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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMelissa Huhtala Melissa Huhtala 332 Meadow Drive Ashland, OR 97520 Phone (541) 499-2900 OBJECTIVE: To obtain the position as City Recorder ensuring team, department and organization success by providing excellent service and support. EDUCATION: Southern Oregon University 2004-2008 Ashland, OR B.A., Psychology with an emphasis in Business Administration Butte College 1998-2000 Oroville, CA Associates Degree Business Administration WORK EXPERIENCE: 2011 -Current City of Talent Talent, OR City Recorder/Executive Assistant to the City Manager • City's records and public documents manager. • Attend City Council Meetings and Study Sessions. Create the Council Agenda Packets. Distribute packets to the Council, Staff, post on the City website and required places around town. Set up Council Chambers, take minutes, interact with public signing up to speak, start the meeting, record the meeting, produce minutes of the meeting for Council approval and upload on the City website. • Working on completion of the Talent Municipal Code. • Notice all Commission and Committee openings on the City website. Created an orientation packet for all new appointees. Post agendas and minutes for all Commissions and Committees on the City website. • Elections Officer - Manage all election items: ballot measures, create and distribute packets to applicants, meet all State deadlines and mandates, publish election information to the City website. • Records Management - Scan, file and cross index incoming documents from various City Departments. Maintain master lists of stored records, manage stored records, manage storage system and records destruction for all City Departments. Manages all public records requests. • Member of Oregon Association of Municipal Records (OAMR). • Member of International Institute of Municipal Recorders (IIMC). • Human Resources - Handle all new hire initiation courses for our insurance as well as yearly courses for each employee. Manage all City employee personnel files. • Supervise temps as they come in for various departments. • Insurance - Manage all City claims and incident reports. • Chair of the Risk Management Team -Created a Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP). Conduct quarterly meetings. • Coordinates and facilitates with RFP's and grants processes. • Chair of the Safety Committee - Conduct monthly meetings to ensure safety in each department and comply by all OSHA standards. • Volunteer Coordinator - Created a Volunteer Policy and Volunteer Waiver form. Oversee all volunteer activities in the City. • Talent Harvest Festival Chair -Conduct meetings to coordinate the Annual Talent Harvest Festival. Produce all contracts, manage all vendor and parade applicants, advertisements and sponsors. Revamped the City website - Manage all City news, Council, Commission and Committee information. 2008 -2011 City of Ashland Ashland, OR Administrative Assistant Perform administrative tasks for Director of Administrative Services that include; clerical duties, follow State and Federal deadlines and mandates, work with the public, and web maintenance. Type memos, letters, Resolutions, and Ordinances. Records management and maintain all files in the Department. Notice legal items in the newspaper. Organize meetings and assist other departments and staff as needed. Create documents, booklets and reports. Place all purchase orders for the Department. Coordinate the Budget and Audit processes that entail public noticing, preparing agendas, meeting set-up, transcribing minutes, format the Budget and Audit documents. Correlating financial information and producing Budget binders, Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) and Component Unit Financial Report (CUFR) Coordinates the Grant process; create applications, ensure applications are complete, notice the meetings in the paper and produce minutes. Distribute checks throughout the year. 2004- 2007 Sterling Savings Bank Ashland, OR Customer Service Representative Teller/Accounts Representative Top cross selling telling in all branches. Opened numerous accounts for the branch. Trained new employees. Processed wire transfers, deposits and withdrawals. Filed signature cards and loan documents. 2002 -2004 Siskiyou Medical Group Mount Shasta, CA Front Desk Secretary Scheduled appointments for patients. Data processed payroll and accounting invoices Trained new recruits. Answered multiple phone lines Filed and maintained all medical records 2000 - 2002 Scott Valley Bank Mount Shasta, CA Teller/New Accounts Top cross selling teller in all branches. Opened numerous accounts for the branch. Trained new employees. Processed wire transfers, deposits and withdrawals. .k March 3, 2017 l Letter of Recommendation Melissa Huhtala ,wz I was the Chief of Police for the City of Talent from 2008 to 2016. In 2011 I assisted in selecting Melissa Huhtala to be our City Recorder and I conducted the employment background investigation on her. Subsequently, I worked with Melissa on City business from the summer of 2011 until I retired in April 2016. I found her to be an exceptionally talented, organized and motivated person. These qualities served her well from day one. Melissa came into the job during a bit of i upheaval in the city as the city manager who hired her was unexpectedly replaced first by an interim and later by another manager. Melissa also had limited opportunity to be trained by the outgoing City Recorder. Additionally, Melissa ,a found a key responsibility for her position was managing the annual City sponsored Harvest Festival and the event was coming up in 60 days. Melissa also had to learn the requirements of her position as she went along. Melissa not only excelled at her work during this hectic first 6 months, she brought the level of professionalism and achievement of this position to a new height. Melissa has continued to develop her knowledge, skills and abilities throughout her tenure. r i I strongly recommend her as a potential new employee. For additional information please contact me at mikemoran5412gmail.com. Mike Moran Chief of Police -Retired y a `i , n y 5 'd S 4 March 9, 2017 To Whom It May Concern, I am pleased to write this letter of recommendation for Mrs. Melissa Huhtala. I was a city council member during her employment with City of Talent. Since 2011, 1 had the pleasure of working with Melissa in a variety of different capacities in her role at the city. Her title may have been City Recorder but she effectively accomplished many other duties that made her valuable to the organization and community. Melissa provided leadership in handling many efforts that were led by community members outside of city hall. She led the expansion of the only annual community event that brought 1,000 of attendees to the city. She accomplished this by managing volunteers, advocating sponsorships, and overseeing the processes in accordance to the city requirements. This was all done in addition to her regular employee duties. As a City Recorder, she demonstrated excellent management on public documents and city records. She organized the codification of Talent's Municipal Codes. She maintained a reliable relationship with elected officials and administrative staff. She met and exceeded the requirements to keep public meetings and requests in compliance with ORS and the city's charter. She was the "go-to" person for all public members who were involved with the city. In my experience as an elected official, I was very satisfied to have Melissa as the City's Recorder and the "go-to" person in administration. From the start, she put the effort and energy in being knowledgeable about the city and how to accomplish what was being asked. I am confident she is very capable of fulfilling a role as a City Recorder and in Executive Administration within city government. In my experience as an executive in management and finance, I know Melissa is a very valuable individual to have on a management team. She will represent an organization professionally. She will succeed in accomplishing the duties and make sure that her role is benefiting the team as whole. Overall, Melissa is an excellent individual to have in your organization now and for the future. Sincerely, Edwin J. (EJ) McManus, MBA Contact: 541/261-2392 March 8, 2017 A To whom it may concern: I q Melissa Huhtala was hired as the Talent City Recorder in 2011, early in my term as Mayor. Melissa quickly oriented herself to the City and began to put some order to a public records management system that had been lacking for a number of years. Melissa's grasp of records management and her technical ability created a system that was much superior to what we had prior to her employment with the City of Talent. I appreciated the fact that I could find historical records in a timely manner. During my term as Mayor, I completely trusted Melissa to insure our meetings and public records were conducted within the scope of Oregon law. When a specific situation arose that she was not sure of, she would find the answer. I can think of no instance in which she gave me or the Council erroneous advice. One of Melissa's strong point is that she is a self-starter with a strong work ethic. The City Recorder position at Talent has many other duties as assigned. Even though these extra duties took a lot of her time, I was always confident that her City Recorder duties would be done in a timely and professional manner. For elected officials navigating Public Records and Public Meeting laws and regulations is a daunting task. Failure to comply can lead to serious consequences. I so appreciated Melissa's professionalism and guidance in getting me through my term as Mayor without incident. William Cecil Former Mayor, City of Talent -3 r 2 ~qq h