City of Monterey | Public Works Belt Buckle Awards 2007, cont.

Public Works Employees of the Year for 2007

The following staff have been recognized by the Public Works Department for their outstanding contributions. They are all an asset to the Public Works Department and excellent representatives for our City. Congratulations!

Butch Maloney, Building Inspector, Building Safety Division
Butch has worked for the City for over 20 years. In those 20 plus years, he has conducted over 25,000 building inspections. His knowledge of code and his ability to uniformly enforce the code, interpret the code and his ability to enforce these requirements in a fair and impartial manner can stand up to any building inspector statewide. He is dedicated to his job and can be trusted with the most complex building inspections. Above all, his high level of integrity and honesty make him an excellent building inspector and a great example to us all.
Toni McDaniel, Administrative Assistant, Finance Department
Toni is an exceptional employee who is always willing to help support our mission. She does this in a quiet and reliable way. We always receive fast, responsive service that assists our crews in delivering services to our City. There are so many other impressive things to mention about her, like her volunteer work during beach clean-up day. She is so deserving of this award that we have decided to overlook the fact that she works in the Finance Department.
Mr. Bob Sechrist, Automotive Mechanic, Vehicle Maintenance Division
Throughout the year, Bob has shown everyone how to stay productive and proactive during times of constant change. Even though it was not his specific responsibility he guided the new employees and worked tirelessly to ensure that the City did not fall behind in vehicle service. His actions motivated others to do the same. Without his dedication, leadership and positive outlook Mechanical would have been in difficult times.
Chris Singh, Street Maintenance Supervisor, Streets Division
Chris’ planning and organization of the Streets Division’s safety program is commendable. It shows how much he cares both about the work of the Streets Division and his fellow workers. He always requires a quality product, both as a supervisor and as an equipment operator. His sense of humor makes work easier for all those around him. He is one our best equipment operators, if not the best. His positive attitude contributes to the morale of the Division.
Al Weisfuss, Arborist, Forestry Division
This year Al learned a great deal about the computerized tree inventory and made numerous modifications to the inventory to bring it up to date. On his own time, he contributes many hours to the Boy Scouts program; this benefits the City and our children. He has coordinated several scout projects for the betterment of our parks and greenbelts. His enthusiasm and professionalism are a great example to the Boy Scouts and his fellow employees.
Mr. John Kuehl, Building Official, Building &Safety Division
After the fire on Alvarado Street, he posted all buildings that were considered unsafe and closed that block of Alvarado to car traffic. After receiving an engineering report, he sent out a notice to de-construct the building under the supervision of an engineer. Following review of the de-construction plans from the engineer, he cleared the site for Fire investigation and completed the investigation. Following tenant content removal, asbestos abatement of the second floor started and the second floor concrete walls were cut into sections and removed. At that time, one lane of Alvarado Street was opened for car traffic. When asbestos abatement was completed on the entire building, the remaining exterior walls were removed, and Alvarado Street was reopened for both lanes, including the sidewalk. In accomplishing this work, he worked with the owner, owners’ representative, fire investigators, de-construction engineers, asbestos consultants, asbestos abatement contractors, building owner contractor, demolition contractor, Monterey Bay Air Pollution Control District, television news and newspaper reporters, and City staff to coordinate the various steps to de-construct this building. Under his leadership, City Staff worked very hard to act as a team to complete this project. We can gladly state that other than a minor firefighter injury, we did not have any injuries or loss of property other than which was a direct result of the fire. John was contacted by an attorney from Chicago who asked how the City Of Monterey handled this de-construction. He was representing a client’s building that was destroyed after a fire to a neighboring building. The City Of Chicago had demanded the fire-damaged building be demolished immediately. The demo contractor took down the wrong wall first, bb which caused the fire-damaged building to collapse into his clients building and destroy it. Because of John’s careful approach, this did not happen in Monterey. Thank you for a job well done. We know of no other Building Official who could have handled this situation better than he did.

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