Congratulations to the City of Longview’s 2009 STARR awardees! From the Longview City Manager
This City Info Weekly is dedicated to the winners of the City’s Gold and Silver STARR award recipients. The awards are given annually to employees who exemplify outstanding service during the previous year. Fellow employees make the nominations, and I work closely with the City’s employee recognition committee to make the final awards. I was very impressed with the number and quality of nominations.
STARR stands for Service, Team-player, Attitude, Reliable, and Responsible. When submitting an employee for an award, employees use the following guidelines:
Did the employee produce/create cost savings for a department project?
Did the employee implement innovative ideas?
Did the employee develop a new process, product or technology?
Did the employee contribute to setting high expectations?
Did the employee exceed performance goals?
Did the employee create an innovative policy for City-wide use?
I also want to thank those who took the time to acknowledge the work of their fellow employees. I think this acknowledgment is what makes our STARR award program meaningful, and it is always rewarding to know that the work we do is appreciated by our peers.
We again had some outstanding nominations, and the top candidates were very closely matched. In the case of the Silver STARR Awards, I took the opportunity to add a fifth award this year because of the closeness of the evaluation and the work. The excerpts below illustrate the caliber of Longview employees.
GOLD STARR AWARD RECIPIENT
Dan Zenger, Fleet Maintenance Manager Nominated by Dave Campbell, Assistant City Manager
During the 30 months that Dan has worked for the City as Fleet Services Manager, he has initiated several examples of progressive, innovative, and cost-effective leadership within his division…Dan effectively supports the City Council’s strategic initiative of reducing our carbon footprint in the community. Examples of that include: implementing a state grant that has resulted in several large City vehicles being retrofitted with cleaner diesel engine controls and also having diesel engine cleaning equipment installed at the City Ship for ongoing use, proposing a capital improvement project to install a waste oil burner at the City Shop in order to improve the work environment and to gain a valuable, cost-saving use out of a previously disposed of product, maintaining and refining a comprehensive equipment replacement schedule for the City’s fleet, a schedule that now anticipates acquiring numerous hybrids, alternative and flex fuel engines, and even electric-powered equipment in the future…Dan drew on his knowledge and expertise to initiate a contract for an audit of federal and state fuel taxes paid by the City, resulting in a return of over $10,000 that would otherwise probably have gone unclaimed by the City. Dan believes strongly in the value of ongoing professional training and development and encourages his staff to pursue external opportunities, for both their benefit and the City as a whole…During the spring of 2009, Dan and his staff developed a new mission statement for the City’s Fleet Services Division, and those words embody his leadership of it; “… to provide a safe, reliable fleet to our customers. This is accomplished through exceptional customer service, teamwork, and responsible use of City resources.”
Other employees nominated for the Gold STARR award:
John Brickey, Community Development Director
Neal Johnson, Information Technology Analyst
Scott Kerker Master Firefighter, Bob Nichols Master Firefighter, Joey Kirkpatrick Master Firefighter
Robin Owen, Information Technology Specialist
Neal Johnson, Information Technology Analyst
Chris Smith, Safety/Risk Manager
SILVER STARR AWARD RECIPIENTS
Rindy Patterson, Legal Technician Nominated by Stephen Shuman, Senior Attorney
Rindy Patterson has been an integral part of the Legal Department for the past five years. As the Legal Assistant, Rindy provides support to the Assistant City Attorneys as they prosecute cases. She also acts as a liaison to the Longview Police Department, providing necessary information on cases such as trial date information, subpoenas, and status reports on pending cases. In addition, she serves as liaison to the outside world, communicating with defendants, opposing counsel, the courthouse, and various government agencies. She routinely exceeds performance goals and is known to her co-workers for always being cheerful, helpful and tenacious. No matter how hectic things get, she consistently shows patience, efficiency, and professionalism in her work. In addition to her hard work, Rindy also deserves recognition for her personal sacrifices during the past year. When she learned that one of her co-workers was being laid off in December 2008 due to the budget shortfall, Rindy volunteered to cut her own hours in half and job share so that Laura could keep working for the City. This selfless act not only saved a co-worker from being laid off, but also saved the City approximately $3,800 in salary costs while allowing the same level of service to continue in the Legal Department. During these tough economic times, Rindy’s offer to share her job with a co-worker to prevent a layoff is a great example of how City employees have come together to get through the difficult times as a team. She embodies all of the qualities of the Silver STARR Award: being a team player, providing outstanding service, having a positive attitude, and being reliable and responsible. She is indispensable to her department and deserves recognition for all of her hard work, kindness, and dedication over the past year.
Gregg Hannon, Community Development Coordinator Nominated by John Brickey, Community Development Director
I am pleased to nominate Gregg Hannon for a Silver STARR Award for his outstanding efforts in supporting Council Initiative No. 6 to provide increased support to the Highlands Neighborhood. Gregg has taken a proactive approach to cleaning up the city with a primary focus on the Highlands Neighborhood. His accomplishments include the following: implementation of the carts for tubs program, working with his staff and the City Attorney to amend and adopt the International Property Maintenance Code, establish a Hearings Examiner process and update Longview Municipal Code sanitation regulations, utilizing innovative approaches to aid in the clean-up and continued maintenance of the Highlands Neighborhood. The Carts for Tubs program has resulted in cleaner alleys and better maintained properties along the alleys…Gregg has also employed some innovative methods for achieving sustainable code compliance. Recently he brokered the donation of some used lawn mowers to the Highlands Neighborhood Association to aid in their efforts to encourage yard care and property maintenance. Gregg also approached the manager at Home Depot and has tentatively secured the donation of additional lawn equipment and tools for the effort to improve the Highlands Neighborhood. Gregg is a great example of a dedicated, civic minded employee that the City of Longview is fortunate to have working with, and leading the charge for, the city team relative to the livability of our community.
Lisa Wolff, Fiscal Analyst Nominated by Susie Meyers, Public Relations Analyst
Lisa inherited the monumental task of putting together the public version of the City’s biennial budget. Because Lisa is very adept at learning new software programs and is a whiz in Excel, she was the most likely candidate to perform this HUGE task. The document is produced in PageMaker, a software program that Lisa had never used before. In addition, the program required the importing of documents from a wide variety of other sources including Excel, Word, Inspiration Pro, Photoshop, and the City’s new online CIP. Each of these programs requires a certain degree of expertise, and Lisa was able to understand and work within these many programs with very little training. She worked well with all of the department heads to coordinate information she needed, and kept a positive attitude during the four-month production period. The fact that Lisa was able to take on such a huge task with no previous training on the various software programs was phenomenal. Because of her exceptional organization skills, she was able to efficiently track all of the components of the document and produce an exceptional public document. She approached her new assignment with gusto and succeeded in completing the 275-page plus document on time!
Wendy Yan, Information Technology Analyst Nominated by Heather Johnson, Human Resources Specialist
Wendy has done amazing projects for the whole City, namely the development and implementation of electronic timesheets, project accounting tracking, and an online vouchers system. Wendy has saved many departments time and money by increasing the efficiency of these projects…Wendy has reduced the “double keying” and duplication of these processes, saving costs in man hours and reducing errors. Other cities have inquired about Wendy’s programs because they can see how beneficial they are. Wendy works very hard to work out the “bugs” and customize the systems so they are usable for everyone. She’s very open to suggestions and keeps making the systems better and better, exceeding expectations of the process and going beyond her job to make sure everyone is happy! In dealing with Wendy she always works hard to listen to the concerns, problems, or “wants” of the individual to come up with solutions and does so with a smile on her face. I think Wendy should receive the Silver award because she meets all of the guidelines and due to the high expectations the technology field to keep advancing, and she excels in creating new systems to meet the needs and goals of the City.
Robbie Berg, Human Resources Director Nominated by John Brickey, Community Development Director
I am honored to nominate Robbie Berg for a Silver STARR Award for her outstanding efforts in supporting Council Initiative No. 6 to provide increased support to the Highlands Neighborhood. Robbie was instrumental in working with the Highlands Neighborhood Association (HNA) to achieve the goal of hiring a Community Coach. She was willing to volunteer to take on the challenge of working with a neighborhood organization that had very little executive experience and needed a lot of direction and advice. Applying her human relations expertise, Robbie guided the HNA over a several month period as they solicited, selected and ultimately hired their first community coach. The hiring of a Highlands Community Coach was a goal identified in the 2008 Highlands Strategic Plan and the focus of the Northwest Health Foundation grant that the HNA received in January of this year. Robbie’s willingness to take on this challenge and bring it to successful fruition is a testament to her dedication to the community of Longview and the goals of our City Council. Robbie selflessly made every effort to assure success for the HNA as they embarked on this important step to revitalize their neighborhood. Robbie’s dedicated actions and willing efforts for the HNA cause exhibit an excellent example of selfless team effort for the good of our community.
Other employees nominated for the Silver STARR award:
Thomas Daly, Water Treatment Operator
Hal McGowen, Water Treatment Operator
Blake Tomlinson, Fire Lieutenant
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