Community Excellence Awards nominations close on May 17, 2024. We spoke with one of last year’s winners to learn what winning has meant – and to check in on the winning project, a management practice designed to align the Council’s aspirations with the operational realities of the local government.
Last year, the District of Oak Bay won the Community Excellence Award in Excellence in Governance for their project, titled District of Oak Bay Council Priorities Process: Bridging the Gap Between Council’s Aspirations and Project Delivery.
Aligning a council’s strategic aspirations with the significant operational requirements, while being mindful of financial and workforce capacity, is a common challenge for local governments.
What distinguished Oak Bay’s project was the method and process they used. It started with a needs analysis – asking colleagues what wasn’t working, what tools they needed (or couldn’t part with) – and then involving the whole senior leadership team to ensure the response had support across the organization.
Early models of their new management system were tested in small groups, with so-called early adopters. As success was found, the program was expanded until it included the entire District of Oak Bay, from firefighting to financial planning, and from how staff reported to the Council to how Oak Bay residents were engaged.
“It was a collaboratively developed process, involving every department. To have a project that everyone was involved with recognized externally is a boost to the team,” said Oak Bay’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, Signe Bagh.
But more than the award itself, she and her team were gratified knowing that other local government staff could benefit from what they’ve learned.
“We’re all busy, we don’t need to be reinventing the wheel,” Bagh said. “If other staff can benefit from what we’ve learned in a way that makes local government more effective – isn’t that what UBCM is all about?”
Bagh says the award has helped to raise the District’s profile as an employer. In an environment where recruitment and retention are becoming more competitive, being able to signal to potential employees that Oak Bay is an award-winning team doesn’t hurt.
In other words, Bagh highly recommends applying to nominate your project for a Community Excellence Award.
“For a small municipality to get the kind of attention that often goes to larger cities, it’s been validating,” Bagh said.