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The National Public Service Awards
 Frank A. Fairbanks, City Manager of Phoenix, Arizona has been a leader in local government for 32 years; during his tenure, Financial World Magazine recognized Phoenix as the “Best Managed City in the Nation” in 1995. He began his career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Office of the President of Costa Rica.
Under Fairbanks’ leadership, Phoenix consolidated city departments in a new city hall, which was completed on time and under budget, developed e-government, and achieved an AAA excise tax revenue bond rating from Standard and Poors. He has managed Phoenix through two recessions by reducing its annual budget without cutting essential services.
In 1992, with the city in the grips of a recession-induced budget cut, Fairbanks gave himself a pay cut. This example led unions to agree to no across-the-board pay raises for fiscal 1992-93. As if running the larges council-manager form of government in the U.S. were not enough, Fairbanks has co-chaired the Phoenix Violence Prevention Initiative since its inception, served on the Downtown Phoenix Partnership Board of Directors and the Arizona Family Housing Fund, and has started, coached, and refereed youth soccer leagues. His membership in the Arizona City/County Management Association precedes all other members. Fairbanks is also a member of the Board of Directors of the National Academy of Public Administration.
Throughout the city management profession, Fairbanks is known as one who nurtures other public servants. Mayor Phil Gordon notes that Fairbanks believes strongly in building outstanding employees and “takes great pride in sustaining and growing the tremendous amount of cooperation that exists between the mayor, City Council, city staff, and the community.”
In 2001, Fairbanks received the International City/County Management Association’s “Award of Excellence” (its highest honor) for his outstanding contribution to professional management. He was nominated for an NPSA by Robert Denhardt of Arizona State University, with a letter of endorsement from ASPA’s Arizona Chapter.
 Maria Gómez, recently retired Assistant Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Human Services Child and Family Services, served under five Minnesota governors from three major political parties and has reshaped every major human services program and improved the lives of thousands of Minnesotans. She began her Minnesota career as an intern, having previously been a social worker in Florida, working with the influx of Cuban immigrants.
Governor Tim Pawlenty notes that, “With a constant focus on public policy and people, especially children, Gómez has developed visionary efforts…such as launching the Minnesota Family Investment Program, a nationally lauded welfare reform effort, and implementing a children’s initiative to coordinate children and family services. Thousands of families have left welfare for work and hundreds of children have left the foster care system for safe and permanent homes.”
Gómez has also taken the lead on redesigning nursing reimbursement funding and developing programs that, for the first time, allowed low-income, elderly Minnesotans needing long-term care to receive home and community-based services. Such changes have saved countless tax dollars and allowed many Minnesotans to stay at home rather than move into nursing homes. Her passion has helped develop alternatives to institutions and advocate for the rights of seniors and people with disabilities to live independently and make their own decisions.
Gómez also helped create of MinnesotCare, the state program for the working poor, which has had broad bipartisan support and helped Minnesota have one of the lowest rates of uninsured people in the nation. As the commissioner when Minnesota implemented it, Gómez was a true cheerleader for the principles of Welfare Reform, Minnesota style; i.e., an initiative to help people get out of poverty and that focuses on the whole family with special emphasis on the wellbeing of children.
Ann Wynia, a member of the State Legislature and president of North Hennepin Community College, believes that nursing home and long-term care redesign would “not have been possible without the credibility Ms. Gómez brought to the debate. Members of the legislature may not have always liked everything they heard her say, but they appreciated that she did not shade the truth and that her values and motives were pure and clear.”
Gómez is a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of St. Thomas, and founded the Cuban Refugee Committee after Mariel boatlift refugees were moved to Minnesota and Wisconsin. She and her husband immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba in 1960; after the Bay of Pigs, her widowed mother and brother joined them, having sailed for five days using a makeshift sail, made from clothing. In 2004, she received the Dutch Kastenbaum Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Gerontology.
Governor Pawlenty nominated Gómez, whom he characterizes as a “true public servant.”
 Elizabeth Hill, Executive Director, California Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), is respected as one of the top leaders in state government; within the state, and nationally. As California’s fiscal advisor to both houses of the Legislature, she has put her analytical, nonpartisan eye on nearly all issues that have come before it for 20 years.
In the 1980s, her office uncovered a budget deficit that the governor’s staff insisted was not there; she was correct and the budget was adjusted. In the 1990s, her staff developed the policy analysis that was at odds with another governor’s welfare reform program, and her study facilitated shaping the system that ultimately became law. Such work is on top of the LAO’s analysis of the state’s $100 billion budget and all initiatives and constitutional measures on statewide election ballots.
More recently, Hill led the LAO’s review of Governor Schwarzenegger’s California Performance Review (CPR), a five-volume, 2,500-page report with proposals to reform state government. Within one month of the CPR’s issuance, Chet Newland notes that this “nonpartisan report provided a professionally informed overview of the CPR reorganization framework and other recommendations; a disciplined analysis of the CPR’s assumed savings from major proposals; and a presentation of key issues and considerations.”
Hill has found time to twice serve as president of the Western States Legislative Fiscal Officers Association. She recently served as vice president of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, has been a Boy Scout leader, legislative chair of the United Way, and a contributor to professional literature in policy analysis. As a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, she recently served on a panel assessing wildfires on federal lands. In 1997, Governing Magazine named Hill “Public Official of the Year,” noting that the LAO’s annual Perspectives and Issues makes it “possible for relatively neophyte, term-limited legislators to get a quick grasp of major challenges facing them.”
Hill was nominated by ASPA’s Sacramento Chapter, which emphasizes her constructive influence on legislative processes and accomplishments.
 M. Peter McPherson is director, Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, a program he founded, which is a component of Michigan State University; until recently, he served as president of the university. In 2003, McPherson took a leave of absence to serve as the financial coordinator for the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq, where he helped establish a central bank and develop a new currency.
McPherson’s public service career began as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru, where he mobilized other volunteers to start a U.S. School Feeding Program to introduce healthy eating in schools. Other positions have included administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), chair of the board of the Oversees Private Investment Corporation, and deputy secretary of the Treasury.
As USAID administrator in the 1980s, he organized the U.S. response to the famine in Africa, including creation of a food distribution network. McPherson’s interest in world humanitarian and agricultural issues has made a difference for millions of people. As Ambassador Julia Chang Block noted, “Famine in Africa has not ended, nor has Peter’s dedication to do something about it.”
When General Motors needed urging to build a new plant in mid-Michigan, McPherson (at the urging of Lansing’s then-Mayor David Hollister) spearheaded a Blue Ribbon Committee on Schools to build a vision and plan for high-performing students and schools in Lansing, thus addressing some of GM’s concerns about the future workforce. The work of the diverse group of business, government, health, nonprofit and university people on the committee was a key factor in GM’s decision to build a plant in Lansing; another is planned for nearby Delta Township.
Current Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows and City Manager Theodore Stanton credit McPherson with working with the city to improve city-university relations. They believe that the understanding he helped create has led to better communication and decision-making.
McPherson was nominated by the Board of Directors of ASPA’s Michigan Capital Area Chapter, which recognized his career and accomplishments by recently awarding him the Frank J. Kelley Distinguished Service Award.
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