Gallegos makes long-lasting impact while providing short-term workers

Christine Gallegos, supervisor of the temporary services division, believes teamwork is the best way to serve city departments. The new Temporary Employee Services Program makes Gallegos' job more efficient.

Story and photos by Dave Schafer

Attention to detail and saving money for the city drive Christine Gallegos, supervisor of the temporary services division. Those traits also win her praise from internal and external customers.

“Christine Gallegos and her staff are very helpful and are always a pleasure to work with,” wrote Jeff Evins, president of Evins Personnel Consultants, a temporary staffing agency.

“I really appreciate all of their efforts and look forward to a long relationship with your department and the city.”

Evins’ praise, echoed by other temporary staffing vendors, means a lot to Gallegos because she knows the importance of strong business relations.

On any given day, the city employs 200 to 700 temporary employees hired through the 15 agencies that have contracts with the city. Gallegos supervises the staff that places those workers in the correct jobs, processes their paperwork, and ensures the agencies and workers get paid.

Mutual trust allows the city to get the best financial deals possible, Gallegos said. The vendors know that she doesn’t play games, that an employee hired for a particular job will do that job only.

“We want to do what’s best for the city, and the best way to accomplish that is to work as a team with the vendors,” said Gallegos, who frequently pauses before she speaks, carefully choosing her words. Then, when she speaks, her eyes look off to the side as she mentally places each word.

“Our most important job is taking care of the departments. They’re our customers,” she said, her hands moving in rhythm with her words.

Trust and teamwork also make the vendors more responsive when Gallegos or one of her staff calls a vender with an urgent, last-minute request.

One Friday in September 2002, a solid waste employee called Gallegos at 5 p.m. and said Tropical Storm Fay was coming ashore that evening. The department would need temporary refuse laborers to help clean up. Gallegos pulled out her cell phone and called an agency to request workers.

Early the next morning, a group of temporary workers was on the streets, helping to clean up the mess caused by the storm.

When Gallegos took over as temporary services supervisor, she focused on providing better one-on-one communication with departments.

New approach
“Administratively and technologically, Mrs. Gallegos has taken the temporary employee services program to a much higher service level,” said her supervisor, Chas Smith.

Because of retirements and a rise in special projects, temporary services’ workload has increased “significantly,” he said. He expects it to process about $9 million in vendor invoices this year.

Gallegos started with the city as an administrative assistant in 1998. She’s been temporary services’ administrative supervisor more than three years.

“I felt when I took over the division that more could be done to better serve the departments and improve communication with them,” she said. “Some departments needed more one-on-one training.”

New system
Gallegos and her staff used to spend tons of time inputting information into the computer. But in late December, temporary services began using the Temporary Employee Services Program, an online application that automates most of the division’s services.

“It’s more than a tool. It’s operations,” Gallegos said. DataMatrix Services Inc. created the program with input from Gallegos, Smith and the temporary services staff. The program allows departments to post job openings and vendors to view and fill those jobs. Meanwhile, Gallegos oversees the process and makes changes when needed.

When the Fire Department wanted to hire a programmer analyst III, Gallegos saw the posting and contacted the department. Through the temporary services contract, they could hire a senior programmer analyst at a lower salary, saving the department and the city money, she recommended.

Senior programmers are classified as contract workers, and the city has already negotiated a set wage for that position, Gallegos said. But a programmer analyst III is a specialized worker whose salary would be higher because it would have to be negotiated. Yet, the job duties are the same.

Like the vendors, Mayor Bill White has noticed Gallagos’ conscientiousness and good work.