The Town of Mountain View is very lucky to have the services of our Public Works Coordinator, David Nugent. Readers will notice that every part of our Neighborhood Gazette content this month is related to the important work he does. And I want to take the opportunity to thank him publicly.
David came to us by way of recommendation from our prior Public Works Supervisor who was retiring. They had previously worked together and we were assured that David would be a fit. We advertised the job as widely as we could, including on Indeed. And we received exactly one application – David’s. I was worried about not receiving other applications, but I needn’t have been. And I suspect I’m not the only one who is now getting a sense of just how good of a fit David is for our community.
Mountain View is a special place that doesn’t always function in the usual manner. Because we’re so small, we can talk with every single one of our residents if the need arises. This means personal interactions with the residents are inevitable, and it can have a huge impact on what it’s like to be an employee here. You have to be good natured and interested in providing good customer service.
Although in a perfect world, all of the interactions between the community and the employees of the town would always be pleasant, the reality is that sometimes people are frustrated and anxious. They’re trying to solve problems that are irritants or create anxiety. They have received a code violation notice. They need help with a permit that has unfamiliar language. They don’t understand why we are doing something that seems wasteful or burdensome.
On top of that, I can walk every street and alley in town in three hours. This means if there’s a pothole or a crooked sign in town, I’m going to notice it and David’s going to hear about it. So, David doesn’t have a lot of room to get away with much that’s not enthusiastically productive in his workday.
But this doesn’t seem to stress David out. Just the opposite – he has consistently provided that level of calm, reasonable, thoughtful and high-quality customer service that I was hoping for when we hired him. He has shown a remarkable aptitude to learn new things and an admirable curiosity about best practices. He has jumped in with both feet and wowed us all. I am very grateful to have such an even-tempered, industrious, and personable employee as our Public Works Coordinator here in Mountain View.
He has taken on the very complex job of overseeing major road construction that will happen this summer, waste hauler changes, adding security to Town Hall, building a carport for the police cars and so much, much more. I appreciate his hard work and commitment.
I hope residents will join me in saying thank you to David, as well as thank you to his predecessor who lives here in town, Gene Bird. Both of them deserve credit and appreciation. Thank you, Gene, for bringing us David and for the work you did for the town over the last several years. And thank you David, for all your hard work now. We appreciate you!
Emilie Mitcham is the mayor of Mountain View.
