5.3. SR 11-01-2010Item # 5_3.
.mover
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Nicola Blake-Bradley, Environmental Technician
DATE: November 1, 2010
SUBJECT: Bright Ideas Designation -Project Conserve
Elk River Energy City's Project Conserve was nominated fox an Innovations in Government
Award through the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard
Kennedy School. Although Project Conserve did not progress to the semi-£mal round of
selections, it was chosen as one of 173 Bright Ideas from 43 states and the District of
Columbia!
This year's cohort of Bright Ideas was chosen by a team of expert evaluators made up of
academics, practitioners, and fonnex public servants. Selected from a pool of nearly 600
applicants, including smaller-scale pIlots, 2010 Bright Ideas address a range of pressing issues
including poverty reduction, environmental conservation, and emergency management.
Bright Ideas is designed to recognize and share creative government initiatives around the
country with interested public sector, nonprofit, and academic communities and seeks to
complement the long-standing Innovations in American Government Awards Program by
providing government agencies with a collection of new solutions that can be considered
and adopted today. 'Plus new program serves to recognize promising government programs
and partnerships that government officials, public servants, and others might fmd useful
when faced with their own challenges.
"For over 20 years we have been honoring the country's most creative public sector
initiatives through our Innovations in American Government Awards Program," said
Anthony Saich, director of the Ash Centex. "The creation of Bright Ideas was a natural next
step to shed light on an even greater number of noteworthy programs and practices across
our nation and to encourage practitioners to make these ideas work iu their own backyards."
The 2010 Bright Ideas will be showcased on the Center's Government Innovators Network,
an online marketplace of ideas- and examples of government innovation for policymakexs
and practitioners. The inaugural group of Bright Ideas will serve as a cornerstone of a new
online communit3=where innovative ideas are proposed, shared, and disseminated. The Ash
Center also em~isious that these Bright Ideas have the potential to become future
Innovations in American Government winners.
Bright Ideas is an initiative of the Ash Center's Innovations in Government Program, which
spotlights exemplary models of government innovation and advances efforts to address the
nation's most pressing public concerns. Throughout its history, the program has generated a
wealth of research based on award-winnuig government innovations and the study of how
innovation occurs.
The Bright Ideas from Minnesota chosen for 2010 are:
• Tribal Development Division -Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, MN
• Restorative Justice Community Action -Minneapolis, MN
• P1uLine -State of Minnesota
• Project Conserve - Ciry of Elk River, MN