Crystal Hayes

I attribute my success to my upbringing and my parents, who both worked in local government - one in law enforcement and the other with U.S. HUD. Growing up, they always operated in the capacity of helping others, and that just rubbed off on me. I can't do something without making sure that I'm helping to impact the future, whether it's youth, adults, or some type of give-back with that holistic, full-circle approach. Even though as a kid I thought I'd stop doing community service once I turned 18, it became who I am. My parents taught me through action - we spent Saturdays cleaning up neighborhoods we didn't live in, collecting food, and doing international mission trips. They showed me that even small things, like improving your environment, can change the way you think and change your outcome. That foundation of always leaving things better than I found them has guided every single thing I've done in my career.

One of the biggest challenges I'm facing right now is that we don't like to talk about the challenges - we only want to talk about the wins. But there's a section of people who are wired differently and need to hear how we got to the win. We never tell them that we crawled before we walked, that we stumbled before we ran, or that we had to take five steps back after going twenty steps forward. Those experiences need to be shared. Right now with the city, we're developing our own public safety departments - our own police and fire - and some people are happy while others are not. The lines get grayed, and it becomes political. You have people who go off what they hear from their buddies or from what I call 'exciting people' instead of doing their own homework and understanding the intel of it. My challenge is working with several organizations and collaborations across the city, tapping our neighbors like Coral Springs who have done it and done it well. Was it perfect? No. But today they've figured it out. They stumbled before they ran, and those are the conversations we need to have. Because of my background, I'm able to channel both the political side and remember why we're doing this - for the people, for the community.

The most important value to me, no matter what I'm part of, is making sure that we leave it better than we found it. That's always my goal, whether the task is small, large, or medium - it doesn't matter. Are we leaving it better than we found it? I also believe strongly in transparency and involving the community, because we're public servants and it's for the people. We don't care if one resident shows up to our meetings - that's more than enough for us - but we make sure we have staff there waiting to welcome residents and give them a breakdown and answer all their questions so there's no confusion. I'm driven by that holistic approach, that full-circle impact, whether I'm working with youth, adults, or any give-back initiative. Everything I look at in my profile, every single thing I've been part of, comes back to that core principle of helping others and making a lasting positive impact.