(LtoR) Councilman Dan Stewart, Councilwoman Monica Larson, Mayor Michelle Romero, Councilwoman Carrie Cox stand with presenter Josh Racette as the Henderson City Council holds a special session and presentation after winning the 2024 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Henderson. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
The 2024 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is displayed before a room of attendees as the Henderson City Council holds a special session and presentation after winning the award on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Henderson. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
Mayor Michelle Romero, center, Councilwomen Monica Larson, left, and Carrie Cox, right, watch as the Henderson City Council holds a special session and presentation on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Henderson after winning the 2024 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
Mayor Michelle Romero speaks as the Henderson City Council holds a special session and presentation after winning the 2024 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Henderson. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
Mayor Michelle Romero, center, Councilwomen Monica Larson, left, and Carrie Cox, right, applaud as the Henderson City Council holds a special session and presentation on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, after winning the 2024 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
City Manager/CEO Stephanie Garcia-Vause thanks all city workers as the Henderson City Council holds a special session and presentation after winning the 2024 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Henderson. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
Mayor Michelle Romero listens in as the Henderson City Council holds a special session and presentation after winning the 2024 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Henderson. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
The 2024 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is displayed before a room of attendees as the Henderson City Council holds a special session and presentation after winning the award on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Henderson. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
Awards presenter Josh Racette speaks before the Henderson City Council as the council holds a special session and presentation after winning the 2024 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Henderson. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
City Manager/CEO Stephanie Garcia-Vause looks to presenter Josh Racette as the Henderson City Council holds a special session and presentation after winning the 2024 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Henderson. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
Awards presenter Josh Racette speaks before the Henderson City Council as they hold a special session and presentation after winning the 2024 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Henderson. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
The Henderson City Council holds a special session and presentation after winning the 2024 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Henderson. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
Henderson city officials formally presented on Tuesday an award given to the city late last year that recognizes organizational excellence across public, private, academic and nonprofit sectors across the nation.
In October, officials with the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that Henderson was one of five recipients to earn the 2024 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, becoming the fifth municipality to win the honor since its introduction in 1988.
Speaking to several dozen attendees during a special City Council meeting on Tuesday, city manager Stephanie Garcia-Vause thanked the city’s roughly 3,000 employees for the yearslong process she said it took to win the award.
“This award is a testament to your contributions,” Garcia-Vause said.
City officials said in an October news release that organizations that apply for the award are evaluated based on their “performance against criteria that focus on resilience and long-term success, including assessing processes, key performing indicators, and more.”
For Henderson, highlights from that evaluation included a satisfaction rate among residents for city services that ranked above the 95th percentile, the news release said, as well as high community marks for fire and police services from 2010 through 2023. The city was also recognized for having what the news release said was the region’s lowest property tax rate, which ranged between 71 cents and 77 cents per $100 of property value, from fiscal year 2019 to 2023.
Mayor Michelle Romero thanked city employees and volunteers past and present. She said efforts to win the award go back more than a decade.
“With a vision to be America’s premier community, we’ve always done things a little differently and have not behaved like a typical government,” Romero said.
The award is named after former Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige, who served in the Reagan administration before his death in 1987. In addition to Tuesday’s ceremony, city officials in late March were also recognized at an awards convocation in Baltimore along with other award recipients.
