Public Officials of the Year for 2006 | Past Winners

Honoring the Best

Every year since 1994, Governing has honored individual state and local government officials for outstanding accomplishment by naming them Public Officials of the Year. Elected, appointed and career officials from any branch of state or local government are eligible. Our readers and Governing.com visitors are invited to nominate individuals who have had a notable positive impact on their department or agency, community or state.

The nomination process for the 2007 awards will open early next year. Governing annually receives several hundred nominations from individuals in the public and private sectors. In addition, Governing staff consults experts and scholars in the field, and also nominates outstanding individuals they encounter in the course of their work.

All nominations are evaluated by a selection committee, which, after painstaking research, chooses the winners. The Public Officials of the Year are honored at an awards banquet in the fall, and their profiles appear in the November issue of Governing. For profiles of this year's winners, click here; for last year�s winners and those from previous years, click here.

Since their inception, the Public Officials of the Year awards have become the nation�s preeminent honor for state and local officials. The awards are regularly cited by journalists, governmental leaders and the winners themselves.

Sponsors of the 2006 Awards: