The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Another highlight in leader’s career
Village Administrator named 2019 Employee of the Year
For the second time in less than two years, Amy Cossick has achieved a career milestone in her position as Fairport Harbor Village administrator.
Last May, she was promoted to full-time status after starting out as the village’s part-time administrator nearly a year earlier.
If anyone wondered what accolade Cossick might receive next, they got the answer at the Feb. 18 Village Council meeting. That’s when council approved a resolution honoring Cossick as 2019 Village Employee of the Year.
“Amy’s tenure with the village has been defined by her professionalism, hard work, dedication, and exemplary service to the village and to the residents of Fairport Harbor,” said Mayor Timothy Manross, reading from the resolution.
In addition, the resolution noted that Cossick is responsible for the success of several special events throughout the community, including Village Fest.
Held for the first time on Aug. 31, Cossick spearheaded efforts to create and carry out Village Fest, which aims to attract people to Fairport Harbor’s downtown for an afternoon of music, food and shopping.
Also in 2019, Cossick took the lead on a project that resulted in the launch of a new and improved village website — fairportharbor. org — to better promote the community, provide more useful and timely information to residents, and ensure that the online content is easy to find.
Council’s decision to elevate Cossick’s employment status to full time also was described last year as a “game-changing” event by Manross.
“There’s just too much that goes on in this village to have a part-time administrator,” he said. “With all of the things that we have on tap for growth, we just would fall on our face if we didn’t have the position. Amy’s energy has been infectious, it has been a huge boon to us.”
Cossick’s contract as fulltime administrator states that she will provide “a leadership role for the village on a variety of tasks and administrative duties” that include project oversight; all ongoing operations and organizational initiatives of the Service, Water and Zoning departments and village Senior Center; long-range and strategic planning; economic development; and policy development.
When Cossick accepted the Employee of the Year Award, she made it a point to praise her colleagues in village government for their assistance.
“I couldn’t do my job like this at all if I didn’t have this fantastic team that I work with. Fire, Service, Water, Police, all the staff at village hall ... I’m happy to be able to work with that entire group.”
Before joining Fairport as village administrator, Cossick held a variety of marketing and communications positions. Those roles included serving as a development coordinator at University Hospitals, where she “was responsible for doing a lot of grant writing, which helps in this position,” she said in a 2018 News-Herald story.
She also served as marketing director at Lake National Bank, along with running her own advertising agency — Executive Communications, through which she worked with numerous local businesses and nonprofit organizations.
A 1989 graduate of Perry High School, Cossick received a bachelor’s degree from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 1993. She also earned a master’s degree in public administration from Indiana State University in 2019.