. And the house was sort of perched. And every morning I would get up and run downstairs and look. Did it fall last night? Uh no, it didn't fall yet. And I used to, as a kid too, go outside at night and I could remember just hearing the tree branches like snapping. There was so much movement, the movement down onto the roadway and into our neighbor's carport and starting to move down their stairs. So the county had to come out and fix it. I was always wondering what the county did. And when I needed to work on my senior project in college, I came into the county, I met with somebody. I wanted to see what sort of reports we did, what the plans looked like at the time. And that is when I met the assistant director of public works at that time. And, you know, I think the question was, well, what are you going to do this summer? Well, I'm going to need to get a job. And so when I graduated, I did get in contact and I said, Did you have any need for anybody? And I heard back that they needed a senior engineering aid in the flood control and water section of public works. If they had a need, that's where I started as extra help. And then eventually got a permanent position as a junior civil engineer and had other positions in the department, moved over to the design section, became a senior civil engineer, moved back to the utility, watershed protection, flood control section as a principal civil engineer. Then I was the deputy director of the engineering and resource protection division. And now I'm the director of public works.

Speaker 1 5:01

And I know you're very humble, uh, but the truth of the matter is you have risen to the top level of a department typically dominated by men. In fact, I

Leading In A Male-Dominated Field

Speaker 1 5:11

don't know any female directors that I've ever worked with in 44 years in public service. What is that like? I mean, you've got to be such an incredible example to other young women who want to rise to the very top of a profession that's typically dominated by men. Talk a little bit about that.

Speaker 2 5:31

Yes, it's been certainly an interesting journey and profession so far. And you're right. My journey and working in our department and with other agencies, there are a lot of male engineers. So part of it for me is not thinking so much about the gender and who I'm sitting next to or working with or looking around the room and realizing I am the only female in the room, more focusing on the work at hand and what we need to get done, really trying to move things forward, ask good questions, work on collaboration. That has been something that I've focused on. It's about the knowledge, working really hard to understand things, really building a foundation, asking good questions, even though you might think you must be the only one in the room that has a question. It's amazing sometimes when you ask a question that there are others that will let you know I had the same question, but I didn't want to ask.

Speaker 1 6:32

Talk a little bit about the many different departments you have, because I don't think people really understand the breadth and depth of public works and the knowledge you have to have as the director and how smart you have to be as a director to manage all of this and manage all the people and manage all the equipment. So talk a little bit about the different departments you have within a department of public works.

What Public Works Actually Does

Speaker 1 6:52 Speaker 2 6:53

Sure. So within our department, we have five different divisions. So we have the administrative division and they support our entire department. So it's very important the role that they play. We're also public-facing. So we're always open to the public for folks to come in. We believe it or not, get a lot of phone calls as well from the public letting us know about different things that are taking place out in their area. That's very important. And then with airports, we have two different airports. We have the San Carlos Airport that we operate, and we have the Half Moon Bay Airport. And they really are sort of entities unto themselves in terms of their regulations and the Federal Aviation Administration and the regulations there that they have, their source of funding, all the tenants they have, keeping up on the rules and regulations when it comes to airports and the interface they do. You could imagine, too, that sometimes they have to work on noise complaints.

Speaker 1 7:48

But you've also got the roads and you've got sewers and you've got all the facilities you have to take care of. And I don't think people really understand this huge responsibility of all these facilities. Think of elevators, for example. The many elevators we have in the county that you have to maintain and you get constant calls on all the roads and the slides and the streams and the water runoff and the sewers. Talk a little bit about those things.

Speaker 2 8:14

Look how much you know about our county, Mike. That's awesome!

Speaker 1 8:17

I've been hanging around you and you've been educating me.

Speaker 2 8:19

You've heard me tell you all about the things we've got going on. Yeah.

Roads, Equipment, Permits, And Safety

Speaker 2 8:23

So we have a road division and we have 316 miles of road that we're responsible for. And they're on the Bay side here in the unincorporated areas, they're up in Skyline, they're all the way over to the coast. Our county goes up to the border with the city and county of San Francisco at the north, and then down to Santa Cruz County at the south. So we have a lot of area to cover. So, and our roads are very different. We have some that are very suburban type roads, and we have some that are very rural. We have some beautiful scenery and habitat and work to maintain our roads amongst all of that beauty. And it's also very, you know, it's a recreational spot too. We have a lot of people that just really enjoy riding their bikes in some of this beautiful rural areas that we have. Also in the road division, we have the vehicle and equipment team. So we are responsible for maintaining all the county vehicles. So whether it's the motor pool vehicles that different employees share, whether it's department vehicles, whether it's heavy equipment, because some of our departments at the county have heavy equipment. We have heavy equipment. That's the cool stuff, very expensive, complicated to maintain, but we maintain those. Harks has heavy equipment. Just we provide the support for that, the maintenance on those sorts of pieces of equipment. Oh, also Sheriff, they're a big customer of ours. If you think about all the patrol vehicles and all the miles and some of the way they drive, that might be a little bit different than the way other folks drive. That's a heavy workload as well. And also the purchasing of vehicles and equipment, working with the departments to ensure that we're refreshing or renewing their rolling stock as well. So that's some of what roads does. We also have traffic control. We have some signals, not a lot, traffic signals, but we also have the regulatory signage, whether it's the stop signs, have the parking issues to deal with, and we also work to manage the road right-of-way. So when people need to, when people want to do road work in the road right-of-way that's a county-maintained road, they really need to get an encroachment permit. So we have to work to regulate the road right-of-way. Not everybody knows to get an encroachment permit. And we have to work through that. It's much better when people realize this is not my property right here. I'm in the road right-of-way, get an encroachment permit.

Storm Repairs And FEMA Projects

Speaker 2 10:38

. Then we also have an engineering and resource protection division. And within that division, we have engineers that are working on projects. So they're designing projects that are supporting our roadways. So they might be roadway projects, they might be drainage projects, they might be retaining wall projects.

Speaker 1 10:54

To the your credit and the credit of your crew, and I know you're out there also leading from the front, they're out there in the worst possible conditions, making things safe for the public. And I don't think they get enough credit. They're really the unsung heroes of the county who are out there, and you lead that team.

Speaker 2 11:13

And they work really hard. And I think that our staff really rise to the occasion. I sometimes look at the work they've been doing. Maybe it's a cleanup of a slide repair and they've been out there for days. And I sort of think, oh my gosh, are you not just exhausted? And they they've like, this is great. They want to get it done. They work hard, they want to get it done. And so they really do rise to the occasion to assist in emergencies. And we are finishing up some of the last projects from the big storm event that we had from 22-23, where the county worked to get FEMA funding for that, declared an emergency, and we're working to finish up the last of those particular projects now. So it takes a while too, because sometimes it's the design work, but it's also where we're working and the habitat and the protection we need to have for our creeks and streams and whatnot.

Speaker 1 12:05

And I think that's what I love about you. You've got such a great attitude. One of the hardest working folks I've ever met. You're typically the first in, the last to leave. I call you on weekends, I call you at night, send you texts, you're always answering, you're always on. You do such a thorough job on the agendas that you bring forward. But but I think it's that that work ethic that has really propelled you, and I think it's a great lesson for young people. You've got to put in the time, you've got to put in the effort, you've got to be passionate about what you do. And you truly love this county which you grew up in, and you love the Department of Public Works. And that shows every time I I talk to you.

Speaker 2 12:47

Yes, I I agree. I really, I do really like our department. I think we do

Sewers, Water Systems, Streetlights, Buildings

Speaker 2 12:52

a lot of things. And when I was talking about the divisions we have, I haven't even hit the facilities division or finished the engineering because in the engineering division, we also have 10 sewer and sanitation districts that we that we manage. And they are from Burlingame down to the Fair Oaks area as well. So we have folks that work on that. And whether it's rehabilitation projects, capital improvement projects, customer service, sewer service charges, sewer service rates, dealing with people that are doing sewer lateral replacements. We have two small water systems that we operate. We have streetlight districts. We have 10 streetlight districts as well that are kind of strewn throughout the county, both coastside and bayside as well. And you know, what one of the great things about the streetlight districts, we rely on our staff from the facilities group in our construction services section to provide service to our streetlights. We rely on the public to let us know when the lights are out. And then we work with our construction services team, the electricians, to go out and fix the lights. And that kind of brings me to the facilities group because facilities is a big part of what we do as well. We have to maintain all of the county facilities. I think we have about 71 buildings, many, many like four million square foot that we maintain.

Speaker 1 14:16

And I know your dad was a planner. Talk a little bit about that.

A Father’s Rule And Final Thanks

Speaker 2 14:21

Sure. My dad, he was a planner and he actually started his career here at the County of San Mateo and worked on the County General Plan many, many years ago. But after that, he was a consultant and he was the town planner for Portola Valley and really instrumental in working on planning around earthquake vaults and landslides, things that take place in Portola Valley. And I know I think about my dad often, and one of the sayings that he said was good enough isn't. And I think about that when I'm doing something and I don't quite do it right. I have my dad's voice in my head telling me good enough isn't. So what uh nobody can be perfect, nobody is perfect, but really strive for your best. I think it's really important.

Speaker 1 15:10

Your dad was a smart man, and those are words to live by. Good enough isn't. I love it. Well, Ann, thank you so much. And there you have it, folks. You've got to see Ann and her last five days on the job after a 38-year incredible career. I want to thank all of you for joining me on Open Mic. And if you have any suggestions as to who would be the next person sitting in this chair right here, please let me know. We've got some exciting people to still bring you. But follow, like us, and spread the word. Everyone, thanks again for being here with us on Open Mic. Stay safe.