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HomeMy WebLinkAboutIQS Leadership Awards release City of Edina 4801 W. 50th St. Edina, MN 55424 Contact: Debbie Townsend, Communications Assistant Phone 952-826-0396 dtownsend@EdinaMN.gov EdinaMN.gov FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2017 Leadership Awards Honor Three City Employees Edina, Minn., Nov. 1, 2017 –Three employees whose work exemplifies the City of Edina’s values of Integrity, Quality and Service have been honored with 2017 Leadership Awards. Assistant City Manager Lisa Schaefer announced the winners of the prestigious annual awards during Employee Appreciation Luncheons on Thursday, Oct. 26. Nominations for the award come from City staff and selected by City Manager Scott Neal and Schaefer. This year’s winners are Executive Assistant Sharon Allison for Integrity, Building Inspector Jim Hall for Quality and Benefits Specialist Cassi McMayer for Service. While working as an Engineering Specialist in Engineering, Allison noticed that some corner lots were being assessed more depending on the time that streets were reconstructed. “She realized the process was not treating people in a fair and equitable way,” Schaefer said. Allison not only discovered the problem; she suggested a solution that led to a change in assessment policy to treat corner lots the same. “It was a great surprise and a great honor to receive the Integrity award,” Allison said. Allison recently was promoted to Executive Assistant in Administration and will be studying to become a City Clerk. Fire Chief Tom Schmitz nominated Hall for the Leadership Award for Quality for championing the development and implementation of the City’s electronic plan review program. Edina is a pioneer in switching to all electronic plans instead of reams of paperwork going back and forth on every project. “From the very beginning, his dedication and hard work has ensured its success,” Schmitz wrote in his nomination of Hall. Schaefer, in announcing the award, said, “It is through Jim's focused attention and dedicated service that we have a program that is looked upon by other cities and State agencies in Minnesota as a shining example of success.” City of Edina 4801 W. 50th St. Edina, MN 55424 Hall said the award belonged to the team behind the project. He credited former Building Inspector Greg Bomsta and current I.T. Specialist Katie Bisek with being integral to the project’s success. “It really was a collaborative process,” Hall said. McMayer was honored for her work tracking the ever-changing health care rules, her sensitive handling of employees who needed benefit advice and help in complex, difficult situations and her development of a program to better educate employees on how to best use their health care. McMayer conducted a series of short sessions on health care benefits, including how to use online tools and how to decide which way of accessing care is the best and most cost-effective for the employee or their family members. “The biggest struggle is that health care is so complicated that you want to make it as clear as you can for the employee,” McMayer said. “You want to make it important to them and you want to make it applicable to their lives.” For more information about the IQS Leadership Awards, contact Schaefer at 952-826-0364. -30-