KANSAS CITY, MO—Jan C. Perkins, dedicated professional manager, promotor of strong ethics, supporter of professional development for all professional staff, and advocate of women in leadership positions has been selected as a 2016 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award by the executive board of ICMA, the International City/County Management Association. Ms. Perkins’ selection was recognized at a “Celebration of Service” ceremony on Wednesday, September 28, as part of the 102nd ICMA Annual Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.

ICMA’s prestigious Distinguished Service Award is presented to a city, town, or county manager who has retired from and made an outstanding contribution to the local government management profession. The award recognizes those individuals whose service has been evaluated by their peers as strong or exceptional and who has made major contributions beyond direct service to local government.

Ms. Perkins was cited for her outstanding administration, demonstrated leadership, and skill as a manager of people. Through an increasingly demanding series of positions, including as city manager, she developed expertise in strategic and business planning, budget policy development, organizational assessments, team building, council/board effectiveness, goal setting, leadership development, and executive performance evaluations.

“Our cities need top-notch, ethical professional managers, which has always been the focus of ICMA,” Ms. Perkins commented. “Each of us should do our part to help women and men from all cultures and backgrounds to move into top executive roles.  We should all remember who helped us along the way and pay is forward to others. My advice to women and men in local government is to aim high and be the leader you would want to follow.”

Ms. Perkins began her career with the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1976; and she also served the City of Adrian, Michigan. In 1984, her career took her to Santa Ana, California, where she served as deputy city manager in a diverse community of 300,000 in southern California. Her first city manager position was in Morgan Hill, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her final local government position was as city manager of Fremont, California, where she served until late 2004. Since retirement, Jan has served as ICMA Liaison and continues to serve local governments as a senior partner with the management consulting firm Management Partners. 

Ms. Perkins is a frequent speaker and has authored a number of articles on a variety of local government topics, including:

• “Hiring 2.0: Twenty-Three Creative Ways to Recruit and Keep Great Staff,” published in the January/February 2011 issue of ICMA’s Public Management (PM) magazine;
• “Successful Leadership,” published in the March 2005 issue of PM;
• "The Value of Going Back to the Basics,” co-authored with former Fremont Mayor Gus Morrison and published in the June 2005 issue of Western City magazine;

• “It’s (Gulp) Evaluation Time,” published in theJuly 2005 issue of PM magazine;
• “Ethics: Alive and Well,” co-authored by Elizabeth Keller and published in the January/February 2007 issue of PM;
• “Assessing the Ethical Culture of Your Agency,” co-authored by JoAnne Speers and Arne Croce and published in the January/February 2007 issue of PM; 

• “Building Career Resiliency: Hone Your Ability to Grow From Adversity,” co-authored with Pat Martel and published in the March 2016 issue of PM;  

• “Maximizing Manager Success,” co-authored by Kevin Duggan, Frank Benest, and Kevin O’Rourke and published in the April 2016 issue of PM; and 

• “A Building Block to Better Performance: Using Council-Manager Goal Setting to Support Performance Evaluations,” co-authored with Rod Gould and published on the California City Management Foundation website, Sept 2016.

A member of ICMA since 1976, Ms. Perkins served on the organization’s Task Force on Women in the Profession (2012-14) and currently serves on its Research and Policy Editorial Advisory Board. She received an ICMA Service Award in 2001 in recognition of her 25 years of direct service to local government and has been recognized by the organization with its Award for Programs for the Disadvantaged in Memory of Carolyn Keane (1995 and 2001) and International Award in Honor of Orin F. Nolting (1996). Ms. Perkins earned ICMA-Credentialed Manager status, the highest professional designation bestowed by the association, in 2005, and she continues to advocate for professional local government management today as an ICMA Liaison.

Ms. Perkins is a founding board member of Women Leading Government and is a graduate of the University of Kansas MPA program and the Senior Executive in State and Local Government Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

About ICMA
ICMA, the International City/County Management Association, advances professional local government management worldwide. The organization’s mission is to create excellence in local governance by developing and fostering professional management to build sustainable communities that improve people’s lives. ICMA provides member support; publications; data and information; peer and results-oriented assistance; and training and professional development to more than 11,000 appointed city, town, and county leaders and other individuals and organizations throughout the world.