Guiding Lights

Mayra Hypolite
Planning & Development
As far as Susan Thomas was concerned, city employees rated no higher than one on a scale of 1-5. Then Thomas heard Mayra Hypolite speak at an evening super neighborhood meeting. Hypolite is an assistant chief inspector and a super neighborhood liaison for four super neighborhoods.

Listening to Hypolite, Thomas began to change her mind. “Mayra was informed, motivational and increased our confidence with the city,” Thomas wrote. “We couldn’t believe how professional she was.” Then, Thomas asked the others at the meeting about Hypolite. They replied that she was a go-getter who got the correct answer to a citizen’s request within two hours.

Still skeptical, Thomas tested Hypolite. She reported an overflowing, smelly dumpster behind her business that belonged to a nearby apartment complex. Within 30 minutes, another city employee was helping with the problem, Thomas wrote.

“I called her with more complaints and questions and she would always smile and get me the help I needed. Thank you for having such a dedicated employee. If I could steal her, I would.”

David Kamyk
HPD
Before eating her lunch at Cafe Express at Uptown Park, Suzy Ginsburg stood up to hug a friend. When she sat down, her purse with her keys, credit cards, driver’s license, cell phone and checkbook were gone.

A friend gave her a phone to call HPD. Officer David Kamyk responded. He waited for a tow truck to take her car to the dealership, Ginsburg wrote. Then he drove her to the dealership, gave the dealer her case number and made sure she changed her house locks, canceled her credit cards and closed her bank accounts.

“When he felt I was safe, he said goodbye,” Ginsburg wrote.

Although he was off duty, Kamyk didn’t stop working the case. He went back to every Galleria store where the alleged thief purchased goods with Ginsburg’s credit card, got the woman’s description and the video surveillance tapes, and alerted all the security and police in the Galleria and Uptown Park areas.

“This is an unbelievable officer,” Ginsburg wrote. “He cares for the victim and does everything to catch the perpetrator. I would have been lost without him.”

Darrell Corbin
Solid Waste Management
Darrell Corbin not only picks up the garbage in Don Turrentine’s neighborhood each week, he also smiles and waves at the residents.

“And he gives extra attention to us old folk and our sometimes lateness in putting out our cans,” Turrentine wrote. If the cans aren’t out, Mr. Corbin will stop and ask the resident if he needs help.

“This is very commendable and appreciated,” Turrentine wrote. “I hope he remains on this route as long as I remain a resident.”

Editor’s note: In the fall 2000 Extra Miler, Darrell Corbin was featured in the Mayor’s Spotlight column.

Daniel Escobar
Public Works & Engineering
Juan Munguia
Health & Human Services
Every time Kenan Lott saw a mobile food unit employee dump food and grease into a storm sewer, he called Juan Munguia in health’s food safety and inspection division. Munguia always sent an inspector out, Lott wrote. But when the inspectors arrived, the men had stopped dumping. The law says inspectors can’t write a citation unless they see the dumping. “Mr. Munguia remained courteous throughout a year of my calls and questions,” Lott wrote.

Lott also called Daniel Escobar in PW&E’s storm water enforcement group. Within 24 hours, Escobar began investigating Lott’s complaint. He worked odd hours to document his charges, Lott wrote.

And he succeeded. He caught the violators in the early morning hours.

“These two men are definitely ‘For Houston,’” Lott wrote. “The city should be proud of them.”

Bruce Banks, Edwin Darby
Solid Waste Management
One week before their neighborhood National Night Out event, Sarah Lancelin saw heavy trash on a Griggs Road esplanade. Dignitaries would be driving on Griggs Road past the dumped heavy trash to get to the event, wrote Lancelin and Kenneth Simpson of the MacGregor Trail Civic Club.

But regular heavy trash pick up was always on the third Tuesday of the month. “My greatest aim,” Lancelin wrote, “was to get the trash picked up and to prevent further dumping on the esplanade.”

Lancelin explained the situation to Bruce Banks and Edwin Darby. Banks said they would try to pick it up.

Ninety minutes before the event, Banks and Darby told Lancelin they had removed the trash. “These guys cleared the way for an evening without embarrassment,” Lancelin wrote. She called the men kind and sensitive.