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Rivera ascends to Civil Rights
Program Manager

Russ Rivera, who started with ITD as a contract compliance officer in 2012, was recently named Civil Rights Program Manager. His new position was announced in October 2018.

“Russ is passionate about creating and administering multiple on-the-job training programs for women, minorities, and disabled veterans,” said ITD Human Resources Manager Brenda Williams. “He was instrumental in obtaining a $200,000 contract that has created job opportunities, assisted the contractors in meeting their construction obligations, and most importantly, helped the members in our communities.”

“He has established strong relationships with key stakeholders that will provide the continuity needed as we continue the great work the Civil Rights team has done.”

Rivera was one of the fortunate few to take advantage of the capture of knowledge from a retiring employee.

“My former manager, Di Cole, anticipated the need for a healthy onboarding period and our Executive, Brenda Williams, supported that idea.”

“The training tools we have are great, but a website or manual will never replace the years of experience that the department loses when someone retires, and I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from her in this transition period. As a result, the day-to-day managerial responsibilities don’t seem as daunting,” Rivera explained.

Rivera has some clear goals:

- Within a year, the office will see a 100% turnover in staff. Succession planning keeps me awake at night, but it’s not the enormity of the task that keeps me awake; I’m excited about the possibility of building my team from the ground-up, and I’m looking forward to restructuring the way we do business and making our processes more efficient.
- I’m focused on creating the best environment for what I hope to be the best team at ITD, and I think we’re well on our way to getting there. Through succession planning, we’ve been given the opportunity to “stop treading water,” and to actually focus on the task at hand.
- I’m looking forward to becoming a better business partner. Civil Rights offices in other states can often be seen as outsiders to the process.

Rivera’s approach has proven successful: We recently created a “Heavy Equipment Operator School.” The goal was to train workers, and through extensive casework, get those individuals working on our construction projects. I was pleasantly surprised when a small state decided to model our program, and even happier when New York State called. Eleven states later, I realized that Idaho had become a best practice. The real eye opener, however, was seeing my trainees going from making $13 an hour doing menial labor, to making $33 an hour after our five-week program.

This small ITD/FHWA-funded program literally changed lives, and I hope to continue building programs like this, not because it simply feels good, but because it’s what the Idaho economy needs — better skilled workers, more safely and efficiently building our infrastructure.