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38th City Manager's Awards of Excellence Ceremony
City of Scottsdale employees gathered on Jan. 8 for their annual City Manager's Awards of Excellence Ceremony to honor several employees and teams for their dedication, teamwork and great work from the past year. It was a morning filled with inspirational stories about employees who make a difference every day. Enjoy reading more about these award recipients.
Drinkwater Award
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Amy Davison |
Over the past 10 years, she has been involved with several organizations and activities that focus on making a positive difference in the lives of others, including: Make a Difference, Rotary eClub, Habitat for Humanity and Cox Heights Neighborhood committee.
At work, she helped coordinate the Web for the Scottsdale Employee Charitable Choices campaign and currently serves as co-captain for the Fit Scottsdale Running team.
In 2003, she founded her own organization called Charity Chicks. She along with some of her friends wanted to add their own style to the art of volunteering. Their mission is to "share the joy of giving" by organizing and implementing events to raise funds for charitable causes in the community.
In 2005, Charity Chicks coined the year Thinking Pink. Most of their efforts were dedicated to support breast cancer research, training, support and education. They raised over $10,000 by hosting a golf tournament, poker night, garage sales, selling Think Pink bracelets and participating in the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk.
She supported the Leukemia and Lymphoma Team in Training with her sweat and tears by participating in a triathlon, mentoring a team of first time marathoners and helping them raise over $40,000.
Charity Chicks has held several fundraising events such as marathons, reading with kids at shelters, washing dogs, Charity Chuckles A Comedy Show, and night glow golf tournament. She is a firm believer in teaching, encouraging and helping others to be fundraisers.
Aside from her volunteer organization, she also devotes some of her time to developing Web sites for others in need, such as memorial pages for those who have lost a loved one.
She is generous with her time and always devoted to helping others. Amy truly embodies the spirit of Mayor Drinkwater and his care and commitment to making our community a better place.
Donaldson Award
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Robin Meinhart |
This is the only award traditionally selected by the city manager. This award was established in 1992 to honor former City Manager Bill Donaldson who was a visionary leader and who believed in teamwork and empowering employees to apply their special talents, passion and creativity for the good of the organization and community. Robin Meinhart currently with the Downtown Group was awarded the Bill Donaldson for sharing his special traits and his love of public service.
"Robin is a great leader who truly believes and practices public service," said Acting City Manager John Little. "She demonstrates great love and compassion for this community and its citizens. She helps make Scottsdale the great place it is."
Be Accountable and Act with Integrity
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Cynthia Ensign |
Cynthia Ensign has been a key team member in weathering a stormy time in the Human Services Division. It started with the tragic death of a valuable team member. Then there were a string of management transitions, a reorganization of the division and the Vista Del Camino construction project. Throughout this tumultuous time, the Human Services staff relied on Cynthia for her expertise and input. She already had a full workload coordinating the division’s budget process and helping to create the five-year plan and annual report. But she regularly sacrificed her time to help fellow coworkers through the intricacies of many financial situations and could be counted on to help with complex budget or financial issues. If she didn’t know the answer, she would find out. During a time of stress and change, her integrity and accountability made all the difference.
Collaborate as a Team Award
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The Community Assistance Office: Michelle Albanese, Consuelo Alvarado, Jimmy Anaya, Lee Bene,Stacey Benson, Justin Boyd, Jesse Ferreira, Melissa Forte, Elizabeth Garcia, Sharon Light-Stephenson, Paul Ludwick, Michelle Payakovich, Theresa Scott, Mary Anne Sola, |
The Community Assistance team manages programs that provide much needed assistance to Scottsdale residents, especially during these difficult economic times. The programs include the Community Development Block Grant Program, The Housing Rehabilitation Program and the Section 8 Voucher Program for rental assistance. Because their work involves federal funds, they are under tremendous pressure to file timely, detailed and accurate reports. This year, the untimely death of their manager and the resignations of three key people challenged them personally and professionally. They pulled together to support, strengthen and encourage each other. The number of people needing assistance wasn’t going to decline, so they found ways to continue to provide quality customer service, even while they were understaffed and dealing with loss. Not one employee said, “it’s not my job” or “I don’t have time.” Instead, everyone took the initiative to take on additional responsibilities and do what needed to be done. They even managed to receive a “high achiever” designation on their annual Section 8 Management Assessment Program. The Community Assistance Office is a great example of a group collaborating as a team.
Focus on Quality Customer Service
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Robert Barker |
The STOMP program, which stands for Scottsdale Teens on a Mission for Progress, is near and dear to Robbie Barker's heart. This program assists senior citizens and residents with disabilities using teen volunteers to help maintain lawns and provide minor yard and home repairs.
Robbie goes the extra mile to ensure his customers and staff members are happy. He makes a concerted effort to motivate the teen volunteers with daily get-togethers. The teen workers are excited and proud of their work. He constantly comes up with innovative ways to improve this program, such as the use of burlap covers to dispose of tree and bush trimmings. These covers can be reused, eliminating the waste and cost of plastic bags. Robbie coordinated staff schedules to reduce driving times and fuel costs and does all he can to provide compassionate customer service to the people he serves. He takes time to meet with each of his clients and give them his full attention. It's a simple yet effective way to let each homeowner know that their community cares about them.
Learn and Grow Continuously
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The Contract Academy Team: |
Throughout the city organization, employees have the responsibility of acting as contract administrators, responsible for managing several millions of dollars worth of contracts. They must comply with regulations, the city's procurement code and state and federal laws. How do you make sure administrators are fulfilling their duties? Give them good training. That was the goal of the Contract Academy Team comprised of employees from Financial Services, the City Attorney's Office, City Auditor's Office and Human Resources. Rather than pay an outside agency to do the job, these employees took on the extra work to create the technical curriculum. It was no small task. The training course includes more than 40 hours of instruction on critical contract knowledge, including city code, legal and administrative rules, risk management, finance and budgeting, public records and contract audits. In addition, these team members also served as the instructors. The course has already received positive accolades from participants, and the city is building a valuable skill and employee knowledge base.
Listen, Communicate, Take Action
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Chris Robertson |
No job is ever too big or too small for Chris Robertson. He is an excellent collaborator, wonderful craftsman, patient listener, creative problem solver, professional, hard-working and an all around great guy. Whether he is performing a small repair or large reconstruction project, his dedication to quality and workmanship always shines through. With a great eye for detail, he can take a concept and turn it into reality. He has painted, scraped, puttied, spackled and designed project after project to help keep the library functional and beautifully maintained. He listens to what is needed, collaborates to seek understanding and delivers a product that always exceeds what is envisioned. The number and diversity of the projects he has accomplished for the Civic Center Library over the years could fill many books on their shelves. Some examples include: hanging 1,000 paper cranes from the ceiling for a library exhibit building multiple rows of special shelving for the story time room to house all the props used to entertain children refurbishing computer carrels and creating new interior spaces with existing modular furniture, saving money in the process.
Plan and Innovate
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The Transportation Master Plan Team: Rose Arballo, Teresa Huish, John Kelley, Reed Kempton, John Lynch, Jim McIntyre, David Meinhart and Mary O'Connor |
The city's Transportation Master Plan was unanimously adopted by the City Council last January. This plan is the first comprehensive look at the city's entire transportation system since the 1980s. It serves as the blueprint for all the city's transportation options and provides the city with direction for the next 20 to 25 years. Putting this plan together wasn't easy. In the past, there were separate documents for each mode of transportation, from streets to sidewalks to public transit and bike trails. There was little coordination between the documents and no truly comprehensive way to consider transportation decisions. Over the last two years, the Transportation Master Plan Team spent countless hours gaining extensive community input and working with the Transportation Commission and other entities. They crafted ideas and solutions to common transportation issues, making sure they were in tune with the City's 2001 General Plan. The new Transportation Master Plan cross references and coordinates between all the different types of transportation.
Respect the Individual
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From Police Communications Dispatch: Laura Berfield, Nanci Gaffney and Christina Trott |
If you work in the division where these three employees work, you have to be able to deal with tension. You must be able to respond competently and quickly to situations. Sometimes, their work requires them to piece together an understanding of a dangerous situation from sounds or mumbles or a sudden few seconds of silence. Employees doing this work have to stay calm, professional, yet caring. At the same time, their customers are in the most stressful situations of their lives. In this line of work, it's so important to have supervisors and coworkers who believe in the integrity of their staff members and forge strong bonds. Laura, Nanci and Christina communicate effectively and create an environment of respect and understanding among their teams, which is especially critical in this line of work. They set a wonderful example in the Police Dispatch Division.
Show Caring and Compassion
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The Sex Crimes Unit: Tanya Corder, Nicole Engstrom, Kevin Furia, John Heinzelman, Gregory Jiminez, Stacy Johnson, Jennifer Paxson, Brooke Scritchfield and Joseph LeDuc. |
The Police Sex Crimes Unit consists of eight investigators and one sergeant. They are specially trained to investigate some of the most heinous crimes in our society. In the course of a typical week, they find themselves interviewing victims and offenders of molestation and sexual assault. It's a career that only a select few can handle. Their track record is impressive. As a result of their investigations, they have tracked 130 sex offenders and have made 24 felony arrests. In addition, this team works to promote greater Internet safety to the community. These nominees work under complex, stressful, and often mentally draining conditions. Yet, they provide excellent counsel, provide a host of services to victims and, most important, they empathize and show compassion to those whose lives have been altered by these crimes.
