The City of Ashland is honored to recognize the City Safety Committee and specifically call out staff members, Tara Kiewel from APRC, Wes Hoadley from Public Works and Natalie Thomason from Administration. The three of them have helped to develop a safety reporting tool that has been noticed by the City’s insurance provider, CIS (Citycounty Insurance Services), and they are recipients of a CIS Innovation Award. Oregon OSHA requires documented safety inspections for City buildings on a quarterly basis.
 
The award was presented to the City of Ashland at the 2022 League of Oregon Cities Conference. Safety Committee staff were acknowledged at the Ashland City Council meeting on Tuesday, November 1, 2022.
 
This award recognizes the creativity of staff in reducing claims and employee injuries through an innovative safety inspection program, with reports that are easy to read and understand, and pictures of violations with entertaining graphics that indicate hazards that need to be addressed or infractions that have been remedied. The Safety Team has found a method to report safety concerns without making people feel defensive, while encouraging departments to fix their hazards in a timely manner.
 
“I am honored to recognize our Safety Committee for ensuring our facilities are safe for our employees and the public,” stated Deputy City Manager, Sabrina Cotta. “The goal is to ensure that our facilities are up to OSHA standards as required by law and more importantly ensure that our employees who come to work healthy and in one piece, go home to their families the same way.”
 
The City of Ashland Safety Committee is comprised of individuals from various departments throughout the City, and currently includes the following individuals, (in addition to the three award recipients):

• Travis Reeder, Public Works
• David Onka, Public Works
• Heather Gillespie, Ashland Police Department
• Amanda Billings, Ashland Police Department
• Matt O’Conner, Electric Department
• June Cummings, IT Department

“It is exciting for our staff to receive this award and to be recognized by the Mayor, the City Council and the community for a job well done. This level of excellence is par for the course from our employees, and we appreciate how well they represent the City and thank them for putting us on the map for innovation in safety,” said Cotta.