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Awards and Recognition

The City of Durham is proud of the good work its employees do every day. Listed below are some of the many awards and honors received by City departments and employees:

12/10/07

The City of Durham was among several winners recognized for improving mobility in the Triangle at the 2007 Regional Mobility Awards, which took place during the 6th Annual Meeting of the Regional Transportation Alliance on November 29, 2007. More

11/29/07

On December 1, 2007, the City of Durham celebrated its 25th consecutive year of recognition as a national “Tree City USA” from the National Arbor Day Foundation (NADF). More

11/01/07

The City of Durham was cited for the 19th consecutive year for its budget reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), a professional association with over 16,800 members in the United States and Canada that has served the public finance profession since 1906. More

11/01/07

For the second consecutive year the City of Durham was selected as a national award winner for its coordination of, and participation in, the America’s Night Out Against Crime . This year the city was ranked No. 10 among similar-sized cities across the nation. More

10/11/07

The City of Durham’s Department of Equal Opportunity/Equity Assurance (EO/EA) was named the Minority Business Advocate of the Year by the N.C. Statewide Minority Business Enterprise Center of the N.C. Institute of Minority Economic Development. More

08/29/07

The City of Durham’s popular financial report, the Citizens’ Financial Report, and the Fiscal Year 2005-06 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report were recognized by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA). More

08/28/07

Durham Parks and Recreation (DPR) received an Arts and Humanities Award from the North Carolina Recreation and Park Association for its Warehouse Blues Concert Series (WBCS). More

08/15/07

The City of Durham’s Department of Equal Opportunity/Equity Assurance (EO/EA) was honored with the Minority Business Advocate of the Year award for its efforts to help small, disadvantaged businesses compete for City contracts and business opportunities. More

08/10/07

The National League of Cities (NLC) announced that the City of Durham was one of 35 finalists for the 2007 Awards for Municipal Excellence. The awards recognize outstanding programs that have improved the quality of life within a community. More

07/27/07

The City of Durham’s external Web site, www.durhamnc.gov, was named the most accessible municipal site in the United States by a French firm specializing in making Web sites available to anyone regardless of their level of ability or disability. More

06/06/07

The City of Durham was honored with a Trailblazer Award from the National Center for Civic Innovation (NCCI) for its successful completion of the Government Performance Reporting Demonstration Grant Program. More

04/20/07

Keep Durham Beautiful, Inc. (KDB) received special recognition for its efforts to involve North Carolina Central University (NCCU) students in volunteer efforts to remove litter and beautify the Durham community. More

04/09/07

The City of Durham was named a Tree City USA community by The National Arbor Day Foundation in honor of its commitment to community forestry. This is the 24th year Durham has received this national recognition. More

03/28/07

The City of Durham's Purchasing Division was awarded the Sustained Professional Purchasing Award (SPPA) for 2006. The SPPA is the highest award a purchasing department or division can obtain within the Carolinas Association of Governmental Purchasing (CAGP). The City's Purchasing Division has won this award each year since 2002. More

11/28/06

Keep Durham Beautiful (KDB) was nationally recognized for the second consecutive year by Keep America Beautiful, Inc., the nation's largest nonprofit community improvement and educational organization, for its efforts to prevent litter and improve the aesthetic beauty of Durham. More

11/17/06

Tap water from the D. M. Williams Water Treatment Plant, the City's oldest water treatment facility, was judged as the state's "Best Tasting Tap Water" in a contest held as part of the North Carolina Section of the American Water Works Association and Water Environment Association annual fall conference in Greensboro, N.C. More

11/15/06

City of Durham Mayor William V. "Bill" Bell was recently awarded the first annual Leadership Award by the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization North Carolina Black Elected Municipal Officials (NCBEMO). Mayor Bell received his award at NCBEMO's annual business meeting as part of the North Carolina League of Municipalities (NCLM) 2006 Annual Conference held in the Greensboro, N.C. More

11/8/06

The City of Durham has been cited again for its budget reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), a professional association with over 16,800 members in the United States and Canada that has served the public finance profession since 1906. GFOA presented the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award to the City's Department of Budget and Management Services for its annual budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2006. This is the 18th consecutive year that the City has received this award. More

11/3/06

After less than two-and-a-half years in operation, Durham One Call (DOC) officially logged its 500,000th call in November. Durham One Call, the City of Durham's centralized contact center for non-emergency information and services, answers more than 900 calls per day, up from an average of 740 calls during the same time last year. More

10/25/06

The City of Durham has been selected as a National Award Winner for its outstanding participation in the 23rd Annual National Night Out (NNO) crime, drug and violence prevention program. Coordinated annually by the Durham Police Department (DPD), the City's 2006 National Night Out celebration was the largest ever with more than 80 neighborhoods holding events on Tuesday, August 1 - a 98 percent increase over last year. More

10/16/06

The City of Durham's Office of Public Affairs has been recognized with two national awards for its communications outreach to Durham citizens at a national conference held last week. The City-County Communications Association (3CMA) 18th Annual Conference recognized the City's Office of Public Affairs for two projects. The office received the 2006 Savvy Award, the top award given by this organization, for its "8 Bonds for a Better Durham" campaign as the best marketing/education for community issues in a city sized 108,000 to 1.2 million. The office also received an Award of Excellence, a third place national award, for its bi-monthly newscast "City Hall This Week" for regularly scheduled television programming in a city sized 171,000 to 335,000. More

10/11/06

The City and County of Durham received an honorable mention award last week for its Comprehensive Plan from the North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association (NC-APA). The Durham Comprehensive Plan is a statement of how Durham wants to grow and develop and guides where and how private development should occur. More

08/22/06

The City of Durham's Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission received the North Carolina Recreation and Park Association (NCRPA) "Distinguished Recreation Board Award" in honor of its outstanding contributions and accomplishments in the promotion of Durham's recreational activities and parks. More

07/20/06

A bus operator for the Durham Area Transit Authority (DATA) received the first-ever Katherine McClary Professional Operator of the Year Recognition Program Award in July. More

07/13/06

Terry Rolan, director of the City of Durham's Department of Water Management, has assumed the presidency of the American Water Works Association (AWWA), an international organization dedicated to ensuring a safe and sufficient drinking water supply. He is the first president of AWWA from the North Carolina Section since this section was formed in 1921. More

07/10/06

The City of Durham's popular financial report, the Citizens' Financial Report, and the Fiscal Year 2004-05 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report have each been recognized by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA). More