Prior to the Friendswood City Council meeting May 1 at 6 pm, Mayor Mike Foreman presented a proclamation stating May is Jewish Heritage Month in Friendswood. A reception followed at City Hall.
The Council meeting began at 6 pm.
The City of Friendswood was recognized before Council for receiving the Government Finance Officers Association’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the Fiscal Year 2022 – 2023 budget.
The award represents a significant achievement by the City. It reflects the commitment of the governing body and staff to meeting the highest principles of governmental budgeting. In order to receive the budget award, the City had to satisfy nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation. Budget documents must be rated “proficient” by serving as 1) a policy document, 2) a financial plan, 3) an operations guide and 4) a communications device.
This is the twentieth consecutive year the City has received this award. This Distinguished Budget Presentation Award also comes with the special recognition for Special Strategic Goals and Strategies. This is only the second time in 20 years the City’s budget document received a special recognition designation.
The following were recognized their efforts: Katina Hampton, Director of Administrative Services; Rhonda Bloskas, Deputy Director of Administrative Services – Finance; Emily Peltier, Budget Manager, and Andree Calhoun, Financial Analyst. Also recognized were the Budget Team, the Accounting staff, and the entire Administrative Services Department. Their cumulative efforts enabled the City to achieve this award.
The award is for the fiscal year which began October 1, 2022.
The Mayor and Council also recognized and honored Keep Friendswood Beautiful (KFB) member Kaye Corey for being awarded the 2023 Keep Texas Beautiful OP Schnabel Volunteer of the Year Award for her work to preserve and enhance Texas’ environment and make their community stronger.
Corey will be honored at the KTB Annual Conference, which will take place in Houston from June 26 through June 28. A full list of winners and award descriptions, as well as information about the conference, can be found at www.ktb.org and https://ktb.org/beautify-texas-awards/#winners/.
The Director and Deputy Director of Information Technology were recognized at the meeting for their recent Cybersecurity efforts.
Technology Director, James O’Brien, was selected to join the Statewide Cybersecurity Strategic Plan review group. The current plan expires later this year. DIR is assembling a group of stakeholders to assist in the effort. The group consists of Statewide Information Security Advisory Committee (SISAC) and a few members from DIR’s OCISO team. They requested someone from TAGITM and local government to also participate.
They will discuss the cybersecurity challenges they expect to see in the next five years and goals on how to tackle those challenges. They will also discuss strategies/methods to achieve those goals.
Another accomplishment by the IT team was made by IT Deputy Director, Jim Greenwood. He took advantage of the training opportunities to pursue his Security + certification and passed the test.
