Thanks, Chuck!   You know, the funny thing is that I tried that at one point in my multiple iterations of trying to get the script right.   The problem (in hindsight) was that I was passing the display name of the department, not the sys_id, so I didn't think it was working and moved on.   Rookie move!  

Thanks for chiming in, though -- I appreciate the guidance on simplifying it to one line!

Best Regards,

-Tim.