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The "Pearls of Local Government" gala took place online on Wednesday (12 May) evening. This is already the 9th edition of the ranking prepared by the editors of Dziennik Gazeta Prawna and PwC experts. 

- We invite all local governments without exception to take part in it - stressed Krzysztof Jedlak, editor-in-chief of GDP during the gala. - Following the invitations we send questionnaires with many questions. We thoroughly analyze and evaluate the answers and the final word belongs to the competition jury. This year, we saw the great commitment, energy and ingenuity in the activities of local governments. It has never been easy to win in our contest, but in this edition it was more difficult than usual, so all the more congratulations. 

This year the Pearls were awarded in five categories: municipality with population below 5 000, rural municipality with population above 5 000, urban-rural municipality with population above 5 000, urban municipality with population below 100 000 and urban municipality with population above 100 000. Poznan competed in the last of them - and the questions of the ranking organisers were meticulously answered by the employees of the City Development and International Cooperation Department of the Poznan City Hall on the basis of data and information prepared by the departments of the Poznan City Hall.

The list also included Leaders of Good Practices in four areas: economy, education, health and care and environment as well as the best mayor, i.e. head of commune, mayor or city president. In the category of municipalities with population over 100 thousand the best mayor was chosen equally: Jacek Jaśkowiak, the president of Poznan and Wojciech Szczurek, the president of Gdynia. 

- Thank you for the distinction, it obliges me to even greater diligence and work for the benefit of Poznan," said Jacek Jaskowiak. - The year 2020 passed in the shadow of the fight against coronavirus. It was a time of very difficult decisions which we had to make in order to maintain the planned investments. At the same time, the pandemic has shown great solidarity of local communities, releasing huge amounts of goodness in people. The support for the hospital and nursing homes provided by the citizens of Poznan and local entrepreneurs helped us survive the first few weeks of the pandemic, for which I am very grateful. 

This is another such important award for the Mayor of Poznan - in 2018 in the ranking of "Pearls of Local Government" he took second place in his category.

This year, the second place went to Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, Mayor of Gdańsk, and the third place to Hanna Zdanowska, Mayor of Łódź. 

In the category of communes with less than 5 thousand inhabitants the winner was Marcin Skonieczka, the mayor of Płużnica. In the rural gminas with more than 5 000 inhabitants the winner was Krzysztof Harmaciński, mayor of Iława, and in the urban-rural gminas with more than 5 000 inhabitants category - Igor Bandrowicz, mayor of Prusice. The best mayor in the category of municipalities with population up to 100 thousand was Jaroslaw Gorczynski, mayor of Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski. 

Poznan on the podium of the best local governments in Poland

- Choosing the best local governments was extremely difficult this year, admits Marta Gocłowska, an expert in the public sector services team at PwC. - We were evaluating the activities undertaken in 2020, which brought a number of new challenges and at the same time showed the strength of self-governments and how much influence our small fatherlands and their leaders have on our lives. For this incredible work we want to thank you very much. 

Poznan took third place in the category of municipalities with population over 100 thousand - behind the winner Gdynia and Gdańsk. This is not the first such award for the capital of Wielkopolska. In 2018, Poznan took fourth place in its category, and a year later - first place. It was also awarded as much as twice as Good Practice Leader: in 2019. The competition jury appreciated the senior policy and the Viva Senior package, as well as the only 3D map of the city in the country. All these awards prove that Poznan has a permanent and stable position among the best local governments in the country.

In the category of municipalities with up to 5 thousand inhabitants the winner was Podkowa Leśna. The best rural municipality with more than 5 thousand inhabitants was Iława and the best urban-rural municipality was Aleksandrów Łódzki. The winner among municipalities with up to 100 thousand residents was Ciechanow. 

Distinctions for Good Practice Leaders went to municipalities: Bydgoszcz, Ełk, Kobylnica, Marki (in the "Education" category), Bieliny, Gdynia, Kraków (category: "Health and Care") and Aleksandrów Łódzki, Czarny Bór, Ełk, Rybnik (in the "Environment" category).

The Gala was part of the "Pearls of Local Government" Congress, during which a series of panel discussions was held to discuss the biggest problems and challenges facing Polish local governments.