Sound United Presents
Sound United Presents is a community-centered podcast that highlights the authentic stories of entrepreneurs, professionals, and everyday heroes. Each episode features guests who discuss their victories, challenges, lessons, expertise, insights, wisdom, and "One-Word." Our goal is to Empower with Sound.
Sound United Presents
Hometown Grit
In this episode, we present Franco Lucarelli, a Navy Veteran and Director of Utilities for Warren, Ohio. With solid roots in Warren, Franco shares his journey of loss, rebellion, and finding unexpected opportunity in hard times. You'll learn eye-opening facts about national and local infrastructure and water. But most of all, you get to know a gentleman who proves loyalty, leadership, and grit through action, not talk.
In This Episode, We Discuss:
- Life in Warren, Ohio
- Impact of Family Loss
- Navy Life
- Environmental Stewardship
- Real Leadership
- Franco's "One Word"
So press play and be moved by Captain Cole's inspiring story. Ladies and gentlemen, Sound United Presents... Franco Lucarelli!
Be sure to subscribe wherever you vibe with podcasts or visit our website. www.soundunitedpresents.com
Sound United Presents is a community-focused podcast powered by Sound United Podcast Studio. Produced by Kimberly Gonzales and D. Lee Scott
Hello, ladies and gents, welcome to Sound United Presents, a diverse and inclusive podcast focused on local entrepreneurs, professionals and unsung community heroes. Within each episode, our guests will candidly share their stories filled with triumph, failures, humor, lessons learned, insight and some nuggets of wisdom. I'm very excited about this, and I hope you are too. Let's get started. Hey folks, thank you for hitting the play button for another episode of Sound United Presents. In the friendly confines of Sound United Podcast Studio, I'm your host, d Lee Scott, and making this sound crispy, as I like to often say, is KG Kimberly Gonzalez. Today, I have another wonderful guest we always got wonderful guests here and so, before I introduce him, I'm going to throw out some words. Some of the topics that we're going to discuss Roots, water, environment and no to my gardening friend. You know I love gardening. I'm not talking about that. He's not here for that, so I'm going to throw some more out there Leadership, genuine, solid, loyal. And with those words, ladies and gentlemen, sound United presents. Mr Franco Luccarelli. How are you, sir?
Speaker 2:Sean, I'm doing great. I'm happy to be here this morning. I'm excited and I'm ready to get this going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got some pep in your step with a nice smile on you. You're always smiling every time I see you. Man, I'm ready, I'm excited.
Speaker 2:This is my virgin podcast, so I'm excited. I'm excited to go forward with it.
Speaker 1:I never heard that one before, so I should probably write that down. And I didn't even throw in there who you are and we're going to talk about all that. Some people in the Valley and Warren know you, but you are the director of utilities for the city of Warren, ohio. Shout out to Warren the big W, amongst other things, too. So we'll, we'll dive in that. But I just didn't want to say, oh yeah, here's Franco, let's you know. I wanted to put something on there, because a lot of this stuff is really and truly about what you do and how you do it and just your leadership and things like that, and environmental stewardship too. Absolutely. Do you see that? On the little topic thing, I saw it on the topic. It's important, absolutely. All right, my man, let's get started. So take a minute and let's tell the audience about you.
Speaker 2:Well, as you said earlier, my Franco Luccarelli, I'm proud to say I was born and raised in Warren, ohio. Out of these 57 years of life on earth, I've spent 53 years in Warren, minus the four years I spent in the Navy, traveling around the world. I was born on the west side, on Union Street, raised on Beale Street on the west side of Warren, and then, after a very underwhelming high school career, I joined the Navy and I spent four years traveling the world, which was a growth experience that I highly recommend to anybody that isn't sure what they want to do in life, because it exposed a lot of opportunities, positive and negative, and it made me have to grow up as a man. When you're 18 years old, traveling around the world with other grown men that have families and and are much older than you, and you're traveling to different nations all over the world, you have to grow up and you have to grow up quick.
Speaker 1:You went right out of high school, right out of high school. My uncle did that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the navy the name, by the way. Uh, I actually signed up when I was a junior in high school because I just knew I wasn't college material at the time, didn't know what I wanted to do, and my standard line now is at 57. When I grow up I'm going to try and figure out what I want to do in life and what I want to be, and maybe I'll come back for a podcast when I figure that out. But right now I'm still still haven't grown up enough to figure out what I want to be in life, and I sure didn't know when I was 18.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I did my four years four and a half years in military, came back, work different jobs in the city, warren, because I knew I wanted to come back to be around family at that time. Um, you know, my mother was here, my brother and his family, my, my older sister and her family, and, uh, I worked different places. I worked at a steel mill, I sold life insurance and then I ended up getting a job with the city of Warren Water Department on a whim. It was really one of those things where it wasn't a plan, it wasn't a goal. They literally were working on a water main break in front of my house one day and I went out there and I was talking to them and I said you know what? I said, I gotta try this. And I I filled out an application and, uh, god willing, a couple weeks later I got a call and ended up and I started as a laborer in 1997 at the water department so when you so, let's go back a little bit.
Speaker 1:You did the navy and that, but but how was life growing up? And more like you know, climbing trees and getting crab apples, yeah, you know what I I in in a lot of ways when I look back.
Speaker 2:My, my childhood was pretty standard. You know, on Mill Street we were riding bikes through the neighborhood, we were playing football, we were playing baseball. You know, I played baseball down at Perkins Park, played dodgeball, we fixed our bikes and I had a pretty, what I would consider normal childhood until my father ended up getting cancer when I was seven. Then things changed. My mother did her absolute best to try to make my childhood as normal as it could be, but she was attending to my father who had gone through several bouts with cancer, and so at that time I was spending a lot of time with my older sister. She had, now that I look back, the burden of helping to raise her little brother and other family members and I will forever be grateful for her and my older brother for their, their efforts and their, their guidance at the time.
Speaker 2:And my father passed away a couple days before I started high school. So I went through high school sort of lost lost emotionally, lost intellectually, and I was an angry kid at the time. I was mad because I couldn't understand, you know, why this happened to my father, why this was happening to my mother because she had to go through it with the the rest of the family. She had lost her husband and the love of her life and uh, I spent a lot of years angry as a youth, which didn't serve me well. It probably got me in more uh altercations than I should have been in you say a lot of rebellion.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolute uh rebellion and a desire to make sure that my mother didn't have to spend money on me because she was a single woman. Now my parents were first. They both came over on the boat from Italy. My father worked at Copperweld Steel. My mother was a stay-at-home mother and she would do seamstress work and she was a wonderful seamstress. She could make a wedding dress from scratch and she was that good and she earned money that way after my father passed away. But I didn't want to be a burden and you know I tried very hard in that time to, you know, work at Burger Chef, work at Mr Chicken Burger Chef Wow, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I'm going back a long way it was Burger Chef on.
Speaker 2:Parkman Road and it was Mr Chicken on West Market Street, Part of the reason why I didn't want to go to college. Besides the fact that at the time school and education didn't appeal to me, I didn't want my mother to have to spend the money. So I figured, if I go to the Navy, I'll make money, I can send money home and it won't cost my mother anything. And again, I don't regret it because it was a wonderful experience Four years of growth and I still have friends today that I communicate with via Facebook and Instagram from when I was in the Navy, and that was going on 40 years ago now. So it was typical to a point. And then things changed and then I had those rebellious years that, like I said, didn't serve me well.
Speaker 1:Where did you, you know, warn, back in the day. I mean, we had lots of schools, yes, and I know I've got a general idea of what you're going to say, but what schools did you go to?
Speaker 2:Well and I say this jokingly, but I, you know, I say it in jest my claim to fame is I was such a bad student that every school that I went to in the city of Warren has been torn down. I went to McGuffey on the west side, on Todd Avenue there, then I went to Turner and then I went to Warren Western Reserve and, irony of all ironies, now when Dr Seuss Day comes around and representatives from the city we go read Dr Seuss books at different elementary schools, I always request to go to McGuffey, which is, to me, is coming full circle. You know I was at McGuffey as a youth. They tore it down, they rebuilt it and now I get to go there and read dr seuss books to young kids in the first grade and the second grade. And you know, ask them uh, you know did.
Speaker 2:Did everybody wash their teeth or brush their teeth this morning? If you did, that's because you know I work at the water department and that's how the water come, comes out, and uh, uh, turner again, it's part of the packard park area now, and then western reserve is. It's a. It's a blank field now, but when we're talking about coming full circle and we'll may get to this later on. I'm heavily involved in a project to bring industry to that whole area of west lawn and deemer park, and so it's coming full circle. But I like to think we wouldn't have that development in the old Western Reserve property if I hadn't gone there and they decided to tear down after I left. It's your fault, frank.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's all my fault, franco. It's your fault. So you are, when it comes down to you're, a raider. Like, are you a true raider? Do you get caught up in that, or are you just kind of?
Speaker 2:No, you know what? I never got caught up on it, even though I am a Raider, but I've tried to look at it holistically, in the sense that, look, we're worn strong, we're not Raider strong, we're not Panther strong, we're worn strong and strong. And, and I believe, together the west side and east side are stronger than apart. Yeah, and and I think that, uh, you know the qualities that are exist, exhibited by people, whether they live on the east side, west side, south side, north side, um, we, we have a, uh, a good melting pot of individuals that can each contribute in their own way to make war in a better place. So, do, do I care about the mascot, a red line on the football field? I never got it all. I I've, I said, said it from the get-go when this happened in, I think, 1990. Yeah, it was the year. I don't care if they're wearing pink and turquoise. If they're out there putting a product out there and they're representing Warren and they're winning, I'm good, that's it. Throw on pink helmets and turquoise.
Speaker 1:I, I could care less do you, uh, going through your childhood and it was, you know, I can't even imagine man but at some point in there, or maybe even before this had happened, before the age of seven, did you have like a dream career, like, was you watching like hill Street Blues and wanted to be a police officer or something?
Speaker 2:No, I was. I was one of those guys where, when I say I was, I was lost as a youth. I didn't know what I wanted to do, I just knew that I had to figure out a way to make money. So I didn't have, you know, I didn't sit there and I and I'd I'd had always admired friends of mine. Uh, one of my best friends growing up, you know, in the seventh and eighth grade, said he wanted to be a doctor. To this day he is a doctor and I've always admired the people that could do that and and know what they want to be in life, what they want to do.
Speaker 2:On the flip side of that, I've always felt it's unfair for society to ask an 18-year-old hey, what do you want to do in life and which college do you want to go to to learn how to do what you want to do in life, life, even though you have no life experience in it and you have no knowledge whatsoever of of that field. Yeah, and now we want you to make that decision. As a young 18 year old, feel the pressure of having to succeed now that you've made that decision, because you have family members, you have friends, everybody knows you went to ohio state because you wanted to be a veterinarian or whatever, and it turns out you don't even like biology or veterinarian whatnot, and you have that pressure um, yeah, there's, um, there's something, something to that there.
Speaker 1:I can't remember what book it is, and I've heard it many times, especially for males, that you know we don't really meet maturity until 26. Like, we're not right up here. Development and I've said this on other podcasts that when I look back on on my life, like that was that was the moment where you know, cause I didn't like school. I mean, you went across stage, I mean I came up at 16 and Mr Johnson said well, if you don't get these transcripts, you can't graduate. It was the worst thing you could have told me, Cause I didn't want to be in school. No way, yeah, exactly, but nothing really clicked till around 25, 26,.
Speaker 1:But I think it is a lot of pressure, you know, I mean to discuss careers and all this other stuff at like 18, like you haven't even had a chance to really do those 18, 19, 20 year old things yet you know what I mean. It's just like you, you finished high school, you know, and boom, like, go off to college. I mean I used to do that with our kids too. I mean we were, I was conditioned yeah, your kids go to, you know, high school. Then you, you get them to college because you want them to be successful and better than you are. But looking back on it, man, you know we didn't force my son. He didn't. You know he. He definitely wasn't college material. We we joke all the time, Me and his mom. He's like, yeah, he's not going, he's not going, Um, but our daughter was you know what I mean, straight from high school to college. But I think it is a thing with that?
Speaker 1:the maturity, because that's tough man to really have you can't figure this all out.
Speaker 2:I think it's unfair. Uh, you know, I have two. I have two grown kids. Uh, one, my son. He was college material. That, I mean, it's just as simple as that. He was college material and he's got his PhD in mechanical engineering and never had a blip in the road, so to speak. My daughter, she would tell you all through high school, I'm not going to college, I'm not doing. And she's in LA and she's a professional dancer. Right now she's doing a national tour with a group and I think I just received a text this morning she was flying out of Houston because they had a concert last night in Houston and they're heading to Miami and she's doing her thing. So I'm a scientist and I have an artist scientist and I have an artist, um, and both of them were fortunate enough to be able to follow their, their niche and their lane, so to speak, and it it's so far. It's worked out well for both of them. They're, they're, they're great kids and they're not kids anymore, young adults, um they're going to always be our kids.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but they're always yeah, it's always my little girl.
Speaker 1:Yeah, on the subject of careers, and I thought you were going to say something. You know, when you get into you know, speak of the water department, things like that. It's kind of like when I wanted to be an electrician and I was just fascinated Like man. I flipped a switch and electricity just comes on. This light comes on with water. It's kind of the same thing. You turn this thing and you know, you don't know where it comes from. So I thought maybe your interest would have started there. But no, you said they was doing some work in front of your house and boom. So let's talk about your journey in this to where you are now.
Speaker 2:Let's talk a little bit about that. When I think about it it's either interesting or weird one way or the other. But that day I was sitting at home, I was in the insurance industry, didn't like it, was making money, but I didn't like it. I wasn't happy doing it and just on a whim you know know, the water was off. I looked outside there's water department trucks and that's essentially how this career started was just on a whim and I figured well, I'll do this for a while till I figure out what I want to do. How old were you? I was 28, 28. Okay, I said I'm going to do this for a while until I figure out what I want to do and then, once I figure that out, I'll leave the water department and move on.
Speaker 2:And then, once I got there, it just went back to my usual mindset of you know, my dad used to tell me all the time one of the few memories I have, I should say, is that he used to always say look, no matter what job you're doing, whether you're a doctor, a ditch digger or the garbage man picking up the garbage, you want to be the best at it, because if you're the best, if you're the best garbage man. You're always going to be able to put food on the table and make money, because everybody will want you to pick up their garbage. And that resonated with me through life and I've done that in every job that I've ever done. So when I started with the water department, I started out as labor. I think I was making at the time uh, a little bit less than $8 an hour, but I I knew if I'm going to look, if I'm here and I'm doing this, then I'm going to be the best labor at the water department. And then, as that progressed, then I moved up into different positions when opportunities arose. So I worked. At one time I counted them. I can't. I don't have that number off the top of my head right now, but I can't tell you all the different jobs I've worked at the water department, because there are so many different, so many different opportunities and jobs at the water department.
Speaker 2:Because there are so many different opportunities and jobs at the water department, you don't need to be a laborer. You can get your CDL and you could drive a truck. You can learn how to operate heavy machinery, a backhoe, a front end loader. You could be the foreman. So you're taking on leadership roles.
Speaker 2:Then you can go to the administrative side and you could be a meter reader been there, done that. You could be a distribution technician. You could work on the administrative side as a cashier, office manager, data entry and then you could work at the filtration plant, which I think to this day, I feel that the men and women that work at the water filtration plant, which I think to this day, I feel that the men and women that work at the water treatment plant, not just in Warren, but throughout the United States and throughout the world, I think they are unsung heroes that don't get the respect and or financial benefit that is due to them because of the job that they have to do is so important in my eyes that they just don't get the credit. They just don't get the credit for it and they don't get compensated accordingly.
Speaker 1:Are they like the, would you say, the front line of like the front line Absolutely?
Speaker 2:Without the filtration plant and my predecessor, my boss, my mentor and my friend, my boss, my mentor and my friend, bob Davis, who was director of utilities prior to me, and to this day I cherish his thought process, his wisdom and his guidance. I still call him, he still takes my calls. He would always say it all begins at the water treatment plant, because people don't understand. We're getting raw water from Mosquito Lake. That water comes into the filtration plant and those individuals that are working at the water filtration plant are the ones that take raw water from Mosquito Lake and make it so. When it comes out of your spigot it's fresh water. You can drink with it, you can cook with it, you can shower with it, you can bathe with it, you could use it, obviously, for the restrooms and whatnot.
Speaker 2:And I think in today's world, like in today's world, society has become desensitized to well, this is just something we expect to happen, like it just happens. Yeah, every civilization that has ever thrived was only able to thrive because they had water as a source for life and consumption and or production in some cases, around here back in the day was still mills, and that's why, even even in 20, in the year 2024. You have first world countries and you have third world countries and if you just look at the basics of it, the main difference between most first world countries and third world countries is access to fresh potable drinking water. If you don't have that, you cannot escape being a third world country. It just doesn't exist.
Speaker 1:So those people filtration plant highly underrated how have you on the subject, because you you brought up history and eras and things like that, which which gives me a interesting question to ask you have you seen the industry that you were in evolve over the years?
Speaker 2:You know, I thought about this and how I would put it into words and I say this a lot of times because I do quite a few presentations, I get asked to speak at different events and whatnot. But what amazes me is, in 2024, the basic premise of how water is treated is the same as it was a hundred years ago. You get water, you have coagulation, you have flocculation, you have sedimentation and you have filtration. You have that four-step process and I sit there in wonderment thinking you know, there were people 100 years ago that created this process when they didn't have computers, they didn't have, you know, google, they didn't have chat, gpt, they had to figure this all out on their own.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then you can go all the way back to the Romans with the aqueducts and so on and so forth. The basic premise of how you get raw water and you treat it and you put it out to the public for consumption is still the same Now. Through the years there's been advances in technology, on different chemicals that are used to make the process more efficient, make the process more safe for the public, but the basic concept of treating water has stayed the same. We just are fortunate enough to live in a time where we have technology available to us to enhance that basic process Not change it, but just enhance it.
Speaker 1:OK, so, because I had a question on leadership, but I'm going to get. I'm going to get to that because there's some other things I want to ask you in that realm, you being a director, but on the subject of you know, the industry evolving, what strategies do you use to like address the challenges of like aging infrastructure? So, like I was doing research one time, I try to do a little bit of research some interesting stuff too, with pipes and the mileage and it's just crazy stuff, but a lot of them are old, I don't know. You know what the city of Warner saw, but there you, I think some research was saying there's some they're like over a hundred years old and like going East or something like that. Sure, what strategies do you use to address those challenges of like aging infrastructure as a director, or just being experienced and being in this with 27 plus years? Well, there's.
Speaker 2:There's no single way to attack the issue. For instance, the city of Warren. We're responsible for 305 miles of underground water mains. Wait, say that one more time 305 miles of underground water mains that range from sizes, from 2-inch all the way up to 16-inch and 30-inch, coming into the filtration plant. 85% of our water lines were installed prior to 1965. So if you do the math when you hear aging infrastructure on the news, or if you read it in the city of Warren or Youngstown or Niles, any city in this area we could be the poster child for aging infrastructure. With that being said, there's also it's not as simple as saying okay, we have a 100-year-old water main here on East Market Street in Warren, we're going to put that on the replacement list here on East Market Street in Warren. We're going to put that on the replacement list Because through the years, depending on when that water main was manufactured, who it was manufactured by, will dictate the quality of that cast iron water main.
Speaker 2:So we may have some water mains in the city of Warren that are 100 years old, but we very rarely have any issues with them. And then we may have some water mains that are 60 years old, but because of the quality of the material and the manufacturing at that time. In that process we have more issues and more problems with them. And then you know, when they put that water line in the ground, did they put proper bedding down so that that cast iron water main isn't sitting on slag and and iron ore deposits that were dumped from the steel mills that are now eating through the, the cast iron? So it people think and I was guilty of it in my earlier years of thinking if it's an old water main we have to replace it because it's old. But that's not the case. There's a lot of factors that come into our water line replacement program and we're putting together a 50-year plan, which sounds like a lot and it is.
Speaker 2:But that 50-year plan has to be a. It's going to be a living document Because in those years we're going to find out okay, we had this street scheduled in 2030. But you know what? We're still not having problems with it. So maybe we can move that up and move another one down the list so that we can replace that. And it's going to be an expensive process. I used to say until COVID struck, it was a million dollars a mile to put in a new water main. A million a mile. A million a mile Wow. Now the going rate for a water main is anywhere between $1.7 to $2.3 million for the same water line. Replacement of that one mile, wow, one mile. So Wow. If, if the good Lord above were to drop a hundred million dollars on to the city of Warren today, it still wouldn't be enough to replace all the aging infrastructure we have. So we just have to, we have to be strategic, we have to be smart on how we go about doing that.
Speaker 1:Strategic. What initiatives have you implemented to ensure operational excellence at your department?
Speaker 2:at the enterprise. Well, over the years I've been trying to be forward thinking and progressive and not shy away from new technologies and new information that's out there. So what we've done over the last several years is we've digitized all our papers at the water department. So we used to be famous for having a paper for this, a paper work order, a paper everything was paper. We have been gradually through the years moving to, as I like to say, the year 2005 and digitizing everything, including our prints. We have over 2000 pages of hand drawn prints that each water line or that 305 miles has been hand drawn by someone, with the proper measurements and everything, and those are kept in a fireproof safe that we can look at historically. But we've had those digitized. So now the staff, when they're out on a main break or they're out doing a customer service, they have an iPad to look at the waterline, look at the map of the city, versus having to make copies and take those paper copies out there. We've done that. We've utilized.
Speaker 2:I'm a big proponent of KPIs. I love key performance index stats. Graphs, as I like to say, explain it in big crayons so it's easy to understand. Because I think KPIs are important, because that's how you keep score and you can't play a game if you don't know what the score is. You don't know what to do next and you have to keep track and keep score of what you're doing.
Speaker 2:And of late, obviously, in the last year or so, myself and a couple members of my staff we've embraced AI technology and my staff we've embraced AI technology and we're trying to figure out how we could use AI technology for computational analysis to help us with. Okay, we know the age of the water main, we know the number of breaks that we've had on this water main over a number of years and whatnot. Geologically, we could probably find out what the geological material is that it's sitting on in that particular street. So how can we use AI and computational analysis to spit us out a report on, essentially an algorithm of suggestions on where that main ranks as far as replacing it? And we're doing the same thing with lead service lines, that's an initiative right now.
Speaker 1:Yes, I want to talk about that later too. Okay, I want to get into that. Yeah, we're doing the same thing with lead service lines. That's an initiative right now. Yes, I want to talk about that later too.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, we're doing the same thing with that, and so I've always been. I like to think, forward thinking or progressive, and I've never liked to be in a meeting where someone says, well, that's the way we've always done it. If that was the case, we'd still be in a horse and buggy, because that's the way we always done it Now.
Speaker 2:I'm not. I'm not a proponent, proponent of change for the sake of change. But let's not, let's not like be narrow minded and not be open to ideas of change that could help with efficiency, they could help with safety, it could help with a bunch of other things. But we have to be open and we try it. And, like I tell my staff all the time, I would be more upset with them if they didn't try something and just stuck with the status quo. Then, if they tried something with good intentions and if it failed, well then we just we'll do an after action report and look at well, why did it fail? Or maybe the idea itself isn't a bad idea, maybe we just executed it incorrectly. So I, I I like to fail forward, then stay stagnant.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, you, you teeing me up, man. You like every like. The end of your answers is just getting right into, if it flows very well. You mentioned a couple of things. You said staff and men. You've talked off Mike and I can say, you know, when I mentioned leadership earlier on, uh, we've talked off Mike just about. You know, um, you know life in general but, but our work and things like that. One of the things that sticks with me all the time is you're very consistent, um, I would say with you know empowering your staff. Um, you know, talking about the staff just a few minutes ago. You know empowering your staff, um, you know, talking about the staff just a few minutes ago. You know, when we were, we were off mic, you were talking about just just giving a shout out, checking up on staff. You know giving a showing, some appreciation with a phone call, like I'm very, very big on that. Um, my question to you is like what personal values or experience guide you, you know, as a, in your role as a director?
Speaker 2:values or experience guide you. You know, as a in your role as a director, that's a tough one. Um, first and foremost, my success and we'll put it up in air quotes there Uh, my success as a director is directly correlated with the success and effort of my staff, with the success and effort of my staff, and I feel any leader of any organization, whether it's private, public, political you're only as good as the staff that is performing the day-to-day duties. For instance, today I'm here doing a podcast, but I have great people doing a great job making sure that, in this hour, that the million gallons of water that's leaving the filtration plant is right, it's safe, it meets all EPA standards and guidelines and I don't have to sweat it or be concerned about it, because I have trust in my staff, I have faith in my staff and I've learned through the years.
Speaker 2:Because it sounds profound now, but nine years ago, when I started this in this position, I spent a lot of time micromanaging and it took me a couple years talking to people, talking to mentors, getting deep in the personal development, to realize that. You know, I went into the mindset like, well, I know how to do this. I started as a labor. I worked my way all the way up, so I know all these jobs, so this is the way you should do it. This is the way. Well, then I realized that things were getting done and they were getting done right. Things were getting done and they were getting done right.
Speaker 2:But once I started to empower the staff to make their own ways, make their own decisions staying within the guardrails because we're always mandated by EPA mandates and regulations but giving them ownership of of their job and their responsibilities made them better employees, made them buy into what the vision was of and is of the water department, because now they they have an ownership stake in it. They, you know, they know that I'm giving them the responsibility to make decisions. And again I, like I said before, I don't mind if they make a bad decision. If they make a bad decision but they had good intentions, then let's just sit down, talk about what made it. A bad outcome Might still be a good decision, it's just maybe it was executed poorly and we can move forward. But I would never discipline my staff or berate my staff for making a decision as long as it was made with good intentions.
Speaker 1:What would if you had a staff member sitting here, you weren't in the room? How would they? What would you say? How would they describe your leadership style?
Speaker 2:And I thought about this one because, uh, I I wonder about it quite often. Number one demanding, but not demanding in the sense that I need production from you. Demanding in the sense that I'm going to hold you accountable because I'm going to give you the freedom to make decisions to move the organization forward. So I'm demanding, but the demanding is the accountability. I want you to be held accountable and if you make a mistake, own up to it. Don't, don't, don't make excuses, don't make you know it was, hey, it was Deshaun's fault or nope, it's. You know the buck stops here and I know throughout the whole department the buck stops with me. But at each individual levels of leadership in the department there's a buck that stops with them and whether it's their division and their division superintendent and leader or manager within another division, make the decisions. Don't come knock on my door because you want validation for your decision and then, if it's bad, you can say well, franco said hey, yeah, sure, go with it. I don't want to do that. I want to empower people to feel comfortable and secure, to know that they can make decisions and they can make wrong decisions, because none of us are perfect. We're all failed creatures under God's eyes in one form or another. Make the decision, make the decision for the right reason and then, hopefully, it works out good. If it doesn't, we'll re-examine it and then we'll make adjustments. However, we need to make adjustments, but uh, what?
Speaker 2:What I put down was accountable and driven after demanding, because I I expect performance, but it doesn't have to be perfect performance, it just has to be performance.
Speaker 2:And one of the things above all else and I've said this a million times there may be better operators out there, there may be better secretaries out there, there may be better, but if you're loyal and you're loyal to the organization, we could work on making you a better operator. We could work on making you a better secretary or a better data entry. I look for people that are loyal to the organization, that take pride in what they're doing, because those ones are coachable and we can coach them up and we know we have the solid person in the right place. And then then you go through the the gyrations of making sure that it's my responsibility to make sure I have people on the right seat on the bus, because not everybody's cut out for certain seats on the bus and if they're not in the right seat. That's not their fault. Now that's on me and I have to take ownership of that and I, I take. Uh, I'm a firm believer in taking ownership.
Speaker 1:How does your local upbringing here? Because you are worn? You are worn, absolutely, you know, like many out there, but how does your local and your upbringing influence your approach to serving this city?
Speaker 2:Pride. It comes down to pride as much as the city of Warren has been through, and I just happened to be born at one of those stages where Warren sort of peaked in the 60s. And I was born in the 60s and I was born in the 60s and I've watched the decline in population, the decline in business leaving and steel mills leaving and Delphi leaving and whatnot. And fortunately now I've been around long enough to see the phoenix sort of rising from the ashes of all that decline. And I've been blessed again because of my mentor, bob Davis, because of Mayor Doug Franklin, who saw enough in me to give me the opportunity. He gave me the opportunity to make a difference and not just run the water department and run the utilities, but the opportunity to make a difference. What can we do on a daily basis in the city of Warren and the surrounding communities that we supply water to? What can we do to make a difference? We've got the basics down. We know that I'm confident my staff, on a day-to-day basis, is going to put out good water, safe water and water for industry. And I tell all employees when I interview them for a position that I don't want them to look at this as a government job or as a city position. I want them to look at themselves as a water professional. Because right now, as we're speaking today, there's some 16 or 17 year old young mother that has an infant and she's trying to figure out how to be a mom, she's trying to figure out how to take care of a baby and she's got to make formula. Today she's gonna make formula out of the water that we're putting out there and that's a newborn child that we have the responsibility of putting the water out. So that young, that young kid at 16, 17, who's trying to be a mom, they shouldn't have to worry about. Well, is this water safe for my baby's formula? And then, on the flip side, we have nursing homes around here and somebody's grandmother or grandfather right now the nurse is coming through at the nursing home or at the hospital giving them their medications for the day. That's helping them their medications for the day. That's helping them to survive, for the day they're drinking our water. So that water's got to be right. So we're taking care of everybody, from cradle to end of life.
Speaker 2:Because and to me that's that's that's such an awesome responsibility that if you, if you change your, your mindset and you change the paradigm of oh, I'm a city worker to oh, hold on, I'm a professional and what I do is important. It could help lives, it could change lives. It gives you a different perspective when you're going to work on a daily basis, or at least I hope it does. It's a change of mindset. It's a change, you know. Yeah, it's a change of mindset. And then all of us, no matter what we do, you know you want to be proud of what you do on a day-to-day basis and I take great pride in the fact that we do get to make a difference.
Speaker 1:Legacy In your position. What do you hope your legacy to be in your role as as director? I mean, you still got another 40 years to serve as director. You're still young, you know so. But when this is, when this is all done, what do you want your legacy to be? I?
Speaker 2:I was thinking about that this morning. But I I want my legacy when, when people look back, um, I want them to know that I I was. I was constantly looking for ways to innovate and streamline our current operations, but always with an eye for the future needs of the city of warren and the water department and the changes that I've. Off into the sunset I can sit there and be proud of what I brought to the table. I'd like to think that when I do that, I will have left the water department in a better place than when I received it, and I received it in a good place. But I want to leave it in a better place than when I received it and I received it in a good place. But I want to leave it in a better place and I really do want people to to know and to understand that I cared and I cared about how not only we did business, because the water department is a business. There's a budget to keep, we have revenue in, expenses out but I want people to understand that I cared and I always made the decisions that I thought were best for the present with an eye on the future.
Speaker 2:And that's how I try to and I tell my staff this sometimes also that if you make a decision during the day, whatever that decision may be professionally, if you can go to bed at night and it's not bothering you when you put your head on the pillow, then whether it was a good decision or a bad decision, it's okay Because we could review it tomorrow. If you go to bed at night and that decision you made is keeping you awake and I'm guilty of it just like anybody else Then I go into work the next morning and I have a staff meeting and say, hey, look, you know, I know what I said yesterday and I know that was my decision yesterday. It just didn't sit well with me and I don't think I made that decision for the right reasons. It may even be a good decision, but if you're not making those decisions for the right reasons somewhere along the way, that decision is not going to benefit the department and or the city and the citizens as much as it could have is. If you make the decisions for the right reasons, how do you?
Speaker 1:um, did research. You do a lot of volunteering, your community involved. It's on your website, kind of you know. But how do you, how do you balance, man, like the like, the enormous professional life, the things that you have with the community involvement, with the volunteering, and then pushing that just your time, like how do you balance all that?
Speaker 2:Well, nine years in, I'm much better than what I used to be. When I first started in this position, I was terrible. If you gave me a grade from A to F, I was an F minus. I was all consumed with work, took away from family, took away from community as a whole, because I was so concerned of proving that I belonged, that that was my primary focus and all I wanted to do was and and do well and get things done. Uh, through the years now I've I've gotten better at the the work life balance and I I I say that in the sense that I've gone from that f minus I might be a c.
Speaker 2:I might even maybe even give myself a C plus every once in a while, but I am getting better at that balance because I've learned through the years that by creating the balance it makes me better at both. So professionally I'm better because of the balance and personally I'm better at the balance and I've gotten better at saying no. At the beginning I used to say yes to everything. You need me for a meeting yes. You need me for this event yes, you need me for it was yes for everything, because I was trying to please people and I was trying to prove that I belong. And then, looking back, I feel that a lot of people weren't, weren't getting the best of me.
Speaker 1:No, it was a very powerful sentence. Sure, it's very powerful. So, briefly, tell me, what would you tell the 18 year old Franco, y'all just sitting, and would you tell him?
Speaker 2:lots of ways that life is going to put pressure on you, naturally, let alone you putting the pressure on yourself and then go with the five rule. When you have to make a decision, think about okay, five minutes from now, is this decision that important? Five days from now, what is this decision going to be? Five months from now? And or five years? In five years, is this decision that I'm stressing over big time this morning? How big of a deal is it going to be in five months? Or how big of a deal is it going to be in five years? And you'll take a lot of stress off yourself, whether it be an 18 year old, whether it be a 28 year old or 38 year old, and just don't put so much pressure on yourself to have to make the right decision, because we're going to go through life making wrong decisions every day, no matter what age. Ain't that the?
Speaker 1:truth. Ain't that the truth? Your one word? Of course I always explain this is that you know everybody. I like to find out what, what, what. My guess one word is if there was a word to define or closely define, or what they exude or what they find important, it keeps them going or motivate, inspire them. What is your one word?
Speaker 2:determined, and with determined there's a lot that can fall underneath that, but mainly for me, if you're going to take something on, if I'm going to take something on, whether, whether it be a project, whether it be a job I am determined to see it through and I'm determined to make it a success and be the best at it while I'm doing it. And does it always work out that way? No, but if you're determined enough, with that determination will come the consistency, and with the consistency will come the habits, and with the habits will come the outcome. But you have to be determined to put in the effort. And as long as you're determined to put in the effort, good things happen.
Speaker 1:True story Everybody thinks that the D in the D5 group, the marketing agency, means Deshaun. It doesn't. It's determined is one of the five Ds that describes the company. So that's one of my own. That's cool, did you know things? But yes, I did not know that. Yes, sir, it has nothing to do with me. My name is you know. It's just a coincidence that you know what I mean. Determination and diligence and all those discernment, all those start with D, has nothing to do with Deshaun, though, like the letter D.
Speaker 2:So see, see, you learn something new every day.
Speaker 1:All right, we got a random question round. You see this yellow piece of paper in front of me and I always I do these like a little bit before the show, Like you know I sit and you know just kind of think of some random. I always find it interesting. If I throw a party, you'll have to come, because I'm always asking like weird random questions and stuff. You ready? Yep, All right, Fill in this blank. Every young man should own.
Speaker 2:Every young man should own a watch. Own a watch because I've gone through life and and it drives my, my family, crazy, drives people at work crazy. If you're not 10 minutes early, you're late, and that that's. Every man should own a watch.
Speaker 1:I remember you, uh, when we were talking about the time you said you said I'm going to be here a little before that 8 45 and you are.
Speaker 2:You are early.
Speaker 1:I was parked outside at 8 30 yeah if you could hang out with a fictional character for a day, what character would it be?
Speaker 2:fictional, fictional, fictional fictional character, holy cow. That Holy cow, that one's a tough one. I guess I would say Rocky Balboa. And I'm saying that because it leads back to my word of determination. He was determined, wasn't the most talented, wasn't the most gifted, but with determination great things can happen.
Speaker 1:If you had a theme song that played every time you spoke? Because you do public speaking too, so every time you come out on stage a theme song play. You can only choose one. What song would that be? Frank Sinatra.
Speaker 2:I did it my way OK.
Speaker 1:You know what I thought you was going to say After answering that with Rocky. I thought you was going to say the theme to Rocky.
Speaker 2:No, that'd be for working out at the gym.
Speaker 1:Okay, If you could be president for any historical event what event. Would that have been?
Speaker 2:President for a historical event, I would have to say, uh, I would. I would have been. I think I would have been well suited to be president during world war ii. Historically I'm a history buff. I think that that's the event that I want to be present for okay we both have.
Speaker 1:We have daughters, and so this is a, this is. I can remember telling my daughter this um my, my three. But what three traits should a gentleman have?
Speaker 2:number one he's got to respect you, because with respect comes a a lot of other things. Got to be loving, because I I want my daughter to have a loving relationship and a man that will respect her, a man that will respect her. And the third one, I guess, would be I'd want a man that is not obsessive but protective of my daughter, meaning not protective from you know, they're jealous or things of that nature but to make sure that my daughter's always safe, that my daughter's taken care of that. Uh, in the sense that you're putting her in a safe environment and you're taking care of her. If you guys are walking down the streets of downtown warner, downtown la, I know that my daughter's okay Cause she's with you, cause you're going to protect her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's uh, my mother-in-law gave me this after after Erica passed and uh it was. At first it caught me off guard, like what is this? But it was a thank you key chain for being a great son-in-law and loving her daughter and protecting her daughter and those things over the year. So I'm just going out and like, absolutely so, I knew what you meant, like you know, protective and things like that.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean Versus the other thing, but we wind up.
Speaker 1:um, I do want to hit this because we cannot end this without talking about it. Is the the initiative Like? I want to put that out there. So can you briefly tell our audience about that?
Speaker 2:Sure, the city warned. We were fortunate enough to be chosen by the federal EPA for their GLOW initiative, which is an acronym for Get the Lead Out, because, as we all learned from the Flint Michigan tragedy years ago, lead service lines going into individual homes just aren't a good thing. Now in the city of Warren, we're fortunate because the way we treat our water, we coat our lead service lines and we base it off of our pH level and treatment of water and treatment of water, so we don't actually have acidic water that leaches the lead out of the line into the home. But nonetheless, the only way to guarantee that you don't have lead and you're not ingesting lead when you're drinking it is to get rid of the lead service lines. With this GLOW initiative, the EPA has come in. They'd offered us services, technical services, they they've offered us marketing services and they've also offered us services as far as contractors out there digging and looking for these lead water lines, because, as you can imagine, having records that are 100 years old, 120 years old, some of the records are accurate, some of the records are not accurate. So sometimes the only way we're going to know if there's a lead service line going into this particular address is if we dig a hole and actually look the EPA in this project.
Speaker 2:Out of 199 communities nationwide, warren was fortunate enough to be one of them and I believe that they're using this as a pilot study, that they're going to put this initiative out as a mandate in the upcoming years. So what we're doing right now we are very close to finishing our lead line inventory that's required by the EPA, by the state of ohio, epa, by october. So at that point we will have a uh, an inventory of where the lead lines are in the city of warren. Then we're going to work together with the epa for possible funding mechanisms, whether it be grants, whether it be loans, and then we are going to systematically start replacing those lead lines in the city of Warren.
Speaker 2:And I feel that it's very important in the sense that most lead lines are in older homes, older sections of Warren, rental properties in the section of Warren. So the ones that are going to be most affected by lead lines are the ones that least can afford it, the socioeconomic disadvantaged children of the city of Warren. So we have an obligation to put this effort in and take it seriously to get rid of these lead lines. So that's one less obstacle that a young five-year-old that's living in an older neighborhood. That's one less obstacle they have to overcome and that's our responsibility. And I want to thank Mayor Franklin for helping the Water Department get chosen for that initiative and supporting it One hundred and ten percent. Him and Director Colbert have done nothing but say yes whenever I have a request from the administration for this and they're on board. One hundred ten percent and I couldn't ask for more.
Speaker 1:Two good gentlemen professionally and personally, absolutely. So, wrapping this up, how can people stay connected with the water department, or utilities and or you?
Speaker 2:Okay, Well, as always, they can go to the City of Warren webpage and all our contact information is on there. My email email is F Luccarelli. It's F L u CA RE LL I at Warren org. And then also now you can go to the war and water department Facebook page. We are starting that and trying to figure out how to utilize it the best we can. But you can always leave a comment, leave a message, report a water main break a complaint. We're not afraid of negative comments. We can only learn from the negative comments and from the public. And you can go to the City of Warren Facebook page. It also reaches from there.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate it, sir, taking your time to be here on this podcast. You know we batten a thousand with cool people being on here.
Speaker 2:I absolutely love that I appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 1:No, man, I definitely wanted to get you on here and, just, you know, just have a conversation, because even off mic we had some really really good conversations, man, and you're doing some incredible things out here. Some really really good conversations, man, and you're doing some incredible things out here and sometimes you just don't think about that, right, you just think you know water or whatever, and you're talking about the filtration department and that front line and things like that. We could have went on and on just with the science and the things that go on. But nonetheless, man, I really, truly appreciate you being on here. Thank, you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:All right, folks, we are signing out here at Sound United Presents. I want to thank you for hitting that play button, looking forward to capturing your ears in the next episode. This episode was produced by the Sound United Podcast Studio, led by Kimberly Gonzalez. Photography and video content produced by the D5 group. And be sure to visit our website, soundunitedpresentscom, where you can catch up on all the episodes and get some behind the scenes content. I'm Deshaun Scott. Thank you for listening. Ready to launch a podcast or create standout audio content? Sound United Podcast Studio has everything you need Studio rental, consulting, content development, marketing support, and we even offer remote editing services. And we can help you whether you're local or nationwide. So book your discovery. Call at wwwthesounducom. That is wwwthesounducom. Or do it the old-fashioned way and call 330-238-7157. That is 330-238-7157. It's time for you to empower with sound.
