2007 Helen Putnam Award Winning Entries

Community Services and Economic Development

The Helping Hands Program assists La Mirada residents who are age 55 or above, disabled, or low income with household chores, yard work, and minor home repairs. Since its inception in 2002, this program has sent 426 volunteers to 100 sites, which represents almost 1300 hrs of volunteer service. What makes the program unique is that it demonstrates the shared responsibility between government, business, and citizens to create community.

The Lompoc Aquatic Center houses 3 pools under one 41,000 sq. ft. glass and aluminum enclosure, with retractable roof panels. Inside is a competition pool, therapy pool, and recreation pool with beach entry, lap lanes, wet playground, and water slides. The design included significant community input in response to the sudden closure of Lompoc's only municipal pool in May of 2000.

When the former Community Center deteriorated under extreme use the community told the City it wanted a place for self improvement education, technology access, and homework mentoring. It wanted indoor assembly areas for cultural events, dedicated art space and facilities for indoor sports.

Effective Advocacy, Intergovernmental Relations and Regional Cooperation

The public-private HWY 50 Corridor Mobility Partnership has identified 10 transportation improvement projects to be developed by 2012 that will improve mobility and provide more transportation choice along the HWY 50 Corridor. These projects will reduce delay during commute hours by 30%. Other long-term projects identified by the partnership will further increase the number of area residents & workers using alternative forms of transportation.

Located in a primarily low income, Hispanic neighborhood of southeast Santa Clarita, serves as a powerful hub of the community formed through a city & community partnership. Providing youth programs to deter them from a life of gangs and crime, and recently expanded to meet community also has easy access to law enforcement thanks to an on-site Sheriff's substation.

Enhancing Public Trust, Ethics, and Community Involvement

NIT utilized neighborhood meetings to address the negative impressions of City government and to learn the needs of residents. The NIT was able to listen, understand and prioritize the concerns of residents of effectively implement permanent improvements in psecific neighborhoods, thereby restoring trust and confidence in City government. The NIT's community partnerships have established community involvement and pride as well as improve infrastructure and eradicated blight.

Santa Clara proclaimed that "ethics in government begins at the ballot box." Workshops encourage candidates and their supporters to use ethical campaign tactics and held them accountable at a candidate's forum the night before Election Day. Voters were educated on how to evaluate the values of candidates by examining election materials, researching funding sources, and challenging candidates to fight fair. Research shows that campaign had a significant impact on the level of public trust and confidence in municipal government, and dramatically increased the number of residents aware of the City's innovative ethics program.

Housing Programs and Innovations

The first permanent supportive housing project in Fairfield. Specifically for homeless and/or disabled. Laurel Gardens fills the gap in the continuum of care services in Solano County, only made possible by a rewarding collaboration between the Fairfield Redevelopment Agency, Fairfield Housing Authority, Caminar and Resources for Community Development (RCD). Caminar ensures successful long-term outlook by offering on-site case management to address individuality tenancy or adjustment problems and reinforce positive life choices.

Initiated a multi-faceted approach to develop affordable housing and address crime, blight and quality of life in the neighborhood surrounding the affordable housing. Remedies included developing new affordable apartments and single-family homes, rehabilitating apartments (with rent controls), improveing streets, sidewalks and lighting and forming an Apartment Owner's Association. The City a nonprofit to provide a day camp for the children to provide a safe and productive environment.

Internal Administration

The Advance Team Meeting is a unique service that is a valuable feasibility analysis tool, providing customers the opportunity to gather infromation during the preliminary stages of planning and design. Combining Permit Center staff resources, the Advance Team is a solutions oriented approach to: determine land use entitlement and building permit requirements, outline review processes, identity fees, establish infrastructure interface requirements, and review economic benefits. From "back-of-napkin" conceptual design to fully developed projects.

In 2006, Santa Clarita technology staff undertook the development of a first-rate and innovative internal web-based graffitti tracking system including intergration with various programs, allowing a seamless exchange, uploading, and intergration of information from the City's Geographic Information System and website. This new, custom application is a powerful tool utilizing technology in manner that allows the City, law enforcement, and the community to more effectively work together to combat graffitti vandalism in Santa Clarita.

Under the umbrella of the Thousand Oaks Succession Planning Program, we have developed a successful six-month Employee Leadership Academy, a formal Mentoring Program, an evening speaker series featuring local corporate, academic and government leaders, and an energetic Community Outreach Committee working with students in local colleges, universities and high schools to stimulate interest and facilitate internships in public sector employment.

League Partners Award for Excellence Planning and Environmental Quality

With over 1.8 million visitors annually Monarch & Salt Creek beaches are vital to the City's economy. The neaches are frequently posted with health warnings resulting in potential health risk. The water quality at these beaches was impaired by high levels of bacteria from urban runoff. The city took a first-of-its-kind innovative approach to lower bacteria levels by constructing the Salt Creek Ozone Treatment Plant which utilizes ozone technology, newly applied, to treat urban runoff and meet state health standards.

The City of Riverside has implemented a creative solution for the restaurant industry's desperate need to have an economically feasible solution for grease interceptor maintenance & wastewater disposal. The city receives the wastewater at the wastewater disposal treatment plant and injects the material into a digester that creates methane gas from the grease wastewater. The gas is then used in cogeneration engines to make electrcity, about 1.5 megawatts every day.

The Redevelopment Agency of Union City partnered with retired steel workers, representatives of federal court, five state agencies, three county agencies, and a private developer to cause the environmental cleanup and development of an abandoned and contaminatred 93-acre former steel plant. 450 homes are built on the site and an eight acre research and development campus is on the market. A property that once generated no property tax now generates $3 million annually. The retired workers are now receiving their medical pension benefits from the development proceeds.

Public Safety

A tough new effort to curb illegal street racing in the community was adopted by the Elk Grove City Council, as they enacted a sweeping zero-tolerance ordinance that targets the racers and those who watch them. City leaders intend to send a strong signal to younger drivers that any type of exhibitionist speeding is an expansive and potentially fatal mistake.

In 2004 the City of Palmdale developed & implemented their Identity Theft Community Education Program. This approach targets businesses, consumers and law enforcement by providing them current vital training in the area of identity theft. To include check fraud, credit card fraud, false identifications, and false social security cards. The goal is to provide educate businesses on detecting fraud at the point of transaction, consumers on protecting personal information and law enforcement in investigative techniques.

The mission of COPE is to help residents, families, and neighborhoods become & remain better prepared to respond to and recover from emergency situations. Developing individual & neighborhood response plans, maintaining individual emergency supply kits, and outreaching to neighborhoods in the community.

Public Works, Infrastructure, and Transportation

Three long established neighborhoods organized, each in its own way, to convert to swerer systems and to revitalize their streets. These neighborhoods voted to assess themselves for most of the cost. The project eliminated septic systems in 85% of the City's unsewered areas to protect the area's water supply and $51 million of infrastructure was funded through leveraging grant funds with property owner tax assessments over a 30-yr period. Cathedral City and the Desert Water Agency helped facilitate community action that will have a long term positive impact on these neighborhoods and on water quality in Coachella Valley.

The Riverside Public Works Department launched the CURE Program in responsse to experiencing a significant increase in accumulation of trash on public and private property throughout the City of Riverside. Program objectives are to: 1) Make a marked difference in the overall appearance of our neighborhoods and business districts and 2) Promote a clean city as a general value to have and uphold among or residents and business community. CURE primarily seeks to achieve its objectives by increasing the variety and frequency of disposal options available to residents, public education and community engagement.

Culmination of a ten year effort by the City of Santa Barbara to ensure that its drinking water is protected, and can consistantly comply with increasingly more stringent federal regulations, whiole also providing a community resource. The result is two secured 6.5-million gallon potable water reservoirs buried underneath a nagtively landscaped 20-acre public open space on land that had been closed to the public for over eighty-five years. The site includes training and staging areas for police and fire personnel, and celebrates the site's rich water history with informative plaques and historic structures.

Ruth Vreeland Award for Engaging Youth in City Government

With the significant changes in the City of Claremont's student body population over the last decade as a result of increased in inter-distric transfers and families being drawn to the School for its hig API scores and the City for its affordable housing. Faced with the challenge of addressing specific programs and services needed to support participation in community and school like for a more diverse resident and no-resident population, several youth lead community-wide initiatives emerged. The Claremont Teen Committee is a twenty-four-member youth advocacy group responsible for ensuring the youth voice is included in lcal governance. The group has been working hard on improving servcies for teens for over a decade.

Reaching out to teens by providing multiple opportunities for young people to speak out and contribute to the changes taking place within the City. The Youth in Government Program encouraged teens to design the Downtown Lancaster of their dreams and also gave them a forum to discuss the City's Branding Campaign. Teen's involvement will make a real difference in the steps taken by the community and will help to empower young people to continue to participate in their local government.

Proactive and reinforce respectful and healthy behaviors to achieve tolerant interpersonal relationships. All program components are focused on examining how the lack of equity and access impedes physical/social/personal growth or promotes group conflict. The Summits help the students, faciliatators, and community leaders to develop action plans to solve local issues or define issues impacting positive and effective community/school relations. These issues are examined for ethnic and disadvantaged groups in the Ciyt. The Action Plan prepares students, faculty and community leaders to collaborate and address any changes that are recommended during Student Diversity Summits.

Health & Wellness Programs

The Healthy Chino Coalition, is comprised of community leaders, schools, businesses, medical professionals, churches, service organizations and dedicated residents working together to address the challenge of increasing the healthy lifestyle options and quality of life for Chino residents focusing on the following five areas: Safe and Walkable Neighborhoods, Nutrition, Public Education, Health and Human Services, Physical Activity

The City's committment to including a Healthy Chino element in the updated Chino General Plan will be realized in 2008. This element will address the relationship between public health and the built environment as a means of promoting lasting population-based health improvement.

Through an innovative, collaborative with local service clubs, private and corporate sponsors the City has created a large community park with state-of-the art recreational and wellness amenities that offers healthier recreational activities for all ages. Youth, families and seniors make healthy use of Rotary Centennial Park and Robin Ventura Field. Recreational and wellness amenities were made possible by a partnership among the City, local Rotary cloubs, private and corporate sponsors who raised $425,000 in Cash and donations for exercise stations, walking trails, playgrounds, a baseball field, basketball court and more. Health walks are sponsored by the hospital and regional health authority.

The Walnut Creek Wellness City Challenge is a public/private partnership whose purpose is to mobilize the City's youth and seniors to healthier lifestyles through practical education, better nutrition and physical activity. The program, which began in April 2005 as a walking program with the mayor, is now a community-wide initiative involving sixteen schools across three school districts, City leaders and staff, businesses and community groups. Over 10,000 participants, from kindergarten to senior citizens, have already accepted the Walnut Creek Wellness Challenge and are experiencing the benefits of good nutrition and exercise, and having fun by living healthier lives.