City Manager Tom Hatch presented Finance Department Accounting Specialist Robindale Shepherd with the March City Manager Leadership Award at the monthly employee Meet and Greet Thursday March 23.

“Robindale has served Costa Mesa for 25 years now and works tirelessly to improve our accounts payable operations and a variety of other Finance Department functions,” Hatch said. “Congratulations to her on this wonderful achievement.”

Shepherd joined the City of Costa Mesa in May of 1992 an Accounting Specialist II. During that time, she has been responsible for multiple assignments, including payroll, payments of essential services and processing vendor documentation.

She worked on several big projects including payments to the San Joaquin Transportation Corridor Agency and Newport Mesa Unified School District developer fees. She assisted with the development of a desk manual for Accounts Payable and improved the storage of Accounts Payable documents through a new labeling system.

Prior to working at Costa Mesa City Hall, Shepherd served the country in the U.S. Air Force. While she was stationed in Germany she met her husband of 31 years.

Shepherd has a Bachelor of Science degree from Vanguard University, and on an interesting side note, for three years from 2006 to 2009, she worked part-time at Starbucks as a barista while still employed with the City.

In addition to honoring Shepherd, City Manager Hatch welcomed several new employees including Tammy Arrington, a new Office Specialist in the City Clerk’s office, Jasmine Vega, the Finance Department’s new Accounting Specialist II, Aracelli Guillen, the Parks & Community Services Department new Recreation Leader II and Nuvia Sandoval-Nava a new Recreation Leader III in the Parks & Community Services Department

He also congratulated Mike Fuentes on his promotion to Buyer for the Finance Department.