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Congratulations to Supervisor Marangely Vazquez, recipient of the City of Coral Gables “Operator of the Second Quarter Award,” for the months of April through June 2020.
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I respectfully request to nominate Supervisor Mara Vazquez for the Communications Operator of the 2nd Quarter in 2020. Supervisor Vazquez is a team player who takes on multiple extra tasks voluntarily in addition to her already heavy workload. During the 2nd Quarter of2020, and even before that, Supervisor Vazquez has been managing the training schedules for over 8 trainees and now 7 CTOs. As if that was not challenging enough, she also had to manage training 6 additional PPOs that were temporarily assigned to Communications due to their academy being postponed. Mara managed this with ease and never complaining once. In addition, for the past few months, Supervisor Vazquez has been managing the implementation of the LEFT A online training program for CTO reporting. She had completely built the system from the ground up and after creating all the components for weekly reporting, she realized that it was in the best interest of the program to revert to daily reporting. Without hesitation, she reconfigured all the forms and created a system that would be beneficial to both the trainers and trainees using the DORs. Supervisor Vazquez also handled the training of CTOs and supervisors on the system and is currently managing the phasing out of paper DORs and implementation of the LEFTA system.
As the Training Supervisor, Mara's job is to assist and mentor CTOs and trainees. However, Mara has taken this a step further. She takes a very special interest in not only mentoring current CTOs but also building up and engaging junior operators in order to encourage them to possibly become CTOs. During this quarter Mara has recruited 4 new CTOs and is empowering other junior operators by giving them temporary training opportunities such as training PPOs. This is a benefit not just to the CTO program but also to the growth of these junior operators. They are shown that they are appreciated and valued and that they are an important part of the growth of the Communications Section.
Supervisor Vazquez is also extremely committed to the success of the trainees in the CTO program. Understanding the difficult situation due to extenuating circumstances and being understaffed, Mara takes it upon herself to fill in for trainers and even adjust her shift as needed so that trainees do not miss their training. This effort on her part is huge for the Communications Section as it is imperative that our trainee complete their training as soon as possible in order to be integrated into staffing. Mara is constantly trying to come up with ways to expedite the training of our trainees. She gets creative and adjusts their shifts or has other trainers adjust their own shifts in order to fill in the gaps.
Not only has Supervisor Vazquez been exceptional in her performance as the Training Supervisor but as mentioned previously, she takes on extra duties that are outside of her job description. She is always the first to volunteer for any tasks and is my right hand "wo" -man when it comes to managing the Communications Section. After the recent retirement of the TSD Coordinator, Vivian Gonzalez, the coordinator's duties have been shifting to serve other needs within TSO. This means that someone else had to take on the duties that the coordinator once managed for Communications such as managing the bid process and assisting with the alpha/bravo list/distribution. Realizing the need, Mara quickly jumped at the opportunity to help. She recently completed the Fall Bid for Communications and did it in record time. She also managed the notification of'' first 40" leave submittals from the Communications Operators. This can be a very complicated process and she has assisted her fellow supervisors with the process. Mara also updated the current Alpha/Bravo list and assisted me with posting and having it ready for the possibility of activation during Hurricane Season. In addition to assisting her own section, Mara volunteers to assist the TSD Lieutenant and Data Management Sergeant with matters involving CAD programming. Mara has extensive experience with the system and although it does not fall in her job description, she does not hesitate to offer her expertise and assistance as needed. During this 200 Quarter, she assisted Lt. Reinoso with the programming of the police response plan in order to implement the "unit recommend dispatch" feature for patrol. Mara has worked tirelessly on not only the programming aspect but also on the
policy/procedures for Communications personnel.
I could continue to write many pages about the many reasons Supervisor Vazquez has demonstrated all the qualities of an Operator of the Quarter. Her attitude and commitment to her career is admirable and applaudable. She makes an effort to lift morale in the Communications Center and demonstrates excellent leadership through empowerment, encouragement and enabling. Mara is committed to the growth and success of this section and most of all the organization. She is an asset and deserves to be recognized for her efforts and hard work. It is for these reasons that I believe she should be awarded the Communications Operator of the 2nd Quarter award.