Travis County Commissioners Court
February 17, 2009, 2009
Item 4
Now we have come to item no.
4.
4.
approve proclamation recognizing lynn harper for her many years of service to Travis County and proclaim Friday, February 20, 2009 as "lynn harper day.
>> I have a proclamation if I could go ahead and read it.
whereas lynn harper came to Travis County with skills molded during 30 years as a navy wife, a mother of five children, 12 dogs, 10 cats, eight chickens and two lop eared rabbits, developing skills that prepared her for the role as Travis County's parking guru and problem solver du jour, whereas lynn harper has been a dedicated and diligent employee for 15 years, surit wassing instrumental and rising to monumental supporting the executive manager of administrative operations.
whereas her institutional knowledge is so vast when the its department was asked to down load her memory on to a cd, their response was are you kidding?!!
we would need a main frame, a psychologist, a drill sergeant, and president obama's economic recovery team to accomplish such a task
>> [laughter] and whereas lynn harper has been known to bring in her own assistant, zoe, the two-year-old mall tease puppy, known for her biting wit and dogish support of Travis County whereas lynn harper is loved, cherished and obeyed by many in Travis County, she will be missed but never forgotten by all she has helped, consoled, cheered and provided parking spaces to in Travis County.
now therefore be it proclaimed that the Travis County Commissioners court does hereby thank lynn harper for her years of service and proclaims Friday, February 20th as lynn harper day in Travis County.
i move approval.
>> second.
>> well --
>> [laughter]
>> now somebody could just live up to that.
>> [laughter]
>> let me tell you there will be the same number happy that I'm gone as I can either be everybody's best friend or worst enemy, I can tell you.
parking has certainly done that, working with alicia has been incredible, mainly you never knew what one day to the other would be.
that makes you want to come to work to find out okay what's it going to be towed?
because if I had o ongoing to be towed?
if I had to sit at some sort of a job you had to the do the same thing time and time again I think that I could have gone insane.
i wouldn't say the parking hasn't come close to that.
i want to thank all of y'all for your support.
without it, alicia and I couldn't do the job.
everybody that has worked with us and all of the department heads and just everybody in the county who I have gotten such sweet notes from and it's -- it's going to be hard to be away from here.
i don't have anything particularly planned.
michael and I have already done by our planning, our travelling and stuff like that and -- in the years before.
personally I just wants to be able to do the things that I want to do.
sort of on my schedule.
like michael said, since he retired at the end of August, it's nice to go to the store not with everybody else.
you can go in the middle of the day.
you can go not on the weekend.
he said it's amazing the amount of people who are there to help you.
maybe that's what I'm looking forward to.
but it will be very hard to leave here.
i won't be doing it right away.
still doing changes in the office and stuff like that, so unfortunately I'll still be here
>> [laughter] but thank you.
>> you're quite welcome.
thanks so much for everything.
>> thank you.
>> any big plans for lynn harper day on Friday?
>> no, do I have to be here?
>> [laughter]
>> it's not a holiday.
>> yes.
>> I canceled my lunch plans thinking that I would just attend the lynn harper lunch.
>> that's it.
>> on Friday, which will be lynn harper day, we're going to host her retirement party.
it won't be a farewell because I think we'll be seeing lynn around, that -- for now and it will be at 2:00 in the Commissioners courtroom.
and having worked for -- for lynn for -- for 15 years,
>> [laughter], I want to just say a couple of things.
first, michael, you are like my hero.
>> [laughter] you have been married to lynn for 43 years.
i understand.
and you have been so blessed as have i.
and michael is here good combat training because they spent 30 years in the military together.
as a family, they had five children and traveled really the world.
and during her -- her time on shore, lynn also acted as a -- as a mother to the younger navy wives and counselor and banker and -- and advisor and everything else.
but -- but with me, she's been my insistent, my mentor, brides made, drill sergeant, planner, meeting coordinator, my confidant, partner, alarm clock and most of all very, very loyal friend and for that I really appreciate it.
she has -- during that time, she has protected me, mothered me, advised me, scolded me, cajoled me,
>> [speaking in spanish], like they say in spanish,
>> [speaking in spanish], in spanish and english, she's like a -- like Commissioner Huber from harlingen, I would be talking in spanish and of course she knew everything that I was saying, but it took me a while before she told me.
>> [laughter] about 10 years.
so -- so she's -- she is retiring again, because she retired from the navy and michael has two retirements, too, so I'm going to see if there's an adoption maybe with the cat and the dogs that she is etched in our hearts and memory forever.
i know there's several people here that want to make short comments on lynn, also.
so -- so lynn thank you so much for your service.
>> thank you.
>> we really appreciate it.
>> let's give mr.
harper an opportunity.
>> [ applause ]
>> being married for 43 years
>> [laughter], I -- when I was gone on cruises, and I came back, one time being gone for a year and -- and then a lot of deployments, coming back and everything was running smooth.
i appreciate it.
and I know she loves y'all up here and tried to help you out and support you you supporting her.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> [ applause ]
>> I just want to say thanks to lynn.
she may have worked for alicia, but she had to put up with the other five executive managers as well.
me in particular.
and I would say that of all of the training that I got as a new executive manager, this was the best trainer right here.
letting me know how and what to do and what to say, what not to say.
that she was in charge.
and so --
>> [laughter] once I learned that, once I learned that it was a miracle how smoothly things went.
thank you so much for -- for putting up with all of us and invading your space, stealing your office supplies, all of the other things that we do, drinking your coffee.
all of those wonderful things that you always did for us with a smile and encouraged us to ask you to do more.
so thank you.
>>
>> [ applause ]
>> very briefly
>> [laughter] I spent most of the last 10 years, about 15 feet away from lynn harper.
i can testify that Travis County will never see a harder working public servant.
someone whose dedication to the taxpayers unsurpassed.
lynn, happy trails.
>> thank you.
>> [ applause ]
>> I would like to echo that as well.
i think she does embody what we think of as a public servant.
that is that almost anything that needs to be done, she would do and she was concerned about the people that worked at Travis County.
if someone were really ill or having a problem, lynn was always concerned about it as well as doing her job, so we're going to miss you.
>> thank you.
>> I would just like to say that -- echo that and say that -- that lynn probably had a lot to do with me coming here when I was first interviewed.
and she helped -- helped sell the deal for me to come.
i thank her for that.
and then since then she's done everything to keep us all in line and keep the department heads for alicia toeing the line.
we just want to say we'll miss you.
>> thank you.
>> [ applause ]
>> anybody else?
if so, please come forward.
you will be greatly missed, ms.
harper.
>> certainly will.
>> certainly will.
>> I'm not going to let you get away without me saying anything.
listen, I remember when I first got here and you came in Travis County -- became a Travis County employee as an elected official.
you were -- I'll never forget it, you really did open the door and make me have a level of comfort that I have not seen anybody surpass.
you are similar to something like -- like a welcome mat.
>> [laughter] a welcome mat to Travis County because -- because you make a person feel comfortable and you make a person feel like they are right at home.
you are very accommodating and I leave you with this, friend are forever.
>> yeah.
>> friends are forever.
so -- so you have a lot of friends here.
we are going to -- we are going to miss you, thank you for your service with Travis County.
>> thank you.
>> all right.
>> I appreciate it.
>>
>> [ applause ] anybody else?
>> I remember in my fifth year as an assistant Travis County attorney getting the call from lynn that I had a parking space.
>> [laughter]
>> better than a pay raise, huh?
>>
>> [laughter]
>> I tell you, I got down on my knees and prayed.
>> [laughter] and --
>> lynn, of course, I hope you drop by any time that you are around town or -- or -- certainly I hope to have your telephone number.
it would be great to call you every once in a while, just ask for some advice.
>> lynn, there's something wrong here, I'm older than you and you are retiring.
>> thank you so much for paving the way in such a wonderful way from the folks from harlingen and everywhere else.
>> right.
>> feel free to continue to give alicia any advice you think she ought to get.
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you, lynn.
>> we will see you at 2:00 on Friday.
>> [ applause ] if we could legally give rolex watches, you would be our first deserving candidate.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, February 17, 2009 2:10 PM