Citizen Centennial 11-1-2013
Centennial
Arapahoe County, Colorado • Volume 12, Issue 50
DROP-OFF SERVICE
November 1, 2013
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourcentennialnews.com
Noise monitors in place Airport on track to register 3,500 complaints in 2013 By George Lurie
glurie@ourcoloradonews.com
Centennial security guard Doug D’Josey shows Kerry Pinkney where to place her ballot. She had come in to drop off her ballot in the lobby of the Centennial Civic Center on Oct. 28. Pinkney moved to Centennial from Australia. Photo by George Lurie
Clerk relishes her work in Centennial Madison has been with city since 2003 By George Lurie
glurie@ourcoloradonews.com Brenda Madison was hired as Centennial’s deputy city clerk in December 2003. At the time, the city was just two years old. “A friend who was doing contract work for the city was putting feelers out for an assistant clerk position and invited me to come in and interview,” Madison said. Seven years later, after Centennial became a “home rule” city and the clerk and recorder job changed to an appointed rather than elected position, then-city manager Jacque Wedding-Scott promoted Madison to the department’s top job. Today, she has the distinction of being Centennial’s longest-tenured employee. “Brenda is a consummate professional,” says Centennial City Manager John Danielson. “The knowledge and skills she demonstrates daily do not go unnoticed. We’re lucky to have her.” “When I started working here, there was no city clerk’s office,” Madison said. “I pretty much put it together, from establishing procedures and creating forms to all of the other things we do today. I have been very fortunate to have a very stellar staff,” Madison added, crediting in particular her deputy clerk, Barb Setterlind, who has been with her since 2007. “Barb and I work very closely together,” she said, including sitting side by side at every city council meeting. During council meetings, Madison focuses “mostly on procedural things. The details of what’s being discussed by the council and city staff are really not part of my bailiwick,” she said. “I concentrate on making sure the meeting is running smoothly and that we are accurately recording everything.” Madison’s job description is fairly wideranging. “I am the designated election official, clerk to city council, in charge of records management, liquor licensing,
The country’s second-busiest general aviation airport wants to be a good neighbor. So in an effort to help minimize the impact of noise from the more than 850 aircraft that take off and land at Centennial Airport every day, the Arapahoe County Public Airport Authority now employs a full-time “noise specialist” — and just finished installing 12 noise monitors in a wide area around the airport’s perimeter. The 22-foot-tall monitors, six located in Arapahoe County and six in Douglas County, were purchased with a $1.5 million grant from the FAA. According to Scott Drexler, Centennial Airport’s noise and planning specialist, the monitors will all be fully operational by the end of October. Airport officials also plan to utilize two additional mobile monitors that can be moved around in response to future noise complaints. “Just because your house isn’t right next to a monitor, it doesn’t mean that our system won’t be able to track the noise levels in your neighborhood,” said Drexler, who has worked at the airport for two years and been in his current job as noise specialist for five months. “Noise is very subjective,” he said. “Working here, you get used to it. It doesn’t bother me at all. And I actually live just a mile and a half from the airport.” But when the Centennial Airport Community Noise Roundtable was created in May 2009, aircraft engine noise had become a big concern for many living and working near the airport, which does not handle commercial airline traffic but still
Noise continues on Page 7
City of Centennial Clerk and Recorder Brenda Madison is the city’s longest-tenured employee. Photo by George Lurie accepting passport applications, keeping track of everything that goes in to the municipal code. I also do pawnbroker licensing, recruit boards and commissions, publish legal notices,” she added. “My days can get pretty busy.” “You wouldn’t know it from looking at my office but I am a very organized person,” she added. “You have to be organized to be a city clerk. Accuracy in all aspects of the job is the most important thing to me — making sure we don’t make mistakes, and if we do, taking care of them right away.” Born in Phoenix, Madison moved to Colorado when she was in the sixth grade. She calls her husband Mo “the love of my life” and has two daughters, Jenny and Brandee. Her resume reads like a Horatio Alger story: Hired as a receptionist by the City of Englewood when she was 22, she worked her way into positions of increasing responsibility in the city’s personnel, central cashiering and police departments.
In 1991, Madison said, “I found my true calling and went to work in the city clerk’s office.” Pat Crow, then Englewood’s city clerk, recognized Madison’s abilities and eventually promoted her to the position of deputy city clerk. Then, in 2001, she accepted a position as Sheridan’s city clerk, and a year and a half later came to work in Centennial. Madison, who has taken courses at the University of Colorado and Arapahoe Community College but has no formal degree, has been honored twice by the Colorado Municipal Clerks Association (CMCA) with Distinguished Service awards. In 2010, she served as CMCA state president. Today, she earns $101,000 a year. Contrary to what some might think, election season is not a particularly busy Clerk continues on Page 7
One of 12 noise monitors installed by Centennial Airport. Courtesy photo
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