State Rep. Diana Urban has been named as one of the 2010 "Public Officials of the Year'' by Governing Magazine.
Urban, a Democrat who was formerly a Republican in the state legislature, was cited in the 17th annual awards program that recognizes public officials from many levels - state, city, and county.
Urban, who represents North Stonington and Stonington, was recognized for her work on the legislature's budget-writing appropriations committee, where she has pushed for "results-based accountability'' that demands certain performance levels from various state agencies.
"As the economy slowly recovers, it is essential that we as government officials focus on and fund only programs that work for the taxpayer,'' Urban said in a statement. "For too long, we have relied on simply expanding programs without any consistent analysis on whether they are producing results.''
She added, "By fully instituting results based accountability, we can protect our children and working families by not wasting money on nice-sounding programs that don't produce measurable results. By using a data-driven, decision-making model, we can have a government that is sustainable. As Thomas Jefferson said, 'The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.' "