USCM | 69th Winter Meeting

WASHINGTON, DC — The Excellence in Public/Private Partnership Awards, recognizing outstanding partnerships between cities and companies were conferred today at a special session led by Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci, Jr. as part of The Conference's 69th Winter Meeting. Mayors and their private partners from 10 cities received awards or special recognition.

In addition to Mayor Cianci, who serves as chair of the Mayors and Business Community Task Force, Boise Mayor and Conference President H. Brent Coles participated in the awards ceremony.

In announcing these Awards, Conference Executive Director J. Thomas Cochran remarked, "All of these partnerships share in common a synergy that brought positive changes in the ways city services are delivered. In recent years, in city after city, we have seen how partnerships have resulted in new and creative approaches to solving some of the most intractable problems faced by cities. These Public/Private Partnership award winners can inspire other cities and companies to work together to improve the quality of life for all city residents."

Following the awards presentation, The Conference also released its "Public/Private Partnership Awards Best Practices Guide" (available on the web at usmayors.org). This report describes the winning partnerships in two award categories: the Award of Excellence and the Outstanding Achievement Award. The guide will provide a blueprint for other cities to emulate the winners.

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE:

City	Company	Partnership
Dallas	Heard Linebarger	Privatization of Delinquent Tax Collections
St. Paul	3M	Capital City Revitalization Project

City	Company	Partnership
Long Beach	Earth Tech	Long Beach Manufacturing Empowerment Zone Program
Edison	Elizabethtown Water/Thames Water	Edison Water Company
Metro-Dade	Fannie Mae	Miami-Dade County & Fannie Mae House South Florida
Boston	Freddie Mac	Don't Borrow Trouble
Chesapeake	National Association of Home Builders	Chesapeake Affordable Homeownership Partnership
San Francisco	PRWT Services, Inc. and Lockheed Martin, IMS	Parking & Red Light Photo Enforcement Programs
Chicago	Public Consulting Group, Inc.	Health Services Management Program
Atlanta	United Water	MBE Outreach Partnership

An independent panel of judges was appointed by the Conference of Mayors to review the submissions. The judges are former Newport News Mayor Jessie M. Rattley, Ruth C. Kistler, Vice President of Corporate Communications of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Judith Burrell, Senior Vice President of Communications at the Newspaper Association of America. Criteria upon which their selections were made included: improvement in delivery of services, replicability, sustainability, cost savings, creativity of approach, benefits to both public and private partners, economic and business benefits, and measurable results.

The U. S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are about 1,100 such cities in the country today. Each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the Mayor.