This is my final installment in my second annual Excellence Behind The Scenes blog series profiling City employees whose excellence work you, as a member of the general public, will likely never come across directly because the work is performed Behind The Scenes and used by other more visible City employees to provide you the excellent City services you’ve grown accustomed to receiving (orhearing about) from the City of Eden Prairie. The fact is, without these employees doing their excellent work Behind The Scenes, our City services would not be as strong as they are and our overall quality of life would not be as good as it is in Eden Prairie.
The five people I have profiled this week are representative of many others who also perform excellent work behind the scenes. The five people I’ve profiled this week want you to know that they are part of strong work teams. They are committed to their teams and want recognition for them as well. One of the things I have learned from visiting with these folks is that most of them like working Behind The Scenes. They all feel just a little uncomfortable in the bright light of public recognition. Today’s recognizee (if that’s a word), Sandy Mitchell, is one of those people, so I’ll try to tone it down just a bit to make her feel a little more comfortable.
That’s Sandy above. Whenever I see her, she is smiling. Sandy is the Records Supervisor in the Police Department. She supervises a staff of seven full time employees in the Police Records Division and also the Police Department’s front reception desk functions. Sandy started working for the City in 1984. She has four children (Jeff, Jenny, Matt, and Karen) and four grandchildren, plus one new grandchild who will be delivered any day now. Sandy started working for the Police Department as the Nighttime Records Technician working from 5pm-2am five nights a week. She told me she loved the hours because it allowed her to be a Mom during the day and a Career Woman in the evening. But a couple of years of those hours were hard on her family, so she took a records position in the department with daytime hours and has worked days ever since.
In Sandy’s current job she must work closely with Police Officers and her staff to make sure that police reports are transcribed and recorded correctly; that the records management system coordinates well with the City’s overall IT system; and that records, evidence and other information is ready when its needed by the City Attorney’s Office for Court proceedings. Like I said in my Excellence Behind The Scenes posting about Julie Bergstrom earlier this week, Sandy’s job is in a very important spot between the Police and the Courts. They both depend on her and her staff to enable them to put the bad guys in jail, and to provide justice to the victims of crime.
Sandy has worked for all four Chiefs of Police that Eden Prairie has ever had. She says that while they’ve all been quite different in their personalities, the basic core values of the department are the same now as they were when she started 22 years ago: pay attention to the needs of Eden Prairie citizens and always remember that we’re here to serve them, not the other way around. Sandy tells me that management in the Police Department have always supported her work and have done what’s right for the citizens and the employees in the Police Department.
When I asked Sandy what her biggest challenges were in her job she said one thing: Keeping up. Keeping up with technology and keeping up with the work load. Both are on the increase these days. When I asked her what she liked best about her job her answer was also just as brief: the people. She said the Police Department has always been a great place to work, which means that it has been a very stable environment. To Sandy, this has meant that you can get attached to people and grow close relationships, like a second family.
Sandy sets a great example for not only her own staff, but for everyone here in City government, about her dedication to her job and her co-workers. She does great work Behind The Scenes. It’s right where she wants to be.
