 Okay again thanks so much everybody for coming today and we're going to kick things off with a welcome from our great city manager who just signed a new three-year contract. Yay John Jennings. Gina thank you that's actually news to the city councilors who are actually here that I've signed the contract I guess we don't need you to approve this on Monday so we're good. Oh it's in the paper so we believe everything it's always in the paper so first of all I want to welcome all of you this is actually the there are some things that I get to do every year that are my favorites one is the employee of the month I love coming to your departments and surprising someone who has been nominated by their peers to be the employee of the month and then today I as I've repeatedly said the greatest honor I have in my job is to work with all of you the the reason I decided to sign up again for another three years was because of the fact that I get to work with about 1400 of the most professional and dedicated people that have ever walked the face of the earth and I so greatly appreciate all that you do every single day and I think we still have a lot lot more to do and that's the other reason I decided that I wanted to continue in this role that there is a lot of work that we've been able to do over the last two and a half years a lot of amazing accomplishments that we've had as city staff I think the city council has done a lot of amazing work over there over the last two and a half years on the policy side but as us as all of us as city staff operationally I think we have done really an amazing job now I'm the one that gets the headlines good and bad but frankly I'm also the one that gets credit for all the work that all the great work that all of you do so I want to make sure you know that I know that that if it wasn't for you and what you do every single day we would never be able to run the city run it as effectively as we do and frankly I think have one of the the greatest cities in the entire United States so I want to just thank all of you for everything you do so thank you I also wanted to just introduce I think we only have one city counselor here I wanted to introduce counselor David Brenerman counselor Brenerman and that is there are other counselors I know that I've spoken with that had wanted to be here but and maybe they'll be coming in but counselor Brenerman has been here every year that I've been here count the counselor is unfortunately leaving us he is stepping down from the council actually Monday is his last official meeting and I just wanted to take this moment because you know sometimes we don't always get these opportunities to thank people for their contributions and so counselor Brenerman on behalf of everyone in this room and all of the other city staff we thank you for your support for everything that you've done this you as I said on the radio this morning counselor Brenerman in three years has left an amazing legacy all of this waterfront that you see out these windows gonna radically change because of his leadership you know he was the one of the primary drivers in bringing Wex to our waterfront and many other wonderful things we've got some plans that some of you will see all of you will see on November 28th we'll be unveiling some new visuals of what we think the Portland Ocean terminal building could look like in the future to his committee and so counselor Brenerman thank you for everything we wish you the best we hope we see you often except for unless you want to complain about something and also just say that one of the great things about counselor Brenerman he does not use c-click fix so so thank you I also want to just take a moment to also thank the amazing and I do I want to stress the word amazing Barron Center staff for providing this amazing fantastic lunch Anna banana is right there Anna thank you Milton everybody thank you I don't know what happened to me oh there's Mary Mary thank you for yeah exactly Mary is the one of the only people that doesn't have act that has unfettered access to my office because she just walks in so you know she just there doesn't seem to be many what yes they do because we all know without them where would you be right yeah thank you all Barron Center for for everything that you do not only today but everything you always do so thank you so now what I get to do is I get to actually recognize all of the the committee the event committee that put this wonderful day to day together takes an enormous amount of work to structure this to bring all of you together for all of the the programs all the certificates and so forth so I was hoping that all of you could stand up and we could recognize you in unison the event planning committee Gina Tapp the HR department and Kathy Vosmos the HR department Carleen Kessler the HR department Mary McCarthy the Barron Center you're getting too much recognition Mary Clarkson Woodward Woodward police department I saw Clarkson oh you keep moving on me so you were over there Jessica Grondon Kathy Williams from Public Works Desiree Kelly and Jen Hale from Parks Recreation and Facilities can we please give all of them a big round of applause so first of all we're gonna read the five-year recognition and then ask you to stand when your name is called and then we'll we'll recognize you all together so first for five years of service to the city Rachel Allen from Parks Recreation and Facilities could you please stand when your name is called Nathan Asgorean for the fire department Jeremiah Bartlett Public Works Robin Beeler Nichols from the Baron Center Steven Bishop from the fire department Lucas Brundage from the fire department Rosa Canis from the Baron Center Lindsay Chase from Parks Recreation and Facilities Sarah Klukey from the police department Keanna Cooper from the Baron Center Lauren Coat Cody from Parks Recreation and Facilities Stacey Dan from Parks Recreation Facilities Olga Davidova Davey Dova sorry from the Baron Center sorry Olga if you're here yeah someone's laughing at me so good for you I did get Andy Jigaleski right last year so you have to give me some credit so Dan Daniel Day Public Works Helen Donaldson planning Kristen Dow Public Health Jake Ebenhoe thought the fire department Royal Edgerly the third the fire department Lisa Edmond from the Baron Center Mark Faulkner from the fire department Sarah Florent from the police department Ron Ronald Jero Jr. from the fire department Lidda Lidda Green from fire Jordan Hancock from fire Dwayne Hansen from permitting and inspections Abder Rashid Hassan from the Baron Center Sean Hurley from the police department Amanda Hutchins from Public Health Nicholas Jewett from the fire department Brenda Jones from the Baron Center Carlton Jones from the fire department Wayne Kane from the Baron Center Dan Casdoy from fire Spencer Keith from social services Aaron Keller from the Jet Port Lewis Lafrenier sorry my man Parks Recreation and Facilities I know you as Lou Anthony Lane Lane Lain Lloyd from the Baron Center Jeff Levine from planning Gailin Light from fire Matthew Morrison from police CJ Mastropoulos from Muster Fias sorry Parks Recreation Facilities Kevin Murphy from police Paula Nason from the Baron Center Sherlyn Nomet from the Baron Center Glenn Nielsen from Public Works Stephanie Nowicki from the fire department Dave Onos from Parks Recreation and Facilities Davey Perina from finance Eric Peterson from parking Linda Plored from social services Matthew Ryder from the police department Douglas Rat-Rutuma from the social services Taylor Schneck from social services James Jamison Seaman Sr. from Public Works Suna Shaw from the police department Nasser Shear from IT Haley Sinett from the Baron Center Josh Tripp from the fire department Mark Tweedy from the fire department Kevin Westcott from the fire department and Rob Wiener from planning so these are our for recognizing for five years of service to the city please give them a big round of applause now we're going to turn our attention to the ten-year employees for their years of service amazing actually I I hope to get to six years so needless to say those of you who were here for ten years and more I take my hat off to all of you so first up is Deborah Adams from Public Health again if you wouldn't mind standing and stay standing so we can recognize you my old friend Tony Alves from Parks Recreation and Facilities Colin Ayer from the fire department Amanda Blanchard from the Baron Center Aaron Bridges from the fire department Julie Burns from the Baron Center Gang Chen from the Baron Center James Clookey from Parks Recreation and Facilities Brian Cole from the police department Josh Corbin from the fire department Marianne Curry from the Baron Center Phil De Piro from planning Ralph Dobson from Public Works Sean Donahue from fire Carla Donnelly from the Baron Center Jeffrey Druin from the police department John Emerson from Public Works Jean found Falconieri from the fire department I'm working on this stuff I swear to you Dylan Foster from the Baron Center Philip Jeanet from Park was it Janak gig Gignac okay fantastic Parks Recreation yeah stand up three times man go ahead Matthew Hawks fire fire Robert Hawkins police Deborah Hore from Social Services Cirilla Hodgkis from the Baron Center Wendell Howard from the fire fire department Michael Kimball from fire Michael Lamb from Parks Recreation Facilities Bernard Bernice Landry from the Baron Center Megan Latelier from the fire department Dustin Mazzur from Public Works Robert Miller from police Douglas more mourn from permit permitting and inspections Mike Murray from the executive department Dave Dave Pratt from fire Scott rag rag from Public Works Kevin Reddy from parking Anthony Russo from fire Crystal Seneca from the Baron Center Maxine Saroise from the Baron Center Phil Skillings from Park Recreation Facilities Caroline St. Pierre from fire Carl Stevenson from Parks Recreation Facilities Daniels Benson from the fire department Daniel Thompson from the fire department Jacob Titcom from the police department Ryan Walsh from fire and that is it so congratulations for our 10 year we're moving on to 15 years of service again you know my hats off to all of you when we get to 40 years I just kind of get down on both knees and just genuflect because it's just an amazing thing that you've spent all this time with the city so 15 years of service Camille Alden Alden from the Public Works Department Ethan Anderson from Parks Recreation and Facilities Joseph Bliss from the police department Justin Bragden from the fire department Doris Callaway from the police department David Carter from the fire department Raymond Kerry the third from the Baron Center yeah Ray remember yeah Ray yeah yeah you ever remember yeah Ray was telling me we got to get rid of the city hospital sign that's on this outside of the Baron Center because he's afraid that there's somebody's gonna pull off the highway that's in in you know pregnant and is about to have a baby and he's gonna have to deliver the child so that's so he's asked me to remove the sign off the Baron Center so we'll try to do that for you Ray yeah absolutely a light Eli Chase from the police department Dwayne Cody from Public Works Shelley the out the out doubt this is why I should drink before this finance Paul Decker from fire Lonita Dobson or Lanny Dobson as we all know her from IT Carolyn door from the city clerk's office Joe Galooly Jr. from Public Works Kelly Gorham from the police department Peter Hodgkin from the Public Works Melissa Huntley from Public Health Kristen Christine Hewitt from the Baron Center Casey Johnson from fire Christopher Cole from Parks, Recreation and Facilities Phil LaRue from the fire department Christopher Lehman from Public Works Todd Libby from the fire department Frank Mackie from Public Works Eric McCusker from the police department Fred McKieman Jr. from the Baron Center Dan Michaud from the social services Chris Orff from fire Michael Scherb from fire David Shaw from Public Works Julie Sullivan from the executive department Ryan Thompson from fire Chris Tillison from fire Kathleen Webb from Parks, Recreation and Facilities Keith Willett from fire Camilla Yanez from Baron Center David York from the Baron Center and finally David Young from the fire department let's give them a big round of applause we're going to move on to the 20 year recognition for all of you who have worked for the city for at least 20 years of service so again I take my hat off to all of you for for putting up with certain individuals who live in our community and I won't name who they are because you know who they are but for the last 20 years so Todd Beaumiere from the social services office John Belanger from the fire department Joe Bernard from Parks, Recreation and Facilities David Coat Cody from the police department Bruce Sear from fire Ronald Durth from fire Shayna de Matteo see I got it the second time Baron Center Peter Dubail Dubail from Public Works Tien Young from the police department Tim Ferris from the police department Robert Fogg from Public Works Marie Francis from parking John Joyce from fire fire Lynn Clue Jordan from fire Dennis Labonte from the jet port Peter McFarland come on Peter stand up Parks, Recreation and Facilities Robert McPart McPartland from fire don't block me from everybody's I'm just I'm just kidding now now you're blocking me over there so stand over here yeah yeah just exactly I'm sorry Philly Monan I'm sorry Philly from the IT office Joe Montefusco from the assessor's office Troy Moon from the executive office Ben Noyes Jr. from police Shauna Ohm from police Mary Soscheck from the police department some guy named Mike Soscheck from the police department Robert slaving a slaving from the fire department Dan Small from the fire department Randy Stewart from the fire department Ben Wallace Jr. from the fire department and Tim Welch from the jet port please give them a round of applause we're going to go and go forward with our 25-year recognition actually many of these individuals actually all of these individuals are really an incredible asset to the city and I I know one in particular or so and she does a phenomenal job for me and and for the entire executive office but we're going to start with Vicki Allen from Parks Recreation and Facilities yeah let's give the 25 years a clap so it's something for you five years to look forward to that when you get to 25 years we actually clap for you and you know oh I'm sorry I totally messed this up as usual the 25 years I need to come up and stand with me you can bring your plants yes we'll put that right in front Sonia Bean from the executive department this is the literally the last thing that Sonia wants to do is stand near me so Paul Bradbury from the jet port Dwayne Curry from the public works department David Day from public works Gary Dobson from public works Ed Doddy from the fire department Ed come on up Catherine Gallagher from the Barron Center Walter Gray public works Maureen Jordan Barron Center Lisa Labonte from the Barron Center Eric LeMay from the IT department Andrew Lopez from parking Judy O'Hara from the Barron Center Frank Robino from the public works department and finally Paul Willie from the parking division let's give them a huge round of applause please we're up we're gonna move forward with the 30 year 30 years of service again an amazing group of people as I read down the list so we're gonna start with Amy Adams from the Barron Center is Amy here Amy Adams Amy's not here so she kind of blew us off today is that what we're saying okay I'll remember Amy then Dan Boudlier from the IT sorry Dan you also have to stand up here Margretta Cole from the Barron Center oh she's providing security and care is that does that are a superior care I was gonna say who's providing the sorry that she couldn't make it but please extend our best wishes to both Amy and Margretta Glen Garland from the fire department Tim Tim Harmon from the fire department Bruce Hebert from public works I guess when you hit 25 years or 30 years you don't have to show up so sorry Dan it's just us Michael Jones from the police department thank you thanks for showing up I really appreciate that Leon McKenzie Parks Recreation Facilities Joseph Murphy from the fire department I knew Joe was gonna show up that guy wouldn't miss a free meal so thanks Joe for coming coming today appreciate that now his entire station would not let Joe sit with them so I don't know what that is all about but Walter Phillips from Parks Recreation Facilities Michelle Reynolds from IT Cynthia Rummery Taylor from the police department Arthur Sewell from the Jetport or Artie as we know him Artie Artie's not here he doesn't like us either okay I keep these lists just everybody knows so you 20-25 years you know so anyway Gary Shane from Public Works one of the best guys we have with the city Mark Spiller Richard Sullivan from the fire department Kevin Thomas from Public Works Alfred Trefery the fourth from Public Works and Robbie Walker from the Barron Center please give all of them a big big round of applause please so we're now going to move to the part of the program to where we're going to recognize the 35-year employees and the 40-year employees well that's nice and during during this process we always ask the department head to actually come up and speak about these amazing individuals so I'd like to invite Dan Boodley or to come up please to recognize one of his staff members Bob Toliver stand up Bob this won't be too painful Bob Bob started work with the city of Portland in September of 1982 and who will put that in perspective Ronald Reagan was president while Disney World opened a brand new theme area called Epcot 1982 the Dow Jones average surged 43 points in November of 82 to close slightly over 1000 unbelievable also in the world of technology IBM introduced a new storage device called the double-sided by comparison an average iPhone today holds 20,000 of these so pretty impressive in terms of the evolution of technology there's one more item I'll speak to more toward the end but something very important happened that year too in the world of networks a protocol called TCP IP was invented in 1982 that will later be developed to be the thing that connects the whole internet and I'm going to speak to that just at the tail end Bob and I were talking to spotting about what was a very first project he had in technology and what he had was a project of converting a data file from an 80 column punch card to something like this pretty amazing it was actually the city savings bond file so at one point folks your data was on something like this a little scary now Bob started as that as an application programmer in the 1980s when we were migrating to a to a another level of mainframe what a lot of folks don't know and even IT I don't think Bailey remembers other than Bob and I we were borrowing the system in Gardner so Bob for months on end came to work work is eight to five at five o'clock drove to Gardner it worked until after midnight and he did that three and four nights a week from months that's a huge accomplishment and I don't know as we've ever recognized you for doing that but it was one of those things that helped us migrate to a new mainframe Bob's role in the nineteen late 1980s changed from developing software to being a network engineer now some of the things that most folks probably don't know is Bob worked with Time Warner for nearly five years the result of that work is a fiber optic network that connects all of our buildings all city buildings in all schools a tremendous accomplishment that's been in place now what Bob 20 22 years amazing accomplishment one of the things that Bob does too as a network engineer is he designs the wiring background backbone that makes our phone systems work so when you make a phone call make a Bob if it doesn't work think of Bob now what I just speak to just at the tail end was the internet it has come into commercial use in our lifetime and that's that's amazing to think about what happened my first thought when somebody mentioned the internet was was what and I thought it was a it was a fad it was similar to the hula hoop it would it would pass and boy was I wrong so what I wanted to also recognize Bob for was taking us from our dial-up connection when we all had our AOL accounts to high speed internet and if I could trust Time Warner or now Spectrum on the 29th of November our internet speed for everyone will increase by a factor of 10 so that's a very welcome news for a whiff Jessica who complains to me constantly about internet speed one thing I wanted to touch on at the tail end as I close out my remarks was really at the five-year folks one of the things that will happen over time is you realize that we're all a family in 35 years of working with Bob that's roughly 72,000 72,000 hours I've spent with that guy you cannot spend that time together without being some type of an extended family and it's I think that's true for everyone here in the departments especially as we approach the 20 25 35 40 years that's an amazing accomplishment so Bob thank you very much for everything that you've done Bob just on my for me thank you so much for your years of service and all you do for the city so thank you Bob now I'd like to introduce my very good friend Sally DeLuca Sally it feels you know we're best be what is a BFF is that right this could take a half hour she hugs everybody so anyway oh yes absolutely Sally remember you got two minutes Denise Macaronis could you come on up thank you Denise is proof that big things come in small packages and that's why I needed her to be here with me so she actually has high heels on today which and and when we sat down she said something quite interesting to me and I want her to tell you about what you look like what she looked like when she started here I was tall thin and no gray hair I couldn't say that back in the 1970s the city built two community center schools one at Riverton and one at Reiki and those folks that that did that were pretty brilliant actually I think because they built a school and a community center with large gymnasiums swimming pools they had health centers and dental centers and libraries so it was a really full service one-stop shop and that's actually where Denise started was in the health and human services department so she worked there for many years as a dental hygienist and helped kids have pearly white teeth and back then I was reminded that we didn't have fluoride in the water so Denise was part of making sure that the kids got daily fluoride tablets and then Denise moved over to parks rec and facilities parks and rec at the time in 1990 not many of us can say that we take a boat to get to work but Denise does have to take a boat because she is our Peaks Island community center coordinator and she has provided services out there on Peaks Island for 27 years so I often tease her that she's a true islander and she accepts that as a compliment which is good for both of us in 1997 Denise was instrumental in our department and she started one of the first friends groups and it was friends of Riverton Charlie Park and for those of you don't know Denise loves to talk about the history of the Riverton Charlie Park and I wrote it down so I didn't screw it up the park was in place in the late 1800s and this is over on the corner of Riverside Street and Forest Avenue that's where the Riverton Charlie Park was and a trolley moved folks from downtown Portland out there every weekend and I hope John's listening because this is his this is his kind of thing iconic stuff that was a 30 acre playground for adults and families there was a park casino that overlooked the river a dining room and a dance hall it was quite the place to be on the weekends there was an outdoor theater that seated over 2,500 people there was a boat house with canoes a trout pond and picnic grounds the invention and popularity of cars and World War one put an end to the fun because nobody needed to be on the trolley anymore but Denise makes sure that we all know the history of the park and keeps it alive for all of us and has led guided tours of the park history and helped raise money for restoration so that future generations will know the exciting place that it was many years ago and I'm so this is so hard my main accent I've been practicing this it's so hard to screw this up if you're stressed out person Denise has this unique ability to teach it's laughter yoga and I kept wanting to do it opposite laughter yoga so so if you ever want to know about laughter yoga she's the person to teach you and it will help you de-stress we couldn't be more proud to honor Denise here for her 35 years and to call her a public servant thank you Denise now I'd like to ask Chief Mike Soschuk to come to the podium to recognize one of his staff members as well all right thank you very much congratulations everybody thanks for all that you do on behalf of the city every day no matter you're here two days or 40 years we certainly appreciate that but I'm gonna ask Randy Richardson to step up to the podium help me out for 35 years of service Randy's joined here today by his wife Kathy and I would say the best mile in the room Maisie his granddaughter is here she'll be two in June she's a cutie over on the end over there if she got any of that tootsie roll pop on you we apologize she's having a good time and indefinitely tearing it up so I say acknowledge their presence says certainly because 35 years in service of the city I can certainly say 35 years in a police department is forever and that means there's a lot of long days and nights away from your family just like many of you as we responded to that last storm and other things there's a lot of folks that are away from their family so thank you to Kathy for sure and Maisie for the last 18 months or so for hanging in there with Granddad being away so a little bit about Randy again a cop math would say he started in 82 that's 35 years and he started with $5.30 an hour and we openly joke 35 years in he's up to 610 so he's doing pretty well he's doing pretty well we like that he knew what he wanted early on Randy's been on Peaks Island as a police officer since about 1984 so if you can imagine 33 years of service on Peaks Island and what you may or not may not know is that for years and years officers have been triple trained so their police fire and EMS we're currently partnered up with our brothers and sisters from the fire department out there but for years it was two police officers and a bunch of different things so it's the traditional community policing concept you literally know everybody's name and you know 15 generations of their families Randy knows everybody out there he does an incredible job on behalf of Peaks Island it's very fitting we can see his patrol area from here so it's a pretty nice day all the way around for Randy's service he's also been on the dive team for a long time with us and while he's done 35 years there's also common knowledge that Randy has never in his entire life turned down an overtime job never in his entire life has he turned down an overtime job so that's 35 years which really mean about 93 years in service if we counted up the actual work hours that he's done on behalf of the city but I just want to think that if if 33 years on the main streets of Peaks Island you would think maybe he's retired in place right I'll tell you an example from 2015 which is pretty telling and it was again working with the fire department captain Chris Thompson had written me a letter about Randy an 11 year old girl had fallen out of a tree and onto some rocks on Peaks Island you know the big-style boulders that they have out there around the beaches and she got really banged up and she had broken her back they thought maybe she punctured along and they were really concerned obviously about her welfare so Chris and Randy were crawling over the rocks to try to get her out from a couple of boulders out there while another officer is calling in boats to try to get her off the beach because they didn't think that they could put her on a backboard and carry her out of there ultimately they Randy assists to get her from where she was wrapped around a boulder put on a backboard Randy ends up wading into the the ocean and guiding a boat in to the beach area so that they could get this backboard on the front of that boat and get out of there so he's literally gun belt uniform the whole nine yards and he goes out to his waist and he's bringing a boat in holds the boat they end up putting the backboard on on that boat and that young lady went off to the hospital for treatment so that happened thirty three years into a thirty five year career so that tells you who Randy Richardson is on behalf of the City of Portland and we certainly thank him for his service thank you don styles don do you mind joining coming up so this is Cindy ebonitos thirty fifth year with the city and as you can tell she joined her when she was in high school literally she came to work for us and I think Mary was the first person who she began working working for so so you started out being trained well in Cindy's time she spent most of her career at the at the Baron Center and a variety of jobs and everyone that we talked to there had this had similar things to say about Cindy that she was hard-working she was a pleasure to work with she was a great team player and that she was always helpful to anyone who came into the office when she was working in the business office the residents come in and access their accounts and that a lot of times there they need some help in doing that and everyone unanimously said what a great help Cindy was to them she's moved over to social services for the last few years of her career with the city and they again had similar things to say there are a couple of things that stand out for me about Cindy and I probably should also say Cindy is now in addition to her position with social services is the president of of the Siba Union and so she has some members here Cindy continues to help people through her work with both both the city and with the Siba Union one of the things that I found especially compelling in the description of Cindy was her kindness and you know today that is such a unique and necessary and needed trait to have is to be kind and that was one of the the descriptions that staff used to describe Cindy was her kindness and her willingness to help in any time and and one staff actually said Cindy's the person who would give you the shirt off her back and you know that's a great tribute I found out that Cindy has a great sense of humor as well during Karen Percival who is the administrator at the Baron Center for over 30 years we were there and John and and one of the city councilors were gave a really great speech about Karen and several other people were giving giving wonderful tributes and all of a sudden the Siba Union and another union showed up and they handed her grievance and everyone's thinking oh my gosh what did Karen do now and and it was a grievance because they didn't want her to leave so they were give filed the staff and the unions filed a grievance to prevent her from retiring so I found that that was that was a great tribute to Karen as well and also showed Cindy's great sense of humor which has helped her in doing the hard work she's done all these years so I really appreciate your hard work Cindy and you're a true city city worker Cindy congratulations on everything and I actually wanted to ask Chris Branch if Chris could come up and join our takeover the podium and Chris please try to remember there is a two-minute no I'm kidding you take as long as you want thank you we have no place else to be thank you I appreciate that well they asked me to come up here and recognize some guy named Thomas Higgins this morning but I only know anybody by that name so I want Tommy Higgins to come on down here we get matching uniforms on today you notice Tommy was hired by the city of Portland as an equipment operator one in the parks department in December of 82 which was then the parks and public works department he became a foreman in public works in 96 and received employee of the month in November of 98 he then went on to become a public works supervisor in April of 99 and received the department's ace award in July of 2004 directors award in July of 2006 and was part of the team award in July of 2006 and again in September of 2016 as most of you know Tommy has been Portland's downtown district supervisor since October of 2003 he knows the downtown area very well and how to keep the area clean for our pedestrians and visitors that come to the downtown area he works closely with a Portland downtown district office staff which is not a simple task I will say in events planner Ted Musgraves and always knows what event is coming up next and how to plan for it from start to finish for many years he's worked with the city's popular old port festival that brings thousands of people to the old port overseeing the setup and clean up rain and shine he has been involved with the city's tree lighting ceremonies that again bring thousands to the downtown he's always responsive to customers in the downtown area and overseas the winter ops to take place keeping sidewalks open for pedestrians and businesses he always works very hard to keep Portland's downtown number one for all to enjoy in his dedication truly contributes to our success thank you for your 35 years of service with a Portland you've been greatly appreciated and I've been with the city now for about 18 months I'm a newbie but 18 months I've not heard one negative comment about Tommy since I've been here everything I hear is very positive his customer skills are excellent congratulations Tom congratulations Tommy we appreciate everything you and the entire crew crew does as well so thank you I wanted to ask the chief Jackson to come up the chief is going to talk about two of his employees and recognizing them for their 40 years of service so chief thank you John good afternoon everybody first I too want to just congratulate everybody and thank everybody for your years of service and and just to just to say that how proud I am to be the fire chief and to represent 228 of the most amazing men and women in our in this department and I think they're certainly second to nine in the world and I and I also just want to thank all of you for all you do to support our mission and what we do in the city there's we interact with so many departments at so many different levels and I really just can't thank you all enough for for the support you give us to be able to give service to our citizens and our visitors this point I'd like to bring up Frank Navarro and firefighter Tim Kane so I'm gonna start first and talk a little bit about Frank Navarro I don't suppose anybody here knows Frankie huh I do have to say that you're looking really sharp today if I don't only know if I don't only know that you could dress up like this and wonderful social clothes I'd have changed the uniform policy 20 years ago because I don't think I've ever seen you wear a uniform at the airport mostly because he's working out if anybody knows Frankie he's probably the posted child for physical fitness and I don't think I've known anybody that says good physical condition at any age then Frankie Navarro if there's one thing he's always doing is certainly working out and he has spent a lot a lot of his life teaching a lot of other people about exercise and the importance of that a little uncanny at times a little challenging at times I try to take the phone calls a little bit of stuff laughing at ease but so Frankie came in the fight apartment in November of 1977 and if anybody that's old enough to remember that disco was all the craze at the time and for those of you that are really young we can tell you what disco was all about it lasted 40 minutes but I'm sure you look good in your leadership Frank back then and when Frankie started his career in all the men and women that came in at that time the city of Portland was still experiencing a lot of fires we the city was still burning we really came out of the 1960s and all that went on in the country in the riots experienced here we had a lot of really dangerous events and things that happen in dangerous fires we have as you know a very old city we've been here a long time the city's got a huge history of major fires and both of these gentlemen were here and and really went through a lot in those days and Frankie was serving on two of the two most of the busy companies right on Congress Street during his early career later on in life I think he decided that one way he was definitely going to expand extend this lovely career here was he he had worked out to the airport I think he liked it and eventually stayed there he's been working at the airport for quite some time he's the senior firefighter out there as I was trying to put in this speech together though I ran out of adjectives I guess I'm gonna just leave it by saying Frankie Navarro is certainly one of the most unique people I've ever known well they will tell you I'm not gonna tell you all the years but he carries an AARP card he's get his Medicaid every week and he's collecting Social Security while he's still working but other than that he's doing great I was actually I will say in my time I've been also impressed that even as Frankie has worked here for 40 years and this is this is such a challenging career there's a reason why firefighters have a special retirement plan normally after 25 years you're so beat up physically and mentally you can't do this job and for these two gentlemen to even last 40 years and continue to serve here is amazing after knowing what they certainly went through in their early careers when we most firefighters were just starting to wonder about what wearing an air pack was all about and they have endured and Frankie certainly has endured and even not that long ago he was still taking over times and coming in town and riding on the trucks and and doing the job and Frankie on behalf of the citizens of Portland certainly all of us and myself as a chief we just thank you for the 40 years of service and congratulations Timmy Kane Timmy I don't know how you got 40 years and you're still younger looking than me keeping all your hair I'm getting really jealous here Timmy and Frankie came both came in November of 1977 and certainly again the time that they were serving was just amazing back then the city was just experiencing so many fires and they were extremely busy at that time also we had never heard the word hazmat most of the firefighters didn't do EMS we never heard everything like confined space blood-borne pathogens opioid overdoses none of that was going on and all of that now is all part of what we do and Timmy is still here today he's always one of the first ones to step up and and do what needs to be done he's always been one to take on whatever those new challenges are and he is certainly and I appreciate the fact that as a senior firefighter in the department he is always making sure to work with the younger firefighters are in here and passing on that knowledge and experience so that they they too will will be safe and that they will be able to endure in this job and Timmy's another one who has just amazing that to do 40 years here and continue to do this he's really been the firefighters firefighter he's still even now working on Lata 6 out of Bram Hall one of the busiest companies in the in the city and he's been there a lot of sick lot of six 35 years wow holy smokes down you do realize we had a bid system right you could leave yeah probably I will say unfortunately I don't know about poor Frank I don't think he's ever leaving but Timmy I think is getting close and they will be greatly missed but the one thing I've admired with Tim is certainly that he has shared all that knowledge experience he was a huge mentor in my time I've been here I would go to a fire or an emergency any day with Timmy Kane and I know that he's both these gentlemen highly respected and Timmy again on behalf of the citizens and certainly the city of Poland and myself we just can't thank you enough for your 40 years of service and congratulations I wanted to invite Chris Branch to come up back up and join me to speak about one of our the truly great work workers who staff members who work for the city for 40 years unfortunately he's not with us any longer but we are honored to have his family here with us so we're hoping that you could come up and be with us if that was if that's okay with all of you although Jim's not here today to receive the award Jim was a great employee for the city of Portland he was hired as a labor in July of 1977 after he served as a proud member of the US Marines he was promoted to assistant dispatcher in 1977 and promoted to supervisor in September of 1984 he received the department's ace award in July of 2004 and was part of team award in July of 2005 in September of 2016 he worked as a weekend night dispatcher during the winter months for several years and provided consistent and competent duties during this assignment he helped to establish the Arbor Street complex when the sewer division really moved into their own location he was incredibly dedicated conscientious and provided steadfast services to the water resourcing division who approached every task with a no-nonsense common-sense attitude he was known as the de facto historian of all things related to Portland wastewater he maintained a pristine attendance record over the 40 years he served with the city he quietly served as a benefactor for the lowering memorial site in the root cellar on Washington Avenue over the last few years as the de facto historian for the sewer in Portland he helped bring the water resources division into the 21st century as part of our asset management work with his great knowledge of the sewer and storm drain systems in the city of Portland Jim remained as I said a dedicated employee right up until he passed away on September 14th 2017 he will be sadly missed by all his co-workers friends and of course his family it would be almost impossible to replace the knowledge he had of our sewer system thank you Linda and family for allowing Jim to dedicate 40 years of his life to the city of Portland we've actually added a few awards this year awards that I think represents what all of us are trying to accomplish here in the city is certainly during my tenure and so we so I wanted to recognize what these awards are what they mean and certainly and then of course we have the Ganley award at the end but the department heads that all the directors of the departments of the various departments in the city helped me and Anita Anita was wondering where you what happened to you to determine the winners of these awards so please know that the the folks who won these awards that the management of the city feels very strongly of appreciate and feel strongly about the work that you do every single day so chief sauce check do you mind coming up Clarkson could you please join us I don't bite so this award is the customer service champion award and she was nominated by chief sauce check and I just wanted to read a little bit from his application of nominating Clarkson Clarkson is a public service professional who truly personifies the qualities that make this award so special she serves as a human resource subject matter expert for our department's 225 employees her passion for the position and her compassion for others make her a key component of the police department's management team and a constant source of support and guidance for the members of the PD family Clarkson is routine routinely available at all times of the day and night to answer health care questions for an injured officer or to respond directly to the station to assist in the aftermath of a traumatic incident like a blood exposure or an officer involved in a shooting Clarkson has been an integral part of our department's peer support team for the chief's 19 year career and without her commitment to the team and the city of Portland our officers would have the the Portland Police Department officers would have suffered needlessly in the face of various tragedies Clarkson has used her finely tuned organizational skills to streamline the hiring process of the police officers and dispatchers this new process new process made our department far more competitive with other area agencies and allow us allows us to add the flexibility to truly pick the best of the best Clarkson congratulations chief do you want to say anything so a few years ago we gave Clarkson the civilian of the year at the police department and we did it actually in this setting if I remember correctly and at that time Clarkson's heavily involved in that process so I had to lie to her for months actually we had to put a ghost person that we said was going to win it and did a whole thing so this was much easier to fool her this time around Clarkson is an incredible person I'm blessed at the police department I don't have one right arm I've got a hundred of them over there that keep me out of trouble but talk about internal customer service and the way she takes care of our family and external customer service Clarkson is the first person in many cases that outside entities and individuals have contact with they may be the only contact they have with the Portland Police Department she's a true professional she's also an incredible human being that we love very much so thank you very much for everything and she's gonna hate me for this so as we just mess mentioned customer service is a huge priority for us as a city and so Clarkson obviously was a great recipient but we also have another award this year called the innovator of the year award and anyone who has worked with me knows me or sat in a meeting with me knows that I'm a bit of a tech geek and I love I love technology I love moving us forward I love new ideas I've been going around meeting with various departments and fire stations and and divisions and so forth asking for your ideas on how we can move the city forward to innovate more effectively so Nancy Gallonero do you mind joining me up here please oh there's Nancy so the innovator of the year award the first annual innovator of the year award goes to Jessica Gooch Jessica Jessica was lured here under false pretenses so she did get a free lunch come on over Jessica so Jessica is the asset manager for water resources she has been responsible for the implementation of our asset management system within the water resources division as some of you know several years ago water resources was so bad on the operation side the US EPA made the city enter into a consent agreement do the efforts of Jessica our program is turned into turn has turned around so much that water resources was awarded this year's asset management award by the New England Water Environment Federation which is a huge award by the way the professional organization for the storm and wastewater industry our mapping and databases have gone from near zero to one of the best in the state in just a few years she has she has the crews using tablets to look up information and record data it is truly an amazing accomplishment Jessica has has been and continues to be a support for GIS here in public works and engineering as well as City Hall GIS she has presented papers for GIS organizations working groups main water environment and the New England Water Environment Associations as well as the main stormwater conference she has accomplished much in her two years as asset manager and has done so while being an excellent leader and coach to her young staff Nancy would you like to say anything I wasn't expecting to get to say anything but it's easy we're just so incredibly blessed at water resources to have the talent that we have we really started with a blank slate and just had to come in and get us all up to speed on everything getting our assets in the system and just getting us set up for the future and she's done so very independently and been able to go out and tell the country essentially across the country about what we're doing and that's why we're getting an award is because she's willing to get up and talk about what we're doing and so we're really proud of her and proud of her team so thank you just this person may hate me for life by doing this to her but Anita Lechance could you please join me he's right about that did you hear that he's right about that that she's gonna hate me for life and it has your name on it so we're also today establishing another award the municipal leadership award and Anita will be the first recipient of the municipal leadership award I've known Anita since I first came to Portland I came here to start a basketball team that eventually became the main red clause I had to negotiate with this tough negotiator to do the lease agreement at the expo and many other things and she was tough and frankly I admired that and and we have over the years become very good friends and so when I talked to the city council about becoming the city manager there was only one person that I needed beside me every step of the way and that was Anita Anita is brilliant at municipal government and her years of service to this city are unparalleled she helps in every conceivable way from the budget from parks and recreation of course which she led for many years she was an intern for the city was it 38 years ago 38 years ago yeah something like that so I there is no way I could do the job that I do every single day without Anita unfortunately for me and I think for the city she's decided that she is going to retire in July of next year and so it is going to be a huge loss for the city for me and I think I think she's going to realize for her as well as as much as she may think otherwise right now but Anita on behalf of all of us in this room on behalf of all the other staff that work for this city and who have worked in the city in the past and the city counselors who you served with for decades thank you for everything so I made them all promise that I wouldn't get a going away party so I guess this is the payback for that they did a really good job of keeping a secret and you're right I will lose something when I leave I'm going to miss a lot of people but I'm not going very far so thank you so as is tradition the the award that we saved till the very last is the Robert B. Ghandley public service award I did not have the honor of ever meeting Mr. Ghandley but my understanding and certainly the stories that have been passed down to me by both his family and and all of you he was quite a remarkable person he cared passionately about all the people who worked for the city he was tough which I greatly appreciate and he was no nonsense and so this award I think is the most prominent word that we give every single year and so we are making this award today and I'm gonna ask Chris branch to present the award this year's winner of the Ghandley award is Kevin Austin the fleet manager for the public works department Kevin can you come up please Kevin started pretty low down on the totem pole when he got here started out as an account clerk and moved up into the construction company and then over into fleet where he worked his way up to the current fleet manager's position a few comments from the nomination of the person who submitted Kevin for the Ghandley award from the minute Kevin walks in his office he has people phone calls and emails to address he deals with so many people coming at him all at once with the most utmost professionalism Kevin's daily job goes anywhere from purchasing expensive equipment to walking down to the pumps with a co-worker because their gas key won't work it's happened to me the service Kevin provides for his co-workers employees supervisors salesmen and outside vendors never differs they are all treated with respect he wears so many hats across all departments without vehicle maintenance the city of Poland would not have properly running vehicles to keep the city operating this is what Kevin has to do every day and he does it with a smile on his face he is always willing to assist and he does so with a cooperative positive attitude he is very knowledgeable and a valuable asset to the city he keeps everybody rolling and happy with the fleet we have especially considering the budget constraints he's up against no matter what he finds a way to make it work he and his staff work tirelessly to keep equipment that should have been long ago retired up and running even though he doesn't have much interactions with the public what he does behind the scenes benefits the public every day Kevin embodies his description of Bob Ghandley every day he's behind the scenes doing good work that no one really sees that everyone would miss if it were not being done a couple of personal notes on Kevin as I said earlier I've been here about 18 months now the one of the people that I have come to depend on for what they have to say to me is Kevin when he talks to me about the CIP process we have to be able to work with police and fire parking parks and rec to be able to put the vehicles into the CIP that they all need Kevin is the one who does that work it is an extremely difficult job and he keeps although he gets accused on a regular basing of being prejudice towards public works I can tell you that's not the case when I've tried to slip some things in he said no we're not doing that it's not a priority so he tries to do the best that he can get the input from everybody and does a great job I've really enjoyed working with Kevin I also enjoy Kevin is currently building his own house so we talk a little bit about septic systems and washouts and a few other things that have gone on there and he's now working with us to do the fleet services expansion out it to for the relocation out to 250 canco road I just want to say thanks to Kevin for his great work for the city of Portland thank you Kevin just on my on behalf of myself and the rest of the leadership of the city thank you for keeping an amazing division running very very smoothly you and the entire crew at fleet services does just amazing job in fact it's oftentimes it's miraculous because we've neglected our fleet over the years as many of you know because you have to drive some of these antiquated vehicles that we're quickly trying to replace so Kevin you and your entire team you just do a phenomenal job so thank you very much I did want to just mention though the selection committee is comprised of the previous award recipients Keith Ketrow from last year Barbara Barhite Mary McCarthy Kevin Haley Brad Paul Bradbury Mark Spiller Julia Glasek and Kathy Alves as well as the HR staff of Gina Tapp and Carleen Kessler and Jessica Grondin we received 15 nominations this year they were all very very worthy of the of the award but certainly Kevin was selected to be the Ganley award winner this year so do we have anything else any other business let me you go ahead well believe it or not it's 146 and Kathy's timeline was head us ending at 145 so great job again Kathy Kathy Vosmos puts this all together thanks everybody for taking time out of your Friday to come honor all of all of the great work that city employees do and again great great great lunch the Aaron Center staff thank you so much for doing that for us okay thanks I'm John's just gonna say a few final words goodbye no he doesn't want to goodbye have a great weekend thanks for your time