Yeah, she works for me.

My 'volunteer opportunity' went well this morning...essentially my group was tasked with cleaning and weeding in The Parkway section of Richland.  To call The Parkway a 'strip mall' wouldn't be fair...it's nicer than that...a combination of shops, restaurants and a plaza. 

One of my few real responsibilities as the Team Leader was ensuring that folks knew how to find The Parkway, since the population of The Tri-cites has a tendency to sprawl, you can't assume folks know where everything is.  One of the ladies on my team, when I asked if she knew where she was going, kind of scoffed.  'Yeah...I'm the city manager'. 

Now despite the words she said, what I heard was 'I'm a manager for the city'.  Fine...you know where going, see you there.

A few hours later, I was talking to my wife, and she said that Cindy was pretty nice.  I told her yeah, she's a manager for the city of Richland, so she actually knew more about the project than I did.

My wife looked at me and said, 'No...she is THE City Manager for Richland'. 

Doh!

Now...taken as a whole, the Tri-cities would be the 4th largest city in Washington.  Individually, Richland has a population of about 60K, so, it's not like this is the same thing as Mayor Bloomberg turning out to help turn back the wheels of urban decay, but it was still neat to see the City Manager out pitching in.  She's got my vote if she ever runs for office(well, as long as she isn't a communist).

And not for a photo op either.  Cindy spent a good three hours out there on her hands and knees, helping weed and clean up leaves by hand since someone didn't think wasn't expressly told to bring rakes.  Yeah...that's me in charge. 

Anyway...things went well.  I wish there were before and after pictures...between my team and a team from another church, we filled three pick-up truck beds with trash bags.