Tim Corcoran                                             
Public Works, Fleet Management

In addition to Tim's regular duties in construction and regulation compliance for Fleet Management, Tim was responsible for coordinating the move of the Fleet Management office from Decatur to the Central Park Campus. This was a very complicated move due to the unique needs of Fleet Management. Tim oversaw the inventory and equipment transfers to the new location. He also made sure that the new building was functional for every aspect of Fleet Management prior to the move. Tim spent countless hours working with engineers, designers, planners and contractors to ensure that the building met the high standards needed to support Fleet operations. The new building is energy efficient, runs on energy produced by solar panels, and is equipped to use state of the art technology.

Barbara Galaviz-Duarte                           
Environmental Heath, Animal Control

Barbara has coordinated over forty outreach events for the Municipal Animal Shelter. She regularly takes on extra work to help plan promote animal adoptions and vaccination clinics. She takes the time to document the personality of every animal brought to the shelter to ensure that adoptions are a good match for the animal and the people adopting them. She was responsible for the most successful adoption campaigns that the center has had, including the "Meet Your Match" Valentine's Day event, and the Halloween segments on Channel 9. Her creativity, energy and compassion for both people and animals makes her an inspiration to everyone at the shelter.

Mark Guerrero                                            
Public Works

Mark went above and beyond last year by taking on over fifteen additional projects for Theaters and Arenas, the Denver Art Museum and the Denver Police Department. Mark took over these projects, which were in different phases of developments, to ensure that resources were not wasted by project delays. With the emergency roof repair project at Boettcher Concert Hall Mark even used his skills as a licensed architect and LEED certification to create the construction bid documents himself, saving the City both time and money. He helped these projects move forward though his exceptional organizational abilities, and knowledge of CCD construction practices. In addition, he made sure that each of these projects were meeting the Greenprint standards and used innovative sustainable processes to achieve the City's environmental goals. 

Cynthia Morrissey

Economic Development

Not only is Cindy and expert at the rules and regulations surrounding the state of Colorado's Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) regulations, and the corresponding benefits management system, she's enthusiastic about sharing her knowledge with co-workers. In addition to providing great service to the City's TANF customers, Cindy routinely takes on the job of interpreting frequently changing and complicated TANF rules and updates policies and procedures accordingly. She educates both DHS and OED staff and even holds open office hours so that individuals can come in for help with specific issues. Because Cindy is willing to take on the extremely difficult cases, more people understand the benefits that they are eligible for, and get the benefits that they need. Because of Cindy's contributions, DHS has been able to make significant headway in their case backlog.                      

Roberta Munoz                                          
County Court

Roberta brings new meaning to the concept of doing more with less. Traffic in the County Court Parking Magistrate's Office increased by over 20% in 2010. The passing of Initiative 100 (regarding vehicles operated by those without a valid driver's license), the increase in vehicle licensing violation fees and a shortage of staff could have created a perfect storm if not for Roberta's leadership abilities. Roberta's team took on nearly half of the Bond required/Bond forfeiture hearings in addition to the increased vehicle impoundment hearings. Roberta nimbly navigated through City processes to add two more Parking Magistrates, and fairly distributed the additional work among her staff to avoid potentially difficult situations and frustrated customers.

Kelan Pape                                                 
Denver International Airport

Kelan's work has set up DIA's Technology organization to be able to tackle work, instead of just putting out fires. Kelan formalized the project process by designing an agency wide program approach for technology projects at DIA. He met with various stakeholders to incorporate their business needs and solicited support for the new process. The DIA technology project portfolio used to be made up of hundreds of disjointed projects with no strategy in place to coordinate work and resources. By putting a balanced, methodical, repeatable process in place, Kelan condensed projects, lifted employee morale and improved the organizations level of customer service. Kelan accomplished this daunting task in addition to doing project work on the new South Terminal.

John Smithwick                                         
Denver International Airport

John has created a workplace environment that exemplifies the S.T.A.R.S values. He believes that input from all employees is vital and rewards teamwork. John is responsible for the increased use of Personal Protection Equipment by employees, and has improved the inspections process at terminals - making them safer for both employees and passengers. He has trained his teams to continually look for opportunities for improvements in the areas of customer service, safety, cost reduction and cost avoidance. His innovative conservation programs, such as a stanchion repair and electronic forms, have saved much needed resources. In addition, his improved inspection processes and reporting tools have increased efficiency, introduced accountability and boosted employee morale.

Christian Williss                                         
General Services

Christian developed and implemented a process to ensure that Xcel rebates are actively pursued for capital maintenance and bond related improvement projects. Because of his efforts, Xcel rebates have doubled every year for the past two years, and are expected to double again for 2011. In 2010 alone, the City received more than $110,000 in energy rebates due to his efforts. Christian has excelled at coordinating the various agencies that manage sustainability-related work. He ensures that the rebates tied to sustainable construction projects are leveraged against other funds across departments. His management of the sustainability budget appropriation process has improved the coordination between City departments and the cultural facility partners. Because of Christian's work, the City and County of Denver will be able to further invest in energy reduction and improved working conditions at City facilities.

Team Award Winners

Child Welfare Intake Supervisors          
Human Services

In 2010, the Child Welfare Intake supervisors reviewed more that 9,500 reports of child abuse or neglect. To better deal with the issues, they successfully implemented a team decision making model for casework intake and have made great strides to ensure accountability for their work. They consistently and thoughtfully apply rules and policies for the benefit of children and families. Child safety is always their number one priority and they continually find solutions to the complicated issues surrounding child abuse and neglect. Despite the often unpleasant subject matter that they work in, they are calm and treat both their employees and their customers with dignity and respect. They often partner with school staff, medical professionals and law enforcement to protect children and families.

Court to Community Program                  
Various Agencies

The Court to Community Program was created to reduce the incarceration and re-arrest rates of defendants with mental illness. It is their goal to stop the revolving door of arrest and release by giving mentally ill offenders access to psychiatric screening and referral to treatment as part of a court supervised program. This collaborative effort between government and non-government stakeholders reduced the arrest rate of graduates by 91% in 2010. In addition, 89% of graduates stayed connected with treatment and 80% did not reoffend. Over 50% have obtained stable housing and many more have obtained training, employment and social security benefits.

DECC - Safety Team                                 
Safety

The volunteers who worked on the 2010 Department of Safety Denver Employees Combined Campaign (DECC) did an exception job. The went above and beyond by making contact at every Safety, Police, Fire and Sheriff locations and held multiple money raising events. They were creative and enthusiastic about raising money and held various kick-off events, games and even a chili cook-off. The Safety DECC team alone raised 20% of the total funds pledged to the campaign - that's over $88,000. This was an increase of over $13,000 from the prior year. Their efforts were even more appreciated because of tough economic times. Non-profits are faced with an increasing need for services, and compromised resources.

Denver Solid Waste Management         
Public Works, Solid Waste

Solid Waste Management seized an opportunity to achieve cost savings and create inter-governmental cooperation by winning a bid to provide trash and recycling services to hundreds of Denver Public Schools. DPS estimates that the program will save them $900,000 over a three year period. The program also provides DPS students a way to recycle consistently, across school districts. The SWM staff developed a recycling education program for the schools and spread their message to more than 50,000 students by attending various school events. They are now providing trash collection to 127 schools, and recycling to 121 schools. By coupling the timing of the pick ups with regular residential recycling, they increased the programs efficiency. They even gave students a chance to sign up for recycling at their home, which increased residential recycling and built the foundation for life-long recyclers.

Project Coordination                                
Development Services

The Development Services Project Coordination Team provides a single point of entry and a single point of contact for major construction projects. This has significantly improved the customer service level delivered to the development community as it guides them through the regulatory and permitting requirements in a consistent and streamlined fashion. Team members are involved with projects from beginning to end, including mediating conflicts that might arise due to conflicting requirements. These services coupled with the teams Electronic Plan Review and Payment system reduces turn around time and provides cost savings to developers.

Honorable Mentions

Central Platte Campus Redevelopment

Various Agencies                                        

Park Rangers                                             

Parks and Recreation                                 

David Herrera                                             

General Services