Mission Viejo’s 2021 Employee of the Year is Pav Yee

Pav Yee, a longtime Human Resources Analyst, has been named Mission Viejo’s 2021 Employee of the Year.

Among a sea of her peers, Pav, who has worked for the City of Mission Viejo for nearly two decades, received the surprise award from City Manager Dennis Wilberg on Friday.

It’s no surprise, however, that Pav was selected for the annual honor. On top of her daily duties of performing technical, professional and confidential work to administer human resources programs, Pav was able to simultaneously resume recruitments and coordinate the City’s COVID-19 reporting, monitoring and tracking activities of the COVID-19 Prevention Plan.

“Both of these functions are high-priority tasks in themselves,” said HR Manager Monique Goetz. “Pav was able to juggle both at the same time without missing a beat.”

Pav is professional, honest, fair and always goes above and beyond the call of duty, especially when the pandemic hit in early 2020. Pav had to dive into unchartered waters and create forms and policies related to COVID-19 – while guidance from the State, California Health Department and CDC changed almost daily. Her workload increased significantly, but Pav stepped up to the plate and was innovative throughout.

"I cannot even begin to express how amazing Pav Yee has been over the past year supporting our whole City with recruitments and COVID-19 tracking," said a co-worker when nominating Pav for the award. "There is no doubt in my mind that Pav Yee was the absolute best choice for Employee of the Year this year."

Pav will be recognized during the City Council's meeting on January 25, 2022.