Glendale Assistant City Manager Julie Frisoni submitted her resignation March 25.
Frisoni was appointed interim assistant city manager in August 2013 by former city manager Brenda Fischer after Horatio Skeete was placed on leave, and was hired to the position full-time in Feb 2014.
During her time with the city, Frisoni held previous jobs including executive communications director and assistant deputy city manager. Before joining Glendale, she spent 17 years in broadcast news at KPNX-TV (NBC) in Phoenix in leadership roles, including acting news director and managing editor, overseeing a 24-hour news operation covering all regions of Arizona. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Arizona State University and graduated from Apollo High School.
She said she already has plans for life after working for the city.
“My plan is to start my own public relations, crisis communication and event planning business. I have some very talented people who are going to work with me on this and it allows me to get back to an area that I am passionate about,” Frisoni said. “My background in the media, now coupled with my outside experience, makes me uniquely qualified to take this on now. I’m excited about the opportunity.”
Fischer said she appointed Frisoni to assistant city manager based on her dealing with numerous city departments and respect of her peers.
Frisoni has been with the City of Glendale since August 2002,
“I enjoyed working with Fischer and now with Dick Bowers. They are both immensely talented individuals who I have learned a lot from and enjoyed working with,” Frisoni said. “The timing has more to do with the wrap-up of a major project that I had responsibility for and the timing of some outside opportunities that don’t come along every day.”
Frisoni pointed to numerous successes she was involved with during her time with Glendale.
“I’m supremely proud of the staff we have built in the city, not only in the communications department where I initially started, but throughout the entire city,” Frisoni said. “Our employees have won international awards and put on flawless international events, always with the goal of putting our residents first each and every day.
"I’m also extremely proud of the successful creation of the Glendale Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, which remains the first and only CVB in the entire West Valley and which will provide benefits to the city for years to come.”
She also pointed out that she helped oversee the recent organizational restructuring, which increased efficiency, streamlined operations and saved the city more than a million dollars. She also helped bring two Super Bowls to Glendale, helped created the Glendale Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and helped oversee the annual Fiesta Bowl college football game as well as a NCAA national championship football game.
“Above all, the greatest opportunity has been to work with the professional and dedicated Glendale staff which put our residents first each and every day,” Frisoni added in her resignation letter.