Allow me to introduce you to a Provo City employee who embodies that concept: Tara Riddle.

Tara’s friendships and collaborations reach across divisions, departments, and even decades. It’s not uncommon to find her at lunch with colleagues from other departments or even catching up with friends who’ve retired from city work years ago. In this way, she serves as a kind of glue that holds our organization together. She is all in on people and on service, and that makes all the difference.

While our entire organization is filled with committed public servants, Tara stands out not just for the depth and duration of her connections with others but also for the reach of her positive influence–on our city, our partners, and our residents.

Indeed, “One Provo” also reminds us of the power of one in Provo. And Tara is certainly one of our most influential “ones.”

A heart for service and a head for solutions

Tara’s “day job” is impressive enough. She oversees all of Provo City’s property acquisitions, sales, and management, and she serves as our ombudsman, working with residents whose situations are often complex and difficult to resolve.

Over the years, she’s had to handle some of our toughest cases. I’ve learned of times she’s had to meet with individuals struggling with mental health challenges so severe that they seem at times to live in their own alternate reality. Tara greets such persons–whatever their background or challenges–with patience and respect.

But Tara is also upbeat and fun. When a meeting needs lightening up, you can count on her to deliver just the right line to get us all laughing. And when she’s matched by another quick wit–like Scott Henderson my CAO–the sparks can sometimes fly with humor.

Positive, charming, and hilarious, yet serious as can be about making a real difference–that’s Tara.

The Good Neighbor and My Hometown

Her leadership extends well beyond her core responsibilities. She is the one we’ve tapped to lead our Good Neighbor Program.

The Good Neighbor team brings together representatives from Police, Fire, Legal, Code Enforcement, and other departments to tackle our city’s most challenging property and nuisance issues–homes with chronic violations, over-occupancy problems, or even drug activity. Under Tara’s direction, team members share ideas, and find creative, lawful ways to restore health and safety to neighborhoods. The result has been transformative: long-troubled houses becoming good neighbors again, and neighborhoods regaining their peace and positive energy.

So when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints approached Provo about partnering on a new community revitalization initiative called My Hometown, we naturally looked again to Tara.

My Hometown brings volunteers, churches, nonprofits, and city staff together to strengthen neighborhoods through education, service, and connection. It now operates three Community Resource Centers across Provo — in the Dixon, Pioneer Park, and South Freedom neighborhoods — offering everything from English and computer literacy classes to sewing, piano, and school readiness programs.

The work has had real, human results. At the Pioneer Park center, a computer literacy course changed the life of a woman who was moved almost to tears upon receiving a refurbished laptop at the end of the course. Tara learned that until then the woman had been working on online college classes entirely on her cell phone.

A life of influence

As you can see, Tara is someone we can count on when a project has a “feel-good” element, a charitable cause, or a community impact. She leads our annual employee fund drives, chairs service initiatives, and serves on the board of a local nonprofit.

In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey gets to see the difference he has made in Bedford Falls. We obviously can’t measure Tara’s impact on Provo, but I’m glad we can celebrate her and thank her.

Props to you Tara, and thank you, for living your own wonderful life day by day — for boosting our spirits, finding solutions, extending compassion, and lifting our community.

(And no this doesn’t mean you get the week off. See you Monday!)