City Receives Top Honors from Governor’s Office
Award Recognizes City’s UUPI Department for Continued Performance Excellence
May 10, 2018
Announced today, the City of Tallahassee's Underground Utilities and Public Infrastructure Department (UUPI) was recognized for continued performance excellence with the receipt of the 2018 Governor's Sterling Sustained Excellence Award from the Florida Sterling Council. The City is the first among all private or public utilities to receive this prestigious honor.
"Earning the Governor's Sterling Sustained Excellence Award demonstrates the City's commitment to customers and the community and is a testament to the dedication and professionalism of City staff," Mayor Andrew Gillum said. "From major City infrastructure improvement projects like Cascades Park and FAMU Way to continually exceeding state and federal standards, UUPI brings excellence to its profession and most importantly, to our community."
In 2015, Underground Utilities received the Governor's Sterling Award, Florida's highest honor for organizational performance and management excellence. Sterling Award recipients are considered models by which other public and private organizations throughout the State of Florida can evaluate their own performance, and the Governor's Sterling Sustained Excellence Award is designed to enable Sterling Award recipients to retain their role model status. The rigorous assessment for the Sustained Excellence Award revealed how well UUPI has strengthened, improved and innovated its systems to ensure long-term success and sustainability.
The City of Tallahassee is the only public or private utility in the State of Florida to ever receive both the Sterling Award and the Sterling Sustained Excellence Award.
As part of the City's reorganization in 2016 to streamline services and increase efficiencies, Underground Utilities merged with Public Works to create UUPI, growing its team from 370 employees to more than 540 and growing its responsibilities beyond gas, water and sewer utilities to include functions such as streets, sidewalks, drainage, engineering, surveying and more.
UUPI provides potable water to approximately 84,000 customers, wastewater collection and treatment service for approximately 72,000 customers, natural gas to 31,000 customers, and operates and maintains over 3,500 miles of water, sewer, gas and stormwater pipes, 6,730 fire hydrants, over 650 miles of roadways, and 500 miles of sidewalks.
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