2003 Walter Barnard Hill Awards for Distinguished Achievement in University Public Service & Outreach

Richard L. Milford

During his eleven years at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, Dr. Richard Millford has compiled an impressive record of activities that embody UGA’s public service mission. Milford initially joined the Vinson Institute in 1987 as a faculty member with the Governmental Training Division, where he provided leadership development and training to local government managers, department personnel, and elected officials. In 1991 he joined the newly established Unified Government of Athens-Clarke County as assistant manger of personnel and government operations, a position he held for four years before returning to the Vinson Institute. In 1998 Milford joined the Vinson Institute’s Research and Policy Analysis Division, and in 2002 was appointed program director over state government program evaluation initiatives with the Insitute’s newly established Governmental Services Division.

Milford’s reputation as a local government management instructor has resulted in requests for his services from UGA departments and state government agencies. He was commissioned by the Cooperative Extension Service to develop and present communications training to its public service faculty and staff, and by the Georgia Department of Audits to develop an adaptation of the Local Government Management Development course. Milford’s expertise in local government management has also led to international instruction consulting. He has traveled to China twice as a faculty member of the Vinson Institute’s International Center for Democratic Governance, at which he conducted lecture to city and government managers concerning local government management, program performance measurement, citizen involvement, and customer service.

While serving as a highly effective program director, Milford also directly manages several projects. He provides technical assistance to the Department of Technical and Adult Education, the Department of Human Resources, the Department of Labor, the Supreme Court of Georgia, and other state and local agencies. He was instrumental in facilitating two significant strategic planning efforts during 1996 and 1997 with the Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission and the Georgia Municipal Association. He has also developed a ten-year partnership between the Vinson Institute and the Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education to provide a comprehensive and continuous program of evaluation and performance measurement regarding technical college/institute programs in the area of workforce training and development.

An example of one of Milford’s most innovative programs is the Local Government Mystery Shopper Program, which he developed in response to the Georgia City-County Management Association’s request for a process that would provide continuous customer service evaluation and accountability measures of how average citizens are treated by local government employees. Mystery shopping involves an evaluator posing a customer to assess services provided by an organization. As the first of its kind in local government customer service performance measurement, the program was highly successful, and Milford has since directed and implemented a national program paralleling the local mystery shopper program.