Employee of the Month

The City Council has implemented a new program each month to recognize an employee who is nominated by co-workers for outstanding achievement or performance.

Mike Charlo

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April, 2013

Mike started with the City in July of 1980 as a temporary worker, and was hired on full time in May of 1981 to work in the Electric Department Energy Conservation projects. In 1991 he was promoted to Director of Engineering and Planning, and held that role with the City until he was once again promoted to Electric Superintendent 16 years ago this month.

We would have to use up the entire meeting time to tout all of Mike’s honors and achievements while serving the City of Milton-Freewater, so to summarize, Mike has been an excellent leader, superb representative of our Electric Utility, and a wonderful contributor to the Milton-Freewater community.

Mike has been our Smart Grid Project Manager the last couple of years and has done a great job over seeing this multi-million dollar project.

Mike has been an industry leader in demand response energy management and conservation, saving the City and its utility customers countless dollars over the life of his career here.

Mike is going to retire from his position with the city April 12th with the City, and I think everyone agrees, he leaves huge shoes to fill.

Thank you Mike, for your dedicated service and for sharing your talents for over 32 years!

Brian Steadman

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December, 2012

Brian has been in his current job as Public Works Technician since January of 2011, but he is not exactly new to the City. Previously, he worked for the Electric Dept. as an Engineering Technician before a move out of the area took him away. Brian is a shining example of the CAN DO attitude! Brian has shown himself to be extremely dependable, trustworthy, competent, and committed to above-and-beyond-the call of duty service. This customer service is exhibited not only to our outside customers, but his internal customers as well---his co-workers.

Brian has already had some very tough assignments since starting to work for us two years ago. One of his first assignments with the city was to provide inspection assistance and technical coordination with the $3 million dollar street improvement projects---We literally baptized Brian in the deep end of the ocean! Brian never complained and never failed to meet a deadline or objective!

Brian was also given the very difficult task of rearranging our warehouse inventory and tracking system so that we met audit standards---he took this on and succeeded here as well!

Most recently, Brian has been assigned the project lead on attaining an elevator for City Hall---another difficult challenge. We have every confidence that we have the right person on this job as well!

Congratulations Brian and thank you for your hard work and dedicated service!

Scott Clayton

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November, 2012

Scott is an officer with our police department and has been with our police force since July of 2006. In that time Scott has proven himself to be a great asset to our law enforcement team.

Recently, in working with the rest of our department personnel to solve some recent burglaries of the Golf Course Restaurant and Golf Pro Shop, Scott was patrolling and keeping a sharp look-out for “persons of interest”. Scott spotted a young man wearing what appeared to be clothing and other articles stolen from the Pro Shop. In questioning this person, Scott was successful in getting a very important lead in this case.

Thanks to Officer Clayton’s quick thinking and great instinct, we are a lot closer to solving this crime and making some arrests.

Thank you Scott, for your service to our community and its citizens! And Congratulations on being recognized as November’s Employee of the Month!

Gina Hartzheim

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August, 2012

Gina has been with the city since September of 1991 where she started as a secretary to the Engineering and Planning Superintendent. She has been promoted several times in her 21 years with the City, and is now our City Planner.

Gina can always be counted on to volunteer for extra duties associated with the City, and is a common volunteer at community events and festivals. She is rarely without her smile, and is the first to offer comfort if one of her co-workers is having a bad day.

Gina has spear-headed several special projects at the City, from getting City Hall on the historic register, to updating our web site to organizing the annual employees’ Christmas luncheon.

Thank you Gina, for your service, your excellent attitude and extra efforts! We appreciate them all---and CONGRATULATIONS on being named as August 2012 Employee of the Month!

 

Scott Hays

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July, 2012


Scott has been with the City as a Police Officer since May of 2005.

In that time, Scott has proven himself to be an esteemed and valuable member of the department. Scott is described by his co-workers and supervisors as always friendly, helpful and a great steward and good public face for the Police Department.  He donates to many charities, including the Special Olympics---This year he was chosen to carry the torch for the Special Olympics representing our Police Department for the event.  

Scott has a positive attitude that is contagious and is a highly dependable member of our team!

Congratulations Scott and thank you for your hard work and efforts!

 

Krista Gannon

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June, 2012

Krista has been with the Public Works Department as the Assistant to the Public Works Superintendent since June of 2000. In those 12 years, Krista has proven herself to be an invaluable member of the Public Works team.

Krista is the voice of Public Works to the public and the hub of the department to its members and customers. From answering literally hundreds of phone calls a day, to filling out extremely complex state and federal filing reports on our multi-million projects, Krista is on TOP OF IT!

She is very efficient, very organized and always willing to help out on any task. Her co-workers depend upon her to keep them in the “loop” of policies and procedural changes, and for assistance with their own paperwork. Her boss, Dave Bradshaw, depends upon her to help him manage the 1000’s of tasks on the PW TO DO list.

Recently, Krista has added another project to her list of duties: She assists the City Manager by editing and formatting the City-wide Newsletter, which has been a huge success.

Thank you Krista, for all you do for the City of Milton-Freewater, and congratulations on receiving this honor.

 

Shane Phillips

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April, 2012

While Shane is a relatively new member of our Police Department, having joined the department just 2 years ago as a Patrol Officer, he has certainly hit the ground running.

Shane has inspired several members of the department to make and meet personal fitness goals and has been a healthy inspiration to all. Shane has an excellent sense of humor and is a very sincere teammate. Shane’s police skills are excellent. Recently, we were sent a letter of accolades from the Oregon State Patrol Crime Lab in Bend noting the excellent standard of fingerprinting skills displayed by Officer Phillips and Officer Bump.

Shane has also done a fantastic job of handling shoplifting suspects and has impressed many of our local business owners with his quick and effective response.

Congratulations to Shane and many thanks for a job well done!

 

Troy Turner

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March, 2012

Troy joined our city team in March of 2006 as a member of our Parks Maintenance crew. He has proven himself to be an extremely versatile, talented and dependable member of the PW team.

No matter how difficult (and sometimes downright awful!) the task at hand, you will never catch Troy without a smile on his face and a willingness to tackle the job at hand. Recently this crew was tasked with the horrible job of renovating the basement of the old library after a sewer back up flood. Troy and his teammates have done a fabulous job and never complained or shirked a task.

Troy can be depended upon to provide a variety of accomplishments for the City and its citizens ranging from pesticide and herbicide spraying, to repair and design of irrigation systems, to carpentry and painting jobs and running a variety of equipment and tools.

We are very lucky to have Troy’s talents on our city team, but even more importantly, we value his excellent attitude and strong work ethic.

Thank you Troy, and CONGRATULATIONS!

 

Ruth Ann Corrow

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February, 2012

On behalf of the City Council, it is my pleasure to congratulate February’s Employee of the Month, Ruth Ann Corrow.

Ruth Ann joined our city team in September of 1996 as a cashier in our finance department. Due to her considerable skill level and dependability, she was quickly promoted to accounting clerk. From that position, she was promoted again to Payroll Clerk in 2002. It is in this role that Ruth Ann has really shined.

Ruth Ann has a very rare and valuable attention to detail that is paramount in the payroll clerk position. This job has become extremely complicated and complex, and grows more so each year. Tax tables and laws are constantly changing, PERS mandates and regulations are a moving target, and there seems to be no end of new laws that affect our employment rules that land on our door. Ruth Ann keeps up with all these things and more, without complaint or discouragement.

But as important as all these things are, she also never fails to make time to meet with our individual employees when they need her help in understanding various payroll issues.

Thank you Ruth Ann, for all your hard work and attention to detail---and congratulations on being our February 2012 Employee of the Month!

 

Maggie Gonzalez

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December, 2011

Maggie has worked for our Finance Department for a little over 3 years as an account clerk. Maggie is known for her quick smile, dependability and quiet efficiency.

No matter what the task, no matter how hectic the day, Maggie never loses her composure or grace.

Maggie is friendly to all she meets and is a wonderful example of our customer-friendly service. She is patient and kind and we have come to depend on her versatility and willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty.

Thank you Maggie, for the wonderful job you do for the City of Milton-Freewater and congratulations on your award as the December 2011 EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH!