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CITY HALL FINANCE DIRECTOR CONSTRUCTION RECEIVES GFOA COMPLETED AWARD Hugo's new City Hall is scheduled to be complet- The Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in ed by the end of February 2002. City Financial Reporting was awarded in November 2001 to Administrator Mike Ericson notes that the project the City of Hugo by the Government Finance Officers has proceeded smoothly and is on time and within Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) the proposed budget. for its comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR) for the year ending December 31, 2000. An Award of "I think Hugo residents will be pleased with what Financial Reporting Achievement was awarded to they see," Ericson states. "The community room Finance Director Ron Otkin as the individual primari- in the new City Hall is something the Council is ly responsible for preparing the award-winning CAFR. especially excited about. It will provide clubs, This is the eighth time Otkin has won this award. groups, and organizations with the opportunity to gather together," bringing about what he calls a The GFOA is a nonprofit professional association serv- "community connectedness" for Hugo. ing approximately 14,000 government finance profes- sionals. The Certificate of Achievement is the highest Mayor Fran Miron is especially pleased with the form of recognition in the area of governmental location. "It's an enhancement to our downtown accounting and financial reporting, and its attainment area. It's going to be the impetus for some won- derful downtown redevelopment in years to represents a significant accomplishment by a govern- come." He adds, "I think it was just a wonderful ment and its management. process, and the owners of those properties we needed to acquire in order to build the City Hall There are 32,000 municipalities nationwide whose population is under 10,000, and of those, only 259, or have been gracious to work with in enabling the City to utilize their property to build the City less than one percent, have qualified this past year to Hall." receive this award. In presenting the GFOA plaque to Otkin at the January 7, 2002 City Council meeting, An open house for the new City Hall is planned for Mayor Fran Miron stated, "We [the Council] receive March, and a final grand opening celebration will very detailed financial reports, and the budget process take place in the fall. goes extremely well each year. Ron does a super job, and we appreciate having Ron here." City Administrator Mike Ericson adds, "We are very pleased to have Ron as a member of the City Hall team. His 14 years of work for the City j of Hugo have been well recognized by the Council and staff, and now the Remember when the City Hall was just a drawing? entire Hugo community can appreci- ate his excellence in city finances." 10