City-County Cooperation Award
City-County Cooperation Award
Working Together for a Better Community
The Texas Municipal League (TML) and the Texas Association of Counties (TAC) recognize the importance of interlocal cooperation. The City-County Cooperation Award program is designed to recognize Texas cities and counties that are working together to meet the challenges of local governments. Innovative problem-solving, excellence in management, increasing citizen participation, and reaching toward higher service levels are all examples of the ways cities and counties are working together.
This award seeks the best of these programs for public recognition. It is through the recognition of the best of the best that all Texas cities and counties can share and learn from these achievements. Local government in Texas is the best in the nation and deserves recognition!
The competition is designed to allow joint city-county projects to compete with other similar projects throughout the State of Texas. The award will focus on joint projects that encompass a wide variety of innovative, intergovernmental approaches to city and county government management.
The award is open to all members of the Texas Municipal League and the Texas Association of Counties. One nomination can be submitted for each city-county project. Entries must describe programs or projects brought to conclusion or showing significant results between November 1, 2008, and April 30, 2010.
To nominate a project, please submit five copies of a typed or legibly printed document providing the following required information. This document will serve as an official application:
- Name of the city
- Name of the county
- Population of the city
- Population of the county
- Title of the project
- Description of the project, which must answer all eight of the following questions
and be limited to 1,200 words or less:
- Why was the project needed?
- How did the project accomplish its goal(s)?
- Who benefited from the project?
- What was the level of cooperation between the city and county?
- What time and/or money were saved as a result of the project?
- What time and/or money were spent on the project?
- How has the project improved the quality of service and/or livability of the community?
- What future impact will the project have on the community?
- Signature of the chief elected or appointed official of the city
- Printed name of the chief elected or appointed official of the city
- Signature of the county judge
- Printed name of the county judge
- Contact person’s name, title, phone number, and e-mail address
Additional information—artwork, brochures, photos, media clippings, videotapes, DVDs, and other similar material—may be submitted but is not necessary. Before submitting videotapes and DVDs, please check them for quality of picture and sound. All material submitted with each entry becomes the property of the Texas Municipal League and the Texas Association of Counties and will not be returned. NOTE: All material submitted may be summarized and made available to other cities and counties.
All entries, including any additional material submitted, must be received in the TML office by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 30, 2010.
Entries can be mailed or shipped to:
TML City-County Cooperation Award Program
1821 Rutherford Lane, Suite 400
Austin, Texas 78754-5128
E-mail and fax applications will not be accepted. Entries, including additional material, will not be returned.
The Texas Municipal League and the Texas Association of Counties—as well as their staffs, officers, and Boards—will not be responsible for any lost, delayed, or misdirected award applications.
Entries will be screened by the staffs of TML and TAC for completeness. Any entries deemed incomplete will be excluded from consideration.
Final judging will be conducted by an independent panel of judges with considerable experience in the area of city and county government. The judging will take place in Austin and will be closed to the public.
Judges will be asked to evaluate the following aspects of each entry:
- Is the application complete, and is all the required information provided?
- Is the project innovative?
- Did the project achieve its goal(s)?
- What is the long-term value of the project?
- Can the project be adopted by others?
All winning applicants will be notified on or before June 18, 2010. The winners will be featured in a future issue of both Texas Town & City magazine and County Magazine. In addition, the winners will be recognized at: (1) the Texas Municipal League Annual Conference and Exhibition on October 26-29, in Corpus Christi; (2) the Texas Association of Counties Annual Conference and Trade Show on September 1-3, 2010, in Austin; and (3) the Texas Association of Regional Councils Annual Conference (the Texas Conference on Regionalism) on September 15-17, 2010, in San Antonio.
Additional information about the City-County Cooperation Award can be obtained by calling Rachael Pitts in the TML office at 512-231-7400 or Elna Christopher in the TAC office at 512-478-8753.
