Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.

Last night, Saturday, October 1^st, I had the privilege of attending the annual Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards. The reason for my attendance was that my “Beyond the Headlines: How to build a lake” was nominated for an award in the Public Affairs Program category. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaxlBYerWug .

[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”2″ sortorder=”36,35,41,37,38,39,40″ display=”basic_slideshow”]I learned a lot. This award is a big deal as it is part of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Southwest Region covering Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Southeastern California. All the nominees were TV stations, universities, and professional production companies. Glendale was the only city nominated for any award and the only city to win in its category.

The award banquet was held at the Chateau Luxe which is quite like our very own Civic Center in downtown Glendale. It was a black-tie event and attendees were dressed to the nines.

I was delighted to be sitting next to Lin Sue Cooney and her husband, Tom. Lin Sue retired from news in August of 2015.  She now shares her skills and talents with Hospice of the Valley (HOV) as their Director of Community Engagement, overseeing their marketing, business development, fund development, volunteers, and creative services.

How did we get to last night? Every councilmember has the ability to produce their own half hour programming. My intent with my series called “Beyond the headlines” has always been to go beyond the news headline and to go in-depth into a topic. When I knew Heroes Lake was about to start construction, I asked our Media Department to take video and drone video footage from the start. I told them I wanted to do an in-depth segment on building the lake. I, like most people, assume it’s an easy construction job and can be done almost immediately. As with most construction projects, it’s a lot more complicated and time consuming than we think. Add to that, I was pressuring the city’s engineers to get the job done in about 8 months. I was always asking, what was the status of the project? Staff knew that every time I saw them, I would ask. It got to the point the first thing they would tell me was the status of the project.

In meeting with Sue Breding, Public Affairs Administrator; Jessica Mensch, Producer, Writer, and Editor of the video; and Luis Jacinto, Photographer and Drone Photographer of the video, I laid out my concept for the video. I wanted to explain how complicated such a project is, what is involved, why it took so long to build and what the cost was. After all, it’s taxpayer dollars and our citizens should have the opportunity to learn for what and how those dollars were being used.

The first draft presented by Jessica and Luis was very good but didn’t quite reflect my vision. After conversations they went back to the drawing board and their next effort was perfect. It captured what I had envisioned and was extremely professional. At that time, I quipped that they should enter it for an award. That is exactly what Sue Breding did. She submitted it for an Rocky Mountain Emmy Award. I remember how excited she was when she told me it was one of three nominees in the Public Affairs Program category. Little did I realize what a big deal it was to even be a nominee. To have won in that category is even more spectacular. My very own Emmy statuette has been ordered and it will receive a place of prominence in my office.

I may have had the idea for the video, but it was due to the professionalism and talent of Jessica and Luis that we won. You, as a resident, should be very proud of Glendale’s staff. Often, they are the best and brightest in their respective career fields.

So, we won! You should be very proud of all of Glendale’s achievements for its staff regularly and routinely wins awards in all kinds of fields including finance reporting to water management.

^{© Joyce Clark, 2022}      

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