In this episode of the 21st Century Water podcast, we delve into the visionary leadership and innovative mindset of Roger Bailey, the General Manager of the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District. With a distinguished career that has spanned across the United States, Bailey shares his extensive experience and the transformative journey in the water industry, from his early days in Antigua and various roles in the U.S. to his current position, where he oversees water services for half a million residents in the East San Francisco Bay Area.
Bailey emphasizes the importance of learning, implementation, and transformation in the water sector. He details his approach to taking organizations he has been a part of and positively transforming them, focusing on the "before and after" effect of his leadership. Throughout his career, Bailey has been instrumental in spearheading major projects and initiatives aimed at improving water management and sustainability. He highlights his role in San Diego's "Pure Water" program, an ambitious project to purify treated wastewater for potable use, which is set to supply 50% of San Diego's water by 2040.
Central to Bailey's vision is the collaboration between wastewater and water agencies to address regional water supply challenges. He outlines innovative concepts such as water exchange programs with local refineries to conserve and repurpose water, showcasing his forward-thinking approach to resource management and sustainability.
Bailey also discusses his priorities at Central Contra Costa, focusing on public health, environmental protection, customer service, and regional water issues. He stresses the need for public agencies to be proactive and agile in implementing big ideas, overcoming inertia, and leveraging technology and data to enhance efficiency and decision-making.
In conclusion, Bailey's conversation underscores the critical role of visionary leadership in transforming water management practices. He advocates for dreaming big, acting decisively, and working collaboratively to address the pressing water challenges of the 21st century, leaving a legacy of positive change and innovation in the water industry.
Central San Website: https://www.centralsan.org/
Aquasight Website: https://aquasight.io/
21st Century Water - Roger Bailey
Speakers: Mahesh Lunani & Roger Bailey
[Music Playing]
Voiceover (00:01):
Tremendous challenges and opportunities exist right now for our nation's water infrastructure. In this podcast, the industry's top leaders and innovative minds share their knowledge and insights for ensuring our water systems are operating safely and efficiently.
These discussions are designed to motivate and create vibrant 21st century water systems and the innovative workforce required to lead and operate them. This is 21st Century Water with your host, Aquasight founder, and CEO Mahesh Lunani.
Mahesh Lunani (00:32):
Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. In today's episode of the 21st Century Water Podcast, we are thrilled to have as a guest, Roger Bailey, a prominent figure, and a close friend in the water industry with an expansive career leading major utilities across the U.S.
Currently, he's a general manager of the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District, overseeing services for approximately half a million residents in East San Francisco Bay area.
Before joining, Central San, Roger left a significant mark on the city of San Diego public utilities. In fact, he did such an excellent job that San Diego honored him with Roger S Bailey Day on July 30th, 2013.
His journey in the field of water and engineering took him to many locations, including Glendale, Arizona, Royal Palm Beach, Florida, accumulating a wealth of experience.
Roger's educational background is equally impressive, holding degrees in civil engineering from Florida A&M University and physics and math degrees from University of Winnipeg, Canada.
Today we dive into his journey, the lessons learned, and his vision for sustainable water management. Welcome Roger to a conversation about shaping the future of water systems.
Roger Bailey (01:56):
Thank you, Mahesh. And you make me sound and look good. So, I'm not sure that I'm all that, but certainly I'm very honored to have this conversation with you.
Mahesh Lunani (02:07):
Well, your record speaks for itself. I don't even have to make it up. So, Roger, I want to get right into it. Canada to Florida, Arizona to California, how can you summarize your water journey? And what did you learn the most during this journey?
Roger Bailey (02:22):
One small step in that journey also is Antigua. So, I'm originally from the Caribbean and I left Antigua to go to college in Canada. And after I completed my first degree in Canada, I went to Florida.
But in terms of the water world, it has been in a nutshell in my mind, not to be cliche, but it has been a journey of learning, a journey of implementation and a journey of transformation.
And what I mean by that, over the years, and I've been in the water space for quite some time, at least 30 years, I've learned a lot and I'm still learning a lot. And we have implemented a lot of big projects on that journey, and we have transformed organizations along that way. And we will get into some of the conversation regarding the transformation because it's a big part of my passion.
And what I do mean by that, I like to go into organization and look at what they are, how they do business. And I use a simple concept, the before and after. Before I came, what were they? And after I leave, what are they?
And I like that to be positively transformed. And I've spent a lot of time trying to reflect on how that might manifest itself. So, we'll have a chance to talk about some of those things.
But I did start off with the city of Tallahassee as a time-limited engineer. And eventually I was fortunate enough to gain some promotion there as a senior engineer and head of the water production.
And then I left there and I down to Royal Palm Beach, which is a suburb of West Palm Beach where I headed up a water-wastewater operation there. Then that journey took me to Valdosta, Georgia and then to Glendale, Arizona, where I was head of Glendale Water-Wastewater. And then I left Glendale, and I headed San Diego Water-Wastewater. And then I'm here in Central San.
What that journey has allowed me to do is to really take note of the different ways in which people do things. And I like to benchmark, and I try to compare the things that I've learned elsewhere to the things that I'm doing here and see, are there opportunities for improvements?
And if there are opportunities, then let's execute those improvements and that's where the transformation comes in.
Mahesh Lunani (05:06):
What is interesting to me in this journey, you use the word transformation. Most folks in this sector are about status quo management. And your first word coming out of this, the common thread across this whole journey is transformation.
So, that by itself tells volumes, and I'm excited what the next set of conversation is going to unfold here. And that's the transformation topic in California. I remember speaking to you in a number of sessions in one-on-one discussions at various events.
At a regional level, you are driving lots of new innovative thinking on water. Can you kind of describe few of those that you're paving the way that kind of go far beyond just Central Contra Costa, the effluent, consumption of the water, et cetera?
Roger Bailey (05:54):
Yeah, I was fortunate enough to be a part of a big initiative down in San Diego before I came here to implement what they currently call Pure Water. But in a nutshell is to take the effluent that we treat at our wastewater plant and purify that and then put it into the lakes for additional treatment and then eventually potable consumption.
And it was a very interesting journey, a journey that really had a lot of social aspects to it, environmental aspects, and the public just was all over the board on the issue.
And if you fast forward to today, it is one of the biggest programs down in Southern California as it relates to potable water consumption. And to put it more specifically, San Diego, by 2040, will get about 50% of their water supply from indirect or direct potable reuse. And that is a journey that was not as easy as it sounds.
But if you look back at that, it is an amazing accomplishment by those people who were really involved with that program. And today, most of California, Southern California is really looking at a similar concept. MWD, the city of LA, they all have huge potable reuse programs that they're looking into.
At Central San, talking about some of the things that we are looking at, we have reached out to the water agencies because we are a wastewater agency and we do not provide water services directly to the water consumers.
But we have reached out to the water agencies and there's a simple value proposition here. The region has, the Bay Area has, in my opinion, a deficit in supplies under certain scenarios. And those scenarios are not far-fetched. In drought condition, the region does not have enough supply.
And there's a simple concept from my standpoint. Central San on a daily basis treats and discharges about 34 to 40 something million gallons a day of treated effluent. And it seems to me that if there is a deficit in water supply, there is a key role for the wastewater agencies to play in closing the gap.
And part of that is, in my opinion, for the wastewater agencies to collaborate with the water agencies and find ways to make those things happen. And quite often it requires for us to think outside of the box beyond our comfort zone.
So, we are looking at, as an example, a water exchange concept with two of our water agencies, CCWD, Contra Costa Water District and Valley Water. And that concept simply is to provide our effluent to two refineries that are adjacent to us.
And those refineries combined use about 16 million gallons per day. And if we could take our effluent, treat it to a standard that they require, and in turn that water that they have previously used could be freed up for other agencies to utilize, in this case Santa Clara.
Then hopefully to the extent that other conditions are satisfied, Contra Costa Water, who is the service provided to those refineries, could exchange what normally would've been potable water, at least raw water coming in from the potable system to the refineries. They could free that up and do an exchange with Santa Clara so that they could close the gap.
So, that's one of those examples to me in terms of regional collaboration and potential transformation that we could embark on in the area, it is obviously complex. It is obviously, there are a lot of issues that has to be ironed out. But I think that where there is a will, there's a way to solve these complex issues.
Mahesh Lunani (10:36):
That is a transformation example at its best. And not only that, you have to have a macro understanding about the industries, the potable water services department, drinking water services department.
So, there's a macro play in driving it, and that is not easy. And most rate payers would say, “Well, I'm just paying you to take my sewers and treat it. How come you're doing all this stuff?” So, I commend you for thinking a bit more holistically.
Roger Bailey (11:06):
And most rate payers really don't have the time to get into the details of how water happens. What I mean by that, how does the water get to their table, to the spigot?
It is up to us as agencies to make that as seamless as possible, even though we know it's very complex and it's very difficult and there are big issues that we need to resolve. I think that we as leaders should push the envelope to make sure that our public doesn't really have to worry about these things, and we do and make the tough decisions even though sometimes it might be a little bit painful.
Mahesh Lunani (11:44):
A hundred percent. A hundred percent. So, now we want to talk about Central San. What are your top priorities, Roger?
Roger Bailey (11:51):
Well, Central San, as I just mentioned, I think beyond just doing the nuts and bolts, the daily grind, I mean, obviously our mission is to protect public health and the environment, and we want to execute that at the highest level, customer service is job number one.
I think we do a fantastic job at that. We have a really fantastic workforce who deliver excellence every day. And I'm very fortunate to be able to work with this team.
And if you look at the key performance indicators, Central San, by any measure is really a high performing organization. And I say that really to give credit to our staff who makes that happen and the board who give us the resources to do that.
But when I step back and I look at the other things that need to happen, it really gets back to what we just talked about. What are the issues regionally that needs to be solved and how can we, as a wastewater agency, be a part of the solution?
So, I just mentioned water as one of the big issues that needs to be resolved and be addressed. In the western part of the United States, water supply is a huge issue. In California, it is ground zero.
And in the Bay Area, we are just as acutely affected as they are down in Southern California. And if we have a supply that I think could be put in the portfolio for the water users, I think we owe it to the public to bring everything to bay to make that happen. So, that's a big focus of mine.
In addition to that, there are two other areas that I'm really focused on. One of them obviously is optimization, and we have a chance to talk a little bit about that.
And then the third area, there is an issue regarding solids handling. What's going to happen to all of the solids that these wastewater agencies end up with as a byproduct of the treatment process as it relates to PFAS. And I have been thinking about regional collaboration and we can get into a little bit of my thoughts on that issue if time permits.
Mahesh Lunani (14:20):
Excellent. Excellent. So, you talked about nuts and bolts going really well, or at least you're proud of the team. I want to ask a question on this. What does your budget look like? Capital this year, next year, but more importantly, where are you making the biggest investments?
Roger Bailey (14:35):
Yeah, it's a good question. I would like to say relatively speaking Central San is a large operation, but it is not the largest operation. Our O&M budget is approximately $102 million, and that includes about $10 million in debt service. So, your pure O&M side of it is about $92 million.
And then the capital side of it, we are investing on an annual basis, our budget is about $150 million for the capital improvement program. And that continues for quite some time over the 10-year period.
So, lots of focus on infrastructure replacement and rehabilitation, and obviously lots of focus on making sure that the highest level of service is delivered to our consumers. And that is on both the O&M side and the CIP side of the business.
Mahesh Lunani (15:32):
So, in preparation of this, and also studying in general, your system, you are a regional system. You're taking from a number of member communities the wastewater, and if those infrastructure of those member communities have a lot of I&I, it flows right into your treatment plan.
So, how do you partner to plug the holes or how do you partner to give transparency to them saying, “Hey, I can just keep increasing my treatment plan, but it costs more money,” or “Let's just plug the holes so we have a tighter system.” Is this an issue first of all? And second is how do you go about partnering to get this in the right shape?
Roger Bailey (16:13):
Fortunately for Central San, unlike some regional systems that are mostly focused on treatment, Central San serves about half a million population, and that includes about 10 cities and special census designated areas.
Of those cities, all except for two are retail customers. What I mean by that, we actually own the pipelines and the treatment plan. So, it is our responsibility to rehab and replace pipelines that are in that portion of our service area.
And just to put it in context, in that part of our service area, we own 1500 miles of pipeline. So, we are responsible for replacement of those pipelines when they're in this repair.
So, I&I becomes a direct issue for us. And we spend a lot of money, as I just indicated, we have a CIP program that is about $150 million this current year. In some years it's a little bit more, some years it's just a little bit less, but roughly around that number.
And much of it is at the treatment plan and in the collection system. And the collection system, our replacement, is really focused on reducing I&I. So, that's something that we are very actively engaging in.
For the two cities to whom we do not own the pipelines, there is a direct incentive for them to do something about the I&I and what do I mean by that? We charge them for the operation and capital improvement of the treatment plant based upon their proportion of flow that comes into the plant. And we have a meter that meters the flow that comes out of their system.
And so, if to the extent they have huge I&I, then their proportion could be affected. And so, there is a direct incentive for them to make sure that they're continuing to keep up with the replacement of all the parts of the system.
And beyond just that, we do have a fantastic relationship and we share ideas. It's a partnership, and I believe these partnerships should be win-win partnerships, and we try to focus on that and the ideas that we have, we share with them. And if they have ideas that could be beneficial to us, we certainly would take those ideas. So, that's the way we do it. We collaborate quite a bit with each other.
Mahesh Lunani (19:04):
No, excellent. So, it sounds like you are saying the bigger the gas guzzler is, the bigger the gas bill is, essentially.
Roger Bailey (19:10):
Yeah, exactly. Right. The more flow comes in, and the bigger the proportion of their cost. So, they have to be cautious about it.
Mahesh Lunani (19:19):
That’s right. So, indirectly they're incentivized.
Roger Bailey (19:22):
Yes.
Mahesh Lunani (19:23):
For all the years I've known you, Roger, this next question I'm going to ask may not be even relevant, but I want to know what keeps you up at night, if anything?
Roger Bailey (19:34):
It's an interesting question and it's a question that is fairly common. And the type of business that we are in is a 24/7 operation, and you have to keep treating and taking whatever comes to you.
So, you're always concerned about if something breaks, if there is the unfortunate incident, whether it's some natural event, earthquake, and I don't mean to jinx us any here, but if there's an incident, you're always worried about the potential for the interruption of the treatment process or the piping system. So, that to me is a fairly common one which I spend a little bit of time thinking about.
But quite frankly, at most, I spent a lot of time thinking about how public agencies like us could better implement big ideas. Why does it take so long to take ideas and assess the ideas, to see if they are viable? And if they are, then do the implementation.
And my biggest frustration, and perhaps as a result, a lot of my time is really spent on just trying to figure out how do we push the envelope? How do we overcome the inertia that is quite often so apparent with a lot of the public agencies.
I was fortunate some time ago to work for a city, city of Glendale, and I had a city manager who really impressed me with his vision. And he said something many years ago when I started there, and a lot of us who were on the leadership team thought that he was a little bit off.
He said he wanted Glendale to become a destination city. And at the time, Glendale was a bedroom community to Phoenix, so to speak. And I don't know if they liked that characterization, but it was a smaller city to city of Phoenix.
Glendale is a city of about 2,050,000 population. And so, we asked how are we going to become a destination city? And he said, “Well, if you look, there are several of the professional sporting teams that are in search of new homes for their stadiums and arenas, and we are going to put in bids and we can win those bids and we will become the new home for these stadiums.”
Long story short, put in a bid for the Cardinals, put in a bid for the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team and for the Dodgers spring training facility, and the city won those bids separately. First, it was the Coyotes arena, then the Cardinal Stadium. And then the Dodgers spring training.
And since that time, those stadiums have been constructed and Glendale has hosted three Super Bowls since 2009 to today. The largest sporting event in this country, the city of Glendale has hosted three of them.
And we were a part of that team that were responsible for putting in portions of the infrastructure, others were responsible for the water-wastewater side of the business. Others were responsible for other things.
What it does show me, or at least tells me, is that you really have to have a dream to make a dream come true. But beyond having that dream, you have to move and execute. And you have to be very passionate.
You have to be very deliberate with the execution of your dreams. And I feel as there we have an opportunity here in the Bay Area to take people who have ideas, big dreams, and not that they are living on some sort of cloud cocoon or something like that, but you really have to have big ideas and push the envelope with those ideas.
And sometimes the right people are not in charge of these organization. And as a result, what you end up with is status quo. You don't have transformation, you have just block and tackle. You're just doing the same thing every day. I am not that. I believe that these organizations should be transformed.
Mahesh Lunani (24:12):
It is really interesting and it's fantastic. I'm inspired as you are describing it, but one quote came to my mind, I recently heard that if you have to create history, somebody's got to write the history. Right?
Roger Bailey (24:29):
I love it. Yes.
Mahesh Lunani (24:31):
How do you create the history and with the point you're making If you have to realize a dream, you have to dream first.
Roger Bailey (24:38):
And recognize that even those dreams may at times be dreams. And not all of those pieces are necessarily realistic. I mean, look at Glendale as the example. There's a time along that journey of that dream that some thought that it was reckless.
And that was especially true during the recession because the concept was predicated on you build it and they will come, you build these stadiums and they become the magnet for future developments.
And somewhere in that process, there's a huge recession, 2008/2009, and all of the development kind of suspended themselves. And there were a lot of bills to be paid that were predicated on the money coming in, the tax revenue coming in.
But fast forward to today, the pipeline has reopened. And so, it is not to say that dreams are not sometimes just that. And it is not to say that you don't need to examine them for the potential failure or the risk, and perhaps find ways to mitigate those risks.
But it shouldn't stop us from dreaming big dreams. As young kids, we think about what we want to do, and we don't let reality get in the way of those dreams. We continue along the journey, and we go to the best schools, and we say, “You've got to go to the best schools because of some reason for that.”
And when we get out of the best schools, we got to do big things. And somewhere the pipeline of your dreams get shut down. And I am just amazed that that is perhaps the case quite often in these public agencies, lots of smart people, best schools, but somehow, somewhere on the journey, somebody closed the pipeline of their dreams and the passion, the transformational effort kind of slows down. And that to me is unfortunate.
Mahesh Lunani (26:54):
Right. But Roger, not everybody can think like this, but we need several individuals like you to think like this. Which points to my next question, as a transformative leader, and I'm loving this conversation, what is a day in life look for you, number one, and how do you manage your board?
Roger Bailey (27:13):
Yeah, well, I spend a lot of my time thinking about how we can make things better. And I reflect quite a bit on the internal and the external. Internally, and I like to use the analogy of the three-legged stool. Are we making our employees feel as if this is the preferred place of employment? Are we making them feeling as if they belong? Do we acknowledge them?
So, I spend a lot of time figuring out how can we tweak that, make it optimal. Spend a lot of time on the governance side of the business, the board, then we'll speak about that in a second.
But beyond that, we are in business to serve the public. So, I spend a lot of time trying to figure out, okay, what are we doing to make life better for the public that really pay the bills and the public who doesn't have the time to focus on the details and the complexity, but at the end of the day, they expect that we are handling things.
So, I spend a lot of time on those three big sets of things, and that's why I got into this issue about the water exchange, because I believe part of the public issue in California is adequate supply of water. And I think that Central San has a role to play as it relates to this part of the state that we are in.
I also think that cost does matter and the public feel as if everything is going up, the cost of transportation is going up, the cost of potable water is going up, the cost of schools are going up, the cost of wastewater services, electricity, everything is going up.
And everybody sees things in their little silos. And what I mean by that, as public agencies, and corporations, we see the things that are relevant to us. So, if I'm in wastewater, I only see the costs associated with wastewater.
But I like to say that you know what, the public has to pay the entire bill. So, I spend a lot of time trying to figure out, okay, how do we really get across to the public's concerns and sensitivities? How do we maintain the trust of the public? How do we demonstrate that we are adding value to them and focusing on their priorities? That's something that I spend a lot of time on.
In addition, you did ask me a little bit about the governance body. Governance is very important for any organization, whether it's private or public.
And we have a very fantastic board that spend a lot of time trying to make sure that the purpose for their existence (to serve the public), is well executed and make sure that they put the right sets of policies in place that would deliver on the promises that we have made to the public.
We also have to spend a lot of time making sure that they're working well together. And that's something that is very critical. You may have ideas, but your ideas are only as good as the number of folks that you may have to support your ideas. So, how to work well with others is a very critical part of my day-to-day job.
In addition to that, obviously the employee side of the business, the employees at the end of the day are the ones who deliver the services, and we have to make sure that they get all the credit for all the great things that we do and the great things that we would like to do, they have to do them.
So, we have to find a way to get them involved, be inclusive make sure that they engage and they're very familiar with the dreams that we have as we try to move forward.
Mahesh Lunani (31:17):
Excellent. Excellent. I want to talk about three important areas for your consideration. And you touched upon some of these, and these areas are also very relevant for the industry as a whole.
One is your views on optimization. Second is your views on rates. You briefly talked about that. And the third is your views on circular economy. And you talked about biosolids, we got to solve that problem. Can you give your perspective on each of these three?
Roger Bailey (31:47):
Yeah. just in no particular order views on rates, I do think that cost does matter. And I say that every day, how at least it is a part of the theme that we have here at Central San. We want to provide the best service at the most optimal cost. And we will talk about optimization in a second.
So, we spend a lot of time doing cost of service studies and making sure that we understand the causation of our costs and to the extent we understand that we are fairly recovering those costs through fear and legal rates.
But beyond that, to your second item there, optimization, as you perhaps are aware, there is such a thing called effective utility management. And there are about 10 attributes of the effective utility management, which was developed by a consortium between NACWA, EPA and several other organizations.
And those 10 attributes, one of them is optimization. So, you go to a lot of conferences and people talk about optimization and everybody said we should embed it in our program.
Well, I like to do things rather than just keep talking about it. And so, Central San develops a strategic plan every two years. And it's not a strategic plan that is just developed and put on the shelf, it drives the business.
We develop this plan which has the mission, vision, values, goals, and then the goals, you have the initiatives and the KPIs and the metrics to measure the success of those goals.
And one of those is optimization. And we focus like a laser on it. So, as an example, we created a division within Central San that is solely focused on system optimization across the entire system. And we have a manager, very talented manager who's in charge, and you have met Nitin.
Nitin is in charge of helping us to look at the different areas where there are high-cost complex operation and high risk and figure out are there ways we can optimize the respective pieces of this puzzle? And you and Nitin are working on some of those currently, and it is a very, very focused approach that we have. So, that is optimization in a very high level.
Then in addition to that, you did talk about the circular economy. And as I just talked about earlier on, I do believe that we have to, as an agency, think about how can we bring value to the consumers, not just by efficiencies, but also in the product that they're looking for.
So, if they want water, do we have a role to play in providing additional supplies indirectly to our water agencies? And if there's a solid handling problem in the region as a result of PFAS, then Central San has a role to play.
We are one of the only agencies in California that has a thermal process to get rid of the sludge from the wastewater treatment process. And it turns out that it is perhaps one of the optimal ways to destroy PFAS.
So, the question then becomes can Central San help to solve parts of the regional problem as it relates to solids handling? I don't know the answer to that, but I have a team who is looking into the idea, to the extent that we have this thermal process in place.
Can we partner with others rather than them building their separate processes, does it make sense for us to be the regional provider of solids handling or at least one of the regional providers for solids handling?
So, that's just some of the things that we are doing as it relates to optimization rates and the circular economy.
Mahesh Lunani (36:22):
Excellent. I keep getting impressed every day as I listen to you, Roger. I want to talk about obviously being a CEO and founder of a tech company. I have to ask this question as we wrap this discussion up, what is the role of technology and AI and what are you most excited about?
Roger Bailey (36:41):
Well, without technology I just think that we wouldn't be able to do what we do at a reasonable cost. It would be way more complex. I can give you some simple examples. You're very familiar with our treatment plans. These are huge systems.
Imagine a world in which we didn't have a SCADA system, that our operators are able to utilize the operate the treatment plan. The number of employees that we would need to operate a system without that would be just tremendous. It would be much, much, much bigger.
But not only just the numbers, but the complexity of doing things will be just mind boggling. So, I think that as we move forward, and as I mentioned earlier on, you are working with us in a very particular situation that I think has huge promises for us to bring efficiency and effectiveness to what we do.
And it's all technology driven. There is a lot of data that we collect, and the question is, do we use the data to our advantage to help us to do the critical things that we need to do? Is it a part of our decision-making process and does it drive the business?
And that's where you and the rest of the technology space really comes in. And we like to stay at Central San we talk about things, we discuss things, but we also implement things. We act.
And I have this whole aversion to inertia. I think that public agencies like to deliberate forever, and there's a certain amount of that that is good because we certainly do not want to waste the public's money, but there is a point of saturation and that at some point you got to act and quit talking. And that's what we do here.
We actually have taken just ideas, I like to call it, from possibility to realization. And that was the motto of the school that I went to when I was in Antigua. And it has followed me in just about everything I do, from possibility to realization, let's just do it.
Mahesh Lunani (39:05):
Yeah, I want to know about that school because that is not necessarily what everybody was schooled in when they grew up.
So, obviously you had tremendous journey from east coast to west coast, even Caribbean, you've achieved many things along the way. But I want to ask you, what do you want your legacy to be?
Roger Bailey (39:27):
It’s a good one. I think I would like, at the end of the day, he did the best he could. He gave it everything he had. I'm fine with that.
I come in and I like to say, “I'm going to give it a hundred percent,” and then I'll walk away. And if you can say that “He made a difference and it's a positive one,” I'm happy with that.
But in a more esoteric sense, I believe that we … back to transformation, life for folks is getting more complex and can we help folks to simplify it? Can we help folks to weave through this whole complexity that they have? And I think that as an individual, I'd like to know that I've helped.
Mahesh Lunani (40:20):
Roger, if I sum up this conversation, you're a learner. You like to implement things, your transformational thinking driving things like water exchange programs, really thinking about optimization of your systems, and questioning is your residents getting value for the money and challenging the team to not just think, but dream and implement the dreams. Well, you probably are the water leader of choice for every agency that we can think of.
So, I want to thank you for a very insightful discussion, allowing me to peek into your brain and how you operate. And I think people are going to have a great, great time listening to your podcast. Thank you very much for joining.
Roger Bailey (41:12):
And thank you for having me. I really enjoyed the conversation and I hope that there are some little nuggets there somewhere.
[Music Playing]
Voiceover (41:19):
Join host and Aquasight founder and CEO Mahesh Lunani for another episode of 21st Century Water. Subscribe for free in Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, or Stitcher, produced by JAG in Detroit Podcasts.