Local Government Excellence Awards ® winners announced
17 April 2015
2015 McGredy Winder SOLGM Local
Government Excellence Awards ® winners announced
Project Helix, an end to end online building consenting system, submitted by Selwyn District Council was announced Supreme Award Winner of the 2015 McGredy Winder SOLGM Local Government Excellence Awards® by the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers (SOLGM) at their inaugural Gala Dinner held in Wellington last night.
The Gala Dinner, hosted by award winning journalist Amanda Millar, celebrated a number of achievements in professional management across the local government sector with the McGredy Winder SOLGM Local Government Excellence Awards® being just one of them.
“The Gala Dinner was a very special event for the Local Government sector,” says SOLGM Chief Executive, Karen Thomas.
“We have held the SOLGM Local Government Excellence Awards® for 25 years, and for many years we have partnered with a number of organisations to offer leadership development opportunities including overseas manager exchanges and scholarships. This year we wanted to create a special evening to truly celebrate and recognise the successes of local government professionals.”
Alongside the 2015 McGredy Winder SOLGM Local Government Excellence Awards® the following were also announced at the SOLGM Gala Dinner:
2015 SOLGM Overseas Manager Exchanges:
United States Exchange
(sponsored by Civic Assurance Ltd)
Anusha Guler, Manager
Democratic Services, Wellington City Council
Australia,
New South Wales Exchange (sponsored by JLT)
Jamie Cox,
Engineering Manager, Wairoa District Council
British
Columbia, Canada Exchange (sponsored by JLT)
Mark Bruhn,
Manager Parks, New Plymouth District Council
2015 SOLGM Leadership Scholarships
Mt Eliza Business School Leadership Development Programme (sponsored by The Skills Organisation):
Tanya Winter, Chief Executive, Westland District Council
Leadership Development Centre Leadership in Practice Programme:
Steven May, Environmental Services Manager, Grey District Council
Opus ‘Leading Self’ Programme:
Charlotte Almond, Strategy and
Development Manager Wanganui District Council
and
Ross
McCarthy Business Transition Lead Manager, Wellington City
Council
The winners of the New Zealand leg of
the LGMA Australasian Management Challenge (sponsored by
Civica)
Tauranga City Council – Team Blue Sky
The Tauranga City Council’s team will go on to compete in the Australasian Finals to be held in Melbourne in June. New Zealand teams have an exceptional track record at the finals, where they compete against the Australian State finalists, with results for the past three years being two wins and a second.
The 2015 McGredy Winder SOLGM Local Government Excellence Awards®
36 entries were received this year, the second greatest number since the Awards started in 1990. The panel of five judges considered that the high standard of entries reflected very well on the performance of the New Zealand local government sector.
The winner of the Supreme Award, Selwyn District Council’s entry Project Helix, showcased their work developing an end to end, online building consenting system.
Peter Winder, one of the Award judges said, “This project met a number of key criteria. It was developed in collaboration with the private sector, it transformed the way building consenting can be delivered and at a time when there has been unprecedented demand. Importantly, it has already demonstrated it is applicable across the sector”.
“Project Helix is an outstanding example of the sector’s ability to develop and implement solutions at a national level,” said Mr Winder.
Alongside the Supreme Award the following
category winners were also announced at SOLGM’s Gala
Dinner:
Building Organisational Capability
Category
Auckland Council on behalf of the NEMS Steering
Group - National Environmental Monitoring Standards
Joined
Up Local Government Category
Environment Canterbury on
behalf of the Combined Health and Environmental Risks
Programme Control Group - Canterbury’s Waste and
Environmental Management Team
Council-Community
Relationship Category
Gisborne District Council -
Gigatown
Transforming Service Delivery
Category
Selwyn District Council – Project Helix
The
judges also awarded a Highly Commended award to Kaipara
District Council in this category for their entry Retaining
BCA Accreditation.
Brookfields Environmental
Leadership and Sustainability (sponsored by Brookfields
Lawyers)
Waikato Regional Council - The Tui Mine
Remediation
ends