Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, October 19, 1995                   TAG: 9510190091
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: E11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SALEM'S ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER CAUGHT BY SURPRISE WITH AWARD

"I was sitting there stuffing my face. ... I don't have a tie on," when someone started to announce the award for the Outstanding Assistant for 1995, Jones said.

Virginia Beach City Manager Jim Spore, introducing the winner, said the recipient has been serving as assistant city manager since 1987. Jones said he didn't even blink.

But, when Spore began listing other accomplishments, Jones' ears perked up.

Jones said he had no idea that he would win the statewide award.

It was a "total surprise; it sort of brought tears to your eyes," Jones said Monday at his Salem Municipal Building office. A week later, the award was still sitting on a table in his office.

"It was quite an emotional moment," Jones said of receiving the award over 14 others.

Salem City Manager Randy Smith, however, knew that Jones would get the award. In fact, he had known since June, when the award usually is presented during the Virginia Local Government Management Association's annual conference.

Smith was able to persuade the association to postpone the announcement until last week's municipal league conference because both he and Jones were unable to attend the summer conference.

"As far as [Jones] knew, it was given in June," Smith said, adding that he didn't tell anyone else about the award until two weeks before the municipal league conference.

Jones began to get a little suspicious when Smith arranged for four City Council members to attend the city manager's luncheon, Smith said.

"I just said it was an important meeting, and we all need to be there," Smith said.

"The beauty of it was that we kept it a secret," said Smith, who nominated Jones for the award.

Smith said he and Jones have worked together for eight years as of Sept. 1, and "knowing the criteria they were looking for, I felt like - as others did - [Jones] was certainly deserving of the award."

Smith sent a letter with a list of several of Jones' accomplishments to Bonnie Svrcek, chairwoman of the selection committee.

Jones was chairman of a committee that organized Salem's Camp D.A.R.E. in 1991. "Without his shepherding the program and selling the concept to City Council, this effort would not have succeeded," said Police Chief Harry Haskins in a letter to Svrcek.

Jones also has served on the Salem's interracial relations committee, the Child Abuse Prevention Council and the Roanoke Valley Drug and Alcohol Abuse Council among other committees, Smith said.

One item Smith did not mention in the letter because, he said, it was still a pending project is Jones' role in the Salem Memorial Baseball Stadium.

Smith said Jones coordinated the city's building, maintenance and other departments with the contractors and architects of the stadium "to pull it all together."

"Working with the contractors is worth an award itself," Smith said.

Smith said Jones, a former Salem school administrator, has several other accomplishments that easily could have been added to the nomination letter. "He's such a well-rounded people person," Smith said.