PALMDALE – Palmdale City Manager Dave Childs recently received a 40-year service award from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), the premier local government leadership and management organization.
Childs’ achievement was celebrated at a special ceremony last week as part of the 99th ICMA Annual Conference in Boston, Massachusetts.
ICMA Service Awards recognize and celebrate members’ dedication to public service and professional management at the local level. Awards are based on the number of years of full-time employment in service to local government.
Childs was honored by ICMA for his 40 years of professional local government experience beginning in 1972. Prior to his appointment as Palmdale City Manager in April of 2012, he served in numerous key leadership positions in local government, including service as the Assistant County Manager of Washoe County, Nevada as well as the City Manager in the City of South Lake Tahoe, California and additionally serving as the City Manager for the cities of Minnetonka, New Brighton, St. Anthony and Blue Earth in Minnesota. Earlier in his career, Childs held several positions in Minnesota and Arizona as both a City and Regional planner, including serving as the Planning Director for the City of Casa Grande, Arizona.
In addition to Childs’ years of managing local governments, one of the crowning achievements of his career is his service as the President of ICMA in 2010-11. He is also an ICMA Legacy Leader and continues to serve as a Senior Advisor to ICMA State Associations.
Childs holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts Degrees from Minnesota State University and attended the Harvard Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the JFK School of Government. He and his wife Barbara have two married sons and three grandchildren.
About ICMA
ICMA’s mission is to create excellence in local governance by developing and advancing professional management of local government. ICMA, the International City/County Management Association, provides member support; publications, data, and information; peer and results-oriented assistance; and training and professional development to city, town, and county experts and other individuals and organizations throughout the world. The management decisions made by ICMA’s 9,000 members affect 185 million individuals around the globe living in thousands of communities, from small villages and towns to large metropolitan areas.
(Information via press release from the city of Palmdale.)