City of Porterville

October 2011 Employee of the Month

JENNI BYERS

Community Planning and Development

Jenni Byers is an Assistant Planner in the Community Development Department. She has worked for the City on two separate occasions. After working as a medical transcriptionist at Memorial Hospital in Bakersfield for 10 years, she was hired as the Community Development Department secretary in April 2005. At that time the department was significantly understaffed and development was going crazy. This allowed Jenni to take a crash course in planning and she was able to assist from the beginning on the General Plan update. She worked for the City for about 10 months and then went back to college, finishing her bachelor’s degree at the University of Phoenix in Business Management. Following graduation she worked for a private consulting firm, Provost and Pritchard, as an environmental planner. The City contracted with this firm for planning services and Jenni was brought in to help complete the General Plan. She was rehired by the City in April 2009 as a provisional employee and later was hired on full-time in November 2010.

Jenni is passionate about her job and loves serving the public. From her early days of working for the City, the need for logical development appealed to her. She enjoys working with compassionate people in planning, housing and economic development – and being able to see the big picture of the services and programs the City provides to better this community.  She has tackled some really difficult projects – like completing the environmental work so the ball fields at the airport Sports Complex could be lighted and working through the red tape of the FAA to gain the release of the airport lands for the new fairgrounds.  She is a very experienced environmental planner, and works to provide environmental reviews of the most difficult projects. Currently, Jenni is the lead planner on the Zoning Map update. Jenni says that she loves her job because every day brings something new.  

Jenni adores her husband, Grant, who works as a salesman for Thorco Valves. They have three children: Joshua, 20, who is getting ready to transfer to Point Loma Nazarene University where he wants to become a pastor, Jake, 18, who is a senior and loves working on cars, and Emily, 16, who is a vivacious junior on the Stockdale High School color guard in Bakersfield.  Jenni says that Emily is her favorite hobby. She feels like half her life is spent following her activities, being in the band booster, and traveling around for her color guard activities.

Jenni is a founding member of the City’s book club and she loves to play softball. At any given time she has a bat, cleats and glove in her car because you never know when someone will need an extra player. As a family, the Byers love to snowboard, ride bikes and fish – while Jenni reads. Jenni enjoys her commute from Bakersfield everyday because it’s her only down time and according to her, it’s the only time when she’s not expected to cook or clean.