Employee(s) of the Year: City clerk, assistant to city manager/PIO tie for award
For the first time ever, two employees from the city of Mountain Brook tied for the Employee of the Year award.
Janet Forbes and Heather Richards were recognized on Jan. 25 at the annual Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
“I could not be happier to have been receiving this award alongside Janet,” Richards said. “I love the fact that we can share this experience together. I consider Janet a dear friend, and what friend wouldn’t want to share this experience with their friend?”
Forbes echoed that sentiment. “I'm thrilled to be rewarded. I'm thrilled to be with her,” she said of Richards. “We work together a lot on different things.”
Seven city employees were nominated for the award. A selection committee comprised of the mayor, two council members, a city department head and the director of the Chamber of Commerce deliberated before winding up in a tie for the first time ever.
Richards, the city clerk, could have run a strong campaign for Forbes to win the award.
“Janet is such an important part of Mountain Brook,” she said of Forbes, the assistant to the city manager. “Janet has such a positive attitude and is great to work with. Janet has a strong work ethic and is very organized.”
Richards said that Forbes took a lead role in the challenges with the former garbage service provider during the past year and worked with the transition to the new provider.
“What I love most about Janet is her willingness to help others,” she said. “The way in which she listens and truly cares about the residents is something everyone should strive for in being a public servant.”
Forbes, who also serves as the city’s public information officer, thinks just as highly of Richards, listing hard-working, devoted and going the extra mile among her traits.
“She cares so much about the city,” Forbes said. “I think she's very caring, not just in what she did as magistrate supervisor but in what she's doing as city clerk, dealing with the elections like she did. There are a lot of great things that she does.”
City Manager Sam Gaston said when Forbes filled in when another staffer had surgery, she impressed him so much that he decided he would hire her when he got the chance. He ultimately hired her away from the human resources department of al.com.
“After only a few months, I was so impressed by the way she worked and her work ethic and how she caught on to things and just her demeanor working with people that I promoted her title to assistant to the city manager,” Gaston said, adding that the new title entailed more of a managerial role. “She does have a lot of say so with the department heads. She just continued to do a good job.”
Assistant City Manager Steve Boone said Richards is a highly motivated staffer who does quality work. But she outdid herself this year, he said, in handling her new responsibilities with city elections, which Boone had handled the prior two decades.
I truly love this city and always strive to put Mountain Brook and its residents first above all else while in my position.
HEATHER RICHARDS
“I was there to support her but she did an excellent job,” he said. “That was probably the most challenging election — I know it was — in the 20 years I've been here. She did that, plus she was juggling her normal duties.”
Those “normal duties” included taking the lead to shore up the payroll department during a change in leadership there.
“Whatever we ask her to do, she gives no complaints,” Boone said. “She does a great job.”
Receiving the award on Jan. 25 was significant for Forbes.
“That's my anniversary coming here,” said Forbes, a Mountain Brook resident. “The day of the luncheon [was] seven years.”
Richards has worked for the city for 10 years. She becomes emotional as she talks about Mountain Brook.
“My family and I live in Trussville but, in a way, I feel like Mountain Brook is my home too,” she said. “I truly love this city and always strive to put Mountain Brook and its residents first above all else while in my position.”