Dunedin City Council Group Manager Community and Planning, Nicola Pinfold, has been awarded an Overseas Manager Exchange to Canada from the NZ Society of Local Government Managers (Taituarā).
The Exchange, sponsored by Marsh, was announced online today. It provides a hosted visit to Canada and a reciprocal visit to New Zealand. The aim of the Exchange is to provide a leadership and development experience for a local government professional.
The judges were impressed with Nicola’s strong interest in the regeneration of cities, including how people interact to form communities.
Taituarā’s Workforce Leadership Manager, Jenny Spencer, said that Nicola is keen to learn more about how other countries approach transformational projects.
“Nicola is fascinated by how people and cities interact to form communities and will apply her learnings to the city-wide projects underway in her community, including Dunedin’s waterfront revitalisation project.”
Taituarā’s Chief Executive, Karen Thomas said that the Overseas Manager Exchanges provide a valuable opportunity to learn about local government in another country and congratulated Nicola.
“Nicola’s enthusiasm for community development is evident and she will certainly benefit from learnings from Canadian colleagues.
“At a time when local government professionals when are working tirelessly to provide services and support to their communities, it is great to be able to announce this news.
“Our thanks to Marsh for their ongoing support to provide professional development opportunities for local government professionals.”
Dunedin City Council’s Ohinepouwera (Karitāne Sandspit Restoration) project was highly commended in The Minister of Local Government’s Award for Innovation in Council/Community Relations category, one of the categories of the prestigious 2020 McGredy Winder Taituarā Local Government Excellence Awards®.
Ohinepouwera is a partnership between Kāti Huirapa Runaka ki Puketeraki, the wider Karitāne community and Dunedin City Council to co-design a sustainable solution to the erosion of Karitāne sand spit and consequent damage to property up-river.
The judges praised Ohinepouwera as a successful community-based approach to well-being and for showing the value of early, open an honest engagement to co-design a solution.
Also announced today were the six category winners of the 2020 McGredy Winder Taituarā Local Government Excellence Awards®, including a Supreme winner, the Brookfields Emerging Leader of the Year Award, several other Overseas Manager Exchanges (sponsored by Civic Financial Services, AskYourTeam and Marsh), the Skills Organisation Melbourne Business School Leadership Scholarship, the Taituarā Distinguished Management Award, and the President’s Award for Distinguished Contribution to Taituarā.
Taituarā’s annual Gala Dinner event was cancelled due to COVID-19, and so award recipients were announced online this year.