INNOVATION AND EXEMPLARY PERFORMANCE AWARD WINNERS

FY23, FOURTH quarter

JAMIE RADIN

Since joining the Town of Marana as Financial Specialist in March of 2023, Jamie Radin has proven to be a valuable employee, displaying Dedicated Service, Teamwork, and Innovation & Leadership. Her teamwork and innovation were demonstrated as she took on the task of fixing and improving AgreeDB, the Town’s system used to track hundreds of agreements, contracts and certificates of insurance with vendors. Maintaining accurate agreements with vendors is critical to keeping the Town compliant with procurement codes. In AgreeDB a renewals report and task report often lacked important information such as agreement names, AgreeDB identification number for each agreement between vendor and the town, and certificates of insurance. The reports had duplicate as well as inaccurate information, proving to be both inefficient and frustrating for Town staff. Jamie spearheaded efforts to research what information should be included and what needed to be corrected on just one combined report rather than the two existing reports. In order to update certificate of insurance more easily, Jamie showed creativity and innovation to customize and standardize a tool which all departments can now use to update certificates more quickly and in a uniform manner. In order to be successful, Jamie displayed excellent teamwork by discussing with staff in other departments the importance of maintaining these records in order to keep the Town compliant. She treated staff with respect, receiving their feedback and listening to their input on how to improve the system. She has worked with them to update AgreeDB information so it is now more accurate which is essential for the Town to be compliant with procurement codes. Jamie exercised creativity, dedication, teamwork and initiative, leading to innovation in helping the Town meet challenges and improve internal processes. This has earned her the nomination for the Innovation and Exemplary Performance Award.

KIMBERLY BAKER

Kim has been a valuable member of the Town of Marana. Recently she moved into the Finance Manager role from the Water Business Financial Manager role. During this transition, Kim continued to help fill the role at Water during a critical time with a new Customer Service Billing & Collections system while also stepping into the role with Finance. Kim has shown a tremendous amount of teamwork and dedicated service by keeping up with the day-to-day tasks of each of these positions. While learning the new role she has offered creative ideas to help streamline tasks. Kim also shows everyone respect staff, supervisors, coworkers, direct reports, and citizens. Kim consistently goes above and beyond her responsibilities to proactively identify opportunities for improvement. From Jing Luo: When she was in Water Department, she focused on process optimization/Standard Operation Procedures development; established new review and QA/QC policies for the water billing operations; and actively engaged in customer account troubleshooting. She is an exceptional leader who inspires her team to achieve excellence. She strived to foster a collaborative work environment, encouraging open communication, and empowering her team to contribute their best. I wholeheartedly endorse Kim for this esteemed recognition, and I am confident that her accomplishments and contributions warrant her selection for this award. Thank you for considering this nomination.

larry brown

Starting in 2021, staff at the Marana Water Reclamation Facility identified the need to replace the Air Compressor system that supplies air to the Sand Filtration system at the WRF. The old units had exceeded their expected useful life and were becoming less and less reliable. Larry Brown led the charge in replacing these critical units. Larry researched replacement units and worked closely with engineers and Staff to come up with the best possible solution. The resulting equipment selection would greatly increase efficiencies and provide redundancy to the Sand Filtration System. Based on the workload of staff, the criticality of the equipment, and the potential to impact regulatory compliance this project was originally set to go out to bid. However, Larry outlined significant cost and time savings by performing this project in-house. By performing this project in-house Larry was able to order the new units, design a skid system in which the units would be mounted to allow for easier installation, configure the system layout, and install the units. Larry also worked closely with O& M staff and Steve Torres (Water Department Electrician) and Nick Broch (Water Asset Coordinator) to ensure O& M needs were met and the new assets were recorded correctly in Cartegraph. Larry also created preventative maintenance tasks to auto-generate in the asset management system for the new units. This project highlights Larry’s Innovation and Exemplary Performance. In addition, Larry has worked diligently over the last several years to upload assets and input preventative maintenance schedules into the asset management system, collecting data on almost 300 Water Reclamation assets and creating 197 automatically recurring PM tasks.

FY23, SECOND quarter

AMANDA GOMEZ

Amanda Gomez has been such a great asset to the Town of Marana. Amanda stepped into her role with communications, and was eager to assist the Police Department in any way she could. She brought great ideas to our department and continues to do so. The police department has asked Amanda to assist with numerous projects and she is always ready to help with a positive outlook. Some of these projects took place outside of Amanda’s normal business hours, and she stayed late, came in early, or came in on her day off to get the job done. Amanda is great at listening to everyone’s ideas and adding her own touch to it to make it even better. There have been a few occasions where there is a short notice given, and Amanda still finds a way to help us out and does so with no complaints. When one project is done, Amanda is always asking what else she can do to help us. Amanda makes herself available for feedback and questions and is quick to respond. Since Amanda has assisted the police department, the level of community outreach and positive representation of our department has increased in such a short period of time. It has been great working with Amanda. Amanda demonstrates the town Cultural Value awards and does so with a great attitude.

FY23, FIRST QUARTER

LUKE FISCHER

Luke was promoted to Senior Assistant Town Attorney/Town Prosecutor in November 2020. In that role, he was expected to transition from being the day-to-day prosecutor to being the head of the prosecutor's office. Traditionally, the Town Prosecutor sets the policies of the Prosecutor's Office and manages and supervises staff, including an Associate or Assistant Town Attorney, while carrying a lighter criminal caseload. However, in the 21 months since Luke's promotion, the Legal Department has had the Associate/Assistant Town Attorney position filled for only 8 months. Moreover, it was only for about 5 of those 8 months that Luke was able to reduce his caseload and time in court, as the other 3 months he spent in training of first Ryan and then Rachel. Despite all of this, Luke has performed at a high level, managing both the prosecution caseload (mostly on his own) and his duties as supervisor of the prosecutor's office. When issues have arisen in the prosecutor's office, he has addressed them promptly and appropriately. And, throughout these 21 months, he has maintained the same professional and relaxed demeanor, never letting the time constraints and stress of the situation change the way that he treats people. When I advised him of Rachel's resignation, for example, his first response was that he was happy for Rachel and her family, and he never once expressed any criticism or dismay. In short, Luke has spent the last almost two years managing two jobs and has done so with an excellent attitude and good work product. He has continuously gone above and beyond the call of duty and is very worthy of the Innovation and Exemplary Performance Award.

TONY O’BRIEN & OFFICER JEFFREY ROWE

Tony O'Brien and Officer Jeffrey Rowe worked tirelessly to figure out issues causing our patrol vehicles to lose connections with the MDC’s, camera systems and in-car radios. On Aug. 17, they began working at 7am and did not stop until early evening where they took a brief break. They returned that night and continued with Squads 5 and 6 until almost midnight. Overall, they completed work on 41 vehicles that day and completed work on the remaining vehicles the following week, including thorough inventories of everyone’s equipment to identify any additional issues or updates needed and standardizing the equipment to ensure stable and reliable performance moving forward. They worked most of those days in the heat and then returned to the PD in soggy, rainy conditions at night. They never complained and never asked for anything and made this process very easy with their incredible work ethic and positive attitudes. While Tony could have done all of this himself, having Jeff assist him was absolutely vital. They were able to split the work to complete twice as many vehicles in the same amount of time. Without Jeff’s assistance, this undertaking would be significantly more time consuming and difficult for Tony who already multitasks on another level compared to most people. They continued this work to implement improvements to resolve longstanding computer and radio equipment reliability issues, improve ease of use for our officers and are pursuing further enhancements to complete during the 2nd quarter of the fiscal year so that Technology Services can more effectively support the Police Department. Tony and Jeff deserve praise and recognition for the incredible job they are doing, exhibiting all of the Town's Cultural Values to ensure our officers can continue to work efficiently and safely with everything they need to carry out their duties.

TERRI BYLER

Terri has gone above and beyond to assist Public Works, and the Managers Office (Town Engineer) in addition to already working for the very busy Development Services team. When Fausto was assigned to the Town Engineer duties, he picked up the responsibility of the latest Impact Fee Study. Terri immediately jumped in to assist with the public notices, document preparation, and notification of the reports on the Town’s website. She assisted in communications with stakeholders and helped set up and prepare for the stakeholder meeting that was held in June. Fausto has mentioned how Terri is always asking how he’s doing, if he needs help with anything, and if so to please let her know. Terri has taken on the Wayfinding program and coordinates with developers as they start or advertise their homes for sale. She then works with the applicant and the contractor to get the signs installed in the Town’s ROW. This takes a large amount of coordination to assess the location of the sign, invoice the application, make sure it meets the standards, and install the signs. She created the mapping for the signs with linked photos of the assets for future management and replacement. When Jennifer was assigned to temporarily assist Public Works with the Capital Improvement Program, one of the first items she was tasked with was hiring the CIP Engineering Division Manager. Public Works is short staffed with an interim public works director and an Executive Assistant currently out on leave. There was no one to assist in Public Works. Terri immediately started working on the position the next morning. She jumped in to help with getting the interview ready to go, and then prepared for the second interview. She then continued with the reference checks, the position justification, and the PAF. It is amazing that we have team members like Terri that will jump in to assist anyone at any level in any Department. She always offers to help with a smile and I am truly honored to work with Terri. She embodies the Town of Marana’s cultural values.

NIKKI HEMPHILL & LOREN CHURCHMAN

Over the past two years Nikki and Loren have been diligently providing exemplary service to their departments while we've had a vacancy or been trying to train someone to assist in the third HR Analyst/Generalist position. Having a vacancy and/or trying to train someone in the early stages of their onboarding consumes a great deal of time as all of your processes are slowed down to help the learner. Under normal circumstances helping fill in for a vacancy wouldn't warrant this type of recognition; however, during these two years Nikki and Loren also faced unprecedented challenges in the HR world. They quickly became COVID contacts for their departments and took on the added responsibilities of staying up to date on ever changing policies and regulations regarding COVID through Town policies and CDC guidelines. The added responsibilities included contact tracing, tracking new federally regulated leaves of absence, providing appropriate leave information and comforting employees and providing resources during very difficult health situations throughout the organization and our employees’ family members. They tracked and managed over 700 instances related to COVID and became the central hub of receiving sad news on a daily basis. In addition to the challenges brought on directly by COVID, they also faced the impact the pandemic had on recruitment. Their normal recruiting strategies (again, while being short staffed) took a major turn. We not only found it more challenging to fill the vacancies we already had but we also started to see turnover increase plus an increase in the number of positions approved to help our support our growing community. Recruitment demands more than doubled (averaged 46 annual recruitments from 2014-2020 increased to over 100 recruitments just in the last six months of 2021 and first few months of 2022) and Nikki and Loren have stayed on top of ever changing job descriptions and recruitment postings as department needs change, while also performing their other responsibilities and meeting deadlines with onboarding new hires , benefits processing, leave management, and a variety of other responsibilities. They have truly embodied five star service through dedicated service and team work while sacrificing their personal time at night and on the weekends when duty called (COVID knew no business hours). Nikki and Loren are most deserving of this recognition for going above and beyond in their job and doing so for over two years without a fully trained or filled third position relieving them of not only the regular workload but also the increased demands put on them with COVID and recruiting. Great job to our HR Generalists!

FY22, third QUARTER

MICHAEL DYCKMAN

When Michael was hired in September of 2021 as the Finance Manager, a project that had been in the works to process invoices electronically through Munis workflow was turned over to him for implementation. The process had been tested, but many details were still required for the implementation. Michael immediately began meeting with departments for information regarding their needs and with the Manager's Office for support and direction. Michael has successfully implemented this project which required dedication, teamwork, respect, and innovation. This project will enable the Town to process invoices more efficiently and also incorporate the need for electronic (paperless) processes.

ADAM LAWSON AND OFFICER TRAVIS NAPIER

On April 1, 2022, Officer Travis Napier was driving in the area of Ina Rd. and Interstate 10 when he observed a male subject walking in the area with ripped pants. Travis made contact with the individual and asked if he needed any assistance with locating shelter or any other services. The male subject informed Travis that he did not. Travis noticed the clothing that the homeless male was wearing was worn, tattered, and nearly falling off him. Although the individual did not want assistance, Travis went to a nearby store and bought the homeless male a brand new pair of jeans with his own money. Additionally, Travis responded to his residence to get a pair of his running shoes and made contact with the homeless male again to give him the shoes. In March 2022, Travis recognized that the Marana Police Department did not have formal protocols for individuals in need of assistance. Travis took the initiative to contact surrounding Law Enforcement agencies to find out what protocols and resources they utilized for individuals in need of assistance. After completing his research, Travis assisted in the creation of internal forms and a list of outreach programs in Pima County to formalize a process so officers can use the information if they encounter anyone in need of shelter, food, medical care, or financial assistance. Because of his dedication to helping those in need, Travis was selected to be a part of the Marana Police Department outreach program. When Travis arrived at the Marana Police Department in June of 2021, he noticed that officers would often bring back an arrestee’s property after trans porting them to the Pima County Adult Detention Center. Travis informed his chain of command that there were lockboxes at the facility that the officers could leave the property in if we had access to them. Travis informed his chain of command, that this process would keep the officer from having to place the items into property and evidence and would allow the arrestee to obtain their property promptly upon their release, rather than having to drive to the main station in Marana. The department implemented this process at his recommendation to streamline this process to make the department more efficient. Travis has displayed an ongoing passion to help those in need. In less than a year of service with the organization, Travis ’ actions have created an organization of excellence through more than one of the Town’s Cultural Values . He continuously goes beyond the call of duty to make our organization excellent through his dedicated service, respect, innovation, and teamwork.

BRADLEY BARTON

K9 Officer Barton is the co-lead K9 trainer in MPD's Service Dog Unit (SDU). He inherited this role after proving himself to be a strong, innovative leader in the unit through his knowledge and capabilities. At the moment he took the co-lead position in the unit, he immediately recognized policy and practices that were out of date and needed attention. He, along with MPD’s SDU, went to work on that problem and eventually drafted a SDU manual to bring the unit into accountability and modern K9 practices.

Mid-year last year, K9 Ofc. Barton lost his K9 partner Atlas suddenly and unexpectedly to no fault of himself, the department or the town. K9 Ofc. Barton quickly stepped in as the co-leader and began restoring himself as a handler and the unit as a whole. He, along with K9 Ofc. Mosher, the lead trainer in the unit, traveled to an out of state supplier and selected 2 new K9's for MPD, due to the fact that K9 Ofc. Mosher’s partner retired. The knowledge and experience he had gained over the past several years in the unit proved to serve him well as he had to observe and assess many K9’s to select the best partners. However, one of the K9's was ultimately found to be unfit and was returned. K9 Ofc. Barton and K9 Ofc. Mosher then returned to the supplier a second time and selected another new K9 partner. Keep in mind this second trip occurred soon after the death of K9 Atlas and while K9 Ofc. Barton was still trying to train and bond with a brand new K9 partner.

They returned to MPD with the newest K9 and continued training and bonding. During this time K9 Ofc. Barton committed himself to a brand new endeavor in MPD, our unmanned drone program. This took countless hours of training to achieve certification. In addition, he was essential in drafting the manual for this program. He also continued his commitment to instruct firearms and contribute as a meaningful factor to developing a second brand new program within MPD, issuing - training - and qualifying officers with new miniature red dot aiming systems mounted to their duty guns. This included many, many hours of research and testing and developing a training program with limited resources.

K9 Ofc. Barton continued training and bonding with his new K9 partner Taz as he also assisted K9 Ofc. Mosher with his new K9 partner Remy. In addition, he continued to assist in the training of a 3rd MPD K9 team, K9 Ofc. Tapia and his K9 partner Axel, who were attached to a DEA Task Force group, in order that they kept their training hours current and stayed certified in narcotics and patrol functions. K9 Ofc. Barton accomplished all of these things without a designated supervisor for the unit or industry standard resources. This meant that all three handlers in the SDU reported to different sergeants, all of whom had never been a K9 handler and did not know the discipline well, and so he rose to the challenge of acting as an informal leader within the unit.

K9 Ofc. Barton displayed patience and expertise in making sure the unit stayed cohesive and high standards were met and maintained. Through K9 Ofc. Barton’s dedicated service, teamwork, innovation and leadership, K9 Taz certified in narcotics and patrol functions and K9 Remy certified in narcotics. Also K9 Axel kept his certifications current in both. As soon as K9 Taz became certified, K9 Ofc. Barton made himself available to after hour callouts to assist patrol with K9 deployments and drone deployments, and he has in fact been called and responded. It is expected that K9 Remy will certify in patrol functions in the coming weeks. It is also expected that K9 Ofc. Barton will have to assist K9 Ofc. Mosher in training another K9 partner in the coming months, but he is up for the challenge and will do another great job.

K9 Ofc. Barton is a great problem solver, is resourceful, and is a good steward of Town resources as he has volunteered much of his time to care for his K9 partner and the unit. He is well deserving of this award.

HAYDEN MOSHER

K9 Officer Mosher is the lead K9 trainer in MPD's Service Dog Unit (SDU). He inherited this role after proving himself to be a strong, innovative leader in the unit through his knowledge and capabilities. At the moment he took the lead position in the unit, he immediately recognized policy and practices that were out of date and needed attention. He, along with his team, went to work on that problem and eventually drafted a SDU manual to bring the unit into accountability and modern K9 practices.

Mid-year last year, K9 Ofc. Barton lost his K9 partner Atlas suddenly and unexpectedly to no fault of himself, the department or the town. K9 Ofc. Mosher quickly stepped in as the leader and began restoring the unit and his fellow handlers. He, along with K9 Ofc. Barton, his co-lead trainer in the unit, traveled to an out of state supplier and selected 2 new K9's for MPD, due to K9 Ofc. Mosher’s K9 partner retiring. The knowledge and experience he had gained being in the unit over several years proved to serve him well as he had to observe and assess several K9’s to select the best partners. However, one of the K9's was found to be unfit and was returned.

K9 Ofc. Mosher and K9 Ofc. Barton then returned to the supplier a second time and selected another new K9. Keep in mind this trip occurred soon after the death of K9 Atlas and while he and K9 Ofc. Barton were trying to train and bond with K9 Ofc. Barton’s brand new K9 partner. They returned with the newest K9 and continued training and bonding. During this time K9 Ofc. Mosher committed himself to a brand new endeavor in MPD, our unmanned drone program. This took countless hours of training to achieve certification. He also continued his commitment to instruct firearms and contribute as a meaningful factor to developing a second brand new program within MPD, issuing - training - and qualifying officers with new miniature red dot aiming systems mounted to their duty guns. This included many, many hours of research and testing and developing a training program with limited resources.

K9 Ofc. Mosher continued training and bonding with his new K9 partner Remy as he assisted K9 Ofc. Barton with his new K9 partner Taz. In addition, he continued to train a 3rd MPD K9 team, K9 Ofc. Tapia and his K9 partner Axel, who were attached to a DEA Task Force group, in order that they kept their training hours current and stayed certified in narcotics and patrol functions. K9 Ofc. Mosher accomplished all of these things without a designated supervisor for the unit or industry standard resources. This meant that all three handlers reported to different sergeants, all of whom had never been a K9 handler and did not know the discipline well, and so he rose to the challenge of acting as an informal supervisor for the unit.

K9 Ofc. Mosher displayed patience and expertise in making sure the unit stayed cohesive and high standards were met and maintained. While standing in as an informal supervisor he did not receive any additional compensation for the additional tasks and responsibilities he managed, which included all of the purchasing of resources for the unit. Through K9 Ofc. Mosher’s dedicated service, teamwork, innovation and leadership, K9 Taz certified in narcotics and patrol functions and K9 Remy certified in narcotics. Also K9 Axel kept his certifications current in both.

As soon as K9 Remy became certified in narcotics, K9 Ofc. Mosher made himself available to after hour callouts to assist patrol with narcotic investigations and drone deployments, and he has in fact been called and responded. It is expected that K9 Remy will certify in patrol functions in the coming weeks. It is also expected that K9 Ofc. Mosher will have another K9 to train in the coming months, but he is up for the challenge and will do another great job. K9 Ofc. Mosher is a great problem solver, is resourceful, and is a good steward of Town resources as he has volunteered much of his time to care for his K9 partner and the unit. He is well deserving of this award.

FY22, SECOND QUARTER

FY21, FOURTH QUARTER

WILL CARR- TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

Will was nominated and awarded the Innovation and Exemplary Performance Award for his Dedicated Service and Team Work.  In March 2021, our email server was compromised in a malicious attack. The Senior Network Administrator took the lead to rebuild the server and restore normal services; however, that team member went out unexpectedly. Without hesitation, Will stepped up and indicated he could take the project on and lead us to success. Within three weeks, Will had built a new server, migrated all email to the new server, eliminated many of the "ghosts" that had plagued the system throughout the past, and returned us to a normal state -- pre-compromise. Will could have easily done the bare minimum to get us back up and running, but that wasn't the case. Will spent numerous hours researching and formulating a plan that would work, and leave us better for it. He was dedicated and determined to rid all the small problems that would roar their heads from time-to-time. He also was selfless and available to step in for a teammate who no longer could. This is the epitome of teamwork: the willingness to sacrifice one's self-interest for the betterment of the team. On a project that was spinning its wheels for a few months, Will stepped in and declared victory within a few weeks.  Congratulations Will!

FY21, SECOND QUARTER

FY21, FIRST QUARTER

JANE FAIRALL AND LIBBY SHELTON- LEGAL

Jane and Libby were nominated and awarded the Innovation and Exemplary Performance Award for their Dedicated Service, Teamwork, and Innovation & Leadership. Jane and Libby’s nomination comes from their dedicated work ethic and tireless efforts to navigate the ever changing policies and regulations associated with the pandemic.  They continuously researched local, state and federal laws and wrote policies, administrative directives and executive orders to help guide the community and organization.  “They always made themselves available and even responded and provided assistance when they were on their days off. They not only dealt with the application and enforcement of executive orders, but they also had to spend a great deal of time drafting and finalizing our policies relative to leave, working from home, donning and doffing of masks, quarantine requirements, and the list goes on.”  “I know many people put in long hours and worked hard during those initial months following the onset of COVID19, but I cannot think of two people who worked harder and exemplified our Core Values of Dedicated Service, Teamwork and Innovation/Leadership more than Libby Shelton and Jane Fairall.”  Congratulations Jane and Libby!

FY20, THIRD QUARTER

Christen Bilow- Development Services

Christen was nominated and awarded the Innovation and Exemplary Performance Award for her Dedicated Service, Teamwork, and Innovation & Leadership.  Christen’s nomination came from her leadership and analytical skills in preparation of a Development Services business processing software upgrade.  Christen identified areas for review, engaged multiple key stake holders (internal and external) to understand their needs and solicit feedback throughout the process and was able to gain the cooperation and trust of a large number of people.  Christen led the effort admirably and ably and is highly commended by those involved in this process. Congratulations Christen!

FY20, SECOND QUARTER

Maureen Flores- Finance Department

Maureen was nominated and awarded the Innovation and Exemplary Performance Award for her outstanding customer service to both internal and external clients. Maureen embraces the cultural values in all she does and greets every person with a smile on her face and in her voice. Maureen embraces all of the cultural values but was specifically recognized for Respect because she treats everyone in our community like family. In addition to Maureen’s nomination, she is consistently recognized for her outstanding customer service and positive and cheerful demeanor which further supports her recognition for the Innovation and Exemplary Performance Award. Congratulations Maureen!