Jean Cristine Block
Jean Block, new CEO of the Little Rock Water Reclamation Authority, recalls her childhood in Mill Valley, Calif., where she loved being outdoors. But she never saw this career path in her future after graduating from law school.
“One water. One future.”
This is not the motto for a forthcoming apocalyptic film blockbuster. Instead, this is the website banner for the Little Rock Water Reclamation Authority, the wastewater utility that serves some 67,000 homes and businesses, operating and maintaining over 1,400 miles of sewer lines. The largest wastewater operation in Arkansas, the authority has more than 211 employees.
The new CEO of the authority is Jean Block. Block’s path to leading the essential Little Rock utility has hardly been a straight or obvious one. At no point in her working life after graduating from the University of Kansas Law School did Block see this on the horizon.
“I never thought I would have a career in water,” Block says. “And, when my relationship with LRWRA began, first as LRWRA commissioner, and then as inhouse counsel, I never thought a water utility would be dynamic, forward-thinking, and full of opportunities regarding sustainability, economic development and community engagement. But it is all that, and more. This excites and inspires me.”
The future is very much on the mind of Block and the authority. As Little Rock simultaneously expands and contracts, the wastewater utility has to adjust. The expectation is the sewer system of Little Rock will continue to work as it has in the past. Like sidewalks and streetlights, most Little Rock citizens don’t think much about the sewer system as long as it is working.
Those who have spent years at the authority understand all too well how important their work is. Block notes that if the complicated wastewater systems serving Little Rock were to fail, “it would be a calamity.”
Greg Ramon, who retired as CEO after nine years heading up the utility, says the authority is in capable hands.
“I have full confidence in [Block’s] ability to continue to lead the utility,” Ramon says. “She is an outstanding big picture leader. She has worked tirelessly to serve utility and community. Her goal is to make Little Rock better today and plan for the future needs of citizens and industry. The city of Little Rock should be grateful.”
MILL VALLEY
About 14 miles north of San Francisco is Mill Valley, a modest-size California town where Block lived after moving there with her mother when she was 2 years old. Block was adopted when she was 18 months and, soon after that, her adoptive parents divorced.
In Mill Valley, Block’s home was made up of her mother and a sister, two years younger. Block’s mother couldn’t work because of a disability. Block describes Mill Valley as “beautiful” and that if you are there “you are going to see redwood [trees].”
When looking back at her early years, Block has fond memories of her family spending lots of time by the pool.
“My mom was a swimmer growing up,” Block says. “She had the accident but she still loved being by the pool. My sister was on the swim team. In the summer, we were at the pool almost every day for recreation. Even to this day, I am a confident swimmer.”
Being something of an extrovert, Block
says when she was young she was friendly, had “a big smile” and not shy when it came to meeting new people. She liked playing outdoors and soccer kept her busy.
“I was a bit of a tomboy,” Block recalls. “I liked soccer and ended up playing it through high school. I didn’t have great footwork but I was fast. I could zip by people.”
While Block was outgoing, she had no trouble sitting down with a book, calling herself a “voracious” reader who would think of nothing to sit down and read Highlights magazine or a Nancy Drew novel.
Block’s grades for school were good right at the start. One day, however, Block brought home a C and her mother took notice.
“I was in second or third grade and I remember bringing home a C on my report card,” Block remembers. “My mother saw it and wasn’t mad. She did say, ‘Jean, you are a smart girl. I have seen your IQ and you are better than this.’ For some reason, that stuck in my head that I am a smart girl. I went forward in high school, advocating for myself to be in an advanced English class. I made the case for them to let me in. I got in the class and handled the work just fine.”
THE SWEATSHIRT
When it came time to apply for colleges, Block was certain that she wanted to go but didn’t want to leave the state. The idea of going to the University of California at Berkeley — about 40 minutes away from Mill Valley — was in the air early on.
Block’s mother bought her daughters sweatshirts — Block’s sister got one with Stanford on it and the other one was a Berkeley sweatshirt. Just as Block would attend and eventually graduate from Berkeley, so would her sister at Stanford.
“We joke about those sweatshirts,” Block says. “But it always seemed to be a given. It seemed to be a path I was on.”
While Block believes her own ambition played some part in her road to higher education, she acknowledges her adoption opened up avenues helping her to this day.
“Without being adopted by Jim and Donna Moore, and then raised by my mom, I seriously doubt I would have grown up with an appreciation for school. Those things set me on the course to [Berkeley] and then the pursuit of an advanced degree. And, collectively, these things were foundational blocks for what I have achieved as an adult.”
“I was in second or third grade and I remember bringing home a C on my report card. My mother saw it and wasn’t mad. She did say, ‘Jean, you are a smart girl. I have seen your IQ and you are better than this.’” (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Cary Jenkins)
FROM ONE LIBERAL BASTION TO ANOTHER
The University of California at Berkeley has a reputation — right or not — as a liberal bastion where protests are a round-the-clock activity. Add to that the notion that college students can find many ways to avoid studying and going to class, Berkeley could be an especially distracting place. Block says her time at Berkeley was “pretty straightforward.”
“I wasn’t a partier and was pretty tame,” Block says. “Other than occasionally dancing to reggae music, which I loved, I was studying and doing what I was supposed to do. It was important to me to perform well. Also, I had a job while I was in college.”
Block would end up with a degree in sociology from Berkeley. She knew she would head off to law school once finished with college. For Block, she wanted the career even though there wasn’t a lawyer in her extended family as a role model.
“I was babysitting and the mother very casually suggested I might be interested in the law. She mentioned how I could do different things as a lawyer. That versatility appealed to me. It wasn’t much of a conversation but it stayed with me.”
Block says it was at first a tough transition from sunny Berkeley to the cold days at the University of Kansas. She notes with some amusement, “Lawrence, Kansas [where the University of Kansas is located] is called the Berkeley of the Midwest. Coming from the real Berkeley where a naked man is literally walking around campus every day and nothing was done about it is pretty funny. There is no comparison.”
First year law classes offered up their own challenges.
“That first six months [in law school] threw me for a loop mentally,” Block says. “I was a strong student at Cal Berkeley. Knowing that I am a smart girl, I assumed it was going to be a walk in the park. Not so much. It gave me a new way to think and analyze.”
After some time, Block settled into her new home and then met Rodney Block, a musician who she would date and later marry.
“The law school had a ball and Rodney was playing the dance,” Block recalls. “He was there with a friend, saw me and said, ‘That is the kind of woman I am going to marry.’”
Once married, the pair moved to Arkansas so Rodney could be close to his family, who come from Dumas.
“We have fun together and laugh a lot together,” Block says. “On a more serious note, we have always supported each other’s careers. He is a full-time musician now. We have grown together professionally and personally. I am partially who I am today because of his influence. He is a good complement to me.”
WATCHING THE WATER
With a fresh law degree in hand, it didn’t take Block long to make her mark in Little Rock. She was an assistant attorney general in Dustin McDaniel’s office. She worked in the consumer protection division where she helped draft legislation and testified at the Capitol.
What did she learn from that experience?
“I learned to develop a thick skin and build confidence that I belonged,” Block says. “I learned I could sit at the table with smart, skilled and experienced legislators asking probing questions.”
Those who have grown close to Block speak about her intelligence as well as her evident compassion.
“[Jean] is one of the smartest people I know,” says Donna Terrell, a longtime anchor for Fox16 News. “Jean and I have known each other since I first arrived, which is about 20 years now. When the opportunity [at the Little Rock Water Reclamation Authority] came open, I felt strongly it was the job for her. In addition to being smart, her kindness and intuition is just right. It needs a multi-faceted approach and she can do that. She is the complete package.”
At the authority, Block wants to stress how crucial the utility is to Little Rock and points to the Community Champions program as an example.
“Every month our employees go out to the community to volunteer,” Block says. “You will see our employees serving food during lunch time at Our House. We are also sending out different workers to educate about what we do at schools at every level, from elementary to college. We are teaching students how to act responsibly with our sewer system — what you can and cannot flush. Our engineers are at Philander Smith talking about careers.”
Block intends to put into motion a study that shows what the authority means to the local economy.
“Our utility has never done an economic impact study,” Block says. “We anticipate we will have a vendor selected to start one in May. We hope to show our employees, city residents and city leaders the ways we economically benefit our community.”
When not overseeing the authority, the transplant from Mill Valley is happy in her Arkansas home. She is looking forward to the next Rodney Block concert. “He is doing a Stevie Wonder show and how can you beat that?”
“When I’m not at work, I’ll be outdoors,” Block says. “I love to walk through the grounds of MacArthur Park. I have a small circle of friends I see. It is really important to me to carve out that time.”