The Bondurant City Council, City Administrator Marketa Oliver, and Finance and Employee Services Director Jené Nichelle Jess will be honored by ICMA, the International City/County Management Association, as the recipient of the organization’s Program Excellence Award for Community Sustainability. ICMA’s Program Excellence Award for Community Sustainability award recognizes recognize the innovative local government programs or processes that demonstrate innovation, excellence, and success in balancing that community's social, economic, environmental, and cultural needs. ICMA is recognizing the City of Bondurant with two Program Excellence Awards in 2022.
As the recipient of ICMA’s Program Excellence Award, the City of Bondurant will be honored on various platforms including ICMA’s Annual Conference, September 17-21, 2022.
Bondurant is being honored for its Economic Development Launch program. Through this program, city leadership identified strategically-located properties and proactively collaborated with property owners to poise the property for development, generally through the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s (IEDA) Certified Site Program. The program consists of economic development planning work, effectively completing the due diligence process on a property. This work included identifying ownership and easements or other property restrictions, creating utility maps and providing contact information, conducting environmental, historical, and architectural studies, delineating and/or mitigating wetlands, performing endangered species reviews, and developing cost estimates for site work essential for probable development.
Mayor Doug Elrod was a member of the City Council that launched this concept in 2017. “As a Council, we had a goal of cultivating a better mix of valuation between residential and commercial/industrial properties to have the resources necessary to meet the needs of the community. We started using this process in 2017 and since that time, we have seen an increase in our commercial and industrial valuation of more than 330% and an increase in the total community valuation of more than 118%. This is the foundation for the City to have the resources to provide services and amenities for all of our residents.”
City Administrator Marketa Oliver said, “I appreciate all of the partnerships that we have been able to create throughout this process and am grateful for all of the resources available to help with this work, including fellow city staff members, area landowners, and organizations, such as the Greater Des Moines Partnership, the Metropolitan Planning Organization, EPIC, and MidAmerican Energy. Additionally, the State of Iowa staff at IEDA have been and continue to be a tremendous resource for our economic development efforts.”
The ICMA Local Government Excellence Awards Program highlights creative contributions to professional local government management while demonstrating the difference that effective and committed management makes to the quality of life in our communities. ICMA’s program awards are presented to local governments and their chief administrators in recognition of their innovative and successful programs. Nominations are evaluated by an independent, 13-person panel of ICMA members.
Recipients set the standard for innovation, effectiveness, and creativity in the cities, towns, counties, and academic institutions they lead. ICMA thanks them for their commitment to improving the lives of the constituents they serve every day.
In addition to in-person and virtual conference recognition, the 2022 ICMA award recipients will be highlighted in the October 2022 issue of PM magazine.
For more information about ICMA’s Local Government Excellence Awards Program, contact Joyce Lee at jlee@icma.org or 202-962-3625.
Original source can be found here.
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