Celebrating the people behind the city of Longview

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Celebrating the People Behind Our City — Longview

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Longview

From decades of dedicated service to coworkers recognizing coworkers for going above and beyond, the City of Longview recently celebrated the employees who help make the organization and community stronger.

Excellence is even more meaningful when it is recognized by the people you work alongside every day.

The City of Longview recently brought employees together for its annual employee recognition event, celebrating employees reaching service milestones and honoring the first annual recipients of the City’s Everyday Excellence Awards.

Together, the recognitions reflect an important part of the City’s commitment to being an employer of excellence: creating a workplace where employees are valued for the work they do, the service they provide and the difference they make.

Recognizing everyday excellence

Everyday Excellence is a peer recognition program that gives City employees opportunities throughout the year to recognize coworkers who make a difference. From a simple thank you to monthly spotlights and annual awards, the program is about noticing the great work happening across departments and recognizing the people behind it.

This year, six employees were selected for the program’s first annual awards.

Randy Mathers, Community Development | Unsung Hero

Randy was recognized not only for the professionalism and service he brings to his regular work, but for the way he instinctively steps in when someone needs help. His nomination included two remarkable examples: intervening when an aggressive customer threatened Finance staff, and immediately taking charge when an elderly resident was seriously injured in a fall, providing first aid and comfort until paramedics arrived. For Randy, helping people and looking out for others is simply part of how he approaches his work.

Katie Ribelin, Human Resources | Rookie of the Year

When Finance needed help completing the City’s winter averaging process, Katie stepped far outside her normal responsibilities to help. A project that typically takes months needed to be completed in just a few weeks. Katie took ownership of the work, putting in long days, additional days and evenings to help another department meet an important organizational need.

Mary Chennault, Police | Core Values in Action

Mary was recognized for transforming and strengthening the Police Department’s recruiting and hiring process during an extremely competitive time for law enforcement recruitment. She streamlined testing and hiring, improved communication with applicants and created a more organized and applicant-focused process. The results have been measurable, with the department successfully hiring more than 12 police officers over the past year.

Nicole McWilliams, Finance | Excellence in City Service

When a programming issue with newly installed water meters resulted in incorrect bills for approximately 300 customers, Nicole helped develop the communication plan, educate staff, correct impacted accounts and personally work with residents to explain what happened and resolve their concerns. Some corrections went back more than a year, but the issue was addressed in just over a week with professionalism, empathy and accountability.

Angela Abel, Public Information | City Manager Award

Angela was recognized for fundamentally changing how the City communicates with the community and helping reshape how people see and understand their local government. Through the Longview Lowdown, Council Recap, Longview 101, social media, videos and the City’s overall brand, she has worked to make City information more accessible, consistent and professional. Her work during critical incidents has also helped establish the City as a timely, accurate and trusted source of information when it matters most.

Battalion Chief Matt Amos, Fire | Excellence in Public Safety

Matt was recognized for his leadership during the Nippon tragedy, where he carried the responsibility of leading recovery operations within Unified Command while continuing to serve as battalion chief at Station 81 because of staffing demands. In an incredibly difficult and emotional situation, he demonstrated calm, sound judgment, compassion, humility and professionalism while balancing the operational demands of the incident with tremendous respect for those impacted.

These awards may recognize six employees, but they grew out of something much bigger: coworkers taking the time to notice great work, say thank you and celebrate the people they work alongside.

Celebrating years of service

The event also recognized employees reaching milestones from five to 40 years of service. Each milestone represents years spent serving the Longview community, supporting coworkers and contributing to the work that happens across the City every day.

Congratulations to the 2026 Years of Service recipients:

40 years

Sandra Glassett | Library

35 years

Kim Hallowell | Information Technology
Jeffrey Leak | Police

30 years

Cynthia Johansen | Police
Ty Mauck | Police
Timothy Watson | Police
Mandy Ross | Library

25 years

Heather Johnson | Fleet
Mike Ward | Stormwater
Jon Harbour | Information Technology
Jim Nickerson | Golf
Chris Angel | Police

20 years

Nancy Vandehey | Engineering
Kevin Beaty | Park Maintenance
Albert DaSilva | Traffic
Jason McClung | Utilities
Seth Cockrill | Utilities
Ivona Radivojsa-Kininmonth | Engineering

15 years

Daniel Jones | Fire
Norman Mays | Utilities
Bryan Leake | Fire
Brian Price | Police
Benjamin Mortensen | Police
Jordan Sanders | Police

10 years

Taylor Mosier | Streets
Zachary Hutton | Fire
Tanner Vossen | Utilities
Jeremy Creech | Water Treatment Plant
Jim Seeks | Transit
Raymond Napier | Police
Richard Gibbs | Police

5 years

Building an employer of excellence

Being an employer of excellence is about more than recruiting talented people. It is about creating a workplace where employees feel valued, where great work is noticed, where people support one another across departmental lines and where employees can build careers in public service.

This year’s honorees represent both sides of that commitment: employees who have dedicated decades to serving Longview and employees whose coworkers saw something exceptional in the way they showed up for their team, the organization or the community.

That is the culture the City of Longview wants to continue building.

This content is sourced from Longview . It reflects the author's views and has not been edited by our newsroom. It may have been generated using AI assistance.

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