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Bates Russell Named Tualatin's 2020 Employee of the Year
If you congratulate Bates Russell on his 2020 Employee of the Year award, he will offer an embarrassed “thank you.” Then he will quickly shift the conversation and focus on the team he leads as Information Services Director.
"I'm there. I'm participating and I'm helping, but I'm not an island," he says. "I have teams. I have good workers. We have amazing staff."
Great teams usually have great leaders – and Bates is great (no rhyming intended)!
Wearing (or perhaps juggling) many hats as head of information services (technology, geographic information systems, and network administration), maintenance services (care of city buildings, vehicles and property, excluding parks), and emergency management – Bates helped the city navigate 2020 in countless ways.
When COVID-19 hit in March of 2020 and sent the majority of the city’s staff to work from home, Bates and company had already been watching the virus. The IT team spent February rapidly gathering and reconfiguring all kinds of technology to allow the city to continue running without major interruptions to services. At the same time, the Maintenance Services crew rapidly acquired and put in place protective measures for in-person work to continue.
None of this has been a one-and-done effort. The city has been working under the remote/in-person combo for a year now and quite simply, it wouldn’t have happened as smoothly as it did without Bates’ leadership.
"There is no one more deserving of this award than Bates Russell; he ran the equivalent of an ultra-marathon in 2020 at world-class sprint pace," said City Manager Sherilyn Lombos. "He and his team were literally everywhere, all the time, making sure that our employees had what they needed to do their jobs."
The rest of the city’s staff noticed, too. The nominations that were submitted in support of Bates included similar sentiments – “kindness,” “always with a smile,” “positive attitude,” “ helpful,” “tireless” – in describing his efforts of the past year.
The City of Tualatin employs over 150 individuals for a myriad of functions. The City's Employee of the Year Program recognizes employees that excel in their positions, and in shared principles like teamwork and respect.
In 2020, Bates Russell excelled. A hearty round of applause is deserved, not only from his coworkers, but from the Tualatin community. We appreciate you.
