Paul Allred: Career Reflections & Valuable Advice – Part 3
November 12, 2021 by admin
Policy/Legislative
The following is the third and final article from an interview with recently retired Paul Allred, former Community Development Director for Holladay. The interview was conducted and edited by Michael Maloy, AICP, for APA Utah.
- Given your experience, what are some of the “lessons learned” you can share with us?
- While there are many, here are several of the most valuable and—I hope—helpful:
- Average people skills generally won’t cut it with employers and the public. I was not a valuable public employee until I really listened and was genuinely concerned for those I served—especially when I disagreed with them.
- It is difficult to accomplish worthwhile objectives without courage and tenacity. I thought I knew how to work hard before I began my public service career. Wrong. The communities I worked for stretched me and challenged me more than I could have anticipated. Thank goodness.
- If you want to make a real difference in your career, it will not come without real effort. Make the effort.
- Speak the truth as effectively as possible regardless of the situation or audience. A favorite quote that has influenced me is, “Be completely honest while being completely kind.”
- I learned to think comprehensively. Urban planners know by experience that people, including Commissions and Councils, are often governed by fear of change. They can become irrationally convinced that even the most routine application before the Planning Commission or Council will have dire consequences for their quality of life. For me, it was of utmost importance to learn how to consistently address collective fears with logic, fact, and reason. Humor helped too. As a planner, I needed to effectively explain the critical interconnectedness of past and present land-use decisions and their implications on the future. A firm understanding of complex geographical concepts related to the impact humans have on the land proved more than useful.
- I wish I could go back in time and advocate for myself more with my employers. I routinely failed to ask for what I was really worth, and the resources my staff and I needed to be more effective. Planning tends to take a back seat to other municipal departments. That must change.
- What additional advice do you have for city planners today?
- Thank goodness for the gift of “foresight” and “hindsight” during my career, which produced the following list of advice that I gladly share with my fellow planners:
- If you don’t like people, don’t be a planner because you’ll be dealing with a lot of them.
- Be genuine and kind. Never be a “bureaucrat” with the public.
- Be completely ethical. Period—even if it means getting fired. Don’t ever break the law or put your employer or yourself at risk. (Thank you, Jody Burnett!)
- Become indispensable by knowing your duties and doing more than asked.
- Mentor and encourage other planners. Someday, someone you mentored will thank you and “pay it forward” with others.
- Continuously learn and improve. Get an advanced degree, if possible.
- Educate, advocate and promote best planning policy and practices. Be a leader.
- Balance home and work life. Work to live, don’t live to work.
- Avoid a sense of job entitlement. Be grateful every single day for a place to be and someone to help. Think about this: if another “Great Recession” or similar event occurs, and your employer resorts to reductions in force, will you be in or out, based on your performance and value?
- What are your plans now?
- Improve my health, spend time with family, travel, develop a hobby (other than work) and give meaningful volunteer service, among other things. I will stay involved with city planning in some form and give back to the profession where possible.
Thank you again, Paul, for your gracious, honest, and generous responses to our questions, and on behalf of APA Utah, we wish all the best for you and your family.
Paul and Ann Allred, ready for whatever comes next!
Recent News
- Hey, Utahns—stop driving your car
- Art as Daily Experience in Ogden’s Nine Rails Creative District
- Award Spotlight: 2020 Kearns General Plan and Resilience + Infrastructure Element
- Award Spotlight: Salt Lake City Reimagines Nature
- LET’S TALK! AND TALK. AND TALK SOME MORE…
- A Minnesota Judge Throws the Book at Immoral Tax Assessments
- The Great Rebalance
- To Fully Observe, We Need to Walk
- Study reveals that Utah housing prices have increased 200% in two decades
- DOUBLE WHAMMY
- The Office of the Property Rights Ombudsman
- Gov. Cox hails ‘generational’ effort in Utah’s water law history
- Clamor is King
- Utah Is Building a ’15-Minute City’ From Scratch
- Quality of Life – A Dishonest Approach to Change in Neighborhood Character
- Changing the Rules of Zoning
- Growth & Change In the West: 2022 RMLUI Conference Recap
- Vernacular Is Beautiful—If We Would Just Allow It
- APAUT Spring Conference Follow-up and Pictures
- To Airbnb or Not to Airbnb
- The Costs of Wide Streets in the U.S.
- APAUT President’s Message – March 2022
- How should we decide the fate of Utah Lake?
- How the Utah Legislature continues to usurp power from city and county government
- What to know about residential care facilities in your neighborhood
- University of Utah Professor Named the 3rd Most Cited Planning Faculty in the World
- TWO BIG BILLS OUT
- Examining the Impact of London’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing
- May We all Grow Together: Cultivating Support for Utah’s Emerging Planners
- A Commitment to Change
- Okay Boomer
- APAUT Book Discussion: Evicted by Matthew Desmond
- Economic Development After the Rise of Telework
- Follow the 2022 Legislative Session
- After the Bennett Freeze: Planning Within the Navajo Nation
- Flexible Zoning for the New Economy
- Lead and Inspire with Purpose: AICP Code of Ethics Update
- Janet Quinney Lawson – Institute for Land, Water & Air
- Emerging Planners Survey
- Plan to restore Utah Lake met with resistance from Utah County conservation groups
- New Murray projects and guidelines move forward as moratorium ends
- From the Office of Dodge, Wiggle, Hack, Shrug & DeCamp, LLC
- Land Use Training
- Paul Allred: Career Reflections & Valuable Advice – Part 3
- Cache Summit 2021
- WAVE HIKING PERMIT CHANGES ON THE WAY
- Paul Allred: Career Reflections & Valuable Advice (Part 2)
- Paul Allred: Career Reflections & Valuable Advice
- UDOT seeks public input on rural Utah transportation plans
- Electric Vehicles Are on the Rise. Is Your Community Ready?
- Call for Award Nominations
- Fifteen-Minute City
- Remember Olympia Hills?
- The Mountain Lions: these nine cities boomed in the COVID era
- AS PLANNERS, WHY DO WE DO WHAT WE DO, AND WHY ARE WE DOING IT?
- Andrea Garfinkel-Castro, doctoral candidate, “Unpacks” Latino Urbanism
- 11 Ways To Excel Ethically At Every Level
- Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD): core principles
- A Tale of Two Walks: Part 2
- Heat, Health & Equity: The Effects of High Temperatures on Health, and Ways to Mitigate Heat in Our City
- Help Shape Equity Planning Policy
- DO CITIES HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO BAN FIREWORKS?
- Air Quality Is Better In Utah Today Than Ten Years Ago, But…
- Layton council adopts water-saving landscaping requirements for most new development
- CAREFUL WHOM YOU CALL A NIMBY
- Considering A National Infrastructure Bank
- HEALTHY UTAH COMMUNITY
- Breaking Down Silos: The Inception of the Utah Rural Coordinating Council
- MAG Transit Studies
- Effective Public Engagement Requires a Lot More Than a Public Hearing
- Is Remote Work Here to Stay?
- SENSITIVE LANDS PLANNING: PROTECTING PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY, AND WELFARE FOR GENERATIONS TO COME
- Bond Ratings are for Investors (Not Taxpayers)
- It’s Complicated (Ok, you’ve heard that before, but maybe not for this topic – billboards.)
- The Color of Law APAUT Online Book Discussion
- The American Jobs Plan Will Make Our Infrastructure Crisis Worse
- President’s Infrastructure Proposal Includes Addressing Housing Affordability
- We Cannot Plan from Our Desks
- Rep. Curtis, Sen. Romney introduce bill to advance the Bonneville Shoreline Trail
- Utah could lose out on billions in federal funding for passenger rail
- The Cure for the Wasatch Front’s Housing Crisis: More Affordable Homes Between North Salt Lake and Lehi
- Ambassador Program Update
- Local Needs Among Utah’s Multicultural Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Campus Mobility Hub Study – APAUT Award Winner
- Does Building New Housing Reduce Overall Housing Costs?
- Layton Forward – Layton City’s Comprehensive General Plan Update
- Spring Conference Postponed, Book Club, President’s Message
- Presidents Message
- Lehi Connectivity Standards – A Stronger Urban Fabric
- Housing First; Cars Last
- UDOT Bike Infrastructure Data Collection Project
- The Great Horizon Year of 2020
- Density is a Loaded Term
- New Study on Housing Affordability Focuses on Local Land Use Practices
- There is no such thing as ‘smart sprawl’
- Legislative Interim Committee – What You Need To Know
- A bipartisan opportunity to rebuild American infrastructure
- Zoning laws aren’t the only things hindering Utah’s housing market
- Congratulations to the APAUT 2020 Award Winners
- State and Local Governments Must Further Address Housing Affordability
- The Status of Women Leaders in Government – Utah Cities and Towns
- We have to do something about Utah’s housing crisis
- What the Wasatch Front needs is more basement apartments
- Cities Don’t Need High-Rises to Become Affordable
- Away from the bustle: Covid-19 and the end of commuterland
- The Color of Law: A Book Review
- (Contract) Zoning by Agreement in Utah
- Zoning Reform Is Not Leftism
- “The Great Localization” COVID-19 and Opportunities for Communities
- Missing Middle Housing: Thinking Big and Building Small to Respond to Today’s Housing Crisis
- Zoning Reform – English Style
- 3 Stories Show the Flip Side Of Zoning Reform
- APAUT Call to Action
- The Politics of Housing Affordability
- Zoning, Affordability, and COVID-19
- Where do we go NOW!? – President’s Message
- An Interview With Ashley Cleveland, MCMP
- The Importance of Sense of Place in our Communities
- An Answer to the Suburban Growth Dilemma
- Homeless to Housed Fall 2019
- A New Initiative: Children’s Walks
- Awards Spotlight: Water Quality Planning Toolkit for Utah Communities