October 25, 2006

Pitts’s professionalism and kindness were cited often by her eight co-workers in the Catawba County Register of Deeds Office, who nominated her for the honor of being named Catawba County Employee of the Year for 2006. On Tuesday night, at the County’s annual Awards Night event at CVCC’s Multipurpose Facility, Pitts was named Employee of the Year.

“How many people can say they have worked in one office for 62 plus years? Well, Lucille Pitts can!,” said Catawba County’s current Register of Deeds, Donna Spencer, in her letter of nomination. “She started working for the Register of Deeds Office on January 1, 1944. No, this date is not an error. When Lucille started working, the county didn’t offer New Year’s Day off. This is only one of the many changes Lucille has seen since her beginning with the County. She has gone from a time when, if a document was brought in to be recorded, the attorney was charged whatever this office thought they should be charged. Now, a paralegal brings the document in and there is a set charge across the state. Before 1968, all documents had to be typed (with no copy machines or carbon). One person would type documents from the original and, after each document was finished, one person proofread it out loud to another. In December 1968, when Mrs. (Ruth) Mackie took office, she replaced all of the staff except Lucille. Therefore, Lucille has worked with only four Registers of Deeds in all of her 62 plus years. She is kind to her co-workers and the public. Her knowledge of the indexing rules is helpful everyday. She has been doing the indexing of real property since she has been working here, and that has gone from writing the information down, to typing it on a typewriter, to now using a computer. Many people would not have made it through these changes, but Lucille has endured them all without any problems. I was surprised to see she had never won this award, and feel she deserves the glory of such an award.”

In her nomination of Pitts, Deputy Register of Deeds I Kristina Ennis said, “She displays professionalism and kindness to everybody alike. She works very well with all of the girls here in the office as well as with the public. She has shown initiative and leadership in every task she performs. For example: anytime I or someone else has asked for something she is not required to help with, Lucille will still go out of her way to help you find what you need. Lucille’s attitude further exceeds her character. I have heard a man come in and say hello to Lucille and, to my surprise, the next thing to come out of her mouth is ‘well, Bobby. . .I haven’t seen you in 20 years!’ Now tell me one other person who can make someone feel that special and/or important just be remembering their name after all of those years. That is just a couple of examples of why Lucille should win the award for Employee of the Year.”

“ ‘On the job on a long time basis’ is the perfect description of Lucille Pitts,” said Assistant Register of Deeds Rita Beaver. “She was absent for a broken leg and broken hip, but as soon as she was able to walk on a walker she was back at work. The Catawba County Register of Deeds Office is her life. She has repeatedly stated she wanted to work until she was carried out on a stretcher. Lucille has not asked, ‘What can Catawba County do for me?’ but rather ‘What can I do for Catawba County?’”

The Register of Deeds Office holds all deeds and deeds of trust (which involves the borrowing of money); maps; rights of way; and all records that have anything to do with real estate. The office also keeps birth and death certificates from 1913, and marriage records which go all the way back to Catawba County’s founding in 1842. When Pitts started working for the County, a birth certificate cost fifty cents. Now they cost $10. She has worked for four Registers of Deeds: L.H. Phillips, Willie Trott, Ruth Mackie and now Donna Spencer. The office has always been a busy place, but the volume of business has grown dramatically in recent years.

"When I started working for the County, copying equipment like we use today didn't exist," Pitts said in 2004, on the occasion of her 60th year with Catawba County. "And we had one phone line, which some of the attorneys might use for 15 minutes or more. With manual typewriters, we had to count the exact number of spaces needed before we typed a letter or document. We didn't have as many people coming into the office as we do now, but we were doing almost everything by hand, so it was more difficult and time consuming."

“If an employee, like Lucille, gives 62 years of their life working for this county, should she not deserve ‘Employee of the Year’ just one time?” asked Deputy Register of Deeds II Irene Stephens, in her letter nominating Pitts for the award.

Pitts was born in Georgia, but moved to Newton when she was in the second grade. She is a graduate of Newton-Conover High School and attended the Newton Business School.

Before coming to work for Catawba County, she worked in the Decorations and Medals Office of the United States Marine Corps in Washington, D.C., and was responsible for typing letters of commendation to Marine medal winners.

Pitts and her late husband, Ralph, had one son, Ralph Allen Pitts, who is currently serving as general counsel for Belks in Charlotte. She has one stepson, Larry Pitts, and a stepdaughter, Patricia Kale, as well as five grandchildren and four step-grandchildren.

“When I came to work for Catawba County 10 years ago, Lucille Pitts was the first person I met,” wrote Deputy Register of Deeds II Edna Miller. “Since that day, I have had the pleasure of working side by side with her almost every day. Lucille has been a prominent part of the Register of Deeds office for 62 years. She arrives for work before everyone else and gets the office prepared for the day of business. She always greets everyone with a smile and makes your visit to the Register of Deeds Office a pleasant experience. Lucille takes pride in computer indexing all documents recorded in our office. She keeps up with new statutes and changes to the indexing procedures as they are amended from time to time. Lucille is the utmost example of a Catawba County employee and should be recognized as Employee of the Year for 2006.”

“To attain such a long tenure with an employer, one would certainly love their job and the people they come in contact with on a daily basis,” said Deputy Register of Deeds I Betty Richards. “In the span of her 62-year career, Lucille has adapted, extremely well, to the ever-changing work environment. She has adapted from handwriting all tasks, to manual typewriters and carbon paper and now to an era of computers, facsimile machines and copiers. Lucille performs her jobs with no complaints. She is always at work, rarely taking a day off. She always has a smile and pleasant greeting for her co-workers and for those coming into our office. Lucille’s work ethic and attitude are certainly attributes we should all emulate.”

“Lucille Pitts is one of the most loyal and dedicated County employees that I know,” wrote Deputy Register of Deeds I Tracy Pruitt. “She has worked with the Register of Deeds office for 62 years and rarely takes well-deserved vacation time or misses work for sickness. She is very polite and helpful to the public, attorneys and paralegals that come into the office. I think that Lucille is the best person to receive Employee of the Year.”

“I have worked with Lucille Pitts for over twelve years,” wrote Deputy Register of Deeds II Pam Williams. “She has always displayed the utmost love and energy for her job. She is known and well liked by all the attorneys and customers that come in. Lucille goes above and beyond the call of duty and is always eager to help anyone. Even when she was out on medical leave, her job was never far from her mind. Lucille is truly the employee of the year, if not the century.”

“I’d like to thank the girls in the Register of Deeds Office for nominating me. That means a lot to me,” Pitts said in brief remarks after being presented with the honor. “I’d also like to thank the Employee Committee for selecting me for this honor and the people of Catawba County for allowing me to work for the County for all these years. Thank you.”

Thirteen Catawba County employees were nominated for the Employee of the Year honor. Other nominees included: Bob Blair, Building Services Official III, Building Services; Joy Boone, Certified Nursing Assistant II, Public Health; Gordon Capelletty, Psychological Program Director II, Social Services; Marilyn Klinger, Administrative Assistant I, Public Health; Alice Layne, Home Health Nursing Supervisor, Public Health; Jennifer McCracken, Children's Services Nursing Supervisor, Public Health; Miriam Powell, Risk Manager, Risk Management; Julie Raper, Food Stamp Supervisor, Social Services; Linda Shull, Administrative Assistant I, Library; Debra Ann Young, Administrative Support Specialist, Public Health; and Armin Wallner, Chief Building Services Official, Utilities and Engineering.

Another highlight of the evening was the presentation of the 2006 Team Award. "We began giving Team Awards in 1994 to honor groups of employees whose combined efforts improve County services," said County Manager Tom Lundy, who served as Master of Ceremonies for the County's Awards Night. "We have always appreciated the value of work done by groups of employees who focus their energies on a common goal."

This year’s Catawba County Team Award was presented to a Social Services Legal Team working specifically with child welfare cases. The team is led by Amy Herman, a Program Manager with the Department Social Services and includes Staff Attorneys David Abernethy and Lauren Vaughan and Legal Assistants Joy Brown and Terra Butler.

“The courts in child abuse, neglect and dependency cases regularly require paternity testing to verify the paternity of children before the court and ensure that the courts address the rights of all parents involved,” said Social Worker Supervisor III April Greenhill, who nominated the team for the award. “Many parents, particularly estranged fathers, are difficult to locate and even more difficult to motivate to appear at a lab for a paternity test. Many parents often showed up for court once, either as a result of being incarcerated and being brought involuntarily, or for other reasons, only to be ‘lost’ again with no paternity test. As a result, many cases, and therefore many children’s lives, were put on hold while the court waited on paternity tests to be scheduled, for parents to be located and to submit to testing, and for results to be returned. This made it difficult for cases to move forward in a timely manner as required by law and to develop a plan in the best interest of the children involved. In addition, judges became frustrated with DSS over testing that had not been completed despite the social worker’s and the child support agent’s best efforts. This detrimentally affected the credibility of the agency.”

The team discussed this problem and agreed that child abuse, neglect, and dependency cases could be expedited if a staff member was present at court who was trained and equipped to take samples for paternity testing immediately and at the courthouse. Staff contacted another county’s Department of Social Services where child support agents are trained to take samples for paternity testing and inquired about how to arrange necessary training for Catawba County Social Services’ legal staff. One of the team members, Joy Brown, then arranged an in-house training for staff to be trained and equipped to take the necessary samples on-site or in the field. Ms. Brown further agreed to be trained and to regularly take the genetic tests at court, on child welfare court days.

“Joy Brown has been available every Tuesday at court to take paternity testing samples immediately upon the judge’s order,” Greenhill added. “Cases that had been stagnant for some time are moving along. Every judge who has presided over juvenile court has remarked about how helpful this process is. As a result, cases will be adjudicated sooner, and children will find permanence and safety more quickly, because the Court and the Department will be better able to locate and address the needs and rights of all parents.”

Awards Night was also a time to recognize other County employees who were honored professionally during the past year. A Family NET Design Team, which created the Family NET (Nurturing, Education and Training) Program of the Department of Social Services, and a Medicare Part D Community Outreach Team, which created a series of informational community meetings to help citizens understand new Medicare guidelines and properly apply for new prescription drug plans, won National Association of Counties (NACo) Achievement Awards.

More than 40 employees who earned individual degrees or honors were recognized during the employee recognition dinner, along with several departments and units within departments which received professional awards. Twelve employees who have retired in the past year were saluted, along with County employees who have served for five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty and thirty-five years. Two County employees and two retired County employees who have passed away in the last year, Daphne Moody and Wanda Spencer with the Department of Social Services, and Phillip Lynn Justice (retired from Emergency Services), Evelyn Rhodes (retired from the County Library) and Hella Pollard (retired from the Sheriff’s Office) were remembered.

"Our Employee Awards night is one of the most important events we have each year," Lundy said. "The high quality of services delivered to our citizens is a reflection of the fine work done by our employees. It is always a great privilege for members of the Board of Commissioners and me to spend an evening recognizing many of our employees for outstanding work, and thanking each and every one for the part they play in helping make Catawba County a great place in which to live and work."