People Spotlight: Mike Garrott
Longtime CAO Employee Mike Garrott set to Receive Safety Award
Mike Garrott
Although Mike Garrott is honored to receive a workplace safety award from the Office of Compliance, he gets his real thrills from the work he did to receive it — helping people understand safety and the ways to improve it.
Garrott, a safety coordinator with the CAO, is set to receive the "Advocate of Workplace Safety Award" from the Office of Compliance April 24.
During the last congressional transition, Garrott put together a pamphlet listing the most common workplace hazards (PDF) and spent the next three months educating Members and staffers during in-office visits.
Garrott strives to educate people about workplace safety because he believes it is the best way to prevent safety issues in the workplace and, in turn, lower costs.
“Its more preventative than anything else,” Garrott said. “To find the issues before they become problems.”
The tactic worked.
The average number of findings per Member office was cut in half after Garrott, working in concert with the AOC, began the program.
“Mike couldn’t be more deserving of this award,” Chief Administrative Officer Dan Beard said. “Every day, he works to ensure that Members, employees and visitors are safe and healthy.”
David Young, a program analyst with the OOC, said Garrott deserves such a distinction because he always goes the extra mile. “Mike has been a huge help in educating people about safety,” Young said. “A lot he’s doing has never been done.”
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, CAO Administrative Counsel Timothy Blodgett, Acting Architect of the Capitol Stephen Ayers and AOC Safety Officer Michele Caras congratulate Garrott on his safety award.
Legislative Branch appropriation’s subcommittee chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz will be on hand to give Garrott his award, which is given to a safety and health manager who has developed procedures that improve the safety of employees, is an outstanding leader and has cooperated well with other Legislative branch employment offices.
The number of offices slated to receive an Office Safety Award has also increased with the advent of Garrott’s education program. Thirty-seven members, whose offices had no safety or health hazards during the 110th Congress, will also be honored.
His counterpart at the AOC, Michelle Caris with the superintendent’s office, is also getting the award. A fact that, Garrott said, underscores the cooperative relationship the CAO has built with the AOC.
“We’ve turned this into a rather seamless effort between two agencies with the protection of staff being the primary concern,” he said.
Garrott has years of experience working on Capitol Hill and cooperating with other agencies. As a teenager, he gave constituent tours during the summer. He started working on the Hill in 1977, where he continued a family tradition that was three generations strong, by working as a cabinetmaker in the House cabinet shop.
He’s held his job as safety coordinator since 2001.
Next on his agenda? Testing space heaters and educating staffers about how to choose the safest ones.
His boss, CAO Administrative Counsel Timothy Blodgett, called Garrott a “tireless advocate for safety,” noting that Garrott is constantly researching safety issues.
Garrott’s research, and his favorite aspect of his job, includes trying to figure out a cost-free solution to a problem. “If my solution helps you and doesn’t cost you—the House wins, the CAO wins, the taxpayers win,” he said.
