Cesar Blanco: National recognition brings pride to El Paso

El Paso is a winner! We already know this fact for those of us who are fortunate enough to call El Paso home. However, for those who are not so familiar with the Borderland, the transformation taking place in our community is news that is receiving attention in big ways. As entities and leaders throughout our community continue to accomplish incredible feats to improve the quality of life for all El Pasoans, our beloved home is now garnering the national recognition we deserve. The city of El Paso is the first organization, across all sectors, to earn the Texas Award for Performance Excellence for two consecutive years, in 2019 and 2020. El Paso has also won the All-America City (AAC) Award three times, in 2018, 2020, and 2021, and has been named an AAC finalist four additional years in a row.

Most recently, our City Manager, Tommy Gonzalez, has been named the 2022 E. David Spong Lifetime Achievement Award recipient by the Malcolm Baldrige Foundation. The award recognizes exceptional leadership and management values and principles that inspire others and improve communities. Gonzalez is the first Hispanic American to receive this award and only the second recipient from the public service sector. The ideals that this national award represents are indicative of who we are as a community and our dedication to improving the overall wellbeing of all those who reside here. This recognition is about what all of us can and will achieve together. Despite the challenges we have faced in recent years, including the immigration crisis, the Aug. 3 mass shooting, and the COVID-19 pandemic, our community has consciously worked to forge robust partnerships across all sectors resulting in incredible tangible outcomes. In 2018, agency leaders from across the public and private sectors created the Community of Excellence (COE) initiative to focus collective efforts better. Championed by Gonzalez, this initiative has become a structured partnership, applying a performance excellence framework to deliver for our community. Our COE collaborative, an award-winning initiative in its own right, won the Quality Texas Pioneer Award in 2019.