City of Syracuse (Winner)
County: Onondaga County
Population: More than 50,000
City Hall: (315) 448-8005

In the Spring of 2018, the City of Syracuse launched a performance management program which tracked metrics associated with specific organizational goals. The Performance Dashboard uses an Objectives and Key Results framework to ensure that city-wide service delivery goals can be easily tracked and measured. Rather than manually pulling the data from the system, it is compiled and visualized by the Performance Dashboard which makes it easy for city employees as well as the general public to see if the metrics are trending in the right direction. This has resulted in improved service delivery throughout the City’s operations.

Village of Lake George (Winner)
County: Warren County
Population: Less than 5,000
Village Hall: (518) 668-5771

The Village of Lake George successfully managed to confront one of its most popular complaints: those of international summer workers. The Village of Lake George; alongside the Town of Lake, Bolton, and Queensbury, organized a joint-program called “Student Connection” aimed at servicing the needs surrounding international students. Following years of complaints of both students and employers, concerning wages, working, and living condition, Student Connection now serves as a centralized office where students coming on the J-1 Visa program can now go look for jobs, housing, or to make complaints. The program is funded through the municipalities, totaling $20,000, with each municipality proportionality paying into the fund based off the percentage of students they employ. The program is seeking to expand in its second year after a successful first year, seeing an overall 70% decrease in complaints!

Village of Rhinebeck
County: Dutchess County
Population: Less than 5,000
Village Hall: (845) 876-7015

The Village of Rhinebeck was eager, determined, and relentless in its mission to improve resident’s lives. The Village had systematically targeted municipal and civic improvements over the course of the last two years, and had efficiently underwent several Capital projects. The Village updated and digitized its Village codes to make them more accessible to the people, converted all lighting in municipal buildings and parks to LED, dedicated a flagpole, planted trees, installed new electrical charging-stations, placed new sidewalks and much more. The total cost of all improvements were almost $500,000, which the Village mostly funded from outside sources. Initially the Village didn’t imagine such a structured approach to its improvements, rather, it merely intended to offer improvements to its residents by imagining what they needed and what they wanted. However, now the Village operates with numerous committees and liaisons to maintain, and continue, the upward growth of the Village!

Village of Sea Cliff
County: Nassau County
Population: Less than 5,000
Village Hall: (516) 671-0080

The Village of Sea Cliff located on the Northern Shore of Long Island overlooks the Hempstead Harbor and Long Island Sound. Dedicated to preserving its treasured waterfront, the Village in 1979 established the Sea Cliff Environmental Conservation Commission (ECC). The ECC, an all-volunteer committee, was tasked with improving the quality of the natural and man-made environment in Sea Cliff, in addition to preserving their natural landscape. The Commission has committed itself to volunteer in clean-up, educating, and redefining the environmental policy in Sea Cliff. In 2018 the ECC drafted and passed a local law to restrict the use of plastic bags in the municipality, becoming the second municipality in the State to do so. The ECC has made itself a presence not only in Sea Cliff, but has branched out to advocate for County and State initiatives. The ECC continues to fight to keep Long Island clean, and improve the lives of all residents.

City of Binghamton
County: Broome County
Population: 50,000 +
City Hall: (607) 772-7001

The City of Binghamton completed a $4 million project to convert approximately 7,000 of its municipal street lights to LED technology. The city negotiated the purchase of street lights within its borders to eliminate $100,000 in annual lease payments to New York State Electric and Gas (NYSEG). That agreement allowed the city to expedite its LED conversion project, already owning the lights that would be upgraded.

City of Massena
County: St. Lawrence County
Population: 10,001 to 50,000
City Hall: (315) 769-8625

Borj El Amri is a town in northern Tunisia; an African county wedged between Algeria and Libya, and only about 200 miles across the Mediterranean from Sicily. In late March the Mayor of Borj El Amri, Imen Amri, visited Mayor Timmy Currier, of the Village of Massena, for a “Partnership Meeting”. The meeting between the North County Village and Saharan Town was to demonstrate how local, municipal government operates in their respective municipalities, and to demonstrate Massena’s infrastructure, public safety, health, and economic departments. Mayor Amri toured all municipal facilities, a few County offices, and even SUNY Potsdam – which is set to become a centerpiece for a student exchange program. The municipalities established an official Sister-Municipality Agreement, which they both signed, pledging to work together in the future on matter of mutual interest. Mayor Currier described the relationship as integral to better understanding one’s own self, with the discussed possibility of Mayor Currier visiting Tunisia in the future to further strengthen the relationship!

City of Canandaigua (Winner)
County: Ontario County
Population: 10,001 to 50,000
City Hall: (585) 396-5000

The Canandaigua Solar Project involved the conversion of an old landfill and transfer station into a renewable energy facility, which will reduce the city’s costs without impacting the services it provides to the community. At the same time the city fulfills a strategic plan goal of taking a leadership role by utilizing an alternative energy source and reducing the city's impact on the environment.

Village of Minoa
County: Onondaga County
Population: Less than 5,000
Village Hall: (315) 789-2603315) 656-3100

Launched in April 2016, CNY Bright Lights, an initiative of the CNY Regional Planning and Development Board, was created to assist municipalities in converting streetlights to LED technology. Through this initiative, the CNY Regional Planning and Development Board will provide technical assistance to municipalities in Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties in working with utility companies to purchase streetlights to convert to LED and/or to convert utility-owned lighting assets to LED. The agency will provide cost benefit analyses of the two options and help municipalities identify and apply for funding for LED streetlight conversion projects.

City of Yonkers
County: Westchester County
Population: 50,000 +
City Hall: (914) 377-6300

The Hudson River Waterfront Alliance (HRWA) is a coalition of Hudson Valley municipalities, formed by Mayor Mike Spano and the City of Yonkers, that have joined efforts in opposition to a proposed expansion of barge anchorages on the Hudson River from Yonkers to Kingston. The proposal, currently under consideration by the U.S Coast Guard (USCG), threatens to reindustrialize the river, compromising decades of investment in restoring the health of the river and riverfront communities.

City of Yonkers (Winner)
County: Westchester County
Population: 50,000+
City Hall: (914) 377-6300

The City of Yonkers (COY) - Yonkers Board of Education (BOE) Consolidation Program (Yonkers Consolidation), is a first-of-its-kind, large-scale merger of the administrative operations of two distinct municipal entities, resulting in greater operational efficiencies and economies of scale to both the organizations and the stakeholders in which they serve. In a period of less than one year, the City of Yonkers successfully guided the merger of five non-academic, administrative departments of the Yonkers Board of Education into the City of Yonkers government. The merger consisted of the transfer of 52 BOE employees to the City government, including the completion of desk audits, title adjustments, changes to labor affiliation and co-location of newly consolidated departments; and permanently assumed $9 million worth of administration functions into the City government.