Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Michael P. Callagy, County Executive
Subject: Employee of the Month for December 2024
RECOMMENDATION:
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Honor Gina Russell as Employee of the Month for December 2024 and authorize the President of the Board to sign the commendation.
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BACKGROUND:
The Employee of the Month program was established in December 1984 to recognize and honor County employees who consistently demonstrate an outstanding level of performance.
Our Employee of the Month for December 2024 is Gina Russell a Housing/Community Development Specialist III in the Department of Housing.
DISCUSSION:
Gina joined the Department of Housing in 2019. Recently Gina, led an 18-month project to create a dynamic set of department-level policies, procedures, toolkits, and workflows. In addition, she implemented a training plan for all staff and included a process for maintaining the materials up-to-date. These materials have already enabled the Department to successfully pass four federal or state audits; have increased compliance with labor standard requirements for federally-funded projects; and have streamlined, automated and/or re-conceived of how the Department approaches key workflows. Collectively, these tools will accelerate the on-boarding of new staff, increase the consistency and quality of work by all staff, and decrease financial / reputation risks to the County caused by preventable mistakes and lack of adherence to critical local, state, and/or federal requirements.
This effort is of great importance to the Department of Housing. Recent audits of federal and state funding programs have highlighted the need to have comprehensive and current policies and procedures in place. The Department's policies and procedures documents had aged beyond their useful life and Gina's spearheading of the effort has resulted in a highly useful set of documents and training materials that should serve the Department well for the next few years and is adaptable enough to allow for tweaks as the regulatory environment goes through periodic changes. Gina's efforts have been of great service to the Department and the County.
Our County is fortunate to have Gina Russell as an outstanding employee.