October 24 Vallejo/Vacaville Arts and Entertainment Source: City of Benicia Receives the Helen Putnam Award for Excellence

The City of Benicia received the Helen Putnam Award of Excellence in internal administration recently at the League of California Cities CalCities Conference.

But City Manager Mario Giuliani still has one important message: The hard work isn’t over yet.

Slow property tax growth and a limited retail economy have left Benicia struggling with budget constraints. Recently, the city has taken steps to stabilize and support the most important functions of government, all of which is outlined in its resilience plan.

The city’s continued communication and transparency with the community throughout these challenges has earned it the recognition of The League of California Cities.

“Really this is an award for our community,” said Giuliani. “Our community really stepped up in a variety of ways, both in their effort and engagement in the community partnerships that helped to step in and take care of major community events like our Christmas tree lighting and our Fourth of July celebrations.”

The Benicia Community Foundation has stepped up to fundraise for this year’s holiday tree lighting ceremony.

“So often you see other communities where they are not able to work together and the community goes into decline, and Benicia said ‘Nope, not going to happen this year,’” says Giuliani.

To him, one of the most important parts of public service is to be available.

“It’s so important for city officials to go out in the community and meet with individuals, both to share information and also to listen,” he said. That’s why every Monday he hosts Mondays with Mario at various bars, event spaces, and churches around town. There, community members are able to meet with him and city council members outside of city hall.

“So much of the challenge of any given community is communication and trust. How do you build trust? Well, you build trust with good communication and accessibility and availability of those people in charge,” said Giuliani.

Even if only a few people show up to his Mondays with Mario or Tuesday coffee events, which rotate to a new coffee shop each month, the fact that city officials are available outside of City Hall speaks volumes to the community, says Giuliani.

One of the Helen Putnam internal administration award action examples is “Promotion of positive workplace atmosphere and employee morale,” which can be hard to do in the face of budget constraints and layoffs.

“It would be disingenuous to say that everything is hunky dory here. That said, there is a resolve and a common purpose that we are in the service industry,” Giuliani said.

At the same time that Benicia receives this award for successful and productive communication with the community, it also is receiving backlash from members of the community for the “waste of tax dollars” on public outreach events.

“I do think that the timing is apropos,” Giuliani says. To him, the award is validation that community outreach is money well spent.

One of the biggest challenges in executing the resiliency plan is managing community expectations.

“This is by no means a profound plan,” says Giuliani. “What is profound is the patience, discipline and sacrifice necessary to achieve it.

“We need patience, sacrifice, and discipline and we need all three of those things to get us through to 2030.”