SACRAMENTO, CA -- The League of California Cities has selected the city of Palo Alto as a 2003 Helen Putnam Award winner. The 2003 award winners were honored today during the League's annual conference, September, 2003 in Sacramento.

The city of Palo Alto received the Grand Prize in the category of Internal Administration for its Strengthening the Bottom Line program. For the past two years, the city has struggled to address revenue shortfalls resulting from the deep recession in Silicon Valley. The city's Strengthening the Bottom Line program took on the challenge of how to engage employees, labor unions and citizens in understanding the complexities of city finance and in identifying and supporting budget solutions. The program helped the community come to grips with the necesity of budget cuts, while fostering new partnerships with citizens, unions, community organizations and school districts.

The Helen Putnam Award recognizes outstanding achievement and innovation by cities whose contributions to community residents and businesses have resulted in lower costs or more effective delivery of services.

The award is given annually in nine categories of community development and public involvement; Community Services & Economic Development; Effective Advocacy; Enhancing Public Trust, Ethics, & Community Involvement; Housing Programs & Innovations; Intergovernmental Relations & Regional Cooperation; Internal Administration; Planning & Environmental Quality; Public Safety; and Public Works, Infrastructure, Transportation. Of the 175 nominations submitted in 2003, 22 cities were honored with awards.

Established in 1898, the League of California Cities is a member organization that currently represents all of California's 478 cities. The League strives to protect the local authority and autonomy of city government, helping California's cities to more better serve their residents. In addition to advocating on cities' behalf at the state capitol, the League provides its members with professional development programs and information resources, conducts educational conferences and research, and publishes Western City magazine.

1400 K Street, Suite 400 Sacramento, California 95814 Phone: (916) 658-8200 Fax: (916) 658-8240 www.cacities.org

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