TULSA, Okla. — Monday morning Mayor G.T. Bynum honored two employees for their dedication and hard work with the City of Tulsa.
Tulsa Blue award
Bynum says the Tulsa Blue award is the highest award a city employee can receive. It honors an employee who goes above and beyond their duties in serving coworkers and the citizens of Tulsa.
Marshelle Freeman, who has been with the city for more than 10 years, is now a Tulsa Blue recipient.
“I'm very honored. This is such an unexpected award. I just do my job and I care for the people I work with and for the citizens of Tulsa and it's great to be noticed and awarded for that,” she said.
Freeman says she has her dad to thank for encouraging her to work for the City of Tulsa. He worked for the city for 45 years.
“Just growing up he always instilled in me that the work he did was important as an engineering aid," she said. "So when I got home from college he said apply to the city and of course I did. I started out in 911 and now I am working in the "working in neighborhoods" department and I’m able to touch citizens of Tulsa throughout the area.”
City Star Award
The City Star award honors an employee for their efforts to improve safety. David Taylor who works in the water and sewer department is the recipient of this award.
“It feels great. It really does. It's kind of one of those things to where the work I do because of the work ethic I wound up imparting from my mom and it’s kind of one of those things of, doing the right thing, to do the right thing and so feeling this recognition feels great,” he said.
Taylor was appointed chair of the safety committee in 2021. Bynum says in the 23 months he’s been the chair, he’s reduced reportable injuries by 63%.
Taylor says he’s done this by trying other ideas out, getting everyone on board and working on the safety culture. He tells us when he started out there was skepticism from employees.
“We're still working hard on changing that safety culture by like ‘hey listen we’re not trying to work on these items to make you feel bad or as something being punitive, but it was like they care about their employees.' So it's been good to see that happen year over year and we see the mentality within the employees changing for the positive as well.”
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