Employee Awards - 2023

Administration | Tori Bellos

The Directors’ Award for Administration was presented to Tori Bellos, marketing specialist at Visit Boerne.

Tori continues to excel at building relationships outside of the walls of the City of Boerne workforce. For all intents and purposes, she has spearheaded the community’s “party” plan for the upcoming solar eclipse events. This person has overseen the outreach of groups and entities that plan to host special events.

She has also taken a large role in shepherding our new community calendar to improve our customer experience and streamline services. Tori collaborated with the departments of Library, Parks and Recreation, and Communications to help launch the new calendar. Now in phase two, she is single handedly helping get the community on board with submitting their events so that we have a true community calendar.

This award is given to an exemplary employee from the City Manager’s Office, the City Secretary’s Office, Human Resources, Communications, IT, and Visit Boerne.

Community Services | Bryan Parkman

The Directors’ Award for Community Services was presented to Bryan Parkman, Facilities Maintenance assistant supervisor.

Frequent positive feedback is received about Bryan’s work, which makes us proud. This individual’s calm demeanor, friendly approach, and respectful attitude toward everyone he interacts with are a testament to excellent customer service skills and level of respect. He has demonstrated a strong willingness to tackle new challenges and is well positioned to lead our department to greater heights if given the opportunity. Bryan recently took on the role of purchasing agent for the department and has quickly excelled in this position, greatly alleviating the workload and pressure on the team. This helps align us with our City strategy of financial stewardship and fiscal excellence.

Bryan’s inclination to seek assistance and work together with all departments and staff comes naturally. It's reassuring to observe his self-assurance and efficiency. He doesn’t shy away from any task, regardless of its complexity or simplicity. He often conducts research or uses trial and error to uncover solutions, which is beneficial in running our department at its best.

This award is given to an exemplary employee from Parks and Recreation, Facilities, Fleet, and Special Projects.

Library | Alicia Owens

The Directors’ Award for the Library was presented to Alicia Owens, technology services librarian at the Patrick Heath Public Library.

Alicia takes pride in her work and everything she does is to make the library better. She excels in all City values and is a highly respected member of the library team. She has a fantastic attitude and even if she is having a bad day, no one can tell. Alicia provides outstanding customer service to both external and internal customers. She is looked to by staff and patrons to help them with a variety of issues, and she is always respectful and gracious, even if she has explained the same topics multiple times.

When Alicia assists patrons of all ages and staff with technology issues, she approaches it with the heart of a teacher. She has the highest level of patience and calm when assisting anyone, even those that are the least technology literate. She can take complex topics and break them into manageable pieces that people can understand. An example of Alicia’s patience and kindness is how she transformed an angry, frustrated patron who had trouble with his technology into someone who now happily embraces it and meets each week for a special tech appointment.

She collaborates with all library staff when developing a training schedule for the year and works hard to train on topics that staff members find relevant and helpful when performing their jobs. She is always open to new projects and takes time to collaborate with other staff to make the right decisions and create the right processes for not only the public, but also the staff. All library employees think highly of Alicia and love working with her in all capacities.

This award is given to an exemplary employee from the Patrick Heath Public Library.

Police Department | Clay Norbery

The Directors’ Award for the Police Department was presented to Cpl. Det. Clay Norbery.

Clay is very productive and always exhibits commitment to the department. He recently decided to not transfer to the FBI Task Force because he believed that as a corporal over CID, he could directly train the new detectives and have a positive impact on this department, as well as the individual detectives. Clay makes it a point to jump in and help all the detectives with anything they need and is always available to assist them in any way necessary after hours. He has a strong bond with those he works with and has built trust with those he supervises.

Clay is always looking for new methods, training, and/or equipment to help assist the detectives in their investigations. This is a benefit to both the City of Boerne and the officers. He always arrives early and frequently takes on tasks that are not required as part of the job to make things easier for others. When a task needs to be completed, he will get it taken care of. He is self-governing and requires very little oversight.

On top of his normal duties, Clay is also the primary background investigator on newly hired officers. This requires a lot of meticulous work and over the last year he has even worked from home for multiple hours getting the investigations done.

Clay keeps his finger on the pulse of what is going on in the community so that we continue a collaborative working relationship with other community partners. He helps us elevate Boerne PD to another level.

This award is given to an exemplary employee from the Boerne Police Department’s divisions of Patrol, Investigations, School Resource Officers, Police Administration, Dispatch, and Animal Care Services.

Finance | Claudia Lemon

The Directors’ Award for Finance was presented to Claudia Lemon, court clerk at the Municipal Court.

Claudia is known across the state as a subject matter expert in their field of expertise. Her reputation is as one of the foremost court administrators in the state. When new laws come out, many of the municipal courts in the rest of the state look to her to prepare the new forms or write procedures that comply with the new statutes. It has been said that “if this is how Claudia is doing it, I know it’s right”.

She displays excellence in everything she does. With 20 years of tenure at the City, she is the highest ranking level of court administrator that can be achieved with both a Level 3 Certified Municipal Court Clerk designation, as well as a Certified Court Manager designation. Both certifications take many years to complete and are a testament to her dedication to excellence.

The court maintains an over 100% clearance rate on cases and a 136% clearance rate on warrants, which means Claudia runs extremely efficient and effective administration practices. Enough cannot be said about her leadership and her dedication to a best-in-class operation.

This award is given to an exemplary employee from Finance, the Municipal Court, and Customer Care and Billing.

Fire Department | Santiago Anaya

The Directors’ Award for the Fire Department was presented to Firefighter Santiago Anaya.

Santiago has exhibited selfless leadership while putting the City's core values at the forefront of everything he does with the department.

He has taken on many initiatives without being asked, including school supply drives and fire station core values initiatives. He has been moderator for department book clubs, is actively coordinating citywide Autism Awareness Month activities, and enrolling in a master's program to learn more about organizational leadership. Santiago’s forward momentum is something that every employee should strive for.

He consistently demonstrates hard work and dedication to not only the Boerne Fire Department, but to the City and the community as a whole.

This award is given to an exemplary employee from the Fire Department, Fire Administration, and the Fire Marshal’s Office.

Planning and Community Development

The Directors’ Award for Planning and Community Development was presented to Sean Skaggs, building inspector.

A key team member in the Permitting and Code Compliance Department, Sean has acted as the primary inspector for all building inspections for several months while helping a new building official and inspector get settled into their roles. He continually provides quality customer service as evidenced by his recent efforts to work with a commercial business that was nearing completion of their building. In working with the owner and other staff, an issue was brought to Sean’s attention that would have delayed the opening of the business. Although the issue was not related to the building code, Sean made sure it was brought to the appropriate people so that it could be addressed before it became a crisis.

Additionally, he has taken the initiative to track a key performance indicator for tracking the status of key commercial building permits and updates it on a regular basis. His honest feedback, attitude, and cooperation are invaluable. Sean consistently contributes to building interdepartmental relationships with a positive, upbeat attitude and is willing to assist any employee with a question or assignment. He is a true professional and key component to the department’s success.

This award is given to an exemplary employee from Planning and Permitting and Code Compliance.

Development Services | Rick Ortiz

The Directors’ Award for Development Services was presented to Rick Ortiz, Streets Department foreman.

Rick’s expertise with heavy equipment is excellent. He is the operator we turn to whenever we have a critical issue. He has many interactions with other City departments and our residents and has frequently gone out of his way to help our citizens with issues that are not typical to his daily tasks.

He is dependable at work, and we know that he will make sure the assigned task is completed in an exceptional manner.

This award is given to an exemplary employee from Development Services, Construction Inspections, and the Streets Department.

Utilities | Gilbert Pantoja

The Directors’ Award for Utilities was presented to Gilbert Pantoja, Boerne Utilities water operations crew chief.

Gilbert is a true servant leader that gives 100% effort to every task he performs. He is as respectful as he is well respected, to supervisors and subordinates alike. Gilbert consistently leads in a positive manner and is very dependable in unique circumstances.

He has a reputation for punctuality and utilizes leave in a very responsible manner. On top of it all, he has excellent knowledge of operations in the water, sewer, and gas department and uses that knowledge to teach others.

This award is given to an exemplary employee from Utilities Administration, Electric, Water, Wastewater, Gas, and Treatment Plants.