Gwinnett County Wins 6 National Awards

Five departments of Gwinnett County government have won six achievement awards from the National Association of Counties and their accomplishments were honored at the Board of Commissioners meeting recently.

Financial Services’ entry, titled Funding Post Employment Benefits, was not only a winner but it was also named Best of Category. A five-person team developed a sustainable plan to pay for retiree healthcare while meeting new accounting requirements, minimizing cost increases and protecting the County’s triple-AAA credit ratings. Their work led to a new state law allowing the use of trust funds for this purpose.

Fire and Emergency Services had two winners, one for its Youth Firesetter Intervention Program that involves many outside professionals to help reduce juvenile arson cases and the other for its school-based program that certified more than 4,000 middle and high school students in CPR and first aid.

Water Resources won for Drought Relief with Reclaimed Water, which recognizes its innovative uses of highly treated wastewater and its plan to return highly-treated wastewater to its source in Lake Lanier.

Transportation won for its new Traffic Control Center that features 85 miles of fiber-optic links to 400 traffic signals and 50 video cameras to allow real-time remote control of traffic signal timing.

Human Resources won for its EXCEL leadership development class where County employees raised more than $12,000 and volunteered their time to make major improvements at the non-profit Dream House for medically fragile children in Lilburn. They designed and built a backyard pavilion, sidewalk, retaining wall, landscaping and sandboxes for children using wheelchairs.

“These national awards recognize the outstanding work our employees are doing across all County government operations and are a shining example of why Gwinnett is great,” said Commission Chairman Charles Bannister. “With all the budget cuts that have taken place recently, it is significant that our peers recognize we have an outstanding staff and are on the cutting edge in many areas.”