 So, as you know, we're here today to honor employees for their dedicated service to the City of Portland. We have 203 employees who are being honored for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 years of service. That's a combined total of 3,195 years of service. Before we move on, I want to acknowledge the work of the Service Recognition Committee because we tend to get to the end of these things and forget to thank those who put it all together. So, right off the bat, I'd like to thank Tom Chiazzo, Carleen Kessler, Janice Kimball, and Kathy Vosmas for Human Resources. Yay! Keith Hansen and Jack O'Donnell, Recreation and Facilities. Mary McCarthy and Mary Obradovich, Barron Center, and I apologize in advance for names that I mess up. I'm Clarkson Woodward with the Police Department, Kathy Williams, Public Services, and Jessica Grondin from the City Manager's Office. And for anyone, those of you who don't know, I'm Shealy Hill Christian, Acting City Manager, and it is my pleasure to be here with you today. I'm going to do the first door prize. This is for a $100 gas card. And stuff these days. All right, I don't have a drum roll, so I need your attention. Thank you! The number is 770-823. Let's just say we have a winner-pending confirmation, you know. Jackie Sertin is the winner of the $100 gas gift card. I'll give her another one in a few minutes, so stay tuned. All right, we're getting ready to give away another door prize. This one is a Fitbit wireless wristband. Keep track of your activity, and it syncs wirelessly to your computer. The number is 770-911. Is that you? Mayor Brennan is with us, and he'd like to make a few remarks if we could have your attention for just a moment, and then he'll be giving away the next door prize. Thank you. Thank you, Shealy. It's very nice to be here. Obviously, when I got up this morning, it was a little cloudy and overcast, and we had a lot of rain last night. And to be here today, and this great venue, and to have the sun out is really terrific. And I just want to tell you very quickly a couple of stories. But last month, when Bill Clinton, the former president, came to Portland, I had the opportunity to meet with him for five or 10 minutes before he spoke. And the first thing he said to me was, you have a beautiful city. And I said to him, that's what James Carvelle just told me two weeks ago. And he looked at me, he was very confused by what I said. And I know you're going to say a lot of people are confused by things I say, but he looked at me as a little confused as to how I had been talking to James Carvelle. And as many of you know, when Clinton was elected president in 1992, James Carvelle was his senior political advisor. So two weeks before I had met Clinton, I was running on the Eastern prom. And somebody stopped me, and I was talking to them. And they said, James Carvelle is running by. And I said, oh, so I chased after James Carvelle. And I caught up with him. I said, I'm the mayor of Portland. And I said, have you ever been here before? And he said, no, but you have a beautiful city. So from James Carvelle, from Bill Clinton, we both had affirmations that we have a beautiful city. And I agreed with them and told them that I certainly didn't disagree with them of their perspective that we have a beautiful city. And certainly, the reason that we have a city that is so beautiful, that is so prosperous, and that has enjoyed so much acclaim is because of the people sitting in this room today. And it's because of your hard work, your dedication. And oftentimes it's not recognized. Oftentimes it's not seen. And oftentimes it may not be noticed. But there are many of us that recognize that without you, we would not have the city that we have. And sometimes I get a little almost embarrassed when I go meet with other mayors in the state of Maine. And we start talking about Portland just got ranked last week as the best number one minor league baseball city in the United States. And two weeks before that, we were rated as a 19th best educated city in the United States, which is pretty good company to be in. So it's very nice to have these accolades and to have this recognition. But it is due to the work of the people that are here. How many of you are in public works or have something to do with the cemetery? Okay. I have a plot in the cemetery at Evergreen. And it's very humbling to run by there every day and look at the plot that I've invested in at this point. But the cemetery has looked very good this year. But Outside Magazine just rated Evergreen Cemetery as one of the fifth best mountain biking trails in the state of Maine. And their National Magazine said that when people visit the city of Portland, they should go to Evergreen Cemetery and have an opportunity to ride on the bike trail in Evergreen Cemetery. So there are all kinds of different parts of the city that are recognized. But lastly, what I'd like to say, obviously we've had transition this year with the city manager. And we now have an acting city manager. And the city council has a great deal of confidence in our city manager, our acting city manager. And one of the things that Sheila has done, and I was just talking to her about this the other day, that I think is a very good instinct on her part. At least three or four times, she has said to me before I've launched off into a particular direction, she said, well, first let's talk to the staff. And let's see what the staff has to say. And I think that's a culture and that's an attribute that we want to create within the city of Portland. And I think Sheila is setting the tone of that, that we need to make sure that we're consulting with you, that we're talking with you, that we're getting the best ideas that you have to bring forward to us. And then again, before I go off in the wrong direction with something, at least I will have, and the council will have the wisdom and the input from city staff. So I look forward to working with Sheila and to continue to try to build those bridges and to work to improve our communication between all of you and myself and with the city council. So again, thank you very much. And I hope everybody has their full fill of what there is to eat. And again, thank you very much for all the work that you have shown for the city of Portland and the dedication that you have provided to the city over the years. Oh, our next door prize. Anybody know what Roku is? I'm a big fan. This is a good gift, not gift, door prize, all right? So we're just going to pick one of these up. They're all turtle turtles. Okay, just read the number. That's 770843. Okay, so Tom Doyle. Tom Doyle. Congratulations. Thank you very much. All right, now we're going to get to the next part of the program. We need everyone's cooperation to keep this moving along. What I'm going to do is read these names by group, group meaning years of service. I'm going to ask all of those in attendance in that group to come to the front of the room and then we're all going to gather for a photo and then you'll move off and I'll call the next group and we'll do it again. Everybody got that? All right, we're going to see how this works. There are 39 employees being honored for five years of service. This is a combined total of 195 years of service. And if I mispronounce your name, I apologize in advance. Here's where my organizational skills just fell apart. Okay, five years of service. Ready? Francesca Addison. Dan Aguilera. People should be coming this way. You failed the first test. Michael Blank. Evan Bamba. Are you eating? Is that it? You don't want to get up? Martha Barrero. Merle Bowman. Mary Desimone. Did I say that right? Matthew Dissel. Hong Van Dong. Justin Fertia. Thomas Gavani. Majda Hadjibulik. I know I messed that one up. Sorry. Victoria Hansen. Matthew Herman. Charles Hogden. Jeffrey Hogden. Joanne Huntington. Eric Johnson. Catherine Jones. Christina Long. Ann Lang. Colleen LePage. Carol McKenzie. Cecilia Martinez. Joshua McDonald. Stephanie Parker. Kimberly Pavlis. Lisa Reagan. Muriel Richards. Bernadette Richards. Jonathan Roberts. Thomas Santuri III. David Shirts. William Sears Jr. Tara Snyder. Nancy Snyder. Eric Stenicki. Martin Tuttle. That's the list. Alright, thank you. Alright, so the next group. Ten-year employees. Since you've seen the five-year employees do such a wonderful job, I have high expectations. Next I'm going to read the name of 48 employees being honored for ten years of service. This represents a total of 480 years of service. These employees received a $25 gift card. Alright, ten-year employees. Kimberly Adams. Scott Ballard. Kola Woli-Bankoli. Muhammad Bari. Tammy Butner. Patrick Connolly. Clayton Copp III. April Crowley. Don Davidson. Vincent DeFilippo Jr. Carol Ann Dumpy. Jennifer Elwell. Michael Farmer. Jeb Garrish. Jerry Goss. Patricia Greenlaw. Sheldon Grigori. Andrew Haggerty. Daniel Hondo. Christine Horn. Gregory Hughes. Gail Johnson. Judith Johnson. Brendan Joyce. Peter Kenney. Allison Knox. Mirislaa Krasinski. Laura Larichelle. Robert Lauterbach Jr. Abigail Levitt. Donna Marshall. Stanley Mason Jr. Robert Maloff. Richard Mullins. Angelco Napihallo. Sorry. Tyler Nash. Ethan Owens. Janet Paul. Michael Pindexter. Author Peterson Jr. and Ricket Roger Robinson. Douglas Runcardi Jr. Michael Russell. William Stratus. William Van Dins. Okay, next we have 43 employees being honored for 15 years of service. This represents a combined total of 645 years of service. These employees received a $50 gift card. All right, pay attention. Okay, 15 years. Let's start coming up. Kevin Austin. Phyllis Bannister. Adam Benke. Karina Benke. Janine Bork. Jessica Brown. Julie Kenaferina. Laurie Carlson. Christina Carlstrom. Kevin Cashman. Betsy Chapman. Richard Chip Putt. David Crowley. Carl Dolbo. Thomas Doyle. Christopher Fabian Matthew Fitzgerald. Melissa Graffam. Gordon Greenlaw. Paul Halstrom Jr. Marvin Hamilton. Chad Johnston. Mark LaPage. Brian LaTarte. David Melendez. William Needleman. David Nichols. James Nichols. Claire Norton. Jane O'Connell. Ricky Patnoud. Lisa Pirata. Jay Robinson. Sanchez St. John. Miss Sally Tefer. Ann Marie Taylor. Scott True. Christopher Vale. Tammy Byer. Edward Walsh. Tanisha Warren. Kelly Waters. And Charles Wardell Jr. Give them a big round of applause, please. Next, we have 19 employees being honored for 20 years of service. This represents a combined total of 380 years of service, and these employees received a $75 gift card. Their names are Tracy Chalecki. Michael Clanotte. Dean, and I'm messing these names up, Dean Goodale. Suzanne Jennings. William Johnson. James Kettie. Charles Libby III. Sandra Markowski. Terry McGuire. Paul Murphy. Mary Purham. John Peverata. William Price. Rachel Ross. Linda Skelza. Clifford Strout. Dennis Swan. James Vance. And Bruce Warner. 20 years of service. Next, we have 33 employees being honored for 25 years of service. This represents a combined total of 825 years of service. These employees receive a $100 gift card. Dean Berry. Alan Bouchard. Jackie Certain. Stephen Cumback. Herbert Denison. Daniel Dyer. Are they just moving slow because they've been here 25 years? Are they here? Oh, it's a turkey. Okay. John Everett. Patrick Flynn. Gary Hutchinson. Kathleen Kilburn. Daniel LaRachel. Carl Leonard. Joanne Lester. Charles Loring. Karen Marston. Andrew Martin. I was like, who's Andrew? Sean Mehan. Carol Merritt. Lisa Napoleoni. Thomas O'Connor. Steven Pellerin. Robert Pelletier. Robert Pender. James Sloan. James Sweatt. Michelle Sweeney. Jeff Tarling. Scott Tomes. Bradford Williams. Kathy Williams. Vanessa Woodward. Lee Wright. And Carol Young. 25 years of service. Next, we have 10 employees being honored for 30 years of service. This represents a combined total of 300 years of service. These employees received a $125 gift card. Their names are Robert Bickford, Frank Bransley, Gregory Cass, David Lord, Paul Nichols, James Randall, Raymond Smith, Judith Swazoko, Gretel Varney, and David Zabura. Next, we're going to do two more door prizes. We have a Garmin. My new Vanna White skills. The winner is, the last three numbers are 982. Last name, Williams. What's the name of the winner? Brad Williams is the winner. Congratulations, Brad. This is what everybody was holding out for. There's a lot of tickets in there. Yeah, the Neutroninja. Juicer. The number is 820. Congratulations. And the winner is Christina Carlstrom. Congratulations. We're moving right along. Next, we have employees with 35 and 40 years of service. Each of these, well, some of these individuals will be honored with remarks by a representative from their department. The first name on the list is Richard Blackburn, who has 35 years of service. So the first thing I will say is I haven't known him that long. So I was looking for information. I went on the internet. I paid the $40. I looked at all this credit card information. I did a background check. I couldn't find a thing. I even had Dan digging his emails. No luck. So what I will tell you is that he's the city's tax assessor. One of his greatest achievements has been maintaining a $7 billion tax valuation. And there's a reason that's important. He's the city's tax reevaluations. I understand that he doesn't usually take traditional time off in the summer like most of us. Instead he spends most of his vacation time during the spring and fall hunting and fishing at his camp, which is in Parmesan Lake near the Canadian border. I haven't had the pleasure of working for Rick Long, but everybody I ask had one thing to say and I think after 35 years of service, if that's all I could find out, it's a testament to your work here in the city. So thank you very much. I did, however, find an article from November 2002 that Rick is the reason Peaks Island wanted to succeed from Britain. But I wasn't going to bring that up. Next we have Jacqueline Sylveas, and we have remarks by Karen. Karen. Jackie, where are you? I want to see you. Hi. Oh, you're here. That's great. I get to say these right to you. Well, we're all celebrating with Jackie for 35 years with the city of Portland at the Barron Center. I know that I've worked with her for 30 years, and I've learned over those 30 years that CNAs are extraordinary people. They're expert at taking care of others, and Jackie's one of those extraordinary individuals. I really believe that. I'm sure she cannot tell us how many patients and residents she's taken care of over the years, but it's been thousands upon thousands upon thousands, I'm sure of it. She's changed those lives. Jackie's the kind of caregiver you would want taking care of, your mother, your father, or even you. I know that. I do know that. Her nurse manager is kind of pushy, like a lot of nurses are kind of pushy, which is why they're good at nursing. She said to me, I think just this morning, are you making remarks about Jackie? And I said, yes, I am. And she said, will you be sure to say that she advocates really hard for her patients, that she always fights for what's right? And so that's what people think about you, that you fight for what's right. I asked Jackie's co-workers a little bit about her, and they said that anytime anybody needs help, she's there. And you don't have to ask her, she's just there. And I can tell you this too, that maybe you know this. She's so quiet, so shy, and so private. It has been kind of hard to get personal anecdotes about Jackie. One of the things that her co-worker said, which I don't think you'll mind this, is apparently Jackie loves perfect hair. And everybody knows her hair is always the same, and she loves to go outside for her break, but she won't go outside for her break if the wind is blowing, because she doesn't want her hair messed up. Ah, see? And the other thing... All right, well, there, if anybody has any ideas about perfect hair dressers, come and see Jackie. It's funny. And this is a good timing for this remark. Jackie gets teased a lot for not smiling much. And I can tell you when she does smile, which you're doing now, which is really lovely, it's definitely worth the wait. The other thing I wanted to tell is a co-worker, I asked co-worker who's Jackie's favorite patient, and we're not supposed to have favorites. And we all do. And usually we have many favorites. And Jackie has, I think, probably many favorites, but this one favorite I'll call her Clara. That's not a real name. Clara's a little on the difficult side because she only wants to do what she wants to do. And she doesn't want to do anything anybody suggests is being safe or healthy or anything like that. And Jackie can get her to do just about anything. Just about anything. When we were talking more about Clara and Jackie, and Clara always asks where Jackie is. And one of the things that she, I think, recently said to Jackie was that she was a real peach. And it was very meaningful to Jackie, according to this co-worker, who said you had a tear in your eye. That's what Jackie's about. She's pretty special. What I didn't know about her is where, what is in her heart. And her heart has her granddaughters in it and her little dog, Minx, which is a lovely name for a dog. And you're smiling again. They named them? Well, it's a great name. It's a great name. What else can I say about her? Is that the Baron Center, I think, among nursing homes in the state, and especially locally, is really known for the excellent care that we give. And Jackie is the best example of that that I think I could think of. Congratulations. The last name on the list, let me do this again, is Joanna Coey. We just want to recognize and applaud her for 35 years in service. So you didn't want us to embarrass you in front of everybody. So I saw no remarks, so I'm not going to say anything. I'm not going to say anything. I think my reputation speaks for itself. Her reputation. Anybody else want to come up and make remarks? No, I'm just going to say something. Thank you very much, Joanna, for your... Okay, next, we're at Employees for 40 years of service. These employees receive a $250 gift card, and their service award is going to be presented now. So the names I have are Linda, is it Nieves? That's right, okay. And remarks are going to be provided by Zach Sundquist and Greg Hughes. Are they here? Come on up. Congratulations, Linda. Well, I tell you, it's a fantastic day. It's a beautiful setting here at Ocean Gateway. It's great sharing the honors with everybody here, and it's my pleasure to be able to give a quick introduction for one of my friends and coworkers, Linda Nieves. After two years in nursery school as interning for the city of Portland in the building inspection, Linda started with the city on January 21, 1974. She continued working for Joe Gray. I think most of you know who Joe Gray is, and eventually moved to urban development in 1982. This was followed by a move to parks and recreation in 1983, and finally in 1997, she started at the Jet Port. She has had numerous positions at the Jet Port over those last few years. In 2004, I became a coworker with Linda. We formed a special friendship through these past 10 years, and I am honored to have her as one of my really good friends and so forth. I want to give you a couple memories of Linda, and for those of you that are lucky enough, number one, if you are ever invited to their barbecue, and this is the famous pig roast, do not turn it down. It is totally unbelievable. Scores of people show up every summer, and I have been lucky enough to go to a few of them. Number two, if you need help with a barbecue, a fish fry, a cookout, any kind of function, this young lady is the one to do. She not only is a great cook, she is a great organizer. I want to go back to 1974. I know most of you are too young to remember it, but the number one song in 1974, Barbara Streisand did it the way we were. The highest grossing film in 1974, it is now on reruns, was Warner Brothers' Blazing Saddles. Super Bowl VIII, the Miami Dolphins beat the Minnesota Vikings. The best book of that year, which became one of the most famous movies of all time, Jaws by Peter Benchley. Now, there's a name that not too many of us remember, but Lee Majors premiered in The Six Million Dollar Man. A first-class stamp in 1974 had the tremendous jump from eight cents to ten cents, and the World Trade Center is open in New York City. What sets Linda out, to me and to all of her coworkers, and one of her biggest strengths, is customer service. Now, most of us go by the motto of treating the customer like we would like to be treated. Linda has taken that a step above, and she treats the customer like the customer wants to be treated. And her great customer service, it's not a nine-to-five job for Linda, it's a way of living. Her great customer service not only goes to the customers at the jet port, it goes to all of her fellow workers and everybody else that works at the airport. I'm just proud to have Linda as my coworker, my friend, and she's the greatest. So, next, we have Mary McCarthy. You need no introduction, right? This is where I get to say, don't you hate it when the speaker asks a question and says, raise your hand. So I'm going to do that. Who in this room doesn't know Mary McCarthy? One person. You'll know her by the time you leave. You will know her by the time you leave. I promise that, because Mary's already checking you out. And chances are she's going to have a relative that she knows of yours or your neighbor or your kid used to work in the kitchen at the Baron Center or something like that, but she's going to know him. Mary is a remarkable woman, as you all know. We all know that. And I'm really quite proud and lucky to have her working at the Baron Center with me. You know, I have all these written remarks and it's like, I don't want to read them. I want to tell you that I was really easily, I easily nominated Mary for the Ganley Award in 2011. And I was really proud to do that. You know, I knew Bob Ganley worked for him like many of us did. And having that award was really important. And I was so proud to nominate Mary and have Mary get that award. I think that was real, real special, really special. The next paragraph I have is something that makes me kind of a little itchy. Mary believes limited resources inspire creative thinking. You know how many times she comes to me with inspired thinking? And it just, you know, it's like, no, Mary, we can't do that. And she really is a strong advocate for basically the residents at the Baron Center. There isn't anything she wouldn't do for them. She wouldn't, or for the employees. I wanted to say that Mary makes people happy. And all I have to do is say, do you know our whoopee pies? People know our whoopee pies. Perhaps you don't know. We have ice cream socials at the Baron Center. Sometimes they're for residents. Sometimes they're for staff. And they're wonderful occasions. Because she has, she does a lot of, what do you call that, field research on ice cream? She loves ice cream. So she does a lot of field research, and then we get the best ice cream there possibly could be at these ice cream socials. So sometime you might stop in at the Baron Center and you might see a lot of staff sort of in ice cream comas and you know it was an ice cream social day. Mary loves to make other people happy. She really does. She has, she wants a new dining room in the Baron Center. And she wants, she always wants me to put it in the budget. And I keep saying Mary, that means a new building. And I don't think she cares about that. She just wants a dining room for the residents. And she has made our day rooms into fine dining rooms. She's made the activity room, the Bernstein activity room we have on the first floor, the Flamingo Cafe. And residents come down to that. She's made our cafeteria the Flamingo Cafe for breakfast. There isn't anything she wouldn't do for them. There isn't anything. Mary is committed. She has a work ethic like, I wish everybody had that work ethic. She's amazing. Oh, and let me tell you this part. I'll read this part. Mary loves her family. Who doesn't, right? But her family is really, I think a bunch of characters a little bit like her. And she's the matriarch of all these characters. And she's a very benevolent one. There was a family excursion just recently to Ireland. And then I think probably to top that, she's going with a granddaughter to Disney to see her grandson who's working there for the semester. And she's going to be in Disney on Halloween with her two grandchildren. Now, if you're interested, just ask her what she's going to be dressed as on Halloween because there's already a plan for that. Mary dresses up as a Christmas elf during our Christmas family reception that we have. We have an open house at Christmas time. And I remember she didn't tell me about this. And she came over to where I was dressed as a little elf and she looked quite cute. But she just likes being silly and she likes people laughing. And again, she'd do anything for the residents, anything. Personally, I love Mary. She makes the Baron Center look good. She makes the city look good. And all the people that work for her deserve all the credit for just supporting her and providing the kinds of things that we all count on when people come to the lovely city of Portland. I love you. Edward Dickout and Chief Lamoria. We're still at 40 years of service in case I've thrown you off completely. It would be nice if I were here to tell you about how well I knew steady Eddie. But I don't. I told him I was going to tell one story about him, so I'll do that. You know, when you come from away and you start out in a department that has over 230 employees, it's a big task to get to know everybody. So you've got to make choices because everybody wants a piece of your time, right? So everybody kept telling me about this guy, Steady Eddie, who had nearly 40 years on the job out at Rosemont. And so I kept thinking, as I met people, I said, well, if he's got almost 40 years on, why do I want to get to know him? He's not going to be here very long. So, you know, I went around and I made my rounds and I got to know everybody, and I did meet him once or twice. I think it was by accident. I went through the day room and he woke up and actually got out of his chair and said hello. But he turned it around today and the joke's on me because as we sat at the table and had lunch and he chatted with me, he said, you know, you're the ninth fire chief that I've worked under. And I stood there and I thought about that for a minute and I said, wow, the joke's on me. He's thinking the same thing. Why do I want to get to know you? You're not going to be here any longer than the rest of them. There's no reason to get to know you. Hell, I didn't even know half of the other ones would walk through here. But beyond that, I do know Eddie and he has a great reputation in the department. And they call him Steady Eddie for a reason, you know, and Steady Eddie is because he is calm, cool, collected, and he's seen this stuff before, you know, and when you're with a relatively young group of employees which the fire department tends to be, it's always great to have a Steady Eddie, you know, and the younger members really depend on that. They really do. And for those times when they're faced with something that they haven't yet seen before and they're not quite sure of, having someone on the crew who grounds them and says, you know what, we can get through this because we've seen it before. And I think the important thing is it really, it says a lot about 40 years of service for any employee, but to see someone who's been on the front line running in and out of burning buildings and treating sick and injured people at three o'clock in the morning for 40 years straight, that really says a lot, you know. It really, really shows someone who's dedicated to what they do and what I'm in awe of is the amount of lives that Eddie has come in contact with. On an average, our fire and EMS crews see 10 to 15 people a day on emergency incidents and on a shift. And when you think of the thousands of shifts that Ed has worked and for each one of them, 10 to 12 people that he's touched, other people who are having the worst day of their life, and Ed walked into their life for a few minutes. And I think that that really says a lot for dedication, commitment, and compassion for the city. And as Mayor Brennan said, it's what makes us a very beautiful city. Congratulations, Ed. And for his sake and mine, I hope there isn't a number 10. And this is what I would like to say about this next individual is we save the best for last. We save the best for last. And this one is very, very important and it's someone that everyone in the city will recognize. And who I'd like to call up next is Ben Diaz Jr. From Fire Electrical. You know, it's such an honor to be able to honor an employee with 40 years of service. But to stand here and to be able to honor two from the same department is really, I think, a tribute to the members of the department and the employees of the city. Ben's award is very special. And I feel very honored to stand here and to give this to Ben today. And one of the reasons for that is although Ben was a fire department employee, he touched every single department in the city. And that is very, very important. His relationship with each and every department was one where he was a critical link to the things that they did. And many of you may not recognize that, but every time you pushed a button on a radio and had to get an urgent message to somebody else out there, whether it was dispatch or whether it was public services or any of those, that's Ben's work. Anytime you picked up a telephone to call somebody, that was Ben's work. Even emails and anything data that went over fiber, that was Ben's work. And he worked tirelessly for 40 years maintaining critical infrastructure and communication systems that touched every department in the city. And it served every citizen and visitor to the city of Portland. And he did it with tenacity. He did it with grace. And he did it in a manner where nothing was impossible. And he did that for 40 years. And the changes that Ben saw to many would have been unsurmountable, the technology changes. But he did that. And he went, you know, when Ben started, there was no cell phone. There was no email. There was none of that. None. And Ben saw the transition of that. And he was a very, very important part of the city making that happen and doing what had to be done. And he was on the very edge of some of that technology that it came. It gives me great pleasure to honor Ben. And he has been a very loyal and steadfast worker for the city. And I wish him all the best in his retirement. And I thank you very much. It's on call for us to say a few words. But I've been privileged to work here with a lot of talented people. I think what the mayor alluded to saying was the talent is right here in front of us. What makes the city great. It's your love, your compassion to each other, the work you do, the vision you share. For all of us, I've seen it come. And I've seen it work out through. It's been a pleasure working with all of you. Take care. Next, I have Marie Davis. It's Marie here. We're not going to make remarks about Marie because we don't want to embarrass her, but we just want to say thank you so much for your service and a big round of applause for her years of service. Forty years. Thank you, Marie. Before we move to the next part of our program, I want to recognize Councillor Cheryl Lehman who has joined us. She's sitting over there. And as you know, there'll be a change in that district soon. So this is also an opportunity for everyone to give her another big round of applause and to say thank you so much for your years of service. All right. Now, the Robert B. Ganley Public Service Award. Can I have my drum roll again, please? Thank you. As many of you know, Bob Ganley passed away in December of 2000. He had served as city manager for 14-plus years. This award is presented annually to an employee of the City of Portland who exemplifies the dedication, knowledge, and passion for municipal public service, which characterized former city manager Robert B. Ganley's life. This will be the 13th winner of this service award. The first award winner was in 2002. This award is to recognize an employee whose works for the citizens of Portland demonstrates over a period of years characteristics such as efficient and economical use of city resources, mastery of skills and judgment required for successful performance of their duties, commitment to share knowledge and skills with co-workers, freely committed themselves, a real concern to improve the common good, respond genuinely to concerns of individual citizens, to be attentive, to voices not usually heard, and generally adheres to Bob Ganley's maxim that good public service is recognized by the substance of the performance, not by the style in which it is carried out. A selection committee comprised of previous award recipients, namely Mary McCarthy, 2011, Kevin Haley, 2010, Mark Spiller, 2009, Paul Bradbury, 2008, Kathy Alvis, 2006, Rick Nolan, 2004, and Julie Glass-Suck, 2002, Human Resources staff, Tom Chiazzo, Carlene Kessler and Janice Kimball, and Jessica Grondin had the difficult task of choosing this year's recipient. They tell me that we received 10 nominations for the 2014 award and that they were all very deserving. So at this time, I would like to announce the 2014 Robert B. Ganley Public Service Award winner is David Caldwell. David is a recreation supervisor and he has been here for 33 years. His commitment to the youth and families in Portland is unmatched. He has run two basketball leagues for over a decade with more than 400 kids each year. He has started numerous other leagues and activities for all ages and embodies recreation as his very being. He is a true recreation ambassador for the city. He oversees five community centers and I'm told that there is nothing he won't do to make an event or a program successful. On top of that, he's patient, kind, compassionate, and idealistic. These are nice things your coworkers said about you. He never says no, customers love him and they stop by just to say hi and his coworkers consider him their go-to guy. I want to say congratulations to David. This year's Robert Ganley Service Award recipient. David will receive the award, a $250 gift card to Sunday River, and a week off with pay. I think this would be a good time for a standing ovation. I think given the remarks I saw about David, I think we stand up, do it again. Well, thank you. First, I'll say it's pretty overwhelming when I found out a week ago. My boss, Sally DeLuca, who can't be here, where she was here, she's at a national conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. So she pulls us into our regular Wednesday staff meet a little early. So we're thinking when Sally comes to our site leader meetings, it's got to be a budget thing. You know, we got to back off. We got to do something. So she, you know, I was kind of, I was actually on time for the meeting. So she dropped that bomb instantly and it was like, what? And so I'm honored. Congratulations to all the other nominees and all the past winners. It's, as they say, it's awesome. And I'm still in shock that I received it. But having said that, I guess I do meet a lot of the criteria. Haven't ever really read it until I won it and went online and do it. So Bob and I have a couple of things in common. I live in South Portland, grew up there. Big football fan of red riots, although I do pull for the Bulldogs in the Rams since a lot of kids have gone through our programs. And I actually know more kids over here than over on the other side of the bridge now. But Bob, as you know, is a big football fan. And I forgot what year it was when his son Bob Jr. was playing. A lot of you have been around. He had public service trucks. It was a huge storm for a big playoff game. And we made sure the George Martin field was cleared off for that game. That was postponed from a Saturday. So I always kind of like got a kick out of that and said, yes, we collaborated. But it's just been a quick 33 years You know, it's not always fun. You think recreation is fun, but there's a lot of things that don't go our way. A lot of ideas we try. A lot of ideas that we do that take off and are great. But mainly it's all the collaboration, all the young kids. The best part of my job is seeing somebody come up to me who I have no idea who they are because when I knew them, they were like that. But now they're parents and they're in our programs, my volunteer coaches. And I got to mention the great staff we have at recreation. Most of us are pretty introverted, believe it or not, even though we're out in the public. We're just, you know, doing our daily job, doing a good thing for the community. You know, we do it quietly. We don't seek recognition, but this is really unbelievable that I'm recognized. I feel it's more of a team award if it's kind of cliche-ish, but it really is. We do a lot out there in the community and thanks again. It's unbelievable. My family members are here. Some of them. I have a huge family. Unfortunately, my two sons, a grown son, they live out of state. I wish they could have been here, but they grew up during my era, working nights, so I sacrificed. But at the same time, my job was, my bosses were really understanding and allowed us to get involved with our family, you know, when we needed, as far as coaching, education, whatever, so I appreciate that. But my wife, Joni, escaped from Reiki School for a few minutes to be here. My brother, Mark, who he knows some of the folks in this room, my sister, Kathy, and my sister, Carol, who's here and my brother-in-law, Norman, who worked for the city public services years ago. Anyway, thanks. Oh, and my little cousin, Will. Well, that's the end of our program. I want to thank everyone for coming and all the honorees. Again, thank you for your continued years of service. I want to let you know that we will be posting these pictures and videos of this event on the Intranet, and enjoy the rest of your afternoon and weekend. Thank you very much.