SAN DIEGO - Several of the City of San Diego’s public information and technology programs won a total of eight awards at the national conference of the City-County Communications and Marketing Association (3CMA) on Friday, Sept. 6, in Washington, D.C. The City won three coveted Savvy Awards, two Silver Circle Awards, two Awards of Excellence, and a special environmental award.

The City’s Storm Water Pollution Prevention Program added three more awards to its highly touted public education program. The program’s "Think Blue" video public service announcements and its "Storm Water and You" employee education video both won first-place Savvy awards. In addition, the City’s "Think Blue" video won the first Susan B. Farmer Award for the most outstanding environmental video "in recognition of the video’s achievement of clearly and informatively communicating the importance of clean water." The national awards expand the recognition for the Think Blue program that recently won several local Emmys for the same videos. The Think Blue education and outreach campaign also has been chosen as the EPA's urban city model program for its "Getting in Step: A Guide to Creating an Outreach Campaign" publication and non-point source pollution tool box for municipal agencies that will be published this fall.

Another first-place Savvy Award went to the City’s recently revamped web site: www.sandiego.gov. Judges said the site was aesthetically pleasing, made excellent use of the home page, had state-of-the-art utilization of current technology, and made the most efficient use of the web site. The site is managed by the City’s E-Government program.

The City’s cable access television channel, CityTV 24, won a Silver Circle Award for "City Scape," the City’s cable channel news magazine, in the category of regular programming. City TV 24 also won an Award of Excellence in the one-time programming category for its documentary "Touring San Diego Lakes." City TV 24 has previously won a number of awards for programming excellence.

The Commission for Arts and Culture won a Silver Circle Award for its annual report, and the Redistricting Commission’s public participation process won an Award of Excellence in the category of citizen participation.

According to Carl Nettleton, the City’s Public and Media Affairs Director, the award-winners are solid evidence of the quality of information the City provides to the public and the use of technology to provide that information. "The winning City programs and departments have been recognized as among the best in the country for their work – providing outstanding information about the City in multiple formats. Each of the departments and programs that won awards is to be congratulated."

3CMA’s Savvy Awards Program drew nearly 800 submissions from cities and counties across the country. City departments who oversee the winning entries include General Services for Storm Water Pollution Prevention and Information Technology and Communications for the City’s web site and City TV 24.

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