Title
Honoring Jenna McCullough for her contribution and her commitment to the professional development of Saint Paul’s front-line staff and customer service managers across many City departments through a customer service lens.
Body
WHEREAS, as part of the Saint City Council Audit Committee’s work, RES 21-879 authorized the award of a professional services agreement to Cultivate Strategy to perform a study of and make recommendations regarding the city’s process to receive and respond to non-emergency resident complaints and feedback; and
WHEREAS, per RES 22-132, Cultivate Strategy presented their findings on the Customer and Constituent Services Study Report with recommendations on the city’s process to receive and respond to non-emergency resident complaints and feedback in January 2022; and
WHEREAS, the Customer and Constituent Services Study Report identified ten recommendations for City officials, leaders, and staff to consider:
1. Prioritize the health, hearts, and minds of frontline staff.
2. Shift the City’s identity narratives.
3. Establish universal access to service while building political efficacy.
4. Create conditions to share tracking between departments and with the public.
5. Empower Main Line staff to close requests.
6. Relocate citywide customer service.
7. Continue to diversify approaches to customer service.
8. Deemphasize anonymity; emphasize accountability.
9. Reward connectivity and curiosity.
10. Watch for opportunities to align business practices with high-quality customer service technology; and
WHEREAS, the Customer & Constituents Workgroup was subsequently formed through the efforts of the Audit Committee co-chairs Councilmember Rebecca Noecker and former Councilmember Jane Prince; and
WHEREAS, the Customer & Constituents Workgroup included staff across several city departments such as City Council, Emergency Management, Human Resources, Human Rights & Equal Economic Opportunity, Libraries, Office of Technology and Communications, Parks and Recreation, Public Works, and Saint Paul Regional Water Services; and
WHEREAS, the workgroup convened in July 2022 to consider the recommendations in the report made by Cultivate Strategy to develop strategies for implementation, and prioritized the following:
• developing professional development opportunities for staff,
• shifting narratives of single individuals being “go-to customer service heroes” to emphasizing teamwork and small efforts leading to collective impact, and
• ensuring staff to become comfortable with and informed of the information and tools that have been added to stpaul.gov; and
WHEREAS, the workgroup participants collaborated with city departments to host 1-hour department-specific, customer-service-focused, staff development events called, “Snacks & Service” events; and
WHEREAS, each department successfully hosted these Snacks & Service events with about 100 participants per event and participants received valuable information about the department through presentations, table-by-table in-depth discussions and a tour of the department’s facilities; and
WHEREAS, Jenna McCullough has been with the City since 2013 and is the current Executive Assistant for Ward 5 Council President Hwa Jeong Kim’s office and is involved with the Customer & Constituents Workgroup from August 2022-October 2024; and
WHEREAS, she joined the Customer & Constituents Workgroup on August 9, 2022, and became the Chair in September 20, 2022; and
WHEREAS, Jenna was instrumental to the successful planning and implementation of these professional development events; and
WHEREAS, she is appreciated by her many colleagues across the City for her leadership, thoughtful approach to address the needs of our front-line staff, her openness to creating a shared dialogue and her willingness to be innovative in cross-training staff to be well-informed of each department’s area of services when responding to community inquiries; and
WHEREAS, former Legislative Aide to Councilmember Jane Prince Stephanie Harr summarized it best that, “Jenna was an outstanding member of this committee and demonstrated her significant leadership skills in this arena. The group would not have been as successful as it was without her notable contributions.”; and
WHEREAS, in addition to recognizing Jenna’s outstanding contribution to the workgroup, the Audit Committee would also like to give special thanks to Susan Young, Sarah Haas, and Kate Noffke from Public Works; Abigail Gadea from Human Resources; Clare Cloyd and Liz McDonald from Parks & Recreation; Tracy Baumann from Libraries; Kristin Koziol from City Council; Michele Severson, Sierra Cumberland, and Mark Zoller from the Department of Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity; Derek Olson from Water; Jaime Wascalus of the Office of Technology and Communications; and Kelly Bauer from Emergency Management; and,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Saint Paul City Council Audit Committee congratulates Jenna McCullough for her contribution and her commitment to the professional development of Saint Paul’s front-line staff and customer service managers, honors, and thanks her for her commitment to providing great customer services to the Saint Paul community.