On May 20, 2020, Jaimonese Clark was recognized for her outstanding customer service and received the Governor’s Customer Service Hero Award. At the State Department of Assessment and Taxation’s Customer Service Contact Center, Manager Jaimonese and her team have been responsible for interacting with businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the adjustment to mandatory teleworking for the first time and a new phone system in place, Jaimonese and her team have been answering calls non-stop to meet the needs of businesses across the state that are seeking COVID-19 relief. Jaimonese supports her team with positivity and constantly reinforces good customer service.

Jaimonese has adopted many innovative process improvements during the high increased volume of calls. Due to the high volume, there are cases where some customers cannot get in contact with SDAT and continue to call multiple times. At the end of every day, her team runs reports to call those customers back to ensure that their needs are being met. She continues to lead by example and go above and beyond to ensure a great customer experience.

On May 8, 2019, Silma Raymond received the Governor’s Customer Service Hero Award. Silma began her career with the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT) in 1985 and quickly rose up the ranks to become Program Manager of SDAT’s Tax Credit Division. She is responsible for administering all Homeowners, Renters, and Homestead Tax Credit Programs, a major function of SDAT’s role providing more than $260 million in tax relief for Maryland homeowners and renters.

Silma oversees the program with strong leadership and effective management acumen. Silma is also a fantastic mentor managing a team with over 40 employees. Every day, her team assists dozens of elderly walk-in customers; responds to emails and answers more than 1,000 telephone calls. She consistently leads and encourages while keeping employee morale high as they handle customer needs with the utmost care and respect, providing the highest quality of customer service.

The Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Division received a citation from Governor Hogan for excellence in customer service. The laboratory team processes evidence that requires precision so managing their customers’ expectations for timeliness is important. Also, meeting time sensitive requests requires being flexible with hours of operation. While the citation was given to one standout employee, the Forensic Sciences Division of the Maryland State Police demonstrates Maryland’s Finest is Changing Maryland for the Better!

The Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) received an inquiry from an elderly customer who was new to the State of Maryland and needed an identification card for medical benefits and other purposes. The customer lives in a nursing home and was physically unable to visit an MVA branch office.

MVA employees Natasha Jones and Jessica Mencos visited the nursing home to collect all the necessary information to process an identification card. It took a collaborative approach to develop a new process to complete this transaction. The employees brought a white background from a branch office for the photo and cell phone camera. Jessica held up the white background while Natasha took the photo. The employees captured the customer’s signature on a blank sheet of paper. The customer provided copies of her identity, social security card and residency documents. Once back at headquarters, Natasha emailed the customer’s signature and picture to our technology team. They resized the photo and signature, and formatted all the images. Once the technical solution was in place, the application was completed. The customer was mailed her new ID Card and was very pleased with the premier customer service provided to help her obtain this critical document. On May 24, 2017, Governor Hogan recognized Natasha and Jessica’s efforts with a Customer Service Hero Award.

The Office of Controlled Substances Administration (OCSA) processes registrations from doctors, pharmacists, hospitals, and other prescription writing and/or filling personnel and locations for the authorization to write and fill prescriptions for medication, and to process, store, label, and ship these medications.

The Office encountered a backlog in the processing of registrations for Controlled Dangerous Substances (CDS) permits. Sandra Cobb demonstrated outstanding customer service during this period that helped her team to eliminate the backlog of permit applications. She also handled customer calls and walk-ins. For the walk-ins needing to receive registrations or renewals prior to expiration dates, Sandra shined by demonstrating interpersonal skills to assuage customers’ tensions and guide them through the process. In many cases, walk-in customers failed to bring in needed paperwork. Rather than telling them to come back later, Sandra would help them get the appropriate paperwork together so that they could submit applications correctly. In the words of Sandra, “I treat people the way I want to be treated.”

The Office of Controlled Substances Administration has received many compliments from customers and from her co-workers about her attitude and approach to achieving the Office’s mission. In addition to helping eliminate the backlog, the Office was able to implement process improvements to improve the cycle time of processing applications while maintaining the rigor this work requires.

The Office of Controlled Substances Administration Team – (left to right – back row) Tiffany Lovett, Sharein Greene, Robert Pelakakis, Jim Polek, Christopher Morton, Lisa Ellis, (middle row) Cynithia Gethers, Andrea Mack, Sandra Cobb, Carl Norman, Lisa Ridolfi, and Department of Health Chief Administrative Officer Lisa Ellis, (front row) Olivia James, Audrey Clark. Not present in the photo: Sharell Myers, Fred Evans, Howard Minster, and Sandra Yankosky

Brian Stupak supervises a three county project area and is the primary forester for Calvert and Prince George’s County. He provides forest programs in these counties, including assisting landowners with forest management, coordinating tree planting activities, managing state forest lands, and more. In the town of University Park, MD in 2016 and 2017 after a timber harvest was completed in a neighboring area, University Park officials complained about damage to a nearby stream, which feeds into the Anacostia River. Mr. Stupak committed to investigating the cause of the issue.

Through his persistence and collaboration with Mayor Len Carey and Prince George’s County, they were able to determine that the damage was most likely caused by runoff from a nearby school, not the harvest, and the issue was dealt within an accurate and timely manner. Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary Mark Belton said “In a 19-year career with the Department, Brian has gone above and beyond to solve problems for our customers in a friendly, timely, and truthful manner. He is a great example of a dedicated and professional state employee and testament to the great work of the Maryland Forest Service.” On July 27, 2017 Brian Stupak was recognized with a Governor’s Customer Service Hero award.

When a constituent provides feedback through the Governor’s Customer Service Survey, that feedback is provided to the appropriate agency for follow up. In this case, a constituent who is a physician’s assistant by occupation used the survey to offer suggestions for how the Maryland Department of Health could improve the processing of applications.

Audrey Clark from the Office of Controlled Substances Administration and Christine Farrelly from the Maryland Board of Physicians took the constituent’s advice and implemented measures to immediately improve the processing of applications. They also set in motion plans to share information in real-time. The result will reduce the administrative burden for the applicant and the agency, and will increase information reliability. For this effort, Ms. Clark and Ms. Farrelly were recognized with a Governor’s Customer Service Heroes Award on June 21, 2017.

Mr. Pullifrone is a Project Manager in the Facilities Planning, Design and Construction Division at the Department of General Services. When the Grand Building, a state-owned property in Cumberland, MD lost its heating and air conditioning due to emergency systems failures, Mr. Pullifrone oversaw getting the systems replaced. He repeatedly traveled four hours round trip between Baltimore and Cumberland to ensure the project was successful.  For this effort, Frank was awarded the first Customer Service Heroes Award by Governor Hogan on April 5, 2017.

The Grand Building houses the Canal Place Authority, who oversees the preservation, development, and management of the Canal Place Preservation District, a designated heritage area in Cumberland around the western end of the C&O Canal. Secretary of the Department of General Services, Ellington Churchill said “Frank is responsive, respectful, and results-oriented. We are proud of the fine work he is doing and congratulate him on this well-deserved honor.”

Improved customer service by using Lean process improvement techniques to streamline the Lead Rental Registry program. Prior to 2015, Property Owners with questions about compliance with the program were often put on hold for 20 minutes or more, there was a backlog of registry applications and renewals, and state employees were frustrated about constantly working from behind.

The Department of the Environment treated this problem by using Lean management techniques to eliminate waste in the lead rental registry process and to organize their work. Using techniques like Lean 5S, the Department was able to eliminate the backlog, create an organized system for handling calls so that there are no more wait times, and employees are happier now that they have had the management of this program under sustainable control for over a year.

Click here for more information about the state’s Lead Rental Registry program 

By modernizing its systems and eliminating waste in processes, business registration processing times went from 10 weeks to under 4 weeks, most transactions are completed within 48 hours, 1 in 2 business owners conduct their business with the state online outside of normal business hours, and 1 in 5 do their business with the state from a mobile device. These improvements reduce the aggravation of business owners and improve their customer experience with the state.

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