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Mayor O'Connell honors long-serving Metro employees at service awards
Summary
Mayor Freddie O'Connell and Metro leaders recognized long-serving city employees at a Mayor’s Service Awards ceremony that listed dozens of honorees across departments; organizers said more than 110 employees have reached milestone service years while the mayor cited 89 honorees for 2024. The event included an invocation by Ron Denton and a post-ceremony breakfast.
Mayor Freddie O'Connell and Metro leaders honored long-serving Metropolitan government employees at the Mayor’s Service Awards, a ceremony that recognized staff with 30 or more years of service.
The event opened with brief remarks from the host, who said "over 110 employees" have met milestone service years, and an invocation from Ron Denton, identified in the transcript as a long-term Metro employee. In his remarks, O'Connell said, "We're honoring 89 Metro employees who met these milestones for 2024," and highlighted two employees who have reached 50 years of service.
The ceremony framed long tenure as a contribution to city operations and community stability. "This work is fundamentally what makes people know that they can be happy and safe in the city of Nashville and choose to call it home," O'Connell said, thanking HR and department leaders for their roles in supporting employees. The mayor singled out an employee referenced in the transcript as "Rosie Hayes" for a 50-year milestone; a later roll call named "Roseanne Hayes Shacklep" with 50 years, a naming inconsistency present in the transcript.
After the invocation and mayoral remarks, the host called department-by-department lists of honorees for photographs with the mayor. Departments and named honorees included (by excerpt from the transcript) Circuit Court (Deborah Hennessy, Sandra Perriman, Mary Stevens, Kimberly Wolf), County Clerk (Anita Taylor), Criminal Court Clerk (Amy Rooker, John Hupka), Emergency Management (Scott Harris), Fire Department (Tarasita Burks, Jonna Lee, Samuel McPherson Jr., Chris Newsome), General Services (Terry Adkins, Harold Fulton), General Sessions (Kenneth Connell, Gina Fox, Melanie Taylor), Health Department (Jeffrey Baugh, Sharonda Broughton), Human Resources (Janet Simmons Trotter), Metro Action Commission (Havron Boyd, Gina Hunter, Rochelle Robertson, Tony Wansley), Metro Council (Roseanne Hayes Shacklep), Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure (George Haines Jr., Byron Macklin, Paula Underwood), Metro Parks (John Holmes Jr., Jason Osteen, Mark Watkins), Metro Police Department (Alma Brady, Christopher Brennan, Jacqueline Cockrell and others), Register of Deeds (Marilyn Erickson, Tammy Frazier), Sheriff's Office (Dan Gargas, Samantha Hutton), State Trial Courts (Ranelle Griffin), Metro Water Services (Danny Ankenbauer, Martin Mast, Gregory Knowles and others), Assessor of Property (Jacqueline Ridgeway, Christy Scott), and Juvenile Court (Alan Calhoun, Sharon Denise Reinkorn, Dana Wolf).
Organizers closed the ceremony by inviting honorees and guests to a breakfast buffet. The transcript records both the host's statement that "over 110 employees" have reached milestone service years and the mayor's statement citing "89 Metro employees" honored for 2024; the two figures appear in different parts of the program and may reflect different counts (total eligible employees versus those being recognized at this event). The transcript also contains inconsistent naming for one 50-year honoree ("Rosie Hayes" versus "Roseanne Hayes Shacklep").
The ceremony involved brief remarks, an invocation, the mayor's remarks, and a department-by-department honoring of employees; no formal motions, votes, or policy decisions were recorded in the transcript. After the closing remarks and applause, attendees were asked to join a reception and breakfast behind the event area.
