Jefferson Parish Employee Newsletter December 2020 Message from the Parish President. What a Year! I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your hard work and dedica- tion during an unprecedent- Volume 41 Number 45 ed year. December 2020 2020 has thrown a lot at us and our departments, and employees have pivoted to meet these challenges head- on. Our Emergency Man- agement team has been Cynthia Lee Sheng heavily involved in COVID Parish President testing at the Alario Center, with MoneyGram and members or our Library CheckFree and is piloting an staff have manned the automated meter reading sys- COVID call center, and our tem. Property Maintenance and Zoning/Quality of The Planning Department Life Department has is currently working on a helped with mask enforce- Green Infrastructure Plan to ment and education. help the Parish reduce our reliance on our drainage sys- COVID may have taken tem. a lot of our resources this year, but it hasn’t stopped CLICK HERE to learn more progress and innovation of what we accomplished as across our 43 departments. a team this past year. These are just a few exam- ples of ways that we inno- The feelings of pride that I vated despite the challenges have for the departments and we faced: employees that have worked so hard this year and faced what- In Transit, we’ve imple- ever challenges came their way mented more regional connec- cannot be overstated. You are tions for our buses and our most valuable asset. launched the Jefferson Transit Mobile App for real-time I want to wish everyone a tracking and scheduling. happy holidays and thank each of you from the bottom The Water Department of my heart for all you do for has expanded payment op- Jefferson Parish. tions with a partnership Page 1 Jefferson Parish Employee Newsletter December 2020 JeffTalk Editor’s Editor………….Nicole Thompson Managing Editor…...Greg Alexander Notes Departmental Reporters Alario Center Deirdre Cummings Introducing: Capital Projects Gary Lehman New HR Managers! Coastal Management Seamus Riley It is my pleasure to introduce Community Development to you our two new Human Re- Nicole Thompson, Editor Stephanie Brumfield source Managers, Adrienne Breaux and Paul Casadaban. My plan in this new role is to Drainage Sheena Quinn We are very glad to have these do effective and resourceful EIS Buddy Burkhamer two fine professionals as part of work, helping to reach the goals Emergency Management our team. of both my department and the Dorina Gauthreaux Parish” —Adrienne Breaux. Engineering Helen McGee Adrienne has been with Jef- Environmental Affairs ferson Parish for about six years. Paul comes to us most recent- Kathy Russo She started in the Library De- ly from Metairie Park Country Fleet Management partment as an Associate and Day School ,where he was the Di- Amy Truesdell later moved on to Personnel, rector of Human Resources. A Floodplain Management where she worked in Recruit- graduate of Louisiana State Uni- versity and Loyola Law School, Maggie Olivier ment for about five years. he has spent the majority of his General Services Adrienne’s educational back- ground includes a Bachelor’s career in the compliance and hu- Maryanne Adorno degree in Sociology and a Mas- man resources fields in govern- HR Management Glenn Schiro ter’s degree in Leadership and ment service on the state, local, Inspection & Code Enforcement Human Resource Development, and federal levels. Mary Ann Benitez both from LSU. JeffCAP Yvonne Dumas “I am excited to return to Juvenile Services Vicki Borja “I’m happy to now be in Hu- Jefferson Parish as I was previ- Library Irene Lunkin man Resource Management, ously a Special Agent with the LSU Ag Center Karen Jones learning more and being able Jefferson Parish Inspector Gen- Parks & Recreation to assist my fellow Parish em- eral’s Office.” —Paul Casa- Brianna Duronslet ployees in a different capacity. daban Parkways Karen Jackson Planning Nedra McKinney PMZ Rebecca Daisy Purchasing Mark Buttery Security A’delle Joseph Sewerage Venice Cooper Streets Kenya Johnson Traffic Engineering Brandy Stout Transit Connie Preston Water Alecia Washington Workforce Connection Carolyn Haynes Adrienne Breaux Paul Casadaban Page 2 Jefferson Parish Employee Newsletter December 2020 Fleet Management Urashia Brice was our Typist Juvenile Services By Clerk III for thirteen years; and By Amy Truesdell Administrative Assistant Yvette Vicki Borja Beter has been with Fleet for We have lots of news since the twenty-five years. We wish each It has sure been a busy hurri- October issue of JeffTalk, so let’s the best! Fleet will not be the cane season for Louisiana. On get to it. same without them. that note, we would like to take Typist Clerk II Joni Clement this time to thank Colleen George, Annual Inspections has accepted a promotion to Tion McGhee and Allan Kagan Our Director Randy Belanger Street Lighting. We will defi- for their service as Telephone Op- has been very busy for the last nitely miss her sunny personali- erators at the Emergency Opera- couple of weeks working with ty; we did gain Amy Ross as a tions Center in Gretna and Chris- CSF Inspectors for the annual in- Typist Clerk III, who accepted a topher Trosclair, who serves as spection of Jefferson Parish’s promotion from JeffCap to come the Operations Chief for Team-B. bucket trucks. The inspectors ex- to Fleet. amine all aspects of the truck such as the hydraulics, electric curren- Toys for Tots SERVICE PINS: cy, and safety features to ensure Fleet is once again collecting We would like to congratulate that our employees are always for Toys for Tots. Typist Clerk the following individuals on re- safe when using the bucket trucks. III Carla May has taken the reins ceiving their service pins: Randy wanted to mention that he and loves filling up the boxes for FIFTEEN YEARS: appreciates Traffic Engineering’s the kids on Christmas day. At Danielle Phillips roll in the inspection by coordinat- this time, we have two full boxes Allan Kagan ing the on-site inspections and and are shopping for bikes. Elydia Ketchens making the workflow smooth and efficient. All of the employees would TEN YEARS: like to extend our deepest sym- Patrick Brammell Retirements pathies to Carla, who lost her Charles Ward Fleet has had several long- husband Matt unexpectedly in time employees retire recently: September. We would like to FIVE YEARS: Jeffery Ferina was our Tire extend our prayers to you and Gail McWilliams Shop Forman for eleven years; your family. Antonio Condley Percy Hollins Melissa Riddick Eric Vicks EMPLOYEES OF THE MONTH: Congratulations to the follow- ing employees for their dedicated service and being selected Em- ployees of the Month. Keep up the good work! October 2020 Detention: Eric Grimes, Deten- tion Officer II Probation: Sheena Campbell, Pro- bation Officer II November 2020 Detention: April Guynn, Deten- tion Officer II Probation: Tim Ittenbach, Mainte- Fleet Management retirees Urashia Brice and Jeffrey Ferina nance Repairman Page 3 Jefferson Parish Employee Newsletter December 2020 NEW EMPLOYEES: Human Resources Best of luck to LaTanya and We would like to introduce By Alexis for their well-deserved new employee Kourtnie Baham, Glenn Schiro recognition of their contributions who was hired as Rivarde Mental to our HR team. Health Professional I. Welcome Welcome! to the department. We welcome Adrienne Breaux and Paul Casadaban PROMOTION: as our new Human Resource Congratulations to Eric Vicks, Managers. Adrienne worked in Personnel for five years before Lynn Shields and Kynan Davis coming to HR. Paul was HR Di- on their promotions to Detention rector at Metairie Park Country Home Supervisor, as well as Re- Day before joining our HR staff. ginald Francis on his promotion Learn more about Adrienne to Detention Officer II, and Ash- and Paul in the Editor’s column ley Zito on her promotion to In- on Page 2. LaTanya Tibbs stitutional Housekeeper. Congratulations! DEPARTURES/ We congratulate LaTanya RETIREMENT: Tibbs and Alexis Trosclair on Best of luck to Violet Troulliet, their recent promotions. LaTan- Detention Home Supervisor, and ya was promoted from Secretary, Patricia Barry, Typist Clerk III, a position she has had with HR who both retired, as well as Tyra since 2011, to Administrative Jones, Cook I, who left the de- Assistant. LaTanya has worked partment. for the Parish for thirteen years, Alexis Trosclair including employment with the BLOOD DRIVE: Library and JeffCAP. Good job, Greg DJS held onto the Bloodhound Alexis worked with General Training Specialist III Greg Award in the October blood drive Services and at Lafreniere Park Alexander handled phone calls with 27 attempts, and 22 success- before joining HR in 2019. She at the Emergency Operations Cen- ful collections. Thanks to every- was promoted from Typist Clerk ter (EOC) during Hurricane Zeta. one who attempted to donate! III to HR Specialist. During one of their shifts, Greg and the telephone workers were surprised by a visit from U.S. Sen- ator Bill Cassidy. Safety Safety Office Greg Reynolds completed a webinar on Novem- ber 10: Lessons from Covid 19. Greg, Safety Program Manager Wayne Jones, and Safety Of- ficer Peggy Branan viewed a webinar Using and Implementing online Safety Programs on Octo- ber 20. The webinar was spon- sored by Vector Solutions/Safety Health Magazine. Peggy has created a training video Traffic Control Devices and Telephone Operators at the EOC for Hurricane Zeta has just finished another program Left to Right: Julie Valence from Recreation, Greg Alexander from Human Pre-Trip Inspections, which co- Resources, Colleen Conley from Juvenile Services, Parish President Cynthia Lee vers the walk around inspection of Sheng, and Tion McGhee from Juvenile Services Parish vehicles.