Alberta’s urban municipal leaders have give Morinville’s top administrators one of their highest honours.
The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association announced Sept. 9 that the Town of Morinville had won the 2020 Dedicated Senior Team award.
The award, which is co-sponsored by the Society of Local Government Managers, recognizes an outstanding municipal team that demonstrates excellence and dedication to a municipal government. It consists of an Alberta-shaped glass trophy and $2,000.
Morinville’s senior leadership team consists of chief administrative officer Stephane Labonne, general manager of community and infrastructure services Iain Bushell, corporate services director Shawna Jason, and planning and economic director Brad White.
Morinville Mayor Barry Turner said council nominated the team for this award in recognition of the huge amount of work it had accomplished in the last two years, which included new parks, transportation, mobility, and communication plans and the launch of the Morinville Leisure Centre.
“The project was on time and under budget,” he said of the latter, and had excellent use rates prior to the pandemic.
Turner said the team was extremely collaborative, with everyone knowing what was going on anywhere in the organization regardless of their department.
Reached on vacation in B.C., Labonne said he was ecstatic to learn the town had earned this award.
"It was fantastic to see that the work we've been doing in Morinville with our small but mighty team is paying off."
Labonne credited town council with recognizing the need to do the important foundational work embodied by the recent slew of long-range plans and trusting administration to get the job done. He also noticed early on that town departments were operating in isolation from each other, and moved to bring department heads together to work on any town-wide issues.
"You need different perspectives around the table to make really solid decisions," he said.
Administration was also willing to make tough decisions during the recent pandemic, such as the choice to lay off about a third of their staff, Labonne said. Those choices led to significant savings that have put the town in a better financial position headed into next year's budget.
Labonne was surprised to learn that the award came with $2,000, and said he might take the team out for some kind of celebratory dinner with it.
The Town of Morinville would officially receive this award Sept. 24 during this year’s virtual AUMA Convention.
