County workers recognized with awards for excellence
Our County
Throughout my time as Maui County mayor, I’ve tried to support our county departments as best I could. That’s because if you give our county workers the tools and resources they need, the community benefits from better services, programs and projects.
Sometimes as a result, their work is also recognized by their peers. I’m proud to list here just some of the awards and other recognitions our county workers have garnered over the years:
• The Department of Public Works won the Society of Professional Engineers Maui Chapter Project of the Year two years in a row. The first in 2017 for Emergency Work at Wailuku River and again in 2018 for the Haiku Road Culvert Replacement.
• The Department of Parks and Recreation won the Hawaii Chapter of American Association of Landscape Architects Research & Communications Award of Excellence for their Wells Park Master Plan and the Wailuku Civic Complex earlier this year.
• The Department of Environmental Management received the 2015 Project of the Year honor from the Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers for the Central Maui Leachate Recirculation Project.
• The Department of Water Supply has earned a number of awards in recent years. In 2015 the department was recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers, Hawaii Section, for the Best Large Project Award for their Waikamoi Flume Replacement Project. In 2016 the American Council of Engineering Companies of Hawaii also recognized the Waikamoi Flume Replacement Project, awarding it the “People’s Choice Award.” Finally, employee Cullen Falces, who is a field operations water service supervisor II, was the winner of the Bill Thompson Award for 2018. He was selected from a field of candidates from all four county water utilities in Hawaii as someone who displays “dedication, superior work performance, outstanding service to the water industry and love for the people of Hawaii.”
• Under the Department of Finance, the Real Property Assessment Division was awarded the prestigious Certificate of Excellence from the International Association of Assessing Officers for a vigorous self-audit that started back in 2016.
• For the last 25 consecutive years the Government Finance Officers Association of the U.S. and Canada has awarded the County of Maui the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award to the Budget Office. And for 34 consecutive years the same organization has awarded the Department of Finance a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting to the Department of Finance.
• Since 2009 the county’s website, www.mauicounty.gov, has been the recipient of a number of awards over the years, including the 2013 Sunny Award from the editors of the Sunshine Review to honor the most transparent websites in the nation, the 2014 National Award for Civic Engagement and for being a finalist in 2015 for the most coveted local government awards, the Best of the Web, County Portal Category by the Center for Digital Government.
• The Mayor’s Office of Economic Development just this year won the Gold Excellence in Economic Development Award for the 2017 Made in Maui County Festival in the project category of Special Event of the International Economic Development Council. This year more than 10,000 people attended the event along with 400 wholesale buyers and featured more than 140 vendors from Maui, Molokai and Lanai.
This is far from a comprehensive list of all of the awards given to our county departments and employees. Some awards were given internally, but were no less impressive. For example, in 2013 the Maui Police Department honored three police officers with the department’s Silver and Bronze medals of valor for entering burning homes in Kahului and Lahaina.
And who can forget the heroic actions of former Deputy Corporation Counsel James Giroux, who, after sustaining burns and injuries after that tragic Lanai plane crash in 2014, helped to pull two of his co-workers to safety from a burning plane. The Department of Fire and Public Safety awarded James the Fire Commission’s Kahuola Award for his bravery.
Mahalo to all of our county workers over the years who strived for excellence, showed compassion and, in some extreme cases, rare acts of courage in order to help their community and fellow human beings.
* “Our County,” a column from Maui County Mayor Alan Arakawa, discusses county issues and activities of county government. The column usually appears on the first and third Fridays of the month.