'Cutting edge' city of Tyler programs honored

Tyler Morning Telegraph
By Maleri McHam mmcham@tylerpaper.com
Oct 26, 2022

The city of Tyler has received numerous awards of excellence for innovative programs aimed at helping the community and its employees.

The City Council accepted the awards at its Wednesday meeting.

The Texas Municipal League presented the city with the Municipal Excellence in Public Safety Award for its homeless outreach coordinator position. The Tyler Police Department position was officially created about a year ago.

Tyler Police Chief Jimmy Toler said it is exciting to have the efforts of Johnny Green, who was named homeless outreach coordinator, and the community response officers recognized.

The honor shows that “we’re taking those necessary steps because oftentimes not a lot of people have those resources or are looking to make those investments, and I think the city of Tyler is cutting edge,” Toer said. “We’re willing to try new things and see if it helps the situation, and we’ll keep modifying these programs until we’re able to have the most success.”

Before the creation of this position, Green had worked about six or seven years to help the homeless population as a Tyler police community resource officer. Toler said Greene “has had a passion for working with the homeless over the years, but he wasn’t able to dedicate all this time to it.”

Green now works with a team of eight community response officers to help the community’s homeless population. Through this position, he is able to dedicate all 40 hours of the work week to this effort, Toler said.

He said Green develops relationships with homeless residents and assists them in various ways, such as connecting them with family, getting them into a shelter, helping them find a job and getting them an ID.

The city’s Infants at Work program also received a Texas Municipal League award for Municipal Excellence in Management Innovations. The program also received the Corporate Champion Award from the Smith County Champions for Children.

This program, which was started in June 2021, allows parents to bring their babies to work from the age of 4 weeks to 6 months. It is designed not only to retain employees but also allows new parents to transition back into work while keeping their newborns close by.

About eight employees have used the program since it began, said Regina Moss, director of Organizational Development.

“What’s most rewarding is that we’re supporting our employees,” Moss said. “So that’s what it was about — how can we be creative and provide more support for our employees, and this program gave us that. It gave us the opportunity to honor new parents, let them know that we care about them as employees and also give them that opportunity to be with their children during those very pivotal months from birth to six.”

Moss recalled one new mother who told her she might not have come back to work if the city not offered a program where she could bring her baby.

The city also received the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers Award of Excellence for the 2021-2022 Annual Report and the City-County Communications and Marketing Association Award for Excellence for the Rose and Weeds Podcast.

In other business Wednesday, the council approved an agreement with Halff Associates at a cost of $98,500 for the 2023 water main improvements program.

The objective of this program is to replace 2-inch water lines and eliminate dead ends in the system, said Kate Dietz, city director of utilities. There are more than 10 miles of 2-inch galvanized steel water lines dating back to the 1940s still in the system.

“In doing that we are able to … enhance water quality, increase pressure and eliminate some of the flushing that we need to do if we can loop a dead end main,” she said.