December 10, 2008

Ikerd was named winner of the Jack Vogt Award for Outstanding Commitment to the Advancement of Local Government Budget and Evaluation from the North Carolina Local Government Budget Association during the Association’s recent annual conference in Pinehurst, North Carolina. This is only the third time the Vogt Award has ever been given.

“Judy has served as a strong mentor to her staff and others throughout Catawba County,” said Rebecca Troutman, Intergovernmental Relations Director with the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, in a letter of support of Ikerd’s nomination. “She has helped her staff develop core budgeting skills and has encouraged their participation in statewide budgeting activities. Her county board chair, her county manager and assistant managers, and former staff all speak very highly of her professional and interpersonal proficiencies.”

As Budget Manager, Ikerd has overseen the preparation of a detailed annual County budget document for submission to the County Manager and the Board of Commissioners since 1989, including analysis of how that budget is actually corresponding to the County’s funding needs and available funds, a study of the revenues expected to be available during the next year, and preparation of a draft budget sent to the County Manager in the spring of each year.

“Under her direction Catawba County has received the Government Finance Officer's Award for Distinguished Budget Presentation for twenty consecutive years”, said Catawba County Budget Analyst and incoming Budget Manager Jennifer Mace and Budget Analyst Katrina Hawkins, who nominated Ikerd for the honor. “Judy has worked diligently over the years to improve accountability in local government budgeting. In this vein, she served as a member of the original steering committee that provided the leadership for the North Carolina Local Government Performance Measurement Project through the School of Government.”

“Judy has been a pioneer in North Carolina budgeting best practices, particularly in the area of
performance based budgeting,” Mace and Hawkins also wrote. “Under her leadership, Catawba County implemented a more flexible performance based budget known as “reinventing” for five of its fifteen departments, based on the concepts from the book, Reinventing Government by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler. “Reinventing departments are exempted from line item budget analysis and allowed to keep generated fund balance in exchange for demonstrated achievement of negotiated outcomes. Catawba County has benefited from enhanced services to the citizens and experienced cost savings as a result. Variations of this innovative practice have been adopted by numerous other local governments in North Carolina and beyond.”

A number of Ikerd’s colleagues in cities and counties across the state mentioned Ikerd’s willingness to help them learn more about the “reinventing” process in their support of her nomination for the award.

“From information she shared at our conferences and School of Government classes, we learned how she helped empower her department heads so they could focus on achieving their expected ‘outcomes’ rather than concentrating on the details of financial control,” said Ann G. Jones, Budget and Evaluation Director for the City of Winston-Salem. “Judy has written articles and made presentations explaining the outcome-based budget model…without Judy’s strong but good humored style of leadership, it is hard to imagine that such success could have been attained.”

“I will forever be grateful to Judy, who took the time to meet with me and explain the pros and cons of their performance based budgeting program,” wrote Adam Lindsey, Budget and Performance Manager in Rockingham County. “Judy continued to offer me support through the implementation of our own performance based budgeting program. Judy’s leadership has led to more and more counties across North Carolina adopting more progressive performance based budgeting programs.”

Ikerd served on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Local Government Budget Association from 1992 to 1998 and served as Association President in 1998. She is getting ready to enjoy more time with her family, travelling and being more involved in community activities, following her retirement at the end of 2008. She said she was very touched to receive the award.

“We are so fortunate to have the UNC School of Government in Chapel Hill and professors like Jack Vogt to instruct and guide those of us working in local government,” Ikerd said. “It is a real honor to receive this award named after him for local government budgeting excellence.”

“As a colleague, I have relied on Judy’s knowledge and experience over the years; and have admired her professionalism and dedication to local government service,” said Pamela Meyer, Director of Budget and Management Services in Durham County. “I have met many members of her staff over the years, and have seen what a good mentor and teacher she has been, as witnessed by the career advancement of many of her staff from Catawba County. Judy is much deserving of the honor and recognition of this Jack Vogt Award, particularly from the Association to which she has devoted much time and energy.”