2009 Awards
IT Professional of the Year
Colleen Hinzmann, Monroe County - IT Professional of the Year
Colleen has been a Monroe County employee since 2000. Since joining the county, Colleen has implemented the county’s first storage area network and disaster recovery site. She is also currently in the process of managing the upgrade of the county’s entire infrastructure in preparation for VOIP.
Colleen's biggest accomplishment to date has been the planning and implementation of the combination of IT services and resources between the Count of Monroe and the City of Monroe, Michigan. Due to economic factors, both the City of Monroe and County of Monroe were facing significant budget challenges.
Preliminary meetings resulted in discovering that many of the applications used at the City were also used at the County. This presented an opportunity to combine resources, infrastructure and technology.
Best Website
Best Website of the Year - Awarded to City of East Lansing
The City's new website showcases the character of the community through its use of vibrant photographs, all taken within the East Lansing community.
The photographs are the site’s main design element and highlight the community through a photographic montage. Each department and section of the Web site is set apart by the use of photographs, which are distinctive to the content area. In addition, the backdrop photographs can easily be changed to reflect content, seasons, special projects, etc.
Improved access to city news was accomplished through the incorporation of a user-friendly carousel on the homepage. This carousel features both a News and Around Town section, as well as changing photos for each featured headline. Online patrons can easily navigate the carousel and its photos by scrolling over the headlines with their mouse.
In addition, a number of modern interactive features were integrated into the site including a bi-weekly blog published by the City Manager, the ability to request a newcomer packet, the addition of community videos, the ability for public comment on news releases and blogs, interaction with social networks and the publication of a variety of e-newsletters.