5.3. SR 11-01-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Item # 5_3. .mover MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor and City Council FROM: Nicola Blake-Bradley, Environmental Technician DATE: November 1, 2010 SUBJECT: Bright Ideas Designation -Project Conserve Elk River Energy City's Project Conserve was nominated fox an Innovations in Government Award through the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School. Although Project Conserve did not progress to the semi-£mal round of selections, it was chosen as one of 173 Bright Ideas from 43 states and the District of Columbia! This year's cohort of Bright Ideas was chosen by a team of expert evaluators made up of academics, practitioners, and fonnex public servants. Selected from a pool of nearly 600 applicants, including smaller-scale pIlots, 2010 Bright Ideas address a range of pressing issues including poverty reduction, environmental conservation, and emergency management. Bright Ideas is designed to recognize and share creative government initiatives around the country with interested public sector, nonprofit, and academic communities and seeks to complement the long-standing Innovations in American Government Awards Program by providing government agencies with a collection of new solutions that can be considered and adopted today. 'Plus new program serves to recognize promising government programs and partnerships that government officials, public servants, and others might fmd useful when faced with their own challenges. "For over 20 years we have been honoring the country's most creative public sector initiatives through our Innovations in American Government Awards Program," said Anthony Saich, director of the Ash Centex. "The creation of Bright Ideas was a natural next step to shed light on an even greater number of noteworthy programs and practices across our nation and to encourage practitioners to make these ideas work iu their own backyards." The 2010 Bright Ideas will be showcased on the Center's Government Innovators Network, an online marketplace of ideas- and examples of government innovation for policymakexs and practitioners. The inaugural group of Bright Ideas will serve as a cornerstone of a new online communit3=where innovative ideas are proposed, shared, and disseminated. The Ash Center also em~isious that these Bright Ideas have the potential to become future Innovations in American Government winners.