Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Michael P. Callagy, County Executive
Subject: Employee of the Month for March 2024
RECOMMENDATION:
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Honor Darrell Cullen as Employee of the Month for March 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 March 2024 is Darrell Cullen is an Environmental Health Specialist IV in Health.
DISCUSSION:
Darrell has been working for the County for 18 years. Throughout his career, Darrell's forward-looking and positive attitude has supported the Environmental Health Division in critical activities. He has worked in Household Hazardous Waste, Hazardous Materials, and Medical Waste programs. Most recently, Darrell took on the lead of the division's Body Art program and supported the initial approval of two industry sponsored stewardship plans in the new Safe Medicine Disposal Programs. Darrell is very passionate about educating the community and guiding his coworkers on programmatic aspects. Recently he organized training for representatives of regulated sites on medical waste regulations, and he presented at a statewide conference. He has played a critical role motivating, guiding and supporting his team on the transition to a new platform.
Additionally, after volunteering for extended deployments to Butte and Sonoma counties to assist after wildfires, Darrell led the effort within Environmental Health Services to establish an emergency preparedness program. This included internal training and the development of a Disaster Assessment and Response Team to respond to disasters from an environmental health perspective.
This positioned San Mateo County well to deal with impacts of the CZU Fire supporting initial Damage Assessment, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Household Hazardous Waste Cleanup, and CalRecycle's Debris Removal. Darrell also helped guide the team to revise and expand protocols to handle the demand for large numbers of needed fit testing of various masks for Health during the pandemic.
Our County is fortunate to have Darrell Cullen as an outstanding employee.