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Guiding Corinth Toward a Better Future |
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Personal Background |
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Paid Political Advertisement by Paul Ruggiere for Corinth City Council; 4308 Winnetka Road, Corinth, Texas, 76208. |
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Growing Up My family moved to Dallas when I eight years old. I graduated from Richardson High School then earned Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of North Texas. After a 2,500-mile solo bicycle tour through Europe, I returned to UNT to earn a Master's degree in Sociology. Early Career I began my career as an analyst with a marketing research company that measured customer satisfaction for corporate clients. We gathered this data so that our clients could provide the best service to their customers. During this time I was honored to serve a customer in their pursuit of the national Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award. Texas Instruments’ Defense System Electronics Group won the award that year and our customer satisfaction survey was considered in the evaluation criteria. I carried this experience with me to the University of North Texas Survey Research Center (SRC). The center hired me to be a project manager/analyst and over time was appointed the Director of SRC. At SRC, we have taken the business customer satisfaction model and applied it to local governments and state government programs. In the last 15 years, I have helped many cities understand their citizen’s customer satisfaction levels, desires for the future, and have guided cities in bringing their strategic plans in line with those needs and desires. In this time I also continued my education to complete my PhD. Current Career Although SRC is part of the University of North Texas, it operates much like a business. As Director, I am responsible for generating the contracts that fund the salaries of five full-time staff and 50 student employees. SRC competitively bids for its contracts and, as the primary stakeholder, UNT keeps a portion of each contract used to help fund its overall operations. In my time as Director, SRC has provided guidance to the Metroplex cities of Denton, Hurst, Rowlett, North Richland Hills, and Murphy. I have also taken the lead role to evaluate the effectiveness of Texas’ welfare-to-work system, its workers’ compensation system, insurance industry regulation, and other government operations that are important to the state and always open to improvement. We have also provided services to several hospitals and non-profit organizations. Bringing Experience to City Council Once elected to city council, I recommended that Corinth also conduct customer satisfaction surveys. Understanding the pulse of our citizens is the first step to providing better services. Our first survey conducted in 2007 has identified strengths and areas for improvement. In addition to preferences for more retail development, citizens were critical of our leaders’ lack of planning for the future. I heeded this information and supported the process of getting citizen and business leader input in the development of a comprehensive plan. This plan will guide the city’s future growth and development and will provide the blueprint to ensure that the city’s infrastructure supports this vision.
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Summary Work Experience UNT Survey Research Center 2006-Present—Director 1999-2006—Asst. Director 1994-1999—Project Manager Service Strategies Int’l. Inc. 1992-1994 Research Assoc. Education University of North Texas 2000 PhD. Sociology 1991 M.S. Sociology 1987 Bachelor’s of Business Admin.
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