City of Bloomington, MN At Your Service, 18 Mar 2022

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From YouTube: At Your Service: Celebrating 30 years

Description

Meet Diann Kirby, Todd Angus, Duke Johnson and Eric Schoon who are celebrating 30 years of service at the City of Bloomington.

A

My name is todd angus. I am a commercial property appraiser in the assessing office. I've been doing that for 31 years, come july of 22.

B

Diane kirby community services, director 32 years, my.

C

Name is dwayne, duke johnson, everybody here at city hall knows me, as duke johnson, been here 31 years I started in 1991.

D

Eric schoen customer service supervisor with the utilities division I started out in 1991 reading commercial and residential water meters, because I'm old, I.

A

Had a career in the private sector appraising after college and then I started having a family, I started looking at something that I wouldn't have traveled, that was appraisal related and I found assessing to really fit.

B

I decided to go ahead and just apply on a whim for a job at the city of bloomington. It was a 20 to 25 hour week, job part-time producer, anchor and reporter, and so I thought this is great and uh started working for the city that was back in january of 1990.

C

I was hired back in 91 as a full-time part-time field, building inspector for the mall project moa, and I was hired specifically for my concrete background because they started out with footings and foundations out there.

A

I really enjoy the dynamic nature of what I do. It's just always changing. You always have to study. You know it very much keeps you learning all the time, because it just changes. I've also really enjoyed people. I work with a lot of people say that, but it's true, it's a really good group. We have, and if I you know, wouldn't be here this long, if it wasn't so it's.

B

Fun, it's fun working for the city, you get so many opportunities and bloomington is large enough that we do have opportunities that you might not find in other suburbs, but we're small enough that you can jump right in and be directly involved in those opportunities, and just I think what I really like is working with the people.

B

We've got fantastic people, particularly in the community services department that are so devoted, and so professional and really really good at what they do.

C

Working here, as long as I have, if it wouldn't have been for the people, I think I would have changed jobs or moved to another city. Opportunities do come up, especially when you work for some place for 31 years, but I always felt like this was home and you know many people that I've worked with have retired. Unfortunately, some of the people that I've worked with here have passed away, but it's always been the people for me and those relationships that I've built.

D

Outside of the work itself and being able to make a difference, I like working with the people and that could be the internal with the employees that I work with on a daily basis or external, with our customers and contractors biggest.

A

Change with a lot of jobs and industry is technology has really changed. You know we tell war stories as old guys about how we used to do it. When we used to write values on you, know, tablets and all this, and that and yeah. Actually we had a twice, maybe two and a half times the staff, because it was necessary. You know when.

C

We first started out, we were actually just doing paper inspections and we moved from that into some very archaic computer software.

D

And when I started out with the city, I was reading residential and commercial water meters and we used to do that with cards and writing down with the pen or pencil and writing down the water meter readings and now we're on the cusp of automated metering infrastructure, where we can get real-time data up to you know, five-minute water meter reads.

B

You know part of what changed was we got this beautiful new civic plaza and I just remember a beautiful building. I mean it was just what a lovely space to come into and bright. I worked out of a basement in the old municipal building, and so I hardly ever saw daylight, and so it was a nice change of pace to see so much daylight and it was so bright and energizing.

C

Yeah, moving from the old city hall to to here was was a significant change, I believe in in our culture here for the city of bloomington. Also, I I think we stepped it up like five six, seven, eight, nine ten steps as far as our professionalism, it just works out so well we're very connected.

A

Here I went into all those houses, so I met a lot of people and I said to my wife: these people are really nice. You know I go, I I want to move to bloomington. I think it's a great community full of good people and haven't regretted it at all.

D

So I've learned a lot in each of the positions that I've held here at the city, and I look forward to to using that knowledge and my experience to make a difference to the city and to our customers.

B

I would say: 30 years goes fast. This has been a great place to work. I have enjoyed every minute of it. I've enjoyed the people, I've worked with and continue to enjoy the new staff that come in and learn from them and grow from them, and so this is a wonderful place to work. I feel very lucky very lucky.