Member Recognition

( The following story was prepared by journalism student Amy Faxon and appeared in the June 11 edition of the Missoulian.) Cyndie Winchell has been checking meters and writing parking tickets in downtown Missoula for nearly 20 years.

In that time, you'd think she would have acquired a following of angry drivers for all those slips left on peoples' windshields.

Not so.

Winchell knows everyone and everything that's going on downtown, and, for the most part, she's a popular sight with drivers and pedestrians alike.

She hands out change and cancels tickets before she prints them if the driver is coming to plug the meter, and she's quick with a wave and smile to everyone she meets.

No wonder she was named Downtown Employee of the Year in January.

Anne Guest, director of Missoula Parking Commission, nominated Winchell, mostly because of her personality.

“She relates so well to everybody, from the homeless to CEOs,” Guest said. “She's so deeply respected by everyone. I get compliments from people about her all the time.”

“It was bizarre getting that award,” Winchell said. “I'm the parking lady, you know.”

It was the “tear-jerking” letter of nomination her boss wrote, she said.

The evening Winchell received the award, her husband, Gary, started crying because he was so proud of her.

Winchell said she thought something was wrong with him. He never cries, she said, because he's so tough.

Winchell says she has always made it her goal to be anything but tough on her job.

“I wanted to change the perception of who we are. I wanted to educate people about parking because I never had any idea. I think I have done well, but you never know.”

She said the meter maids just try “to control the traffic and keep everything moving. We try to always be fair.”

About 20 years ago, Winchell would've disagreed with that statement.

Leaving her car in a parking spot with an expired meter while bartending at the Top Hat added up to around $1,000 in outstanding parking tickets over a span of four or five years.

They never used to come after you to pay your tickets, Winchell said.

Eventually, she worked off these tickets by hand-writing citations at City Hall for Wally Clark, a longtime Municipal Court judge.

But Winchell continued to get parking tickets.

“Those meter maids knew where I was parked, and the second my meter expired they got me,” she said. “If there was a ticket on my car there would be a fight.”

“(They) hated me and I hated them,” Winchell said.

She had about $100 in parking tickets again when she received a warning that her car was going to get a boot.

She visited the parking commission office and told them they weren't going to find her car to put a boot on it. She had just quit her job at the Top Hat and asked them to tell her how she was going to pay rent.

“You'll just have to put me in jail,” Winchell told Tom Kosena, former director of the parking commission.

Kosena decided to offer her a job to pay off her tickets instead of sending her to jail.

“I didn't think I'd last a week,” Winchell said.

Twenty years later, she's still checking parking meters.

“I never have a problem getting up and going to work,” she said.

Outside is the perfect place for her to work. Working in an office would prevent her from forming friendships with so many people and animals downtown.

Between writing tickets, Winchell greets friends, fellow downtown employees and strangers.

“All downtown employees are like a family,” Winchell said. “I can't live without these people.”

Over the years, she has received little gifts from people she has met. The gifts decorate the inside of her scooter.

Each knickknack has its own story.

Winchell never had a bouquet of flowers in the back left window of her scooter until Dennis, a friend, told her to stick a dried bouquet he gave her there. When that bouquet started to fall apart, she replaced it with a new one.

Sometimes people will be yelling at her about their ticket and then see her flowers, ask if it was her birthday and apologize for being so rude. The flowers also remind her to be happy, and “I have Dennis to thank for that,” Winchell said.

Also in her rear window is a Humane Society of Western Montana sticker. Winchell has a stack of pamphlets about how to treat your animals. Every car that has a dog left in it gets a pamphlet on their windshield.

Winchell said most people are nice in Missoula because the tickets are so inexpensive.

“People are different here,” she said.

Most people are only mean to her once, she said. But some people just have an attitude and want to fight with someone, and she's the perfect candidate.

“Winchell is unique in that she can defuse any hostile situation with her humor,” Guest said.

When Winchell isn't marking tires and passing out parking tickets, she likes to garden, play golf with her husband, go rafting and walk her two dogs.

While Winchell says she has experienced her share of tragedies and has had plenty of opportunities for things to turn out bad, they haven't. You can turn the bad into something amazing if you dig enough, she said.

“It's more than a paycheck,” Winchell said. “All of these relationships you take years to foster, they mean something to you.”

Amy Faxon is a newsroom intern for the Missoulian. She is a journalism student at the University of Montana.

Lone Rock School’s Patti Calkins, a long-time MPEA member and activist, and her colleagues in the school’s food service program were recognized last month by Superintendent of Public Instruction Linda McCulloch for the exceptional food program they provide students.

Calkins and her food service co-workers Cherrie Sharbono, Arja Thompson and Danice Person, also MPEA members, became the first group in Montana to be recognized for their efforts to improve the breakfast and lunch menus of the children served by the district. This is all part a national program to recognize Montana schools serving healthy school meals that are consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and USDA’s MyPyramid.

In addition to the recognition, Superintendent McCulloch presented a check for $500 to the “nutrition team” which is headed by Calkins at a school assembly. She and her team make the meals from scratch using whole grain foods, fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy products and low-fat entrees. The team serves freshly baked, whole wheat breads and like to serve locally grown and purchased foods as much as possible.

Calkins is now considered a pioneer in healthy menu planning and believes that any school with a desire to provide good nutrition can. “It just takes the people to do it.”

Calkins has a long history of achievement. She has worked for the district for over 25 years and for the past 23 years has been an MPEA member. She served as a Chapter Representative for over a dozen years and in that time was on numerous occasions the lone negotiator for a unit of 12 people. She became the person handling not only grievances but working with MPEA staff to handle unfair labor practices and mediation.

Not only was she involved in teaching new members about the process of collective bargaining but she also ended up helping new board members and superintendents understand the process.

Another reason for her success over the years is that she remained informed of the politics in her community and could be found at school board meetings when a subject affecting members was on the agenda.

(The following article by Diane Cochran of the Billings Gazette staff appeared in the newspaper’s Feb. 4 edition. Derek Fagone has been a member of MPEA since Aug.,2004.)

Type the word “antlers” into eBay’s search engine, and more than 1000 auctions pop up.

Not all of them are for real antlers. Some people are selling antler-themed collectibles or home décor.
But there are dozens of deer, elk and moose "sheds" up for bid, including some from Montana. Last week, buyers vied for a 37-pound elk rack from Fort Benton priced at $3,000.

Didn't think to check eBay for antlers?

    It's a little trick Montana Game Warden Derek Fagone picked up while investigating hunting violations.
    "It's like a chess game," Fagone said of his work in Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 5. "What makes it fun is catching these guys."
    It is not illegal to collect and sell antlers that an animal sheds naturally, but hunters have been known to unlawfully kill an animal to harvest its headgear.
    Based in Big Timber, Fagone is charged with ensuring sportsmen follow hunting, fishing and other regulations on public land in Sweet Grass County.
    "There is no typical day," he said.
    In February, going to work could mean spending a day astride a snowmobile patrolling the foothills for trappers or mountain lion hunters.
    During summer, he might ride a horse to a high mountain lake to check fishing licenses.
    Into fall and early winter, Fagone puts in long hours during big-game season, working check stations or investigating tips about violations.
    "We want people to go out there, have a good time enjoying the resources and not get into trouble doing it," Fagone said.
    Most of the time, he works alone. The next-nearest game wardens are stationed miles away in Columbus and Harlowton.
    "When I get a call in Sweet Grass County, it's me," he said.
    Most of his investigations begin with leads dialed in to TipMont, the state's tip line for fish and game violations.
    "I do think some people consider fish and game violations less serious because they're not against a person," Fagone said.
    But without reports from citizens, game wardens wouldn't be able to do their jobs, he said.
    "The odds of me coming upon it - someone shooting from the road or poaching a deer" are slim, Fagone said.
    Reporting violations is the right thing to do, he said.
    "It's an ethical thing, more than anything," he said.
    Fagone shakes his head at unethical hunters who break the rules to get a trophy animal.
    "I can't understand what the story about the big elk on the wall would have been when you know what really happened," he said.
    Fagone, who used to work as a biologist, is in his fourth year as a game warden.
    "It's a perfect fit for me," he said.

Phil Charpentier and Dawn Hicks, members of MPEA’s recently organized Lottery Chapter were recognized by their colleagues for their outstanding work.

Charpentier was named Employee of the Year for his work as a software tester, and Hicks was voted Employee of the Quarter for her work as an accounting technician.

Hicks received both her own parking place and a $25 gift certificate. Charpentier received a $50 gift certificate for his outstanding work.

Brown has been an MPEA member for the past 13 years, but has actually been at MSU-Billings since 1989. During those years she has seen the Billings institution become much more involved in the support of student life, as well as, a great many physical changes to the campus. More important to Brown are the changes in the collective bargaining process.

She is much more comfortable with interest-based bargaining that was introduced when MPEA Executive Director Quinton Nyman inherited MPEA's largest bargaining chapter. "It has been very beneficial. We get to see the other side, and management becomes aware of the problems our members have to face. It has proven to be a more productive system than shoving a piece of paper across the table and just glaring at the other side," Brown said. "I remember the work that went into putting together a competency system with performance appraisals, the setting of goals and how it fell apart because it was too complex."

Her peers are also aware of those time commitments that took her away from her home in Billings to be on the road to Helena or Butte or Missoula. Brown recalls one particular session on one of those cold, wintry Butte days. "It was so cold that when I started my car to leave and turned on the heat it broke my windshield."

Brown served on this biennium's negotiating team and said that she is looking forward to pre-budget negotiations. "The is a 'first' for us and it will put us ahead in the process."

Brown is a great fit for MSU-Billings. Born in North Dakota, Brown moved to Billings as a toddler with her parents. She graduated from Billings Senior in 1970 then right into the labor market, working at two other jobs before

beginning her career at MSU-Billings. There are changes in Billings. "Employers are begging for employees. You don't have to start at the minimum wage and employers are actually providing benefits. I've never seen this before. It provides more of an opportunity for a better start," Brown said.

Brown has two sons a 28-year-old and a 19-year-old, who is still in college. Both boys have an interest in careers involving technical education. That sort fits. Her husband works for Hewitt Packard as a computer engineer.

"I was truly surprised by the appreciation luncheon. I was lured down there with one of those 'there's a meeting we need to attend.' When I got there I asked what are you all doing here? Then it occurred to me there was no meeting." By then her peers had explained there was a meeting but it was for her. These are the same folks who successfully nominated her for MPEA's Morey/Bukvich Award in 2004, explaining that "she spends endless and tireless hours of her own time for the local chapter. We are fortunate to have such a notable and caring person representing MPEA."

MPEA Executive Director Nyman noted: "Debbie has been a true leader not only on her campus but for the university system as a whole. When people think about people helping to drive the university system they automatically think of people like the regents or campus presidents, what they don't realize is that leaders like Debbie Brown are driving the campuses for their peers by being active with MPEA. Debbie has helped me immensely in the past years through her extensive knowledge of her campus issues and her clear understanding of system wide issues. Her leadership and strong voice on the bargaining teams over the years have helped secure a great deal of positive contract language that has and will continue to benefit the membership. I can say without the least bit of hesitation that I will deeply miss Debbie's presence as chapter president and I wish her the very best in the future."

A number of MPEA’s Department of Labor and Industry members were honored for their many years of service September 7.

Long-time MPEA member Ellen Hallberg was honored for her 35 years of service with the department. During her tenure with the department Hallberg has also served her fellow MPEA members as a chapter representative. Hallberg’s 35 years of service enables her to speak knowledgably about the development of collective bargaining in Montana, about the 1991 strike, about the changes in the department as well as the services now provided.

There were seven MPEA members to receive recognition for 30 years of service. Among these were MPEA Region 2 Director Steve VanTighem, who has served MPEA members on numerous bargaining teams, as a chapter representative and as a board member for many years. Region 2 is the Great Falls area.

The six other MPEA members recognized for providing 30 years of service included Dexter Wester, Bozeman, Marvin Matt, Missoula, Kathy Yankoff, Helena, Susan Richards, Butte, Larry Cloninger, Bozeman, and Patricia Wirt, Helena.

Receiving recognition for 25 years of service was MPEA member Lonnie Cross of Glendive.

There were also six MPEA members honored for 20 years of service. Among the six were Rita Watson, Judie Rowe, Orpha Brewer, Steven Randall, Debra Hinman, all of Helena, and Julie Hallock, Glasgow.

The recognition luncheon was held on the south grounds of the Capitol and also provided service pins for those with five, 10 and 15 years of service.

Larry Chapman, a member of MPEA’s Lewis and Clark County Road and Bridge Chapter, was this year’s All-Around Champion at the 18^th annual Snow Rodeo held September 6 in Great Falls at ExpoPark.

The Snow Rodeo brings many of Montana’s heavy equipment operators together to demonstrate their respective skills. There were 68 city, county and state employees in this year’s rodeo. Heavy equipment operators from the air base were also involved. Contestants came from all over the state, according to public works officials.

Although Chapman earned the title of all-around champion, there were many other Chapter members placing in the contest.

Rich West took second place in the Snowplow event and Travis Leslie also took a second in demonstrating his skills in the use of a backhoe.

Chapman, in addition to earning All-Around Champion honors, also placed third in the motorgrader competition.

Not only must contestant be able to maneuver a snowplow, front-end loader, backhoe and motorgrader, they must also demonstrate through written and diagnostic tests their knowledge of safety and possible hazards.