Ohio City/County Management Association

The Annual Awards for 2013 honor local government programs and leaders that demonstrate the best in leadership and practice. The program also seeks to increase public awareness of the value of professional local government management, recognizing the outstanding work performed by elected officials, appointed managers, local government staff, and citizens who work together to address the most pressing issues facing today's communities.

OCMA members and public officials were asked to nominate programs worthy of recognition. The competition's panel of judges used their combined experiences to evaluate the programs and to select this year's winners with respect to:
Scope, Importance, and Value of Activity/Contribution; Effectiveness Measures and Quality of Performance

This year's OCMA Annual Awards winners are:

Citizen Participation - City of Piqua Citizennet Program
The city of Piqua sought to emphasize citizen engagement through knowledge of the city and its operations and citizen involvement through active participation in civic affairs. Citizennet created new programs that directly touched the lives of citizens. The INVOLVE program (Interested Neighbors VOLunteering Valuable Energy) links neighborhood volunteers to neighborhood needs. Adopt-a-Park program has over fourteen groups in stewardship roles of parks and other public areas. The Volunteer Park Ranger Program has eighteen trained volunteers that weekly serve as the city's eyes and earns in the parks and recreational trail system, informing the city of maintenance needs, answering patrol questions and providing emergency first-aid as needed. The Piqua Government Academy engaged 44 participants in touring and experiencing city services and facilities including driving snow plows through an obstacle course and climbing the ladder fire truck. Piqua GIVE engaged employees beyond the workplace in activities such as raising funds for the local Salvation Army. The Housing Enhancement League of Piqua (HELP) engages property owners, real estate professionals, bakers, neighborhood associations, city staff, tenants and residents in repairs and improvements to the community housing stock. The Business Connect program provides advice and guidance to entrepreneurs looking to start and build their businesses in Piqua. In addition the City Commission has increased the transparency and information discussion of issues. All of the above has been supported by deploying new technologies to reach residents including E-Gov Services E-Mail and Facebook. The NextDoor social networking portal allows neighbors to connect with one another.

In short, Piqua has embraced the concept of citizen engagement in a way that benefits the lives of the residents and improves community trust in government.

Other award winners include:

Innovation in Local Government - City of Westerville WeConnect

Intergovernmental Cooperation - City of Middletown Greentree Health Science Academy

Career Achievement - Art Pizzano, City Manager, City of Fairfield

"The Awards Program recognizes the quality contribution and leadership that managers in Ohio make to their communities. OCMA is pleased to provide this acknowledgment of the individuals, communities and programs that have developed creative and successful programs promoting excellence in local government," said Mark Schwieterman, Annual Awards chair, Ohio City/County Management Association.