Former City Manager Charlie Howell "Former Tifton City Manager Charles “Charlie” Henry Howell, 67, died Thursday at his residence after a lengthy battle with cancer. Howell served as the city’s manager from 1996-2006 and spent most of his life in public service jobs." [Complete Tifton Gazette Article   Local Government 101 for Georgia Teachers at Summer Seminar Contact: Ann Allen, 706-542-6221; allen@cviog.uga.edu From the big picture down to the daily details, Georgia educators attending the June 2007 Don Mendonsa Local Government Seminar now have enhanced knowledge and resources for teaching their students about the impact of this level of government on their daily lives. The three-day program is coordinated by the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government and cosponsored by the Georgia City-County Management Association, Association County Commissioners of Georgia, and the Georgia Municipal Association. Sessions at the popular workshop, which draws public and private school teachers from across the state, are conducted by a mix of Vinson Institute faculty and government elected and appointed officials. The agenda include lectures, interviews, and site visits. This year’s program was held June 11-13 at the university’s Georgia Center for Continuing Education in Athens. “Teachers are always amazed that the local government right in their own community can be used to make teaching about government in general interesting and relevant to students,” reports Mary Stakes, seminar director and Vinson Institute civic education specialist.   Photos from the fall 2006 conference in Tifton are posted for viewing. Public Administration conference will be of value to both academics and practitioners Local government professionals are encouraged to attend this year's Southeastern Conference for Public Administration, which is being cosponsored by the Vinson Institute. The conference will be held September 27-30 at the Classic Center in Athens. Both daily registrations and conference packages are available. In addition to traditional panel sessions, this year’s conference will offer a professional development track with programming especially oriented towards today’s busy government practitioners. Session topics include budgeting, benchmarking and organizational assessment, local government consolidation, and human capital management. A special symposium entitled "Natural and Other Disasters: Public Administration Lessons Learned" will be held Saturday morning at the Vinson Institute's historic Seney-Stovall Chapel. Practitioners, faculty, and students can find conference details on the Southeastern Conference for Public Administration's Web site. The Georgia City/County Management Association (GCCMA) has established a new program intended to recognize those individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of professionalism in Georgia local government by distinguishing themselves through a record of service, or by other activities which have demonstrated the essential worth of professional local government management. The recognition program was authorized last fall by the GCCMA Board of Directors, and is called the Pillars of Professional Management Award. The purpose of the GCCMA Pillars of Professional Management Award is to recognize how professional local government improves the quality of government and community life in Georgia cities and counties, to increase the acceptance and adoption of professional local government by drawing attention to the best the profession has to offer, and to build a trail and legacy of great local government managers for training, counseling and coaching of new and prospective local government managers. The award program should also demonstrate how cities and counties can benefit from the recruitment and retention of professional managers and administrators. In this way, the efficiency and continuity of ‘good government’ is also advanced. The awards committee will accept nominations in two categories; the criteria for each is similar but not identical because category #1 is limited to those persons who are current local government managers and administrators, and category #2 is for non-managers who have nevertheless worked to advance the profession (e.g., range riders, elected officials, etc.). Category #1 - Criteria for Full Members of GCCMA Category #2 - Criteria for other GCCMA members and non- GCCMA Persons Champions professional local government management Champions professional local government management Demonstrates a sustained commitment to personal and professional development through training and education Helps local government professionals through the provision and promotion of training Mentors, coaches, and counsels peers, new managers, prospective managers, and colleagues Mentors, counsels, and advises managers and elected officials as a reliable resource in promoting professional local management Demonstrates a commitment to innovation in professional local government programs Provides valuable assistance to managers to enable the implementation of one or more innovative programs Exemplifies the tenets of the ICMA Code of Ethics during a time of trial, difficulty, or hardship (with specific examples provided) Exemplifies high ethical standards which are in harmony with the spirit of the ICMA Code of Ethics NEW MODEL EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT ICMA has updated its nearly ten-year old Model Employment Agreement. For ease of reference and downloading it has been posted to the GCCMA website, and can be viewed at the Resources section of this website.