This morning during a special employee recognition ceremony at City Hall, Mayor G.T. Bynum presented the City Star Award of Safety Excellence and the Michael P. Kier Tulsa Blue Award to several City of Tulsa employees.
“I am honored to recognize these employees for their hard work, dedication and commitment to the City of Tulsa,” said Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum. “Felix, Kaiden and Bill all showed an exceptional commitment to safety and service to others that deserves to be recognized. Both Brooke and Tony have gone above and beyond in their roles and the outcomes have been invaluable to the City. I have always said that City of Tulsa employees are the best public servants in the nation and these employees prove just that.”
About Felix Solorzano - City Star Award
Felix, as a member of the Water and Sewer Department, was able to react quickly to an emergency and help prevent any further harm or damage. While heading to a job, Felix saw the aftermath of a bad car accident with an injured citizen laying in the street. Instead of driving by, Felix turned the strobes of his City truck on and was able to divert traffic away from the injured citizen in until emergency crews arrived and were able to take over.
About Kaiden Taylor and Bill Mefford - City Star Award
Kaiden and Bill, as members of the Water and Sewer Department, were recognized for their heroic action and situational awareness. They went into a neighborhood to turn a water valve back on where they then found an elderly gentleman laying in the driveway. After speaking with the man, they made the decision to call the police to come check on him. They were able to get him some Gatorade and help him sit up until EMSA was able to take him to the hospital.
About Brooke Caviness - Michael P. Kier Tulsa Blue Award
Brooke has gone above and beyond in her responsibilities and goals that have been assigned to her since her promotion in 2023 to Design Engineering Manager in the Water & Sewer Department. Brooke and her team in Stormwater Design were tasked with advertising for bids on 10 capital improvement projects for a total encumbrance of $6.9 million in the 2023-24 fiscal year. She was able to work on this goal while simultaneously working on many other responsibilities including fielding numerous 311 calls, managing Master Drainage Plans, putting together the 5-year CIP, preparing Flood Zone Determinations, and ensuring commercial customers were being billed correctly through numerous field surveys. Brooke and her staff exceeded first-year expectations by completing designs and advertising for bids of 11 projects for a total encumbrance of $15M in addition to successfully managing all other roles and responsibilities. She also managed the complex construction of the Zink Dam and Zink Lake herself while missing approximately 22% of her staff most of the year due to promotions and vacancies. She invested countless nights and weekends on managing the Zink Dam and Zink Lake project to successfully open on Labor Day Weekend, which has been more than a decade long journey for Brooke as she was also instrumental in the success of the related Gathering Place design and construction by managing the public works components and grant administration as well.
About Tony Glynn - Michael P. Kier Tulsa Blue Award
Tony Glynn of the Water & Sewer Department has gone above and beyond in helping to complete designs and achieve number Utility Conflict clearances. Tony uses his organization and interpersonal skills to make the utility relocation process as efficient as possible and is always willing to work with design teams to find an agreeable resolution to utility conflicts. He has developed strong relationships based on trust with the private utilities and these relationships create a sense of partnership, making the private utilities more open to reconsider options when looking for ways to avoid relocations, ultimately reducing capital delivery times and helping to minimize expenses for both utility companies and the City of Tulsa. Since Tony’s arrival to the Capital Improvement Utility Relocation group in 2019, the group will surpass one billion dollars in cleared projects. Tony and his team have allowed the City of Tulsa to advertise for bids of 56 projects for over $156 million of capital improvements during the 2023-24 fiscal year which is two times the workload of an average year for Water & Sewer capital improvements. Over $33 million of this work was helping accelerate the advertising for bids for two ARPA funded projects on very tight timelines.
About City Star
City Star is a City of Tulsa safety awards and recognition program that recognizes employees for their tireless efforts to improve safety culture at the City of Tulsa.
About Michael P. Kier Tulsa Blue Award for Public Service Excellence
Tulsa Blue is an employee recognition program that honors City of Tulsa employees who go above and beyond the execution of their duties in serving their coworkers and Tulsa citizens. The award is named after longtime City of Tulsa employee Michael P. Kier. Tulsans are encouraged to nominate an exceptional City of Tulsa employees online.
Residents can fill out the online form, including a brief description of why a City employee should be selected as a Tulsa Blue recipient, and submit it.
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