City Manager Lori Ann Farrell Harrison presented Senior Engineer Shirjeel Muhammad with the City Manager Leadership Award at the monthly Meet and Greet event on Thursday Feb. 27.

“Maintaining public transportation is a big priority for our City Council and residents,” Farrell Harrison said. “I’m grateful to Shirjeel for his dedication to this important issue and his enthusiasm in getting the job done. This is a well-deserved honor.”

Muhammad joined the City’s Transportation Services Division in the Public Services Department in 2018 with over 20 years of experience working on a variety of transportation engineering and traffic signal projects.

Muhammad is currently managing several Active Transportation, traffic signal design projects, and several traffic signal synchronization projects. HE has shown excellent leadership in mentoring and training new staff in the Transportation Services Division.

The division has recently hired new staff to fill vacant positions. With the new staff joining the team, Muhammad encourages teamwork and works closely with new staff to make sure they are trained and have a thorough understanding of transportation related tasks, design, and signal operations.

In addition, he has built great working relationships with Public Services staff in other divisions and other Departments.

His knowledge, skill level and professionalism have been evident from the time he started with the city. He enthusiastically accepts special assignments and looks for ways to improve efficiencies and processes. He responds quickly to public records requests and to risk management requests from the Human Resources Department for information related to the City’s traffic signal infrastructure.

Muhammad’s responsibilities include management of planning and design of capital improvement projects and the day-to-day management of the City’s Transportation Management Center (TMC).

Prior to coming to Costa Mesa, he has worked for public and private sectors in California and worked abroad for several years for the Government of Qatar in Middle East. Muhammad graduated from NED University of Engineering and Technology in Pakistan with a degree in Civil Engineering. He also holds a Master Degree in Transportation Engineering  from California State University, Long Beach.

In addition, City Manager Farrell Harrison welcomed several new employees and congratulated three on their promotions.

Jennifer Avila is the new Video Production Aide in the City Manager’s Office and Destiny Andrews and Michael Sniezak are a new Interns working in the Development Services.

Nikki Johnson is the new Code Enforcement Officer working in the Fire Department and Arianna Centeno is the new Community Services Leader II working in the ROCKS program at Balearic.

Benjamin Morrison is one of the new Lifeguards working at the Downtown Recreation Center, and Vincent Legaspi is the new Range Master for the Police Department.

In Public Services, Salem Afeworki is the new Energy & Sustainability Services Manager, Iris La is the new Assistant Engineer working in the Transportation Division in Public Services and Mathew Limon is the new Equipment Mechanic II working in the Maintenance/Fleet services, Ramin Nikoui is the new Assistant Engineer also working in the Transportation Services and Seung Yang is the new Principal Civil Engineer working in the Engineering Division.

Those receiving promotions include Elise Price, who has been promoted to Community Services Leader III and Kevin Stoddard has been promoted to Recreation Supervisor in the Parks & Community Services Department.

Finally, Kevin Henderson has been promoted to Lead Equipment Mechanic for the Maintenance Services Division.