Auburn City Councilmember John Holman recently received a Certificate of Municipal Leadership (CML) from the Association of Washington Cities (AWC).

Holman completed 36 hours of training credits to earn the distinction.

The CML program is designed to enhance the ability of elected municipal officials by providing knowledge and skills to effectively operate within the law, plan for the future, secure and manage funds and foster community and staff relationships.

To earn the certificate, the official attends a variety of AWC-sponsored municipal workshops. The courses help mayors and councilmembers learn the essentials of municipal service and improve their ability to work with council colleagues, city staff and citizens.

Holman was elected to the City Council and began his term in January. He is a member of the Planning and Community Development Committee and vice chair of the Finance committee.

“This is a man of character fully involved in his community. One of the fastest certificates earned I have seen,” Mayor Pete Lewis said.

When Holman received the award he quoted American humorist Will Rogers: “A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people.”

Holman went on to say: “By attending a variety of AWC courses, I got to associate with people far smarter than me. Hopefully Auburn will benefit from what rubbed off. It took me eight months to earn this distinction, but my training isn’t over. I look at this as the basics for municipal service. I am continuing course work in pursuit of Advanced Certification. In other words, I need to keep hanging around smart people.”

AWC is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan corporation that represents Washington’s cities before the state legislature, the state executive branch and with regulatory agencies.

Membership is voluntary; however, all of Washington’s 281 cities and towns are members. The goal of AWC is to create and maintain livable cities throughout the state.