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MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm Michael Dunne. Teamwork makes the dream work, So the saying goes. And indeed, from sports to politics to business, an effective team can better overcome challenges and develop a strategic vision, better than an individual alone, but sometimes the most effective teams are informal, created not by rule or law, but just by a common purpose. Today on the show, you'll hear from Team Springfield, an unceremonious but impactful collaboration between the city, the utility board, Springfield Public Schools and the Willamette Lane Parks and Recreation District. You'll hear from the leaders of each entity who meet weekly to brainstorm and cooperate to solve problems and create new programs. It's a fairly innovative idea that requires type A personalities to check their egos at the door. Nancy Newton, the Springfield city manager, Jeff Nelson, head of the Springfield Utility Board, Michael Wargo, Executive Director of Willamalane Park and Recreation District and Todd Hamilton, superintendent of Springfield Public Schools. Thanks to you all for coming on the show and talking about team Springfield.
ALL: Thanks for having us.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You know, I'll just start with this general question, and whoever wants to jump in and answer it, you know, what's the goal and the purpose of Team Springfield?
MICHAEL WARGO: Team Springfield is really, it's a unique collaboration between the city of Springfield, the school district, Springfield utility board and Willamalane, and because all four of these agencies have one thing in common, we all serve the Springfield community, and really the goal is to solve problems, find ways to collaborate, share resources, and really find ways to best serve Springfield either in times of projects that are going on or times of crisis. And I think that it's, you know, I've been involved in public service for almost 30 years now, it's one of the more unique collaborations of agencies that are all rowing in that same direction to again serve our Springfield community.
MICHAEL DUNNE: City manager Newton, I'm going to go to you because, you know, maybe take us through the history. How did it get started?
NANCY NEWTON: I'm going to punt for a minute, okay, and direct this question as far as the origin of Team Springfield to assistant city manager Neil Adati, because he is historical minority. I have been here since 2020 but he can talk a little bit more about the origin, because it has sort of pivoted over time based on just what the community has needed. So, I have Neil give a little historical perspective.
NEIL ADATI: Sure, Nancy, It started in 1991 which predates me. I think I was in high school at that time. But around that time, Springfield had an interesting collection of agencies that could be pretty disconnected at the time if some work wasn't done to join together. So the parks department is separate from the city, Water and Power is separate from the city. Obviously, the school district was separate, and so the leadership at that time really thought, in order for Springfield to take that next move, to become the community that they believed it could be, these really strong partnerships had to take place, and that included the work of building those relationships, pulling together shared list of projects that folks thought would benefit the community, getting community input, and then actually moving those projects forward. So in the beginning, it was really a project based so that's where you might have you might see like the Springfield jail was born out of the team Springfield the mill, mill race path was born out of the needs identified under this team, Springfield moniker, the Wildish theater. So those really Cornerstone projects in Springfield were born out of, you know, folks seeing it long ago that, hey, we need to really not only work together, but be this incredible team where we understand each other's needs and we can move things forward. And then, as Nancy said in like 2020 after the pandemic, things changed for Team Springfield, and we had to pivot. And so I'll pass it back to Nancy to handle that piece.
NANCY NEWTON: Thank you, Neil. When we pivoted the focus of Team Springfield, it was due largely to our individual responses to the pandemic. Some of us were newer in our positions and just the overall magnitude of what we had to address in a quick period of time, really pivoted our focus to sharing information, to coordinating resources with each other. For instance, we were putting together protocols for you know, how we do distancing, how we do cleaning of facilities, different policies, even signage, different ideas and ways to charter completely unknown territory. And instead of us separately, having to create these things, we came together and used examples that we all had and as a group, helped each other through, you know, a very catastrophic time in our community and, and I think that really bonded us, you know, in a way that You know, is has sustained us now five years later.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Jeff, I'm going to go to you because this does sound quite unique. I imagine a lot of cities don't have this kind of partnership. You know, what was sort of, from your perspective, running your organization, you know, kind of, what do you get out of it? You know, being, being the large utility board that represents Springfield?
JEFF NELSON: Thanks for the question. Michael, yeah, some people might ask, why is the utility part of this conversation? So, I think the fundamental issue for SUB and for this group is that my observation with all the members of Team Springfield is they deeply care about Springfield, and they want to provide services together, to provide the services that Springfield deserves. They deserve excellence, and this is the way that teen Springfield tries to deliver on that excellence. And from the utility perspective, some of our best work is underground. So, we mentioned the mill race path earlier. Underneath the mill race path, sub installed the 24-inch water line and water transmission line, and that water transmission line is part of the critical infrastructure for the life blood of Springfield. And so it's that collaboration of working together with the city's jurisdiction on the mill race with Willamette interest on the path and subs interest on that. Water Infrastructure is an example of how our interests intersect.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay. Todd, same question to you as representing the school board and the school district, talk about what you get from this partnership.
TODD HAMILTON: So, I want to go back to what Michael Wargo initiated at the beginning, or stated at the beginning, which was the nature of this partnership is so unique, and it's very special. And I think one of the things that you're hearing from our comments is that we all care about our community members and the nature of the members that we serve is they're all members of Springfield, but they're a little different. You know, we have nearly 10,000 students walking through our doors on a daily basis, and we're interacting with them. We're interacting with their parents, but they're also part of the larger community. And when I talk with my superintendent colleagues around the state of Oregon and other superintendents around the country, very few of them have a connection with just their local city government, let alone their local utility and their local parks and rec and when we think about, you know, the challenges that we face in our community, the opportunities that we have to serve our students and our Parents and be good stewards in our community. This relationship has been very powerful in not only allowing us to meet the needs of our students and their families, but lean into the expertise and the support from the other agencies around how we can support everybody in the community, whether it's new opportunities that support the different agencies or dealing with incidents that are in front of us, right? You know that we're trying to work through emergencies, for instance, whether it's the pandemic, whether it's an ice storm.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Michael Wargo, I'm going to go to you just maybe, if you could take us through, sort of the piece parts of how you operate. I know you have weekly meetings. Are you a kind of an official organization? Are you a nonprofit? Kind of, give us the 30,000-foot view of what the organization is like, etc.?
MICHAEL WARGO: It's basically built, as, I guess, an unofficial collaboration of the organizations that are on this call. You know, there isn't a formal charter or anything like it. It's, again, it's just a commitment that we have from all of our elected officials that this is important to them, thereby, it's important for us, but we really don't need, I believe, a charter to state that. I mean, it's been around since, I think, 1990-1991 and it's just really continued to grow. I mean, we used to meet almost quarterly, and then, as Nancy was mentioning, as during the pandemic, we really had a need to have very regular communication. So, we had these regular Wednesday, 10am calls. And now here we are. Years later, we're still having them, not just to solve problems, but to share resources. So to me, it's, it's really a superpower of these organizations that have come together. I used to work for a county government on the East Coast, and the departments within the county didn't collaborate and get along the same as these four independent organizations. And to me, that is such a valuable resource, and one that I know I'm very proud of, and I think my colleagues are as well. Just to give you an example, you know, we were just talking with Todd Hamilton, superintendent of public schools, the collaboration a couple years ago, talking about, how can we keep the children of Springfield busy and give them opportunities? And you know, there's a lot of need within our community, and the school district was able to get funding for a one pass program that we have, which is a PASS program that has different outlets for activities throughout the summer. But through our relationship with the city, they were able to fund free one passes for 4000 public school students to keep them busy throughout the summer in Springfield and in some of our outlets in Eugene, and one thing that we're very, very proud of, we had over 70,000 uses of these passes during a summer. That's 70,000 times that our kiddos were busy out there. And those types of relationships and partnerships don't come if you don't have those that trust within those partner organizations to support one another. I'm very, very proud of it.
MICHAEL DUNNE: City manager Newton, I want to go to you. Talk about, maybe, you know, give us a good example of a collaboration that came out of Team Springfield that you're putting into place.
NANCY NEWTON: Thank you, Michael. I'm really proud of the collaboration that we have with all of our team Springfield members. But in particular, there is an upcoming events every August we have national night out, and it's a very popular event in the city, which we have typically held at the police department in a fairly small parking lot that now we have just the event is far too large for that space, so I approached Michael, and I asked him if he would be willing to collaborate with the city for national night out and hold it at the Bob keeper Center, which has a much larger area that will enable us to be able to put more emergency vehicles there for the kids to look at. We'll be able to do canine demonstrations, and it's a great partnership because it also gives people exposure to the wonderful amenities at the Bob Keefer center as well. So I don't know, Michael, if you want to add to that or not.
MICHAEL WARGO: Happy to. You know, the partnership came out of one of our WEEKLY TEAM Springfield meetings, and Nancy Newton city manager mentioned that there was a need. We raised our hand because it seemed like a great partnership, and just happy to be able to host and support our police department and our community. And it also provides an opportunity for all of Team Springfield members to really, you know, table and have some opportunities to have that outreach with our community, which is a goal of all of ours. And again, proof positive that the team Springfield model is one that's very valuable for us.
JEFF NELSON: And Michael, this is Jeff. I want to jump in. I think that's a great example between the stadium Willamette and we're all collaborating together. But I want to highlight a relationship that the Springfield Utility Board has with the school district. So, for decades, we've had a grant program with the Springfield Public Schools. It's called the water and energy Learning Lab, and with the funding that sub provides to the school district, the school district has been. Created a fantastic learning opportunity, science based, field-based experiences for students. It's just a fantastic collaboration, in my mind, and the school district has really elevated that opportunity for all kinds of students in the district. So just grateful for that opportunity with the school district.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Todd, I'm going to go to you. Okay, your four bosses, and I imagine y'all might have Type A personalities. How does your leadership styles, you know, mesh together when you come together as team Springfield?
TODD HAMILTON: We definitely do have four unique personalities in this group, and I think that we're complementary to each other. I think one of the challenges of leading any large organization, a public organization, is the nature of what we're leading right now, it can be a very isolated position, because there are very few people that actually have a lived experience that is shared with you. And so, you know, I'm fortunate in that I have 197 other superintendents in Oregon that I can call upon, but I don't have the same deep, meaningful relationships with them as I do with this group. And at any moment in time, I can send a text message, pick up the phone, and I can call Nancy, Jeff or Michael and say, Hey, here's what's going on, and they take my call. They haven't a shared understanding of what it's like to lead an organization. They're really thoughtful about how we problem solve together, and just the collective experience that we have and the diff and the unique ways that we look at problems, I think, is a strength for us and is and that shared experience back at the beginning of the pandemic, where we came together on a weekly basis, is really deep into that relationship, so that I know that I can call them at any point in time and they will help me navigate problems or celebrate successes. And because of the unique way that we approach things, it's really helped us as a group, I think, be successful in our work together, and in our identifying problems and identifying the solutions that not only work for organizations, but are mindful of our community as well. Because we do, we do understand that while we each lead separate organizations, we do have that shared values and beliefs about making sure that the people in our community are being successful, whether it's, you know, navigating the school system, navigating their utility, navigating city government, navigating Parks and Rec, or just being a general member of the community. You know, we understand that we're stewards of our organizations and we contribute to the success of our community. So again, coming back to the unique perspectives and experiences that we have actually really make it a deep and meaningful collaboration for this group.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Nancy, I'm going to go to you because we brought up the ice storm a couple of times, and I'm thinking, Okay, that was all hands-on deck for all four of your organizations. And I mean, were you able, because you obviously had many demands placed on you from your own organization, were you able to get together as team Springfield to kind of problem solve some of some of the big challenges
NANCY NEWTON: Throughout the Ice Storm Team Springfield worked together to coordinate getting help out to the community organizing supplies. But, you know, Michael, I really need to give credit on the city side where credit is due, because in a weird fluke, I was actually, I was out of the country when that happened, and Neil Adati was acting city manager at that time, and he just rose to the occasion. And, you know, did what he does best. And we all again, this is a great example of why this collaboration works so well, because we all know each other well. And so, if there is a situation where one of us is maybe not there, or, you know, we fill in for each other, and we help each other. And so, you know, Neil could probably speak to it at a at a higher level than I can. But I want to also revisit why this collaboration works, and I think it's because we're all very egoless in this process. It's not about us as individuals. We are here for our community, and that's what's most important.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Michael Wargo, I think I'm going to let you have the last word. Kind of going off of what Jeff said about communication. I imagine there are other cities or other park districts that communicate with you and say, How did you set this up? Talk about, you know, I imagine there are others that say we might want to try something like this. What do you tell them?
MICHAEL WARGO: Yeah, thanks, Michael. I do get that because I love sharing the story of Team Springfield, you know, I think, and when I do share that with my counterparts, whether it's in Bend or sometimes even at national conferences. It has to happen organically, and I think that that's what's happened here in Springfield. If you force it, I don't know if it'll have that same meaning, but it's all about having meaningful relationships and having that trust. And I think it was Nancy Newton who said, you know, leaving your ego at the door. You know, we are very, I think, Type A personalities, and we're very energetic and go, go, go. But really, it's all about the people that we serve, and not ourselves or even our own organizations. So, when I do share the story of Team Springfield to others, I just say, you just have to develop those relationships and have to be comfortable having sometimes uncomfortable conversations to remove some of those barriers, and that's one thing I highly value. Do we all see eye to eye on every single issue? No, we don't, but we come, you know, to conclusions in a respectful manner for what's best for the people that we serve. And a lot of times, I think that when things at you know whether it's an ice storm or a pandemic, but when things are at their worst, I like to think that team Springfield is at our best.
MICHAEL DUNNE: All right. Well, we'll have to leave it there. Team Springfield, represented by Nancy Newton, Springfield City Manager, Jeff Nelson, Springfield Utility Board, Mike Wargo, Willamalane Park and Rec district, and Todd Hamilton with Springfield Public Schools. Really appreciate all your time.
All: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon On The Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. Tomorrow on the show, you'll hear from a longtime tech reporter about the huge challenges facing one of the state's largest and most important employers, Intel. I'm Michael Dunne, and this has been Oregon On The Record from KLCC. Thanks for listening
