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Congratulations to Valeria Quintanilla who holds the title of Horticulturist, recipient of the "Employee of the Month Award," for the month of June 2021.
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The nomination was submitted by Brook Dannemiller, Public Works Assistant Director/Landscape Services, who stated the following:
“Valeria Quintanilla began her career with the City as an intern from FIU in August of 2018. Valeria quickly displayed a stellar work ethic, and she was hired as a full time City employee in 2019 as the Horticulturist for the Public Works Landscape Services Division. Valeria's primary responsibility in ensuring that the plants in over 360 public City greenspaces are well-maintained efficiently and beautifully. However, Valeria always enthusiastically requests to learn new tasks and took on project managing new tree plantings throughout the City, coordinating the Black Olive pesticide treatments involved in the Black Olive Staining Study, and has begun assisting with Public Works Landscape Services reviews of plans submitted for building permits. Valeria also took on the tasks of project managing the landscape and irrigation installation at the new Fire Station 2 and the landscape rehabilitation at the Arcadian Lights installation at the Coral Gables Country Club, and in both projects she delivered a beautiful and efficiently executed landscape installation in a condensed time frame and in time for the ribbon cutting ceremonies. Due to a vacancy from a recent retirement, Valeria is currently acting as Landscape Coordinator and is doing an exceptional job at fulfilling the duties of the position that includes managing staff and coordinating procurement of plants and supplies. Valeria has been instrumental in getting all of the City's landscape maintenance sites into the City's new asset management software, Cartagraph, and her efforts have helped streamline the process of tracking and monitoring the maintenance of the hundreds of greenspaces throughout the City. In just two short years from her hire date, Valeria has shown a thirst for knowledge and sincere dedication to her job of keeping the City Beautiful looking beautiful and continuously diversifying the City's plant and tree pallet with a focus on native and pollinator species. Valeria is highly motivated and shows a strong desire to excel in her field of study of Landscape Architecture and is currently working toward becoming a licensed landscape architect in the State of Florida. By leading by example, Valeria has positively influenced other members of the Landscape Services staff and has motivated others to continue to advance their own skills in our industry which is a benefit for the City. Valeria frequent interactions with City residents in person, on the phone, and over e-mail, and she consistently receives positive compliments due to her positive attitude, patience, and ability to effectively communicate in both English and Spanish. We are pleased to employ an outstanding emerging professional such as Valeria on our staff, and we look forward to recognizing her by nominating her for employee of the month to honor her dedication and enthusiasm.”