REWARD & RECOGNIZE YOUR PEERS!

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INNOVATION AND EXEMPLARY PERFORMANCE AWARD WINNERS

FY24, First quarter

STARLA ANDERSON

Starla Anderson is one of the most dedicated, respectful and innovative employees and leaders for the Town of Marana. Over the last year Starla has gone above and beyond the call of duty. For the Water Billing software implementation and post go-live production, Starla was in integral part of ensuring the new system’s success. She participated in the setup and implementation, established security roles for Finance staff to ensure proper internal controls and identified potential issues and solutions during the process to ensure a successful go-live implementation. In addition, Starla has gone above and beyond by identifying additional improvements. After the change to the new system, a large number of customers opted to start paying with paper checks, which has significantly increased staff time to process them for payment. Starla has been working with the water software developers to implement a bank lockbox that will reduce check handling by Town staff. This will be a new feature for the newly implemented software that will benefit the Town for many years to come. Furthermore, when water staff recently adjusted rates, Starla identified an issue with one of the rates, and has been actively coordinating with the water department and the software development team to ensure the issue is addressed properly and the correct rates are being charged to customers. Finally, Starla has identified possible improvements for user roles in the new billing software and has been coordinating with the water department while continuing to demonstrate her teamwork and leadership through this process. Starla has done all this while going through the annual audit, while she has been training two new staff members (Finance Manager and Senior Accountant) and while implementing new financial reporting software for the production of the Town’s audited financial statements, as well as, performing a number of tasks normally performed by those aforementioned positions which are still in training. In conclusion, I would like to nominate Starla for the Innovation and Exemplary Performance Award as she continues to exemplify the Town’s cultural values, and constantly demonstrates for everyone around her the true meaning of going above and beyond on the job. Thank you, Yiannis Kalaitzidis, Finance Director

BAILEY BELLAVANCE

Over the course of the past several months, Bailey has tirelessly worked with staff from Development Services to overhaul and redesign the Current and Proposed Projects dashboard. This online dashboard is a popular viewer which is utilized extensively by Town staff, including use in Town Council meetings by Council members to keep up to date on development projects. Bailey extensively researched and utilized new technology in order to streamline the updating of data and improve performance, as well as included new visuals to present data not present in the previous version of the dashboard, including current permitting and water usage data. This new version of the Dashboard has received outstanding reviews from both staff and Council members alike, where the Mayor and Council members were thoroughly impressed with the new features, specifically seeing the site plans overlaid on the satellite map, that were presented by Jason Angell during the monthly Development Services update at the Town Council meeting on 12/5 and because of her leadership, initiative and teamwork with Development Services staff, I believe she undoubtedly deserves recognition for her work on this major project.

PAUL MARTINEZ & LOUIS VALENCIA

For several years, the Town of Marana has been a plaintiff in multidistrict litigation regarding water contamination from perfluorinated compounds (PFAS, PFOS, aka "forever chemicals"). This past summer, the largest defendant in the lawsuit, 3M, reached a settlement with the plaintiffs, which will result in 3M paying out $10-13 billion dollars to settle with water providers across the country. Each plaintiff's settlement amount is determined by the volume of contaminated water and the degree of contamination in the water provider's water systems. Paul and Louis Valencia have repeatedly worked to ensure that the Town is providing the best, most timely information to our outside counsel so that the Town receives its fair share of the settlement. In July, they conducted testing of every single one of the Town's water sources at the requested of our attorneys. They then gathered historical data on all of the water sources, and filled out 15-20 page questionnaires for each of our water systems. Since then, they have participated as an integral part of meetings with outside counsel, providing subject matter expertise to the attorneys. The process is still ongoing at this point, but I wanted to take the time now to recognize how much Paul and Louis have gone above and beyond to get this work done for the Town, all while still fulfilling their normal day-to-day functions as well.

DUSTIN WARD

Dustin has taken over a complicated body of work for the Town as the Development Engineering Division Manager. He has tackled this assignment head on, working to improve systems and processes to protect the Town and ensure that developers install necessary improvements according to Town standards. He is also very conscientious in reviewing developer costs whenever the developer is requesting Town or CFD reimbursement, to make sure that the public and citizen's money is being spent appropriately. These actions would be enough to nominate him for a Cultural Value award, but in working with the Town team on one particular development, Dustin went above and beyond. This development has some very complicated and challenging issues that are being dealt with through a variety of development agreements. The developer is entitled to reimbursement for some drainage improvements, but due to a variety of reasons, allocating the costs amongst various improvements became extremely difficult. Dustin took it upon himself to figure out the proper allocation of the costs to various pieces of the infrastructure by using the length of the drainage channels to obtain a percentage to split the costs for design work, since the developer had not done that. He also provided detailed spreadsheets showing the calculations and assumptions that he had made. This work was done in large part after hours, judging by the time of the emails that he sent. Dustin's spreadsheets were provided to the developer as they support the Town's position regarding the costs in a clear and concise way. The developer quickly agreed with Dustin's calculations and we were able to continue moving a very complicated project forward. It's difficult to explain in writing how helpful Dustin's actions were in moving this project in the right direction, but suffice it to say that I don't know where we would be right now on these issues if Dustin hadn't put in this extra effort.

T.O.M.
CULTURAL VALUE AWARD WINNERS

march 2024

nick brock

Cultural value: Innovation & Leadership

Each year the Marana Water Reclamation Division conducts its annual Sewer Cleaning and Inspection project. Work is done by an outside contractor and invoices are sent to the department detailing the work that was done. In the past, Nick had painstakingly entered each sewer line and manhole that was cleaned, inspected, and televised into Cartegraph one by one. Nick has since created an automation inside Cartegraph that dramatically reduced the time spent on this tedious task. What used to take up to 4 hours to complete can now be done in less than 10 minutes! Engaged Innovation at its finest, great job Nick!

ADAM HUFF

Cultural value: Dedicated Service

Today I spent some time out in the field checking on various projects, stopping at a number of Town Facilities and going to a number of our parks. I happened to be down at Crossroads Park to check out a couple of things and I ran into Adam Huff as we were both driving through the parking lot. He stopped his truck and engaged me in conversation and I explained what I was doing at the park. With a level of enthusiasm and sense of pride he immediately asked me if I was going to El Rio. When I informed him that I was going to be up there shortly he responded, again with a sense of pride, “That’s my park and I’d be happy to show you around if you’d like”. I arrived at the park about 15 minutes later and I saw Adam busy picking up the grounds and he immediately made his way over to me and we began to talk about El Rio. I honestly thought I was talking to an horticulturalist as he explained to me the things he and other staff were working on at the park to improve and maintain it. He talked about the various plant species and as he did so he pointed out and explained which ones were native and which were not. He showed me all the spring flowers and knew the names of every one of them and where they came from. I asked him if he ever talks to residents and shares this information with them and he responded “OH YEAH!”. His knowledge was incredible, but what was even more impressive to me was his attitude. His enthusiasm for the work he did, the pride he took in his work and the joy that it brought him was contagious. In a day in age when many people approach their jobs as a necessary evil, it was so wonderful to talk to Adam who so obviously loves the work he does. Positive, hardworking going about his day providing 5-Star Service. – Terry Rozema

CARMEN MARTINEZ

Cultural value: Dedicated Service & Respect

The Town received a very thoughtful letter from Town of Marana residents wanting to express their gratitude for the outstanding assistance they received from animal control officer Carmen Martinez. The Johnson's found a very skittish stray dog and were able to secure the dog in their backyard. The following is a part of the letter they sent in. Finally, we decided to call the police non-emergency number and "Morgan" was wonderful, and said she would put in a call to Marana Animal Control, who send us this incredible "dog Whisper" Carmen Martinez. She was able to contract the restricted number and reached the owner and had the dog picked up at our home. Because of her, this story has a happy ending. She remained with us until the owner came and she was able to oversee the return of the dog. She was caring, understanding, professional, and so compassionate to this poor lost and overwhelmed dog. Sincerely thankful for people like Carmen and the caliber of people that work at Marana Animal Control.

JANUARY 2024

VINCENT JENKINS

Cultural value: Dedicated Service

In December 2023, officers responded to a residence within the Town of Marana referencing a deceased child. Per policy, detectives with MPD's Criminal Investigations Unit were called out. Detective Vincent Jenkins responded as the primary detective. I watched as Detective Jenkins completed his investigation while having the upmost respect and care for the family dealing with this tragedy. As required, multiple items belonging to the child were initially taken as evidence. Once the investigation was concluded and it was decided that the items could be returned, Detective Jenkins contacted the family advising them of this. All of this is routine and nothing out of the ordinary. However, Detective Jenkins took it upon himself to deliver the items to the family, rather than making them respond to the station. Additionally, some of the bedding taken had biohazard on it. Knowing the impact that could have on the family, Detective Jenkins went above and beyond by laundering the bedding prior to returning it to the family. Note, Detective Jenkins made a second trip to the residence to return this bedding as well. Detective Jenkins' compassionate actions demonstrate outstanding service and the highest level of commitment to the citizens of Marana.