Westfield earns three statewide honors at Aim Ideas Summit

Submitted by City of Westfield

The City of Westfield received three statewide honors at the 2026 Accelerate Indiana Municipalities (Aim) Ideas Summit, recognizing individual leadership, lifesaving public safety innovation, and city officials’ efforts to reimagine how local government serves a growing community.

Westfield Parks and Recreation Director Chris McConnell received the Ivan H. Brinegar Municipal Management Award, the Westfield Fire Department received the Innovative Program Award for its Mobile Blood Response program, and the city received the Stephen Goldsmith Prize for Innovation in Local Government for its proposed Westfield Civic Intelligence Platform.

“To receive three awards recognizing such different areas of our organization speaks volumes about the caliber of the workforce we have at the City of Westfield,” Mayor Scott Willis said. “I am incredibly proud of our employees and the work they do every day on behalf of this community. Whether they are finding new ways to serve residents, responsibly managing public resources, or stepping up to lead, they consistently embody our core values of servant leadership, innovation, and stewardship. These awards are a reflection of that commitment and the culture our employees have built across the organization.”

 McConnell receives Ivan H. Brinegar Municipal Management Award

McConnell has served the city since 2010 and has helped guide the growth and evolution of the city’s parks, trails, and recreation system alongside Westfield’s rapidly growing population.

During his tenure, Westfield has expanded its park system and trail network, added recreation opportunities, and invested in major public spaces designed to enhance residents’ quality of life. His leadership has been instrumental in projects including Grand Junction Plaza and the transformation of Simon Moon Park.

McConnell also helped establish a formal Parks and Recreation Department and Parks Board, while building a team culture focused on professional development, collaboration, and long-term planning.

The Ivan H. Brinegar Municipal Management Award recognizes outstanding municipal management and leadership in Indiana.

Westfield Fire Department recognized for Mobile Blood Response

The Westfield Fire Department received Aim’s Innovative Program Award for its Mobile Blood Response program, which launched in 2025 as Hamilton County’s first prehospital blood transfusion program.

The program allows specially trained Westfield paramedics to administer plasma and red blood cells to patients experiencing life-threatening blood loss before they arrive at a hospital. Blood products are maintained in a mobile refrigeration unit and can be transported directly to the scene of an emergency. The department also carries specialized equipment that allows paramedics to warm and rapidly administer blood when minutes matter.

The program was developed after Westfield Fire Department studied existing models and worked with medical experts to determine how blood products could safely and effectively be incorporated into prehospital emergency care.

Mobile Blood Response was also designed as a regional resource. Neighboring fire and EMS agencies can request Westfield’s assistance when they have a patient who could benefit from blood products, extending the program’s reach beyond Westfield.

Earlier this year, the program’s first patient, Drake Fuentes, reunited with the paramedics involved in his care during a Westfield Fire Department blood drive, highlighting the direct connection between community blood donors, first responders and the patients who rely on lifesaving blood products.

Westfield receives Stephen Goldsmith Prize for Civic Intelligence Platform

The City of Westfield also received the Stephen Goldsmith Prize for Innovation in Local Government, which recognizes and supports collaborative, high-impact solutions developed by local Hoosier leaders.

The award will support development of the Westfield Civic Intelligence Platform, an initiative designed to transform how municipal information is organized, accessed, and used to serve residents, businesses, developers, elected officials, and City employees.

As Westfield has grown, so has the amount of information needed to operate the city, including ordinances, plans, engineering standards, policies, meeting records, forms, and operating procedures. That information often exists across multiple documents, systems, and departments, requiring employees to spend significant time searching for information, interpreting requirements, and responding to recurring questions.

The Civic Intelligence Platform is designed to create a trusted, governed knowledge system that makes authoritative city information easier to find and consistently apply.

Unlike a general-purpose chatbot, the platform will rely on approved city sources, defined content ownership, citations, human review, and clear escalation whenever legal, professional, or discretionary judgment is required.

Potential applications include a Development Navigator to help developers, architects, engineers, businesses, and residents better understand requirements and next steps, as well as a Community Response Assistant to help employees consistently respond to common questions about permits, services, projects, policies, and city responsibilities.

As part of the Goldsmith Prize, Westfield will work with a graduate fellow to help coordinate stakeholder engagement, identify high value uses for the platform, organize authoritative city information, support pilot programs, and establish measures to determine whether the initiative is improving service.

Westfield plans to evaluate measures including response times, staff hours recovered, reduced revision cycles, accuracy, user satisfaction and avoided costs. City officials also intend to document lessons learned and create a framework that could eventually be adapted by other municipalities.

The Stephen Goldsmith Prize is named in honor of former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith and celebrates his legacy of innovation, public-private collaboration, and community engagement in local government.