St. Tammany Parish Clerk of Court Malise Prieto announced the employees for the fourth quarter of 2008 to be Don duQuesnay Jr., Vicky Crow and Fay Kelly.

Employees are nominated for the Employee of the Month program by customers, coworkers and managers and then selected for displaying attributes such as providing excellent customer service, being a team player, sharing the Clerk’s vision, leadership skills, sharing knowledge and mentoring coworkers, while displaying a number of other positive qualities.

The Clerk’s goal is to provide exemplary customer service to all who call upon her office, and these employees personify traits leading to that goal.

Pictured are, from left, Don duQuesnay, Fay Kelly, Vicky Crow and Malise Prieto.

DuQuesnay, October Employee of the Month, began his career at the Clerk’s office in September 2006 as the Clerk’s Election Coordinator.

The Clerk’s office oversees the election process in our parish for both local and state elections and duQuesnay has the responsibility of coordinating and organizing all scheduled local elections. He must assure compliance to the law for each election, and St. Tammany typically has between five and eight elections per year. DuQuesnay communicates with a tremendous number of people from our community in his duties to prepare for an election. DuQuesnay has a bachelor of science degree in communications and an associates degree in electronics.

DuQuesnay maintains a close professional working relationship with the State Commissioner of Elections, the Secretary of State, St. Tammany’s Registrar of Voters and Board of Elections Supervisors, delegates from respective governing authorities, and nearly 1,300 elections commissioners who work in the polls on election day. He and the other two members of the election team must develop and schedule mandatory educational schools for commissioners and commissioners-in-charge, in addition to handling pre-election training for poll commissioners. In 2008, there were eight annual elections, with little downtime from the time one election cycle ended and another began.

Some election cycles overlapped, which made the many administrative deadlines associated with duQuesnay’s job a top priority. During 2008, duQuesnay accompanied Prieto to many election schools, where he helped with organization of the attendees and remained positive and enthusiastic in his interaction with new commissioners, offering information and support as they were given detailed instructions for each election.

Crow, the November Employee of the Month, began her career in 1980. Over the years, Crow has worked in many areas of the Civil Department. She began by working in Customer Service and processed a large volume of new civil suits.

This process requires a thorough understanding of the civil litigation processes to include cost estimates. Crow strives to greet every customer courteously and professionally and has received throughout the years many customer satisfaction letters complimenting her service. Crow trained to be a civil docket clerk and worked in several court divisions before she was designated a new employee mentor.

Currently, she has the responsibility of training all new staff members on civil docket clerk procedures. In this accountability, Crow processes actual work and works side by side with new coworkers and explains the process for all pleadings.

She enters data into the Clerk’s computer system, answers telephone inquiries pertaining to cases from the public, and prepares and sends notices to defendants and attorneys. She teaches her trainees how to index information into the computer programs and processes motions, subpoenas and other legal documents. Crow displays extreme patience and puts her new coworkers at ease as they train for their new positions. Crow’s dedication to the Clerk’s training goals and her willingness to assist her coworkers are very much appreciated.

Kelly, Recording Deputy Clerk, was selected as the December Employee of the Month.

Kelly joined the Clerk’s team in 1997 in the Recording Department as an indexer for COB, MOB, and miscellaneous documents. As a recording indexer, she was responsible for indexing pertinent information from real estate documents including mortgages, cash sales, judgments, liens, contracts and any instrument that affected immovable property. She assisted customers in person and via telephone concerning the cost of recording legal documents such as cash sales, mortgages, judgments, liens, partial releases, SBA mortgage loans, contracts, etc.

Kelly progressed in her job duties and was selected to be cross-trained in Personal Documents.

This is a customer service position where the public is greeted and marriage licenses and birth certificates are issued. After assisting in Personal Documents during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the tremendous workload associated with individuals replacing documents lost in the hurricane, Kelly was cross-trained to audit legal documents. In this area of responsibility, Kelly ensures that all legal documents being returned to customers have been reviewed for correctness. Kelly was congratulated on her career accomplishments.