Nation's Cities - December 5, 2011

Center for Excellence Presents Local Government
Awards at Congress of Cities

by Sandi Burtseva
The Center for State and
Local Government Excellence
presented the inaugural Local
Government Workforce
Excellence Award to the City
and County of San Francisco
at the Congress of Cities in
Phoenix on Friday, November
11. Honorable mentions were
awarded to Coconino County,
Ariz., and San Mateo and Santa
Clara counties, Calif.

at all levels of government.
“As a Board member of the
Center, NLC is pleased to join
in honoring excellence in cit-
ies and in honoring Senator
Voinovich,” said NLC Executive
Director Donald J. Borut. “The
Senator has been an exceptional
advocate for issues around man-
agement and administration in
cities. These issues are not always
the most glamorous, but he
understands how fundamental
they are to the work that cities
get done.”
Award winner San Francisco
was recognized for its compre-
hensive workforce program
designed to attract, retain and
develop its 26,000 employees.
Strategies include cross-agency
workforce assessment, planning

The City and County of San Francisco is the winner of the Local Government Workforce Excellence Award presented at
the Congress of Cities in Phoenix. Pictured from left to right: Brent Lewis, chief financial officer, Department of Human
Resources, San Francisco; Ted Yamasaki, managing deputy director, Department of Human Resources, San Francisco;
Micki Callahan, human resources director, San Francisco; Elizabeth Kellar, president and CEO, Center for State and
Local Government Excellence; Former Sen. George Voinovich; and Donna Kotake, workforce development director,
Department of Human Resources, San Francisco./ Photo by Steve Schneider

and sharing of best practices. San
Francisco has also partnered with
the state university’s extended
learning program and the city
college to help employees seek-
ing continued professional
development. San Francisco’s
high-performance strategies
include internal leadership pro-
grams developed by city depart-
ments, formalized feedback and
written performance appraisals.