Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.

This is a special blog for a very special person and my small way of expressing my thanks for a thankless job well done. As Glendale’s Vice Mayor (this year) I often do not spend much time in my office unless I am meeting someone there. Just by way of example, this morning I attended a ribbon cutting for Credit Union West’s new corporate headquarters in my district. The rest of the day I will be spent doing my homework in preparation for council’s upcoming Tuesday’s workshop on departmental budgets. It’s a 400 or 500 page book and I expect it will take several days to go through it.

While I am doing these kinds of things someone has to be holding down the fort. That person is Shelli Henson, not just my Council Assistant but assistant to Councilmember Ray Malnar as well. In essence, Shelli has two bosses with often competing needs and use of her time. Today marks her Second Anniversary as our Council Assistant.

Her duties and responsibilities are many and varied. All are done with compassion and caring and a sense of political diplomacy while being detail oriented with timely completion. Not an easy job. On any given day she will be taking constituent calls, staffing one of our one-on-one meetings with the public or staff, taking minutes for later transcription, doing research, delivering something we need from the office, checking our current council budget status, setting up a district meeting or preparing not just our weekly E-newsletters but writing for my twice yearly Yucca district newsletter. That’s in addition to the daily events that suddenly appear. I’ve probably only listed a small fraction of her responsibilities but I think you get the idea. This is a job that requires good communication and writing skills, diplomacy, orientation to detail when required, the ability to multitask and to deliver a work product on time.

Shelli has all of these requirements nailed. She’s even mastered unlocking my car when I leave the keys in it!! Not a small feat. So, on her second work anniversary I just wanted to publicly thank her for all that she does not just for me but for Councilmember Malnar as well. I know that he shares my thoughts and thanks. It is for the most part, as I stated above, a thankless job and often the work product is taken for granted.

So, thank you Shelli. You have become our “alter ego.” You publicly represent our offices very well. Thank you for your assistance. We couldn’t do it without you and we often don’t take the time to recognize it.

© Joyce Clark, 2019         

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