No longer a workaholic, director revs up district - Sacramento Business Journal:

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The La Bou inside Sunris e Mall is a usual public officefor Carpenter, the executive directot of the business improvement That's fine with her. When Carpenter was askefd five years ago to run the which she had justhelperd launch, she agreed only if she could work as an independenf contractor for 30 hours a week from "I'd done that whole workaholic thing when I was she explains. Specifically, when she was a vice presidenty of the development team that createcthe $70 million Fremont Street Experience pedestria n mall to revive a scruffy slice of downtown Las Vegas starting in 1992. Back then Carpentef worked 80 hoursa week.
Although she says her workaholicx days arebehind her, Carpenter impressed district landlords, business owners and city representativess with what she accomplishes for the Citrus Heightsw organization, which has spent five yearsw trying to give the area around Sunris Mall a sense of identity and Sunrise MarketPlace wouldn't have achieved nearlyu what it has without Carpenter, say city economic development director Rhonda Sherman and others involved in the 500-businessx improvement district.
"We wouldn'ty have gotten a tenth of a percentage saysGloria Wright, an Inter-Cal Real Estate property manager who has four centers insidwe the Citrus Heights "Being a workaholic is easy. Because that'ds all you do," Carpenter What is hard, she adds, is "everyt day I wake up I say, 'I'jm going to have " A single mom, she insists upon beingh home when her daughter Hannah finishes the school day. Carpenter is still workingh by then, but has wrappeds up any meetings. When Carpenter attendss Citrus Heights City Council meetings orchambeer functions, Hannah comes along.
When Carpenter drove around the district aftefra storm, Hannah took notes on the damage. Carpenter also takees on miscellaneous writing andmarketing work, whethe r for the city's newslettedr or a business improvement districtg in Long Beach or Ohio. For those othe r projects, she says, "If I take something on, it'ss something that has a beginningt andan end." That' unlike Sunrise MarketPlace, which Carpenter can see continuingg long after the next five-year term that starts in Members of the district say they appreciate Carpenter's passioh for Sunrise MarketPlace, her organizationao skills, her attention to detail and her leadership.
She has shown an ability to unite districtboard members, landlords and business "She has her pulse in this says Karen Hamilton, Macy's general manager and vice president and president of the business improvement district board. "She has fire in her It's exciting to work with somebodylike that." Carpentet has developed critical relationshipss with department officials in the city of Citrus Heights and Sacramento County, says Wright, who's also the district's marketinh chairwoman. Carpenter is nice, but assertives enough to get things done, says Don owner of Batteries Plus and chairman of the facilitiees andoperations committee.
Carpenter says she likes to jugglew tasks, learn and be creative. She was prepared partly by her four year on the FremontStreet Experience. That work to reviv part of downtown Las Vegasrequired collaboration, plus tasks that variedd from erecting street kiosks and investing redevelopmeny funds to raising room taxes. She also had to plan eventss and lineup sponsors. Later, she was part of a team that failede to persuade the Nevadaw legislature to write a law allowing the formation of businesszimprovement districts, self-help groups where merchantz and landlords tax themselves to improv and promote their neighborhoods. They're common in California.