COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

County Manager’s Office

DATE:

October 6, 2006

BOARD MEETING DATE:

October 24, 2006

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

None

VOTE REQUIRED:

Majority

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

John Maltbie, County Manager

SUBJECT:

Employee of the Month for October 2006

RECOMMENDATION

Honor Julie Goebel as Employee of the Month for October 2006, and authorize the President of the Board to sign the commendation.

VISION ALIGNMENT:

Commitment: Responsive, effective and collaborative government.

Goal 21: County employees understand, support and integrate the County vision and goals into their delivery of services.

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 October 2006, is Julie Goebel, an Information Technology Technician in the Human Resources Department.

DISCUSSION

Julie Goebel exemplifies the values of innovation, teamwork and personal accountability. Julie has a passion for public service and, during her five (5) years with the County, has consistently produced work of the highest quality within demanding timeframes. Julie designs and produces all of the amazing flyers and brochures for recruitments including the extensive brochures for Executive recruitments. Julie also developed and maintains the HR Website which has been consistently recognized for its excellence and accessibility.

In addition to performing all of her usual duties, Julie also recently served as the Office Services Supervisor during the leave of absence of the regular supervisor. During her six-month tenure as supervisor, Julie demonstrated leadership skills in the areas of staff development, decision-making and teambuilding. In addition, she demonstrated initiative and creativity through the various process improvements she recommended, presented and implemented.

Julie regularly responds to questions from applicants and other public sector jurisdictions. Although many of the inquiries do not fall within her normal job duties, Julie always researches the question and responds accurately, promptly and professionally. For example, Julie recently received an email from an applicant asking why the County’s employment application included social security information. Julie researched this matter and responded to the inquiry in a reassuring and diplomatic manner – explaining how the information is used and what measures we take to ensure privacy. Julie’s approach turned a potentially negative interaction into a very positive one.

Julie consistently looks for ways to improve work processes in an effort to eliminate duplication and/or provide better customer service. A few examples are:

1)

revamping the lobby bulletin board to improve the content and appearance,

2)

automating the distribution of recruitment materials to save time and supplies, and

3)

recommending the elimination of hard-copy job specifications which are available electronically to free up filing space and save time.

In addition to her demanding workload producing recruitment materials for the Personnel Analysts, Julie provides Graphics Services to other County organizations such as the Board of Supervisors, County Manager’s Office, and Housing Department and Probation Department. Recent examples include work associated with the County’s Disaster Preparedness Day and the opening of the Youth Services Center. For this year’s Charitable Contribution Campaign, Julie developed a web page and automated forms which will save the campaign more than $10,000 in printing costs.

Our County is fortunate to have Julie Goebel as one of its outstanding employees.