City to present Sir Edmund Hillary with inaugural Distinguished Citizen Award

The Auckland City Council last night unanimously agreed with a selection committee’s recommendation that the recipient of its inaugural Distinguished Citizen Award would be Sir Edmund Hillary.

Auckland City Mayor John Banks said there was never any disagreement by the selection committee that Sir Edmund would be the first to receive the new Auckland City award.

“Sir Edmund is New Zealand’s most distinguished citizen and has been Auckland’s number one ambassador for 50 years. He is genuinely enthusiastic about receiving the first Distinguished Citizen Award,” he said.

The inaugural award will be presented to Sir Edmund at a meeting of the council at 6pm, Wednesday, April 23 2003. The monthly council meeting will follow at 7.30pm.

The council agreed to establish a Distinguished Citizen Award and confirmed the make-up of the selection committee at its meeting on December 19 2002.

Mr Banks said the award, which he initiated, is a high honour that would be formally conferred at full council meetings. There are to be a maximum of two recipients each year.

The award’s criteria stipulate that a successful recipient must be a person who has made an outstanding contribution to Auckland or a citizen of the city who has made an outstanding contribution to New Zealand.

“I believe in putting success on a pedestal and recognising people who do great things for Auckland,” Mr Banks said.

Successful recipients will receive a beautifully scripted and framed citation. Their names will also appear on a Roll of Honour in each year’s Annual Report of the Auckland City Council.

Nominations for the Distinguished Citizen Award can only be submitted to the selection committee by the sitting mayor and councillors. Members of the public are encouraged to submit their recommendations to their respective ward councillor.

Members of selection committee are Mayor John Banks, Deputy Mayor David Hay, Chief Executive Bryan Taylor and Councillors Dr Bruce Hucker, Penny Sefuiva, and Juliet Yates.

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