A message from Town Manager Terry Rozema, originally published by Tucson Local Media.

Several weeks ago, the Marana mayor and town council made the decision to appoint me as town manager. Their decision has left me both humbled and honored. Humbled because I never imagined myself serving in this capacity, and honored because I have the great privilege of leading a wonderful group of directors and their staff in providing 5-star government services to an outstanding community.

Prior to being asked to serve as interim town manager, I never gave thought to doing anything other than being the police chief for the Town of Marana. I loved the profession, I loved the position, and most of all I loved the people. The level of service I witnessed by the women and men of the Marana Police Department these past 10 years has been the most rewarding of my career. I will forever be grateful for the time I spent serving alongside such dedicated public servants.

Since being appointed town manager, I’ve developed a new perspective and deeper appreciation for the work being done throughout our organization. I can tell you, without hesitation or reservation, that you are served by a group of very dedicated and competent professionals. The past four months have given me a front row seat to witness that fact. It has afforded me the opportunity to observe the wide range of services provided and the incredible amount of work being done to ensure our community is served with excellence.

When I use terms like “excellence” and “5-star” in relation to government services, I’m not throwing them around lightly or loosely. I believe these terms define our purpose and our motivation to be better today than we were yesterday and to be better tomorrow than we are today.

I realize there are those who loathe the thought of having to deal with government, and even those who view government services as a necessary evil. I, however, view public service as a high calling, a great honor, and a tremendous opportunity to not only meet the needs of the community, but to also exceed their expectations.

Our mission and focus will be on providing 5-star services that wow, impress and even astonish those we serve. In order to accomplish our mission, we will focus on the most important title each of us in the Town of Marana holds. This is not our individual titles, like dispatcher, animal control officer, streets maintenance worker, engineer, attorney, director, water reclamation operator, parks programmer, town manager, etc., but the title each of us has in common, the title that binds us all together, the title of Public Servant.

Each of our individual job titles are only relevant to the extent that they describe WHAT we do. The title of Public Servant, much more importantly, describes WHY we do what we do. So long as we remain focused on WHY we do what we do, the “what” and the “how” will almost inevitable be done with excellence. I say it is virtually inevitable because “why” provides the purpose and meaning behind what we do and how we do it. Our purpose, very simply, is to serve others.

Serving others is meaningful and impactful and that will be what drives our service delivery.

As I said earlier, I never gave thought to becoming a Town Manager, but I’ve always been a servant, and as long as I hold my current position with the Town of Marana, I will serve diligently alongside all of our staff to ensure we are providing this community with 5-star service.