Insider spotlight

Welcome to our new Insider Spotlight feature. Several times a year, we will sit down with someone connected to the Leadership Rockland program and discuss their interaction with Leadership Rockland. Who better to kick things off than one of the founders and strongest supporters of the Leadership Rockland program, C. Scott Vanderhoef.

Our County Executive has been along for the entire ride, and is a frequent speaker and presenter at Leadership Rockland classes and functions.

Leadership Rockland had the opportunity to sit down with Scott in his office on September 25th to delve into his ties to Leadership Rockland.

Rockland County Executive
C. Scott Vanderhoef

Leadership Rockland’s first class started in 1990. Tell me a little about the history behind the start of this program.

It’s a fun history to recall. I was the Chairman of what is now the Rockland Business Association. In those days the title was President of the Rockland County Association. The Association was made up of business people who were very much responsible for pushing the County Executive form of government, which I was a part of. So they have always been active in the community. A new editor of the Journal News, Paul Janensch (who is now an Associate Professor of Journalism at Quinnipiac University), came to me and asked if anyone had considered developing a leadership program in the County. He came from Louisville, Kentucky where they had a leadership program that he was very much involved with and he asked if I thought this type of program might work here in Rockland. I thought it was just a great idea, and having served on a lot of boards and those types of things, I knew there was a ton, a wealth of information that most folks, even those of us who serve in community or civic functions don’t get a chance to know about the County. So I took his thought that was brought from Louisville and brought it to my Board at the Rockland County Association. They embraced the idea and we set up a working group of people, which included some academic people, local leaders of different organizations, and we started to talk about the concept of what this would be like, who would host it, how it would be funded and all those kinds of things. For this interview I happened to find about 4 ½ pages of my notes on why we needed this and what we were trying to accomplish. The notes are from January 4, 1989, which is when I first met Paul and we started to talk about this. In a little over a year, we had a program going.

It seems remarkable that this program came together in just a year?

One of the great things is that if you get a good, committed group of volunteers together, they will do a tremendous job. We wanted to make this a real classy course for people who already knew a little bit about the County, who already had some leadership potential in some capacity, and make this course real interesting. What’s fun about starting this type of program is reaching out to specialists in the field who we may not have had – such as specialists in the solid waste, engineering and environmental field or public safety who came to help us develop a curriculum. In many cases, these people enjoyed being asked to be the “professors” or coordinators for those days. We got coordinators for each of the nine days which dealt with substantive issues facing Rockland County. So the program was really driven by this volunteer group who put it together and in many cases helped teach it.

You were involved in this program before you became the County Executive? What prompted your interest in bringing a program such as Leadership Rockland to the County?

The real big thing about the program was, and still is, that many sectors of the County do not know what other sectors do. This was true of the County going way back. There was this need to connect with each other as leaders. So the leader of a school board in say Pearl River or South Orangetown might not know of the educational opportunities in a different forum, say a library in Sloatsburg. I just picked a field but it could be anything like that. One of the things we realized is that as the County became more densely populated, instead of a rural, agricultural county, we had become a suburban county that needed to connect these dots. The real key is networking. As a graduate, I know you are aware of this. You can call people now that you met through the program about a whole host of things that you might not have known about before. And that networking; connecting those dots, may even be within the same field where you might not have known something, but now provides you with a connection to find out about it. Most of that comes from the personal connections. It’s not so much the factual information provided except for bits here and there you may remember, but from the many people connecting. This was one of the first things we wanted to do, to connect people who had already been leaders. A good example – I was head of the United Way for a couple of years. United Way deals with social service agencies, health agencies and recreational agencies. They all knew what was going on in their agencies but there were many different agencies and not-for-profits that did other things. By connecting people who were leaders in the United Way movement with leaders from other not-for-profits, we began to connect the community. You can’t help but have win-wins in those types of situations. Leadership Rockland was not just about learning that these services and agencies were out there. I compare it like this – it would take you nine years of connecting in your ordinary course of business or job to learn what you do in the one year of Leadership Rockland.

Leaderhip Rockland founding member
Paul Janensch

You have remained a huge supporter of the Leadership Rockland program. What is there about the program that has continued to capture your focus?

I do appear as a guest speaker for some of the days – Economic Development, Transportation, Government & Politics. But I think the thing that is most interesting is the people who graduate from the program. If you look at the list of people, you have great folks there; the people who are contributing now to Rockland County in a whole bunch of ways. When we first started out we were just trying to do the best we could. It’s hard to put a course together and to get a curriculum that makes sense for adults who already know a lot, so you are sort of a master’s program but without necessarily having the professors geared up to go. It is really important that the program has grown and the course has gotten better. The graduates have become leaders in all these different fields and that’s why I think what you’re doing is important. The fact is when you see Leadership Rockland, you see someone running for office; people who are in major corporate leadership positions or not-for-profit positions. So if anything, people who graduated from the program should wear it on their side. It is a special, special thing to have done. I have not met, although there may be some, anyone who has been through the program who had negative things to say about it. That’s pretty incredible! I mean there are always suggestions for improvement, like the seats are too hard, but I’ve never met anybody who said the program was not worth it.

You have described this program as a master’s degree in Rockland County. Can you elaborate on that theory?

The idea is that most of the folks who go through this program are pretty knowledgeable about Rockland, and they’re usually very knowledgeable about their area of expertise. In almost every case they already know a good deal about the County and the people they deal with. What they don’t have though is that breadth of experience of looking at things that they would not in the ordinary course of business be able to get a hold of. So if you’re not in the education field, to learn how our education system works is pretty remarkable. Things like how big the higher education field is in Rockland – people forget we have major institutions here of higher learning. I just think everybody can learn. So by saying this is a master’s program – I’d say the folks who come here are pretty well steeped in the information about Rockland. But they may not have known that Washington slept here – literally – these are little tiny and fun things they may not know about. Participants clearly in most everyday circumstances would not meet the kind of people they meet during the course of the program.

The list of graduates reads like a who’s who list. Do you see a specific target for prospective applicants to the program or is the program of value to a much broader base of the residents of this County?

I don’t think there is a specific area – I think the most important thing going forward is that the group be as diverse as the County is. There are leaders today who don’t deal with any outside countywide types of things but who are very much leaders in their community or on their block, and those folks are the ones you want to connect with as well. So the important thing is that you identify people who have taken an active role, who believe in the Rockland County community and who want to continue to believe in it, and allow them to broaden their connections, and their ability and tools to help them in whatever capacity. One of the hardest things is the outreach. When we first started it was a businessman’s thing. But it is not just business, and we have gotten away from that. This is a full-throttle program – everyone from a local leader on a residential level to leaders of major county or statewide efforts. To get quality people in the program and continue to reach out to people who may not in fact know about the program is really important. The Journal News and Bob Baird in particular has been very helpful. Bob has gone through the program, and although Paul Janensch didn’t, several editors did – Paul insisted on it. Again, that outreach is really critical to get the people who will send the seed and keep the seeds flowing.

When you are looking for people to serve in various positions throughout the County, does the fact that a person is a graduate of the Leadership Rockland program have any impact on your decision?

Absolutely. More so than a lot of other factors. In most cases these folks aren’t looking for positions, but when we look for volunteer positions, such as Commissioner of Hospitals or Board of Health or Human Rights; those folks who have been through Leadership Rockland get high marks. They are rated higher because they have a broader understanding of the community. People don’t always understand this – you’re looking for good people, especially in a volunteer area. You’re looking for folks who have that better understanding of the full population of Rockland, its history, its problems; and people who have been through the program have that.

There have been 17 classes through the Leadership Rockland program. You have been a part of each of them. How, in your opinion, has the program evolved over those 17 years?

It’s just gotten better. I think the folks who help run it now … The objective of the initial board was to replace ourselves. All of us around that board table; I as the first chair and everyone else wanted to make sure we brought people in to replace us on that board. And that’s the great thing about Leadership Rockland – that’s exactly what has happened. But for my ex-officio status, I think everyone or most everyone on the board has participated and they’ve made sure the program has gotten better. They are still tweaking it and each time it gets better, easier, a little more user friendly. I think it’s just gotten better.

Even with your tremendous knowledge of the inner workings of this County, do you think there would be things you could learn from the program that perhaps you are not aware of or could stand to gain a deeper understanding of?

Oh sure – a lot of people tell me that (laughing). Yes, I think there probably is. Just on history alone – I’m always learning new things about the history of Rockland County. If you listen to some of our folks who are experts in solid waste, there are things I’m trying to keep up with in terms of the new deals on solid waste; what are we going to do about water in the future – all the environmental things. Just like government, it’s a constantly evolving situation. It’s not just all the details about the County that you can learn but also the changes. So things that you learned in your class and the problems that existed have morphed into new or different problems, so that’s true for me too; that’s true for all of us.

If there were a topic that is of importance to the Leadership Rockland students that is not currently covered, what would that topic be?

I don’t really have an answer to that, but I do think that one of the things that’s really important is that commitment to give back to the County. It was one of the requirements early on – the commitment that you will use this knowledge. We’ve lost a few people who have left for corporate reasons or for other reasons, but the hope is they actually use the knowledge; keep up with the alumni connections, especially the connections with their class, and utilize some of the knowledge to benefit the County. I think it is the one piece that is really important. If we can keep that civic-mindedness, which is where the program started from, and the importance of benefiting all of us, we’ll do well. There are now connections being made that are remarkable. I consider this one of the best things I’ve ever been involved in. When you think of it in those terms, success is really important. There are people who know each other now in the County who work together on a regular basis who would have never had that opportunity without this program. That is really a remarkable thing.

In one word, describe what the LR experience is all about?

For whom? For the participant? Horizon-building. Two words. Horizon building, both for the county and for themselves. That’s what it is.