City and County of Honolulu News Releases

You are here:  Main / Customer Services / Public Communications Division / 2011 / 05/10/11 City Honors Employee and Manager of the Year

CITY HONORS EMPLOYEE AND MANAGER OF THE YEAR     (Mon., May 9, 2011)—The City and County of Honolulu recognized a refuse worker with a perfect three-year attendance record as its Employee of the Year and the GIS (Geographic Information System) administrator, whose accomplishments saved thousands of staff hours, as its Manager of the Year.  Both employees were named in a ceremony on May 5 at the Mission Memorial Auditorium recognizing the City's top employees.               "We commend these individuals for managing their program areas with tremendous diligence and dedication," said City Managing Director Douglas Chin.  "Each of them has earned this special recognition for delivering visible results that affected many employees and the general public."               Lindsey C. Todd, Department of Environmental Services Refuse Collection Crew Leader, the 2010 City Employee of the Year is an outstanding individual.  He is a model employee who provides exceptional service, confirmed by the absence of complaints from refuse customers.  His positive work attitude, thorough job performance and dependability earned him praise from supervisors.  His dependability, reflected in his perfect attendance for the past three years, is particularly important for residential refuse collection.               Kenneth D. Schmidt, Department of Planning and Permitting GIS Administrator, the 2010 City Manager of the Year, has many accomplishments including savings in staff time, assisting emergency responders, and increasing customer service.  The GIS system saves 24,000 staff hours per year and gets 18 million hits per year. He has demonstrated, even during budget cutbacks, how significant improvements for the City and the public can be made by efficiently leveraging technology.  He was featured in an international publication as a "GIS Hero" and mainland jurisdictions, hoping to replicate his successes, have contacted him for advice.   Also honored were 20 departmental Employees of the Year (including Mr. Todd), and six finalists for Manager of the Year (including Mr. Schmidt).  Managing Director Chin also presented the Outstanding City Attorney Award to Richard D. Lewallen.               Serving on the Mayor's 2010 Outstanding Employees Selection Committee were: Dawn O'Brien, Morning Show Disc Jockey at the FISH 95.5 FM; Son-Jai Paik, Vice President of Human Resources, Alexander & Baldwin, Inc.; and Pamela Young, News Anchor at KITV 4 News.   -30-   Contact:  Jody Serikawa, Department of Human Resources at 768-8538.