Fleet Service

By Mahanth S. Joishy, Fleet Superintendent

 

On June 22 Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and I recognized an outstanding public servant, Fleet Analyst David Coy as 2021 Fleet Employee of the Year at the Nakoosa Trail ribbon cutting ceremony. Fleet Employee of the Year is a new tradition launched in 2018, and it is one that we hope will continue forever. In the last few years, the winners were talented auto mechanics. For the first time this year, a highly skilled administrative staffer has earned the award.

I am difficult to work for because I have high expectations of the team and I am in a constant state of impatience when it comes to the work we do. This applies even more to David than anyone else at Fleet, because he is one of only three direct reports, his desk is within shouting distance, and I also grew up in city government as a fleet analyst myself in the early 2000s, so I know the role. His position never existed before, and was created intentionally. We’ve always got a long list of stuff for David to do every day.

I am proud to report that David has already exceeded my own stint as an analyst with the work he has done since being hired in 2019. Nothing feels better at work, than having younger folks that you mentor have the potential to overtake your own career. Thanks to David we are harnessing the power of millions of lines of data produced on a rolling basis, 24/7 by our City’s vehicles and equipment. We’ve combined our maintenance work order system, fuel tracking system, MUNIS, and GPS system into one monster working database that David created, and runs. This has helped make Fleet a national model for data integration. I’ve instructed him not to start World War III when I see the multicolored lines of computer code on his monitors that I am nowhere close to understanding. Anytime someone at Fleet, a vendor, or around the City needs any critical information, David is able to query it. It’s not an exaggeration to say that before David was hired it felt like we were flying blind in many areas, because we couldn’t manage what we couldn’t measure.

Thanks to this analysis work we are consistently doing more with less: improving automotive service and eliminating unnecessary costs to our customer departments. We have cut the fleet’s emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses by about 10% in the last few years, and we will keep attacking that number and getting even better at it. David successfully launched the Fleet Contest, where all employees compete to achieve our metrics goals – actually based on the case study question in his job interview. We used his ideas generated prior to even being offered the job.

David embodies the #TeamCity spirit by spending significant time outside the fleet world. He implemented and runs the Mayor’s bimonthly #TeamCity Awards, which has recognized hundreds of City staff from every single City agency for their great work since 2020. He is a principal member of the Madison Vision Zero Steering Committee, also formed in 2020, which will be eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries from Madison’s roadways in the near future. He is one of the key members of our large and growing special events, website, and social media outreach plans. He is also active on the Multicultural Affairs Committee (MAC), assisting on multiple important initiatives there. He partners with the City Clerk’s Office on election logistics. His responsibilities encompass more but this is a sample. Importantly and impressively, he always accomplishes his duties with a calm, helpful, and friendly demeanor.

David grew up in Puebla, Mexico and moved to Wisconsin at age 19. He majored in Statistics with a focus on Actuarial Science, and minored in Economics and Math at UW-Lacrosse. Prior to City service David worked at BMO Harris as a loan processor, and then as a process analyst- and of relevance to his current role, he focused on improving operational efficiencies at the bank. He is married to Emily, who joined the ribbon cutting ceremony with his Mother-in-law Lori Ahrens. His hobbies include travelling, playing basketball, and rock climbing.

As with all of our Employees of the Year, we are expecting bigger and better things from David in the years to come.

You can read about past winners here:
Employee of the year 2020: Blake Scoville
Employee of the year 2019: Roger Benda & Scott Tetzlaff