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City of Scottsdale employees gathered together on Jan. 10 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
Jose Garcia, an equipment operator with more than 27 years of service to Scottsdale, was named the 2008 recipient of the Herbert R. Drinkwater Award at the city's annual employee awards ceremony today, Jan. 10.
The Drinkwater award, in its 10th year, goes annually to a Scottsdale city employee or employees who set an outstanding example through their volunteerism and dedication to serving others.
Jose has dedicated years of service to the Scottsdale Penjamo Yaqui Community, whose ancestors traveled north from Mexico to help build the Arizona Canal and became some of Scottsdale's first residents.
Jose chairs the Scottsdale Penjamo Yaqui Community Committee, which serves 200 Yaqui members. In his spare time, he also coordinates education programs, organizes community cleanups and assists in bringing cultural activities to youth and elders.
He conducts a variety of community meetings and helps sponsor community graduation events. Jose has also helped raise money and resources for several community causes and groups, including the Ballet Folklorico dance troupe, emergency assistance funds and local educational efforts.
The Drinkwater Award is named for the city's former mayor, who served four terms and became one of the most popular elected officials in the state. Drinkwater retired in 1996. In December 1997 he died of cancer.
Donaldson Award Recipients
Two city employees received the Bill Donaldson Award, named after a former city manager. The award is given annually by City Manager Jan Dolan to an employee or group of employees who show great vision and innovation, help others through humanitarian efforts and work as team-builders.
Brent Stockwell, an assistant to the Mayor and City Council, was honored for his charitable work to raise funds and awareness for AIDS treatment in Africa. Brent has gone to Africa twice to learn first-hand how extreme poverty and AIDS are affecting the African people.
Brent also chairs the Northeast Valley Coalition Against Methamphetamine, which seeks to raise awareness of the impact of methamphetamine abuse.
This year’s other Donaldson Award recipient is Debra Baird, Scottsdale’s general manager of community services. Debra has worked more than 30 years for the city and has been instrumental in building Scottsdale’s award-winning parks, recreation and library programs.
Collaborate as a Team Award
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The Web Rollout Team includes from left to right: Erica Stierle, not pictured, Beckye Frey,
Darryl Ogawa, John Krusemark, Laura Zook, Carol Linn, Charles Brown and Michelle Dalton,
not pictured. Second photo from left to right: Amy Davison, Randy Land and Paul Tran. |
The process for publishing Web content to the Internet relied on a small cross-departmental technology team, the I-Net team, and outdated software tools which could not efficiently manage the increasing demand for Web services for the city. To resolve the issue an enterprise Content Management System was budgeted for and implemented as part of the city's CIP process. Along with implementing the CMS, the city decided to update the look and feel of our Internet Web site. The new Internet Web site for the city went live on July 17, 2007 to rave reviews from our residents and the local newspaper. This was truly a team effort and required participation not just by Information Systems but also by the various I-Net team members from the various departments within the city.
Be Accountable and Act with Integrity
Sue is extremely helpful to the Special Events Unit. She helps them ensure proper insurance coverage is in place for special events and for off-duty jobs. There have been many occasions when Sue took the information and worked directly with the insurance company to resolve any questions or issues. She also met with my staff to show them how to interpret the various insurance policies. She is always willing to help out any way she can and always does it with a positive and fun attitude. She's great! Most people don't realize that Scottsdale is a commercial landlord to many businesses that occupy city land, from restaurants in the right-of-way to offices and hangars at the airport. Sue is responsible to monitor the changing insurance industry and make sure that the city requires proper insurance and indemnities to protect the city from financial risks of accidents, fires and other difficulties at these sites. She provides similar service for city construction projects and other projects where proper insurance and indemnities can save the city millions of dollars if something goes wrong. This protection reduces the city's financial risk.
Focus on Quality Customer Service
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This team of employees comprised from library employees, includes Aileen Plumb, Carol Damaso, Jean Lawlor, Kelly Hudson, Lee Buckner, Santos and Shelley Grebles is dedicated to providing the ultimate in customer service for Scottsdale citizens. They not only exceed customer
expectations, but they train others to do so as well.
In this past year, the library identified customer service
as a focal point and created "The Scottsdale Way" to
improve already excellent customer service. |
Carol Damaso, public services manager, led the effort by defining and implementing "The Scottsdale Way" throughout the library system. The core idea is that library staff members are empowered to make decisions in favor of the customer and customers get what they want. In addition to Carol, Lee Buckner and Shelley Grebles enhanced The Scottsdale Way by developing an individual training program following a "CREST," which stands for Customers Receiving Exceptional Service Today. Team members Rossan Santos, Kelly Hudson, Aileen Plumb and Jean Lawlor are taking the CREST message to all the individual library branches and providing customized training for certain staff positions.
Learn & Grow Continuously
Victoria Yanovskaya was seriously injured in an automobile accident resulting in the loss of an arm and injury to the hand on the other arm. She was off work 21 weeks, but then returned to work with full vigor and dedication. Since she is still recovery, she is working a four to six hour shift answering phone calls and responding to citizen and customer inquiries on the phone. Her work volume, within only a short time after her return, and with her new limited physical abilities is exceptional. She has the fourth highest call answer volume on the phone team on a four to six hour shift. She is truly an example of learning and growing continuously despite her personal challenges.
Listen, Communicate,Take Action
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The squad includes from left to right:
Kenneth Moore, Jr., James Rusch, Tommy
Jensen, Mark Johnson and William Houk.
Not pictured are: Ramsey Campbell, Jr.,
Stephen Crause, Timothy Wattier,
and William Houk. |
This group of police officers developed a hotline (480-312-CARS) that citizens can call to report traffic concerns in their neighborhoods. Since its inception the hotline has received over a thousand calls. In each and every case, one of the officers listens to the call to evaluate its merit. In EVERY case, the complainant is called back to gather further information or to solve the problem. The unit has received numerous calls to the hotline, thanking them for listening, responding and communicating back with the citizen. These officers also work closely with the city's traffic engineers to come up with alternative solutions other than enforcement. These officers saw a need and found a way to fill that need.
Plan & Innovate for the Future
Planning Analysts Debra Allemang and William Davis have been instrumental to the success of the police strategic planning efforts and have helped the department create a process that has been recognized internationally as a best practice in law enforcement. They co-authored an article entitled, " Strategic Planning as a Management Philosophy" that was published in the December 2006 issue of Police Chief Magazine and have since hosted visitors from other agencies and countries to learn about the process. The International Association of Law Enforcement Planners notified Scottsdale that the process was selected to receive their annual award. This award is granted to only one project annually in recognition of a significant contribution to the field of law enforcement planning. The efforts of these two employees exemplifies the value of "Plan and Innovate for the Future."
Respect the Individual
Plans Examiner Xavier Castro is a longstanding member of the Diversity Advisory Committee, DAC, an employee group whose mission is to promote how all people deserve to be valued. This employee has been responsible for the coordination of logistics for all DAC events, including Cinco de Mayo, Juneteenth and Hispanic Heritage Community celebration. The number of details that need to be handled for these events are in the hundreds, but he makes the hard decisions with grace and dignity. It it not unusual for Xavier to show up for set-up for an event at 3 a.m. and stay a full 24 hours to ensure that things are left in impeccable shape. He does all this while successfully meeting the demands of his full-time assignment with the city.
Show Caring & Compassion for Others
None can deny that Service Coordinator Francisco Moreno has always exemplified caring and compassion. Through raffles, donating services and just by giving of his own time and money he and his support group have helped several organizations and individuals. From volunteering to be the grill master at employee cookouts, even on those hot days, to helping others, Frank is part of a group of friends that find ways to help those in need. This group has helped numerous individuals. So when a fellow employee's niece's fiancée fell in a rock climbing accident and the family needed help, Francisco came to the rescue. The mother had quit her job to take care of her son, she had no insurance and without a monthly income they had lost their rental home. Francisco had an investment property that was unoccupied, but needed a lot of work. He organized his fellow employees, church members and other volunteers and after many man-hours had the house ready for the injured man to have a comfortable place to recuperate. All this at no charge to the family. Not everyone would step up to the plate like this employee did, but it's very typical of Francisco.