March 6, 2008 Issue

Other Links: City Calendar l City News

Employee Award Winners Unveiled
in Academy Award-Style Ceremony

By Amy Stanley, Community Relations Intern, Municipal Information

The City’s version of the Hollywood’s Academy Awards show, the annual Employee Awards Ceremony, was held on Feb. 28 in the Bosque Theatre, Waco Convention Center.

The ceremony included theme music, a red carpet and special celebrity appearances by Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo (a.k.a. Kelly Holecek and Bryan Gray), and Gladys Knight and the Pips (a.k.a Trish Ervin, Adrian Floyd, Nelson Washington and Steve Nickerson).

Presenter Paris Hilton (a.k.a Crystal Jones) arrived still wearing her jail suit, along with Joan Rivers (a.k.a. Karen Clark) fresh from a visit to her plastic surgeon.

Some highlights included the theme song chosen to introduce City Manager Larry Groth, which referred to him as the candy man, and a special saxophone performance by Nelson Washington.

Other memorable moments included guest presenter Mayor Virginia DuPuy and a special performance by Sul Ross Elementary School students who sang “We Appreciate You” to the nominees. Sul Ross, is City Hall’s Waco ISD Partner in Education. The real Academy Awards held on Feb. 24 couldn’t compete with the City of Waco’s ceremony!

The winners were selected from a pool of 25 nominations involving more than 250 employees. The nominations were based on the actions of the city employees during the 2006-07 fiscal year.

This year’s winners are as follows:

Customer Service (less than 75 employees):

Cheryl Creek, Risk Management. Creek was nominated for maintaining the Employee Health’s extensive case load in spite of the fact she was the only nurse on duty for one-third of the year. She saw an average of 34 patients per day and as many as 86 in one day!

Customer Service (more than 75 employees):

Officer Sofie Martinez, Police Department. Martinez was nominated for her work coordinating multiple police programs including the Police Cadets, Police Explorers, National Night Out and Red Ribbon week.

Teamwork (less than 75 employees):

Finance/Housing/Information Technology Team (Rusty Hill, Vicki Halfmann, Cindy Lathwood, Johna Walker, Sandra Degrate, and Kathie Morgan).

These employees worked together to modify the H.T.E. Loan Module for the housing loan program.

When Housing & Community Development Services began offering their programs in 2000, they were receiving averaging 40 loans per year.

By 2005, they were now processing 300 loans per year. Because of loan servicing software and the City’s accounting system were not compatible, employees were entering the same data twice.

These employees worked together to update the HTE system to resolve this issue.

Teamwork (more than 75 employees):

Street Services Team 1 (Kenneth Fickel, David Boen, Flavio Perales, Richard Smith, Thomas Alexander, Roberto Hernandez, George Rivera, Lou Teakell, Alex Avila, Saul Mendez and Ezequiel Santibanez).

These employees worked together over two months to repair 140 feet of the lined creek bed in Waco Creek at 5900 Franklin Ave. The damage was caused by the unusually heavy rainfall Waco experienced in spring of 2007.

Lifetime Achievement:

Charles Ferguson, Utility Services; and Margaret Scott, Public Health District.

Mayor Virginia DuPuy presented the awards for Lifetime Achievement to Ferguson and Scott.

Ferguson was nominated for his work overseeing the Lake Waco pool rise, the new Lake Brazos Dam, and improvement to the Mt. Carmel water treatment plant. The total cost of these projects exceeds $80 million.

Scott, was nominated for 34 years of dedicated service to the Public Health District as the vital statistics registrar. She has been praised by her peers for her willingness to go above and beyond to help customers and staff. Congratulations to this year’s winners!