Double Honours for Manukau City

Monday 12th September 2005 12 September 2005

Double Honours for Manukau City

Manukau City Council has scooped two out of four major honours in the 2005 New Zealand Post Excellence Awards.

The Council’s “Pacific Connections” publication won the hotly contested “Management of People” category, while their “City Manager’s Taskforce” project was the outright winner of this year’s “Community Relationships” category.

The New Zealand Post Excellence Awards recognise innovation, enterprise and achievement in the Local Government sector.

The 42 entries this year reflected major undertakings by 22 Councils. Manukau City Council submitted a total of seven entries.

Manukau City Council’s “Pacific Connections” resource is an informative book consultatively written to help the Council’s staff to better understand their Pacific Island colleagues and community.

The booklet is a practical tool filled with insightful advice and facts about building relationships with Pacific people by understanding more about their culture and diversity. While the resource was developed for use by Council staff and management, it could be equally valuable to other groups and businesses.

The New Zealand Post Excellence Awards judging panel recognised the publication met various award entry criteria, particularly the need for entries to demonstrate ‘a participatory approach with buy-in from stakeholders associated with the project.’

The second New Zealand Post Excellence award won by Manukau City Council was their entry in the Community Relationships category. Entitled ‘City Manager’s Taskforce’ this entry showed their responsiveness to growing concerns about the changing shape of the Manukau community.

In Manukau, rapidly rising land values led to many landowners undertaking infill housing developments. This was creating tensions between would-be developers and those keen to safeguard the area’s heritage and lifestyle.

A Council Taskforce carefully investigated this trend, and its impact, before developing a risk based approach to resource and building consents. Their winning entry was based on the work of this Task Force. Their approach involved identifying and engaging with all affected communities and then implementing major changes in the community interest.

Their work resulted in the complete restructure of a function that is critical to the future planned growth of Manukau City.

In addition to their wins in both of these categories, Manukau City Council received a commendation for a third project and was also a joint winner of the Process Management category along with Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch City Councils.

New Zealand Post representative and Awards judge, Don Day said the Excellence Awards offer a chance for councils to compare and share their major initiatives, and for New Zealand Post to acknowledge these.

“The quality of entries in every category gets higher each year and makes judging more difficult. The winners can be proud that their Awards were indeed outstanding achievements.”

This year’s New Zealand Post Excellence Award winners were announced and presented at the SOLGM Annual Conference in Rotorua on 12th September.

NOTE FOR EDITORS:

Winners of New Zealand Post Excellence Awards are:

CATEGORY WINNER PROJECT TITLE
Supreme Winner Palmerston North CC/Horizons Regional Council Local Government After Hours Call Centre
Management of People Manukau City Council Pacific Connections
Community Relationships Manukau City Council City Manager’s Taskforce
Process Management City Libraries of:
- Auckland CC
- Wellington CC
- Christchurch CC
- Manukau CC
www.AnyQuestions.co.nz
Technology Application Palmerston North CC / Horizons Regional Council Local Government After Hours Contact Centre
First Time Award Whakatane District Council Liquor Ban
MERIT AWARDS
Process Management Manukau, Auckland, North Shore, and Waitakere City Councils, and Papakura, Rodney, Franklin District Councils National Contract Standard – Best Practice
Community Relationships South Taranaki District Council Business Behind Books
Technology Application Auckland City Council
Environment Bay of Plenty E-LIMS@aucklandcity
“Cranlop” Emergency de-watering non-return valve

About the New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards

These awards, sponsored by New Zealand Post, recognise significant contributions by Councils that demonstrate excellence in local government.

They aim to foster best practice and excellence in management, while providing an opportunity for Councils to share and compare their innovations and their learnings with other Councils.

Each year the winners are announced at the Society for Local Government Managers (SOLGM) Conference.

This year the Awards were announced and presented by John Allen, Chief Executive of New Zealand Post, at the SOLGM Annual Conference in Rotorua.

Category winners each receive a framed certificate and a cheque for $2,000.
In addition to the category award, the supreme award winner receives a framed certificate, a trophy and a cheque for $5,000.

ENDS

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