PM Magazine, May 2020 by PM Magazine

Preparing to Reopen Our Communities 10 Disaster Recovery & Resilience 18 Finding an Interim Police Chief in a Crisis 28

CRISIS & DISASTER MANAGEMENT

MAY 2020 ICMA.ORG/PM

Libraries are essential partners in the fight against COVID-19 Libraries are strengthening community resilience in the coronavirus age. As COVID-19 has an increasingly devastating impact on education systems, economies, job markets and race and social equity, public libraries are taking a leading stance in helping all citizens safeguard their health, stay connected and maintain stability in their lives.

Public libraries and city/county leaders are working together to: EXTEND DISASTER RELIEF EFFORTS Libraries are providing spaces, vehicles and staff to support critical disaster relief activities including meal delivery, supply distribution, blood drives and more. For example, Toronto Public Library (Ont.) has repurposed closed library buildings as alternate service locations for city food banks. Library staff also supervise and work on the front lines of these temporary food banks, which have served more than 5,685 people as of April 2020.

ENGAGE YOUTH IN DISTANCE LEARNING Libraries are actively partnering with schools and parents to enhance home learning opportunities for students. For example, the St. Louis (Mo.) COVID-19 Regional Response Team includes St. Louis County Library as the lead agency for remote learning and technology. In this role, the library is assessing community education needs, convening education leaders online and piloting new technology solutions to support distance learning.

SUPPORT THE WORKFORCE AND ECONOMY To mitigate the difficulties individuals are facing due to the sudden economic recession and widespread layoffs, libraries are establishing new programs and resources to support access to relief funds, job search and entrepreneurial skill-building. For example, Spokane Public Library (Wash.) has partnered with its city to launch a financial helpline to help small businesses and individuals navigate relief funding resources.

LEARN MORE AT URBANLIBRARIES.ORG

MAY 2020 VOL. 102 NO. 5

CONTENTS

F E AT U R E S

How Our Cities Can Reopen After the COVID-19 Pandemic

A 10-Point preparedness plan for our communities Richard Florida, Toronto, Canada; and Steven Pedigo, Austin, Texas

It Hit Us First: COVID-19 and Your Municipality The first municipality in Florida to have a confirmed positive case J.C. Jimenez, ICMA-CM, Bay Harbor Islands, Florida

Long-Term Disaster Recovery

Still a broken landscape for smaller local governments Judge C.H. “Burt” Mills Jr., Aransas County, Texas; and William R. Whitson, ICMA-CM, Atlanta, Georgia

A Whole-of-Government Approach

Embedding disaster resilience into municipal operations Patrick Howell, Ashburn, Virginia

During a Crisis, How to Find the Right Interim Police Chief

20 2 Ethics Matter!

Ethical Leadership in the Time of COVID-19

5 ICMA Local Government Excellence Award Spotlight

A Long-Term Flood Recovery Plan in Jersey Village, Texas

The critical appointment of an interim chief in a city rocked by a high-profile investigation Norton Bonaparte, ICMA-CM, Sanford, Florida, and Richard W. Myers, Boulder, Colorado

6 Career Track

43 Professional Services Directory

Sudden Service Interruption Means All Hands on Deck

D E PA RT M E N T S

“We’ve Always Done It That Way” Is Over—What’s Next? Part 2: Building a Talent-Centric Workforce

How a Texas city dealt with the sudden collapse of a critical vendor Jason Little, ICMA-CM, Melissa, Texas

Covering the County When It Counts

Waldo County, Maine, establishes nation’s first countywide emergency broadcast system operating on AM radio channels Dale D. Rowley, Belfast, Maine; and Bill Baker, American Association of Information Radio Operators

The 10 Rs of Crisis Management

A road map for avoiding, preparing for, managing, and recovering from a crisis Edward Segal, Washington, DC

International City/County Management Association M AY 2 0 2 0 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | 1

ETHICS MATTER!

Ethical Leadership in the Time of COVID-19

BY MARTHA PEREGO, ICMA-CM

Unprecedented. In the last month, how often

MARTHA PEREGO, ICMA-CM, is director of member services and ethics director, ICMA, Washington, D.C. (mperego@icma.org).

have you heard or used that term to describe these times? As a profession, we are neither immune nor surprised when crisis comes to our communities. If you have worked in local government for a while, no doubt these times cause you to reflect on other disasters and calamities. And on the changes, both temporary and lasting, that came with recovery from those events—what we gained and what we sacrificed. There was 9/11. In the aftermath, we heightened public safety and security. We pivoted in how we valued personal freedom, willing to give some of it up to ensure our safety. Access to public buildings was restricted, our open national borders got more scrutiny, and personal freedoms in travel were gone. Then there was the Great Recession of 2009, which of course is not to be confused with the Great Depression. While most of us missed the latter in 1929, we are beneficiaries of its landmark contribution to public policy values: the government’s role in funding safety net programs for the vulnerable and to support society in dire times. The recession was so bad that recovery required many local governments to not just cut at the margins, but to redesign their organizations. Some dramatically reduced staffing to preserve essential services and their financial credibility with credit agencies, a critical step for long-term stability. In exchange, many positions that were

avenues for career advancement never returned. Adding to the landscape of the local government experience is managing natural and manmade disasters in a way to mitigate the loss of life and property. Those challenges, significant and often gut-wrenching to navigate, pale in comparison to the situation facing local government leaders now. This new situation layers complex issues on top of elements unseen in decades: a pandemic, public health resource crisis, economic recession, and a quarantined society. What will our business, government, and community life be like when we reopen our communities? “We’re actually preparing for what we do during a hurricane and pandemic at the same time. We all work on top of each other on the emergency operations center. Also thinking about shelter housing. How do you do that with social distancing? All interesting problems we’ve never thought about before. But, if you told me last year we were going to do a table top exercise and respond to a hurricane during a pandemic, I would have told you that you were crazy.” —Alan Rosen, assistant city manager, Port Orange, Florida

So yes, unprecedented sounds like the correct assessment. Public Management (PM)

International City/County

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ICMA Creating and Supporting Thriving Communities ICMA’s vision is to be the leading association of local government professionals dedicated to creating and supporting thriving communities throughout the world. It does this by working with its more than 12,000 members to identify and speed the adoption of leading local government practices and improve the lives of residents. ICMA offers membership, professional development programs, research, publications, data and information, technical assistance, and training to thousands of city, town, and county chief administrative officers, their staffs, and other organizations throughout the world. Public Management (PM) aims to inspire innovation, inform decision making, connect leading-edge thinking to everyday challenges, and serve ICMA members and local governments in creating and sustaining thriving communities throughout the world.

What Values Matter

Just as those who have navigated a long-term crisis before, elected and appointed leaders will face many decisions in the days ahead. Given these uncharted waters none are insignificant. Some may seem easier, like the management call to adhere to the CDC’s advice on social distancing. But most will be complicated and 2019–2020 ICMA Executive Board PRESIDENT

Jane Brautigam* City Manager, Boulder, Colorado PRESIDENT-ELECT

James Malloy* Town Manager, Lexington, Massachusetts PAST PRESIDENT

Karen Pinkos* City Manager, El Cerrito, California VICE PRESIDENTS

International Region

Tim Anderson Chief Administrative Officer, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Sue Bidrose Chief Executive Officer, Dunedin City Council, New Zealand Robert Kristof City Manager, Timisoara, Romania

complex. Complex because they will require making choices based on values. This pandemic has already generated what is a values-based debate. How much loss of life are we, as a society, willing to endure in exchange for personal freedom and faster economic recovery? This is what the ethicist Rushworth Kidder termed the ethics of “right versus right.” Making a choice between wrong and right is

Midwest Region

Southeast Region

Wally Bobkiewicz* City Administrator, Issaquah, Washington**

W. Lane Bailey* City Manager, Salisbury, North Carolina

Clint Gridley* City Administrator, Woodbury, Minnesota Molly Mehner* Deputy City Manager, Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Laura Fitzpatrick* Deputy City Manager, Chesapeake, Virginia Michael Kaigler* Assistant County Manager, Chatham County, Georgia

ICMA Executive Director Marc Ott Director, Member Publications

Lynne Scott lscott@icma.org

Managing Editor

Kerry Hansen khansen@icma.org

West Coast Region

Newsletter Editor

Kathleen Karas kkaras@icma.org

Michael Land* City Manager, Coppell, Texas

Maria Hurtado* Assistant City Manager, Hayward, California

Graphics Manager

Delia Jones djones@icma.org

Design & Production

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Raymond Gonzales County Manager, Adams County, Colorado

Edward Shikada* City Manager, Palo Alto, California

Northeast Region

Peter Troedsson* City Manager, Albany, Oregon

Mountain Plains Region

Heather Geyer* City Manager, Northglenn, Colorado

Matthew Hart* Town Manager, West Hartford, Connecticut Christopher Coleman* Town Manager, Westwood, Massachusetts Teresa Tieman* Town Manager, Fenwick Island, Delaware

* ICMA Credentialed Manager (ICMA-CM) ** Serving the region from a different location as is permissible in the ICMA Constitution.

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ETHICS MATTER!

clear for most of us. But these are tough choices because they pit one “right” value against another competing and equally “right” value. As he noted, “The really tough decisions don’t center upon right versus wrong. They involve right versus right. They are genuine dilemmas precisely because each side is firmly rooted in one of our basic, core values.”1 For Kidder, the common core values that stand as dilemmas paradigms are: • Truth versus loyalty. • Individual versus community. • Short-term versus long-term. • Justice versus mercy. These core values resonate with the decisions local government officials will have to make. Practically they may be framed as choices like this: 1. Retaining the current workforce versus maintaining service levels. 2. Reducing/deferring taxes to assist residents versus revenue stabilization. 3. Investing in small businesses to retain an economic base versus retaining employees. 4. Maintaining services to the elderly versus library patrons. 5. Continuing infrastructure projects to stimulate the economy versus deferring costs to the future. As local government leaders navigate the choices that lie ahead, what values will drive their decision making? If you don’t have agreement on what values matter, how will you assess the wisdom and merit of your decisions? 4 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | M AY 2 0 2 0

Your Value Proposition

Wedged between 9/11 and the Great Recession, a group of local government practitioners and academics came together to work on ICMA’s Task Force for the Profession. The essential question they wrestled with was how to articulate to others the value that professionals add to a city, county, or town. In arriving at the practices of the professional that add value, they noted that they are a package whose elements are intertwined. And that the biggest mistake is to assume that they operate in isolation and not in partnership with elected officials, community culture, and civic life. Professionals: • Add value to the quality of public policy and produce results that matter to their communities. • Take a long-term and community-wide perspective. • Build community and support democratic and community values. • Promote equitable, fair outcomes and processes. • Develop and sustain organizational excellence and promote innovation. • Commit to ethical practices in the service of public values. These practices are more than just an explanation of what you do—they represent who you are. As you move your organization and community forward in these times, remember the considerable value that you add to local government, the quality of life, and to our democracy. ENDNOTE 1

How Good People Make Tough Choices, Rushworth M. Kidder

ICMA LOCAL GOVERNMENT EXCELLENCE AWARD SPOTLIGHT

A Long-Term Flood Recovery Plan in Jersey Village, Texas Jersey Village, Texasâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;2019 Recipient, Program Excellence Award, Community Sustainability (Under 10,000 Population) Jersey Village, a

suburb of Houston, Texas, has had its fair share of flooding over the years. Beginning with Tropical Storm Allison in 1998 and floods in 2002, the city saw three flood events that devastated hundreds of homes. Although a lot of work was done to help mitigate flooding, the Tax Day Flood that hit the city in April 2016 affected more than 230 homes. Afterward, the city set in motion a strategy to create a long-term flood recovery plan. The first step was to work with an engineering firm to map out various flood risks and take elevation surveys of homes. The city held multiple community input sessions that allowed residents to share their experiences, information, and ideas. The process kept residents informed of solutions under consideration, alternatives, and long-term impacts, and the city received more than 2,000 pages of feedback from residents. The completed plan identified four main projects that would have positive outcomes: home elevations, increasing drainage in one particularly vulnerable neighborhood, building a berm around the golf

course, and deepening and widening the bayou through town. Because the bayou system that helps control and mitigate flooding is largely under the control of the Harris County Flood Control District, the city had to involve that organization in its planning. The city also worked closely with state and federal elected officials

to ensure their buy-in. Although some portions of the city are not in imminent danger of flooding, the plan was designed to protect the entire city. The final plan was adopted and approved by the city council in September 2017, just weeks after Hurricane Harvey dumped 31 inches of rain on the city and

more than 50 inches on the surrounding area. This project is vitally important to the long-term sustainability of the community, given the increasing number of severe rain events. It is also a model for other cities, and Jersey Village has stepped up to be a leader in the region despite its small size.

M AY 2 0 2 0 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | 5

CAREER TRACK

“We’ve Always Done It That Way”

Is Over—

WHAT’S NEXT? “When we have arrived at the question, the answer is already near.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

PART 2: Building a Talent-Centric Workforce This is my second of a four-part series in

PATRICK IBARRA is a former city manager and co-founder and partner, The Mejorando Group, Glendale, Arizona, an organizational effectiveness consulting practice (patrick@ gettingbetterallthetime. com).

which I focus on the impacts of the numerous changes impacting the role of local government. In this article, I identify why developing a talent-centric workforce is mission critical to your organization’s effectiveness. In brief, to build a twenty-first century workforce, you must implement a twenty-first century approach! Turbulence surrounds both today’s workforce and workplace, especially in local government. The workforce and workplace of tomorrow will be very different from those of today. Organizations need specific skills and attributes from their leaders, and for that matter, from those at all levels of the workforce. Employees will have markedly different needs and preferences, and workers will have different views based on their experiences, culture, ethnicity, and education. Workflows and work processes will change, and, for knowledge workers, the workplace is as likely to be remote as the office. The impacts from the COVID-19 virus on budgets for local governments has yet to be realized, but it likely will be significant and suggests some questions to ponder: • Might we have to implement a hiring freeze, or at a minimum, a chill? • Will our seasoned employees retire as pension reform looms? • What will the impact be to the effectiveness of our organization should seasoned employees retire and our ability to replace them be constricted? • Will our budget for employee learning and development be maintained, if not, increased?

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BY PATRICK IBARRA

• How do we position our organization as a modern employer should hiring continue? • How can we prepare our workforce for the challenges and opportunities associated with changes underway? • How can we develop employees to ensure that we have qualified candidates (i.e., strong internal bench) ready to fill those key positions when a vacancy occurs? These are just some of the questions leaders in local government may have to address as they translate the impacts from a number of changes, including the COVID-19 virus on their workforce and ability to sustain high-quality service delivery. Additionally, there are demographic shifts occurring: • Globally more people are over 65 than under five for the first time; in the United States, more people are older than 60 than under 18. • Each day, 10,000 people turn 65 years of age. According to the Pew Research Center, for the first time, millennials now outnumber baby boomers in the workplace 76 million to 75 million. Millennials comprise one-third of the current workforce at 53.5 million; and by 2025, they will make up 75 percent of the workforce. • The millennial generation has different work motivations and expectations for greater work/life balance. • The workforce will be more culturally and ethnically diverse and include more highly educated women, military veterans, and people with disabilities. • Expectations are likely to increase for customized benefits, mobility of benefits, and flexible work options. • The historical, long-term arrangement between employer and employee—sometimes referred to as “life-time

employment,” where the employer provides steady employment, attractive benefits, and wages in exchange for an employee’s long-term effort and tenure—is changing to one more akin to the private sector. • More widespread desire for work with a purpose and opportunities to influence the way it is delivered (for example, greater team autonomy). • The digital workplace and the rise in mobile technology are redefining the nature of work and the means of collaboration, facilitating work in and from almost any location. • New technologies that replace human labor, threatening employment (such as driverless trucks). • General increase in the skills, technical knowledge, and formal education required to perform work. Organizations face a radically shifting context for the workforce, the workplace, and the world of work. These shifts have changed the rules for nearly every organizational people practice, from learning to management to the definition of work itself. As jobs and skills change, attracting and developing the right people become more important than ever. Improving (or simply maintaining) workforce productivity requires you to accept that the work environment has changed, and your approach to talent management must change as well. Talent management has become one of the most pressing topics in organizations and its long overdue for the public-sector to transition its mindset from employees to talent. Your organization’s talent is not just employees who are expected to do a job (or for that matter, a role); talent comprises individuals who differ in what they can do and can learn, and what they want to do. To be effective, you need to manage talent in ways that make it a major contributor to your organization’s success.

Talent drives success, but the talent practices many governments use are vestiges of another era. They were designed for predictable environments, traditional ways of getting work done, and organizations where lines and boxes defined how people were managed. Modern leaders recognize that talent selection decisions are an increasingly important determinant of organizational performance and success. Those organizations that attract and retain the right kind of talent—and treat it, reward it, develop it, and deploy it correctly—perform better than those that simply fill jobs with people. Talent management is a systematic approach to performance excellence achieved by creating a culture of continuous improvement, high engagement, and workforce capability and capacity through integrated talent strategies and learning and development programs that are aligned with the agency mission, vision, and core values. Through talent management, achieving optimal performance is influenced more by preparing workforce members to handle present and future challenges and less by simply adding more employees. The adoption and implementation of a talent management process provides the opportunity for leaders to improve organizational performance despite not increasing workforce size. The following is provided to contrast the old way and modern way of attracting and developing talent: Employer Value Proposition

Every organization has an employer value proposition (EVP), which communicates your organization’s image to target audiences and reinforces the reasons why talented people would want to stay with or join the organization. Attracting and retaining talent requires an attractive EVP. Providing competitive salaries and benefits is necessary but insufficient if local governments are to M AY 2 0 2 0 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | 7

attract and retain talent. The war for talent is won on the battlefield of culture and opportunities for employees to learn and grow. An organization’s employee value proposition outlines why a talented employee would consider joining and staying with an organization. An employee value proposition may also suggest why a talented employee would be reluctant to join or stay with an agency. Local government has a good product to offer, especially to next generation talent: meaningful, challenging jobs and the opportunity to make a difference, build community, and even save the planet. The problem is that many of the human resource and other

organizational practices are not aligned with next generation values. The long periods to hire staff, boring job listings, noninteractive career websites, rigid job descriptions, stagnant learning environments, stale workplace culture, and lack of opportunity to influence decision-making undercut the ability of many traditional local governments to attract and keep talent. Having an attractive careers website was a prerequisite 10 years ago, but it’s time to up your game. Not only must you use your site as a platform to showcase what makes you special to potential candidates, you also need to carry the brand message through

Four Elements of a Talent Formula Elements

The Old Way

The Modern Way

Talent Mindset

• Having good people is one of many important performance levers.

• Having the “right” talent throughout the organization is a critical source of our success.

Employer Value Proposition

• Human resource management is responsible for people management including recruitment, compensation, performance reviews, and succession planning.

• Every manager is responsible for attracting, developing, and retaining talented people. • Every manager is explicitly accountable for the strength of the talent pool they build.

• We expect people to pay their dues and work their way up before they get top jobs and higher salaries.

• We think of our people as partners and volunteers and realize we have to deliver on their dreams if we are to keep them.

• We have a strong value proposition that attracts potential employees.

• We have a distinctive employee value proposition that attracts and retains talented people. • Our people feel good about their work experience.

Recruiting

Growing Talent

• Recruitment is like purchasing; it is about picking the best from a long line of candidates.

• Think like a “marketer.”

• Development is training around technical skills.

• Development happens through a series of job experiences, as well as helpful coaching and mentoring.

• Development happens when you are fortunate enough to have a good manager. • Succession planning is about preselection, and we can’t do that.

• Recruitment is a key responsibility of all managers.

• Development is essential to performance and retention. • Training—I mean, learning—is targeted to strengthen the internal bench of potential successors and to equip our workforce with tomorrow’s skills today. • Succession planning is a risk management strategy for continuity of operations and is about providing opportunities to learn and grow to employees who exercise initiative.

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all your marketing materials, across social media changes and in the stories, you share in person. For example, written and video testimonials should be posted on the website and social networks from current employees explaining why they enjoy their jobs. Doing so will create an image among prospective hires of what it’s like to work for you. This type of marketing is referred to as social marketing and is becoming increasingly common for public-sector organizations. Succession Planning

I have authored numerous articles on the subject of succession planning, spoken at scores of conferences, and designed and implemented succession planning processes for a large number of cities and counties across the nation. Regardless of the size of your organization, you currently have an approach for succession planning, but if it is not methodical and replicable, the results are not sustainable. Improving workforce productivity requires organization leaders to accept that the work environment has changed, and their approach to succession planning must change as well. Many forward-looking organizations are pursuing comprehensive and systematic succession planning to ensure their organization can lose seasoned, knowledgeable employees without experiencing a disruption in service delivery. More than just training employees, succession planning is both about developing talent inside the organization and implementing ways to recruit more qualified candidates to join the organization. Furthermore, succession planning is not simply replacing positions that become vacant; it’s a dynamic process of aligning employee aspirations and talents with the constantly evolving needs of the organization and providing employees with the resources and support they need to grow into new roles. In its most impactful form, succession planning influences how people across the organization think about performance, potential, job assignments, career paths, staffing decisions, and employee development. In short, it’s about matching your organization’s resources with employee initiative. A wider definition of succession planning should also include: • Ensuring the people who join the organization are compatible with the fit required to be successful and while not all may be interested in pursuing a promotion at some point, a sufficient number are willing to invest their time, effort, and energy to position themselves for those opportunities. • Making sure that there are enough suitable people to step into any significant role as it becomes vacant or is created. • Motivating and developing them to adapt to the new role as fast as possible with minimum disruption. • Recognizing that roles and their incumbents are constantly evolving. Effective succession planning relies on organizations to provide opportunities and proactive suggestions for development that increases the readiness of employees for future positions. By linking learning and development with succession and career planning, you can positively impact the availability of talent to meet future requirements.

Training

The third and final area that is mission-critical to maintaining a talent-centric workforce is training. By the way, it’s way past time to replace the word training, which is an expense, with the word learning which is an investment. Most government organizations invest a majority of their learning/training budget in employees’ technical performance. However, the ability to be an outstanding technical performer does not always translate in the ability to be an effective manager. The performance of managers today is rated as much on people skills as on measurable output. In addition, the ability to solve problems, resolve conflict, participate on teams, and make decisions are performance needs that frontline staff and mid-managers require. Although people differ in their baseline abilities, the research shows that skills-based training can result in better results for most people who want to improve their effectiveness. To deepen the capabilities of your workforce members, you need to have a bottom-to-top leadership and management development program with the following recommended objectives: • Build the critical leadership competencies of supervisors, managers, and directors. • Increase productivity. • Enhance the organization’s capacity to handle strategic, complex, and critical issues in the future. • Identify potential successors for key executives and leadership roles who will carry on the mission and values of your organization. The learning and development program should encompass three levels to categorize, in broad terms, the experiences, exposure, behaviors, and awareness of employees—emerging/beginning leaders, intermediate leaders, and advanced leaders. Development of the workforce cannot be successful as an HR initiative; to have a real impact, it needs to be an organization imperative. To reap the rewards of a stronger focus on leadership, it needs to be owned by senior management, driven by every single manager, and treated like a high priority. In other words, when senior leaders are actively involved in leadership development, the quality is much higher. Senior management has a critical perspective in identifying the leaders the organization needs in the future, but they also have the influence needed to put development at the top of the priority list. Talent tools and processes your organization has used for decades need to change to reflect the modern workplace and workforce. Everything starts with mindset. Referring to your organization’s vision, mission, and values, the question should be how does talent support or enable all of that? It’s the connective tissue that links it all together. Local governments must operate in a legacy world, meaning that you must be able to keep doing the nuts-and-bolts work at the core of the mission, but you also must be ready to succeed in a fastchanging environment, one that’s difficult to predict. Get started now! After you finish reading this article, write down the first three actions you intend to take to accelerate the transition from the workforce you have to the workforce you need. M AY 2 0 2 0 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | 9

How Our Cities Can

REOPEN

After the COVID-19 Pandemic

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A 10-Point Preparedness Plan for Our Communities BY RICHARD FLORIDA AND STEVEN PEDIGO

As the dreaded coronavirus rips across the globe, city after city has locked down, transforming urban business centers, suburban malls, and other public spaces into ghost towns. This is not the first time this has happened— since time immemorial, cities have been epicenters of communicable diseases.

Annapolis, Maryland

No pandemic or plague or natural disaster has killed off “the city,” or humanity’s need to live and work in urban clusters. Not the Black Plagues of the 14th Century, or London’s cholera epidemic in the 1850s, or even 1918’s Spanish Flu, which killed tens of millions of people worldwide. That’s because cities’ concentration of people and economic activity—which serves as the motor force for innovation and economic growth— is just too strong. We will get through this pandemic, too. We will go back to work and school and gather in restaurants and theaters and sports stadiums again. But when we do, cities and their leaders should not simply return to business as usual. Not only does COVID-19 threaten to reappear in subsequent waves if we do not remain vigilant, but there will always be future pandemics to brace against as well. M AY 2 0 2 0 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | 11

Our mayors, governors, and community leaders must do whatever is necessary to get their cities back up and running as soon as they safely can. After, we will need plans in place to prepare for future pandemics, and any social or economic lockdowns they necessitate. The federal government must do its part too, with bold and unprecedented programs to bolster the economic situation of our states and cities as well as our workers and business, especially small business.

Getting this response right may be as important as what we are doing today. We have written a 10-point plan based on detailed tracking of the current pandemic and historical accounts of previous ones, presenting some key measures to prepare our cities, economy, and workers for the next phase of the coronavirus crisis and beyond. Pandemic-Proof Airports

Airports are a critical engine of economic developmentâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;they

cannot be idled indefinitely. We need to make sure they can get up and running again quickly, and that means mobilizing like we did in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by adding temperature checks and necessary health screenings to the security measures already in place. It also means reducing crowding: Simple things like stanchions or painted lines on floors can promote social distancing in waiting areas. Airports should have large quantities of masks and hand sanitizer available, and airlines will need to reduce their passenger counts and keep middle seats open during future health crises. Prepare Large-Scale Civic Assets

Cities are also home to other forms of large-scale infrastructure: stadiums, arenas, convention centers, performing arts centers, etc. Because they bring together large groups of people, city leaders must pandemic-proof these assets as 12 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | M AY 2 0 2 0

much as possible, too. Audience sizes may need to be reduced in theaters, with seats left open. Masks may need to be required and made available to patrons as needed, and temperature

Loan programs from government, foundations, and the private sector, as well as support from small business and technical organizations, will be essential for ensuring these businesses survive.

during COVID-19.2 Some of these changes should be permanent. Cities need to expand and better protect their bike lanes too, while refining bike- and scooter-sharing programs for when public transit is compromised. Ready Key Anchor Institutions

checks carried out. This will be critical for communities that are dependent on such attractions: A Brookings analysis shows that COVID-19â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economic downturn will hit tourismdriven cities such as Orlando and Las Vegas hardest.1 The sooner such large-scale civic infrastructure can be safely reopened, the faster our urban economies will be able to rebound in the aftermath of a pandemic.

Medical centers, hospitals, and universities are on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19, and many are already overtaxed. With dormitories, dining halls, and large groups of people, they will be highly vulnerable to the secondary waves of contagion. How can we ensure that they can operate safely to carry out vital research during pandemics? Just as with other large-scale civic assets, classes in these institutions can be kept small, but institutions will

need to retrofit dormitories and dining halls with temperature checks and ensure adequate social distancing so they can safely function. Embrace Telework

We are in the midst of a massive experiment in remote work. Most people will eventually go back to their offices, but some workers and companies may find remote work to be more effective. Tulsa, Oklahoma, has leveraged this concept through its Tulsa Remote3 initiative, which pays remote workers a small grant to relocate there while helping them forge community and civic connections. Cities can learn from one another about how to best support the growing cadre of remote workers and make them connected, engaged, and vital parts of their communities.

Ensure Main Street Survives

The restaurants, bars, specialty shops, hardware stores, and other mom-and-pop shops that create jobs and lend unique character to our cities are at severe economic risk right now. Some projections suggest that as many as 75 percent of them may not survive the current crisis. The loss of our Main Street businesses would be irreparable, and not just for the people whose livelihoods depend on them, but for cities and communities as a whole. The places that have protected their Main Streets will have a decisive competitive advantage as we return to normalcy. Loan programs from government, foundations, and the private sector as well as support from small business and technical organizations will be essential for ensuring

Modify Vital Infrastructure

As weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve seen during the first phase of the COVID-19 crisis, buses, subways, and trains need emergency infusions of cash to keep the systems solvent when ridership is low or nonexistent. When they are back in service, design changes in stations and seating will be needed to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Streets may need some retrofits too; New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has called for pedestrianizing some New York City streets to promote social distancing M AY 2 0 2 0 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | 13

these businesses survive. Cities need to provide this type of assistance and advice to these vital small businesses so they can safely reopen and weather the storm of future lockdowns. Protect the Arts and Creative Economy

The creative economy of art galleries, museums, theaters, and music venues—along with the artists, musicians, and actors who fuel them—is also at dire risk. Cities must partner with other levels of government, the private sector, and philanthropies to marshal the funding and expertise needed to keep their cultural scenes alive. Once they are allowed to reopen, these places will also need to make interim and longterm changes in the way they operate. Cities should provide advice and assistance on necessary procedures—from temperature screenings, better spacing for social distancing, and other safety measures—for these venues to continue as part of the urban landscape. Assess Leading Industries and Clusters

It’s not individual firms but clusters of industry and talent that drive economic

development. Some of those clusters are at greater risk than others: Sectors such as transportation, travel and hospitality, and the creative arts will be hit the hardest, while e-commerce and distribution or advanced manufacturing for health care and food processing may grow. Cities and economic development organizations must assess the industries and clusters that are most vulnerable in their territory, evaluate the impacts future pandemics will have for their labor markets and communities, and plan to make their economies more resilient and robust. They should pull together cluster working groups of business and nonprofit representatives and local academics and experts to best assess the impact of the pandemic and pandemic-related response on key clusters and develop medium-range plans. Upgrade Jobs for FrontLine Service Workers

Nearly half of Americans work in low-wage service jobs.4 A considerable percentage of them—emergency responders, health care aides, office and hospital cleaners, grocery store clerks, warehouse workers, delivery people—are on the front lines of the pandemic.

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They need better protection, higher pay, and more benefits. States such as Vermont and Minnesota have paved the way by designating grocery store employees as emergency workers, making them eligible for benefits including free child care. Having a well-paid cadre of front-line service workers who can keep our communities safe and functional will help protect us from future waves of this pandemic and others that may follow. Protect Less-Advantaged Communities

The economic fallout of pandemics will hurt most for the least-advantaged neighborhoods and their residents, who lack adequate health coverage and access to medical care, and who are the most vulnerable to job losses. This, too, is a fundamental issue of both safety and equity. Concentrated poverty, economic inequality, and racial and economic segregation are not only morally unjust—they also provide fertile ground for pandemics to take root and spread. Economic inclusion and more equitable development are critical factors for the health, safety, and economic competitiveness of our places.

Cities and local leaders can work with federal and state agencies, community development organizations, and local foundations to target needed funds, support services, and technical assistance ot these areas. There is light at the end of the tunnel. In the not-toodistant future, the pandemic will end and our cities will return to something approximating normal. What we do over the next 12 to 18 months can ensure that our city and metro economies get up and running again while protecting themselves against similar scenarios in the future. This is a time when our cities and their leaders can and must show the way forward. This article was originally published on brookings.edu. Reprinted with permission. ENDNOTES AND RESOURCES

1 https://www.brookings.edu/blog/theavenue/2020/03/17/the-places-a-covid19-recession-will-likely-hit-hardest/ 2 https://www.politico.com/states/newyork/albany/story/2020/03/22/cuomogives-new-york-city-24-hours-to-addresslack-of-social-distancing-1268659 3 https://tulsaremote.com/ 4 https://www.brookings.edu/ blog/the-avenue/2020/01/08/lowunemployment-isnt-worth-much-if-thejobs-barely-pay/ 1

RICHARD FLORIDA is a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and School of Cities, and distinguished visiting fellow at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate. His books include The Rise of the Creative Class and The New Urban Crisis. STEVEN PEDIGO is a professor of practice at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs—University of Texas at Austin.

Additional Insight from Richard Florida on Reopening our Communities In a recent ICMA webinar titled, “Moving Beyond the Current Crisis: A Plan to Reopen Our Communities,” Richard Florida shared his thoughts on the path forward. At the end of the discussion, Florida opened the floor for participants to ask questions. We’ve paraphrased some of Florida’s most thought-provoking answers: There is a lot of discussion not just about building back, but building back better. We should be thinking about building back better for health and safety, equality and inclusiveness, for resiliency, and how our rebuild intersects for climate change or natural disasters. People will be driving more. What Florida sees happening is that some of the rural areas that were very attractive because they were on transit and transport lines won’t be as attractive right now. People will probably avoid transit and the people who are heading to rural areas probably can work remotely quite a bit of the time. Individuals who head out to rural areas will depend on their car more, at least for a while, instead of the train and transit system. Communities and small business owners are going to have a competitive advantage. If local leaders go the extra nine yards with financial assistance, mobilize local financial assistance, get professionals in the community to work with small businesses, work to provide technical assistance that they can re-open safely, then “you will have a competitive advantage,” says Florida. We won’t see a large festival for a while (think Coachella or SXSW). Is that a year? Florida stated, “not sure,” but we need to think about alternatives to large festivals—perhaps making them smaller, more regional. Same thing for professional and college sports. Large gatherings will be an issue for a long time without a vaccine or good therapies in place so we need to begin planning for that now. There are parts of the civic environment that you can empower. Florida recommends using people that have slack in their jobs, such as economic development professionals, destination

marketing and convention professionals, universities/ community colleges, and transit/transport authorities, among others. Not everyone is on the front lines of mobilization and local leaders should look to use other experts in the community that want to help. Find those resources and start those working groups for reopening and recovery planning. Tourism communities and a plan for reopening. Tourism areas are getting hit the hardest economically and these communities are in the greatest need of reopening strategies that are safe and secure. Here are some things to consider for your plan: What are the threats economically? What are the sectors that are the most exposed? How can we reboot and reopen in the quickest and safest way possible? This is a regional problem. The health problem is regional and the revenue problem is regional. Florida suggested that perhaps it’s time to really think about a consortium of states and localities to cooperate. Now is the time to think regionally and set up a task force or working group of how to address these regional fiscal impacts. The great digital divide and broadband access. Imagine going through this crisis without the internet. Florida called it “unfathomable.” Schools, the ordering of supplies and deliveries, information to remain safe during the pandemic—it’s all on the internet—and we need better state, regional, and national cooperation to provide internet access to disadvantaged communities. There are kids who have no access to internet or cable— how are they going to learn or connect with others? We need to pay more attention to it now and in the future. At the end of the webinar, Florida parted with the greatest insight of all: “When all is said and done, we’ve created a public health miracle and the silver lining is that our cities will emerge even stronger.”

For more on this webinar, listen to Local Gov Life, Episode 06: Moving Beyond the Current Crisis: A Plan to Re-Open Our Communities, accessible at www.icma.org/lgl-florida.

M AY 2 0 2 0 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | 15

It Hit Us FIRST:

COVID-19 and Your Municipality The first municipality in Florida to have a confirmed positive case

BY J.C. JIMENEZ

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Kristina - stock.adobe.com

our town entered the history books of this major global pandemic. We were the first municipality in Florida to have a confirmed positive case of COVID-19. No one wanted to believe it, at first. In Bay Harbor Islands, a tiny town of just under 7,000, the call came from our HR department. The report was that an employee who works with children and seniors at our community center wasn’t feeling well, and that the worker, a female, was a “presumed positive.” I didn’t know what that meant. Of course, I had been following the news about the coronavirus: Wuhan, China was closed on January 23, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global emergency on January 30, the Diamond Princess cruise ship was quarantined February 5, and nation after nation began locking areas down and restricting travel. Our staffer, who had traveled internationally, hadn’t yet been tested. But the medical information I had was to treat the case as if it were positive. That’s a warning an employer should always take seriously.

I called my mayor and delivered this message: we have to act fast. She drafted a letter declaring a state of emergency, which allows us to more quickly take protective actions. If you are reading this, and your municipality is fortunate enough to not have had any cases yet, you are exactly in the position I was the day before our case. When that first case comes in, your town, faced with the immediate presence of COVID-19, will face the same kinds of pressures and the same kinds of attitudes that we did. Just like the virus, you are not immune from the realities of crisis management and the emotions they bring. Count on your phone to explode with calls and texts. At one point, I couldn’t use my phone because so

many incoming text messages were popping up in rapid succession, preventing me from accessing the keyboard screen. Plan to have way of dealing with that. If you have a second line available, it’s a good idea to get it ready. When I could speak to people, they were often yelling at me. There were calls from businesses, naturally worried about losing customers and revenue. But most troubling were the calls from state officials, who were very critical of our decision,

Photo courtesy of Town of Bay Harbor Islands

On March 10, 2020,

saying we were premature or overreacting. As was clear to us then—and should be clear to everyone now—we were not. The employee’s job put her in contact with a sizeable vulnerable population. Although Town Hall our demographic has been disinfected by a trending a bit younger, our professional cleaning company. senior population (those 65 or over) stands at about 16 percent. As town manager, it was the most challenging moment of my career. I came down on the side of safety. “If I don’t react, and it is something, I’m dead,” I thought to myself. The WHO declared a pandemic on March 11, and confirmation of our case came the next day. Deliver your message with a personal touch.

People want to hear critical information directly from you, not just via TV or email. We used a technology called a “Telephone Town Hall,” a way to place a call to every phone line in town and invite them to a live, interactive forum. We had about 1,200 people on this call, which is kind of like a radio show delivered over the phone, which is about double our population. We had a representative on the line from the health department to answer questions directly. Other actions we have taken: • We set up a call center to handle questions from our elderly, who aren’t always comfortable with email. • We partnered with local religious organizations to arrange for food (including Kosher meals) to be delivered to residents with immediate needs. We also maintained a list of food delivery services on our website. • We reached out to three major hotels to help them with Miami-Dade County’s closure order. Be ready for the questions you can’t answer.

People asked—demanded, even—that we release the name of the employee. They were insistent. We stood firm to protect our staffer’s medical privacy right, and you should, too. As an employer, let your staff and the community know of your commitment to respect your employees’ privacy. Operationally, we have made adjustments even as our county mayor and governor have issued updated emergency orders. We continue to operate essential functions using our stocks of protective equipment and a six-foot distance. Like everyone else, we are trying to anticipate needs as we stare into a future that in so many ways becomes more and more unimaginable every passing day.

J.C. JIMENEZ, ICMA-CM, is town manager, Bay Harbor Islands, Florida (jcjimenez@bayharborislands-fl.gov). M AY 2 0 2 0 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | 17

LONG TERM

DISASTER RECOVERY 18 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | M AY 2 0 2 0

Still A Broken Landscape For Smaller Local Governments BY JUDGE C.H. “BURT” MILLS JR. AND WILLIAM R. WHITSON, ICMA-CM

n 2017, Hurricane Harvey came ashore in Aransas County near Rockport, Texas, as a Class 4 hurricane. The eye-wall crossed over this small jurisdiction, located on the Texas Gulf Coast, packing winds more than 135mph with torrential rains and an eight-foot storm surge. Harvey raged over 12 hours causing widespread devastation including a 25-percent loss to the local tax base. The courthouse, city hall, local aquarium, hospital, and center for the arts were all destroyed and a main bridge accessing a local island was heavily damaged. Yet in 2019, the area was just beginning to see significant federal and state dollars for rebuilding. Why? Natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey are becoming ever more common, leaving many communities to recover from environmental catastrophes without adequate, timely support. The federal government, along with state and local partners, are the best in the world at disaster forecasting, event management, and immediate post-event response. When the flood waters recede and life safety is stabilized, and major press conferences with high-ranking officials making promises of support are done, local officials are left alone facing the long and arduous process of long-term recovery. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the local government leadership at ground zero that must pick-up the pieces and find a way to rebuild the community they know and love. As things currently stand, the overly complex and lengthy federal recovery processes and programs often leave smaller local communities in the lurch at exactly the moment when they most need support.

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Knowing that we will have more highly dangerous natural disasters, why do we keep using the same old processes to respond?

To be effective, we must seek new ways to simplify and improve the disaster recovery process. After everything we do to respond and stabilize disaster situations, the question remains: why are local governments then left to struggle for years on the pathway to recovery? Local officials involved in long-term recovery efforts believe that we must work together to find ways to ensure that federal and state dollars are appropriately spent, while also allowing for flexibility and quicker response times. Speed is critical for communities recovering from natural disasters. Instead of focusing on the missteps leading to federal funding “claw backs,” local governments

should be focusing on how to rebuild more resilient and sustainable communities. The current process favors extensive documentation and time-consuming methods over agreed-on results. It’s time for local governments to work together and ask, “Why can’t there be a better way?” It’s time to see what can be done to improve the recovery process. When disasters hit, local governments today turn to programs authorized by the Stafford Act to provide assistance. Under the Stafford Act, the presidential declaration of a state of emergency triggers response by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The National Incident Management System run by FEMA is unrivaled in its ability to handle disaster preparation, storm response, and immediate after-impact

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phases of an emergency response. The system can rapidly deploy public safety personnel, distribute food and water, clear roads, account for damage, and execute search and rescue operations like clockwork. Yet, when it comes to restoring communities through the long-term recovery process, FEMA, state partners, and local officials seem just as overwhelmed as local officials by the impact of the disaster. This often accompanies inadequate resources to support a sustained, and intense, long road to recovery. It’s time for new tools and techniques. Why is our federal government falling short in supporting long-term recovery efforts?

In large part, it’s due to the limitations of a cumbersome, top-down system controlled from Washington in which

federal dollars are tied to specific appropriations and subjected to lengthy federal procurement processes and rules. Though the Stafford Act was amended following Hurricane Katrina in an effort to make the programs more flexible and responsive, the system still functions in much the same way as before. In Aransas County, we experienced great difficulty in getting water-based debris cleaned up from the community’s waterways after Hurricane Harvey. The county is coastal with miles of bays, estuaries, and shores. The economy is based on tourism and fishing. When Harvey came ashore, high winds and storm surge deposited tons of debris into the waters throughout the community. After the disaster, the county worked in concert with FEMA and the state to remove over 3.7 million cubic yards of

debris from the land-based right of ways. However, the area’s waterways were subject to a never-ending bureaucratic disagreement over jurisdiction. Having debris clogging canals, bays, and waterways was a major barrier to the overall economic recovery of the area. The additional burden of having strings attached to federal funding left FEMA unable to address the conditions threatening the local economy and welfare of citizens. The extra time it took to return the local waters to usable conditions resulted in a direct economic hit to the area, which relies on tourism to sustain them. Sustainability and resiliency are more than just buzzwords.

One of the goals of the Stafford Act is to promote hazard mitigation to reduce the risk of loss of life and property from future disasters. However, time and time again, FEMA’s red tape and extensive documentation procedures proved to be a major hindrance to preparing the community for the next disaster. Hazard mitigation dollars had to run through complex cost-benefit analysis formulas, requiring local communities to put time into compiling extensive technical records, historic narratives, and recreate maintenance records. That led to months of delay, especially since many records and documents were destroyed by the storm! Instead of focusing on projects key to the recovery effort that make the area stronger and more resilient to future storms, funds were only approved for projects that met complex and arbitrary costbenefit ratio formulas. Meeting bureaucratic requirements

should not take precedence over developing projects that local and state officials identify as essential to the recovery effort. Planning for sustainability and resiliency is made more difficult by current federal requirements in other ways as well. Aransas County has many areas with high concentrations of poverty, and over 3,000 low/ moderate-income residents lost their homes due to the storm. While Community Development Block Grant— Disaster Recovery (CDBGDR) funds should be available to help provide relief for these residents, these funds also come with strict limitations. For example, the majority of affordable housing lost in Aransas County was not tied to sewer infrastructure before the storm, relying instead on septic tanks. This is a huge environmental problem for a coastal county with wet soil conditions. Septic tank runoff causes significant environmental harm to water quality in this sensitive coastal environment. Despite the clear benefit of extending sewer infrastructure simultaneous with the development of replacement housing units,

BASIC BLOCK GRANT FUNDING MODEL ALL FEDERAL FUNDS

STATE/GOVERNOR APPROVAL

COUNTY & LOCAL GOVERNMENTS (Identify needs and adopt local recovery plan)

CDBG rules prohibited us from doing so. As one state staffer informed us, “If the storm did not break it, then you cannot make it!“ This left the community with limited options in the replacement of outdated and environmentally hazardous systems instead of supporting forward-looking improvements simultaneous with recovery. Further, if the goal is to create more

stable and storm resilient infrastructure, while saving future disaster dollars and improving the environment, such an investment makes sense. Instead, federal rules— or narrow interpretations of the rules—often prevent help from arriving for many months, and sometimes years after it was promised. How then can we better utilize these vitally important funds to rebuild our communities after major disasters?

FEMA and HUD have key roles to play in providing technical assistance in setting upfront goals for long-term disaster recovery. Once those goals are in place, state and local governments supported by federal resources should work toward meeting them. States also need more leeway to direct and approve recovery projects, rather than forcing local governments to deal with the bureaucratic bottleneck of our current system. It takes hundreds of staff hours to research, review, and apply for each separate federal funding stream that are critical to recovery operations. Hundreds

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more staff hours are essential to meet lengthy, complex administrative reporting processes required by federal procurement rules. Currently, local governments spend months waiting for FEMA or HUD approvals, sending in multiple documents. This leaves cash-strapped local governments to delay the purchases of needed equipment and repairs. For cyclical disasters like hurricanes, these lengthy delays leave communities exposed and even more vulnerable. Imagine instead state and local partners working together to determine the most pressing needs created by the disaster, meeting them in a matter of weeks, not months. We need to build new recovery strategies with more locally-oriented, bottom-up approaches based on the experience and expertise of those with boots on the ground. FEMA and HUD could offer more administrative flexibility in emergency situations, while providing block grant funding support for innovative pilot programs that better support and prepare local officials for long-term recovery. This would allow more administrative discretion in the face of emergency conditions,

especially with clean-up efforts for circumstances that threaten the local economy, hinder long-term recovery efforts, or pose a health and safety risk to the public. Let’s give FEMA and HUD new tools and charge them with assisting locals.

By having FEMA work with local governments in the development of hazard mitigation and disaster recovery plans, efforts to aid the recovery and resiliency of an impacted community will be strengthened. Local governments under state supervision are best suited to develop plans tailored to fit the unique needs of communities. As such, waivers of some federal rules for grants, system administration, and procurement could be allowed when jurisdictions develop state-approved plans, thereby discontinuing difficult funding applications, stove pipe grant programs, and onerous reporting processes. Furthermore, waivers of rules could be limited to inside the impact zone, and for a specified period, to help expedite the recovery. In addition, federal, state, and local governments—including

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the private sector—could apply for block grants, thus helping relieve the delays now happening at the local levels of long-term recovery. This is especially true for housing needs. FEMA could create a new pilot program for smaller jurisdictions, such as those with fewer than 50,000 residents, that would be based on this bottom-up approach. Under one potential model, following a federally-declared disaster, local officials would identify needs and together with the state develop a local recovery and response plan, for approval by the governor. At that point, federal, state, and even private sector resources could be allocated in a block grant to fund and execute the local adopted plan. Results would be measured based on outcomes, not compliance with mountains of rules and complex regulations. FEMA should also encourage the use of technologies aimed at disaster and recovery management. In Aransas County, we asked to pilot “snap-together” modular housing technology to provide housing instead of the traditional manufactured housing units (FEMA trailers). This housing would have

been delivered faster and more cost-effectively; giving victims stronger, more resilient permanent housing providing protection in future storm events. FEMA could have authorized pre-bid contracts so that in future natural disaster events, the necessary procurement processes would be fast tracked. Unfortunately, this request was never considered. Local officials identified workforce housing as a top priority for the local recovery effort; however, over 700 units of workforce housing are still in disrepair, have not been redeveloped, and are currently not back online to support the recovery effort. In closing, long-term recovery needs significant improvement. It’s time for federal, state and local partners to come together and authorize new tools and a form of the block-grant model approach to fix the system. It’s time for Congress to give the dedicated professionals in FEMA, HUD, and the states new flexibility. With the ever-increasing trend of severe natural disasters hitting the country, surely this is a matter upon which all Americans can agree. We can do better than this. Will our future look like the past? We hope not!

JUDGE C.H. “BURT” MILLS JR. is county judge of Aransas County, Texas (judge@aransascounty.org). WILLIAM R. WHITSON, ICMA-CM, is a retired city manager of Hapeville, Georgia; East Ridge, Tennessee; and Cairo, Georgia, among others, with over 25 years in the profession (wwwhitson454@gmail.com).

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A WHOLE-OFGOVERNMENT

Approach Embedding Disaster Resilience into Municipal Operations

BY PATRICK HOWELL

As city and county managers across the United States grapple with an unprecedented public health crisis, the need to build local capacity to withstand, adapt to, and recover from natural and manmade disasters has never been more critical. However, all too often we find that disaster preparedness is viewed as the sole responsibility of public safety and/or emergency management departments, residing in a silo and rarely receiving the attention or investment from the broader organization, at least until a crisis presents itself. This silo approach is not only precarious, but it misses tremendous opportunity to create collateral benefits within your organization, your staff, and the greater community. Indeed, focusing your limited time, energy, and resources on a counterfactual effort such as disaster preparedness and mitigation can often times be difficult to justify to both your council and constituentsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;particularly amid mounting citizen demands for public-facing services and dwindling traditional revenue streams. However, for a moment, consider the past 30 years: â&#x20AC;˘ The average number of billion-dollar disasters per year in the United States has quadrupled, from an average of

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approximately three per year during the 1980s to a staggering twelve per year in the 2010s. â&#x20AC;˘ The costs associated with these disasters have skyrocketed, from average losses of $13 billion per year in the 1980s to an unprecedented $80 billion per year in the 2010s.1 The upward trajectory of both frequency and severity of natural disasters is expected to continue in the United States for the foreseeable future, and the challenges and complications that emerge will put local government preparation to the test. Pervasive issues of social inequity and economic fragility will be exacerbated in this new normal, as will the potential need to address overlapping and/or simultaneous crises (e.g., COVID-19 and the impending hurricane season for coastal communities in the United States). Preparing for such an environment requires a purposeful shift from the silo mentality that so many of us often fall victim to a systems-thinking approach that integrates disaster

resilience across the organization and is inclusive of both internal and external stakeholders. Contrary to popular belief, this can be easier than it may seem. Establish a Resilience Champion

Identify a high-performing, passionate individual in your organization that can galvanize your organization around holistic disaster preparedness. While advantageous to appoint someone with disaster management knowledge and experience, it is not entirely necessary if that expertise is not readily available in your existing roster. The primary responsibility of this person should be the generation and maintenance of momentum among your stakeholder groups. Muster Your Team

As disasters disrupt nearly every sector of your community, it is imperative that all sectors are represented in each phase of disaster risk reduction: hazard assessment, program planning, and project implementation. Disaster planning requires a whole-of-government approach. Establish a standing working group that includes municipal officials from across the organization, including (but not limited to) finance, public works, utilities, health and human services, parks, planning/zoning/ community development, public safety, and city council. Provide a clear understanding of what each officialâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role in disaster planning should be and make sure they agree. Give clear action items from one meeting to the next and send reminders so these do not get lost between meetings.

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Be Inclusive of External Stakeholders

In addition to department heads and elected officials within your organization, convene a broader stakeholder group that includes representatives from the business community and local nonprofit groups. The interests of these groups typically align with those of the municipality in terms of disaster preparedness, response, and recovery as they advocate for resilient social, economic, and physical infrastructure in their communities. Chambers of commerce can be powerful actors, as issues of resilient infrastructure, economic opportunity, and continuity of operations are of mutual interest between the business they represent and the localities in which theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re located. For example, in one suburban community in the northeast United States, the municipal administrator invited the president of the

Chamber of Commerce into a Community Resilience Assessment and Planning Workshop, which identified hazards and vulnerabilities specific to this community, and prescribed practical actions to build disaster capacity. Local officials benefited from the unique insights of the business community related to disaster preparation, and in turn, the chamber became one of the communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strongest advocates for public and private investment in risk mitigation and resilience.

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It is imperative that all sectors are represented in each phase of disaster risk reduction: hazard assessment, program planning, and project implementation. Disaster planning requires a wholeof-government approach.

Similarly, the nonprofit sector is often an advocate for the very issues that are fundamental to integrated disaster preparedness, including safe and affordable housing, social equity, and access to services and opportunities. In short, make friends before you need them! Institute Regular Stakeholder Meetings

Facilitate communication, collaboration, and accountability of all stakeholders through regularly scheduled convenings of all your stakeholder groups. Get your team on the same page with an initial stakeholder workshop to create a common understanding of your communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hazards, vulnerabilities, and assets. Hold subsequent, recurring meetings (perhaps quarterly) to coalesce various interests and identify opportunities for collaboration. Establish well-defined subtopics within disaster preparedness for each meeting to keep the multitude of stakeholders on track, making incremental progress toward integrated disaster management and community resilience. One successful strategy is to rotate meeting hosts between department heads, allowing each meeting

to center around a given topic (i.e., planning, finance, economic development, social services, etc.). Assign stakeholder coordination and meeting logistics to your resilience champion. Integrate Planning Efforts

Each department within your organization likely has a strategic plan unique to the

purpose, goals, and initiatives of that department. Without proper collaboration and cross-departmental communication, these plans risk contradiction, potentially reinforcing a silo mentality and creating competition between various service areas. Perform an analysis of the various strategies and initiatives to

identify potential collateral benefits of potential projects. Assess how these projects can be leveraged with existing assets across the organization, and consider the collateral benefits of cross-departmental project collaboration. The best resilience projects will serve multiple purposes and provide a host of secondary benefits, such as job creation, land reuse, decreased environmental impact, and bankable income. Furthermore, this exercise will also serve as a gap analysis, to see where there may be further opportunities to integrate disaster management into existing departmental plans. Disaster preparation and resilience planning is a critical component for all local governments, but is not

something that can be completed all at onceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or by one person. To be successful, focus on integrating disaster planning across your organization, engaging others who can help and have a role to play, and maintaining your communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s overall progress and commitment to the process. PATRICK HOWELL is a program manager for community resilience at the Institute for Building Technology and Safety, and chairman of the Equitable Climate Resilience for U.S. Local Governments Advisory Panel, Ashburn, Virginia (phowell@ibts.org). ENDNOTE

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters (2020). 1

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M AY 2 0 2 0 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | 27

How to Find the Right Interim

POLICE CHIEF,

Especially in A CRISIS THE CRITICAL APPOINTMENT OF AN INTERIM CHIEF IN A CITY ROCKED BY A HIGH-PROFILE INVESTIGATION BY NORTON BONAPARTE AND RICHARD W. MYERS

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s any mayor or city manager knows, filling the office of police chief is one of the most critical appointments they will make. Such decisions must be made with due deliberation, gathering the input from the community, the governing body, and experts in the field of policing. When the announcement of a chiefâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s retirement or other

rapid or unexpected separation occurs, the appointing authority needs to avoid the pressure to rush into a permanent replacement. The only exception may be when a well-prepared successor is poised and ready, and the organization would benefit from continuity more than a thorough search. More often, the appointing authority wants

to use this opportunity to evaluate the culture of the police organization and identify the ideal qualities of a new leader, and then conduct the necessary process to find that leader. It is in these times that an interim police chief is the most likely immediate outcome. Interim chiefs may be either internal or external; there are pros and cons for both models.

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Internal Interim Chiefs Pros:

• They know the organization—its history, challenges, and successes. • They know and may already have the trust of the command staff and employees. • They may be a known commodity to the governing body and city administration. Cons:

• If they are going to compete for the permanent position, being an interim often puts them in a tenuous position, having to choose between “making no waves” and “doing the right thing.” It is best to not have an interim who is also an internal candidate. • If the organization is in chaos, or is lacking in community trust, rarely does an internal interim bring the “fresh look” that the community demands…or at least the community may perceive it that way. • An absence of experienced, mature, and stable candidates for interim chief. • Some agencies experience a division of loyalties if there is more than one internal

candidate and one is the interim, resulting in internal strife and morale issues. External Interim Chiefs Pros:

• Hiring authority can select a mature, experienced leader to keep the ship afloat during the search process. • An external interim provides a good cushion between the last chief and the next chief, allowing for the next chief to “start fresh” and out from under the shadow of the last. • Depending on issues ongoing in the agency, an external interim with specific focus or experience can stabilize the organization prior to the selection of a new chief. • There are multiple sources to turn to for sourcing potential external interims. Cons:

• Just as any external appointment, an external interim will likely have little knowledge of the community, agency, and the challenges and concerns. • The limited term nature of an external interim may create hurdles to leap to

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foster increased trust and partnerships both internally and in the community. • If the external is from a distance away, the city may have additional expenses like travel and housing. • The hiring authority will have to conduct an abbreviated search process to identify the best fit, which some may criticize as duplicative to the permanent search. (Note: Given the average tenure of police chiefs in the United States as between 3.5 and five years, the term “permanent” is inaccurate but used to describe regular appointments as police chief.) Having weighed the pros and cons, a hiring authority decides their police organization would benefit most from bringing in an external interim chief. So, how do they do it and what are the most important qualities to seek? The co-authors in this article represent both sides of this equation: a hiring authority in need of an external interim, and a veteran police chief ultimately selected to take on a challenging interim position. After the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin by George

Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, the city’s police chief became the target of a great deal of criticism for the department not arresting George Zimmerman. While it was an ongoing criminal investigation, many residents viewed the chief and the Sanford police department as incompetent. Members of the media and the much of the public expressed sentiments that the department had “botched” the investigation when in fact the public had no information about how the police were conducting the investigation. During a Sanford city commission meeting, one of the commissioners moved that they take a vote of no confidence in the police chief due to the negative media attention that was being brought to the city. The mayor made the point that the police chief works for the city manager and not the city commission. Another commissioner seconded the motion. After some discussion, the commission took the vote: three in favor and two opposed to the motion. In doing this, the city’s elected officials had publicly stated that they did not have confidence in their police chief. The following day the police chief announced that he would temporarily step aside as chief of the department. The city manager then named a captain as the acting chief. However, given the continuing public criticism of the police department, the city manager decided it would be best to bring in an outsider to serve as interim police chief. He contacted Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), for suggestions on seasoned and respected police

The interim police chief must be the bridge from the old to the new, not a winding highway to an unknown place. chiefs who would be good candidates. After interviewing a number of individuals, a decision was made to offer the position to former Colorado Springs Police Chief Richard Myers. Even experienced police chiefs may not be the “right fit” for interim positions. The nature of being a police chief in the United States today requires a level of selfconfidence, assertiveness, and vision that results in leadership that is most often focused on taking the organization in a specific direction. Chiefs of police usually introduce change, initiate programs, make promotions, and hire new personnel. Chiefs hold ideas about how agencies should evolve; in short, chiefs own the mission of growing healthy organizational cultures based on values and provide the vision for all employees to know where the department is going. Interim chiefs, on the other hand, must not focus on their personal ideas and strategies, nor use their vision for long-term planning. The interim’s job is very narrow: keep the wheels turning in the right direction, deal with any immediate crises, and stabilize the otherwise unstable. Interim chiefs must be ever mindful that the next chief will no doubt chart a course for the organization that will impact on the employees as they learn and adjust. An interim that begins that process prior to the selection of a new chief risks overwhelming employees with

a violent pendulum swing. The interim police chief must be the bridge from the old to the new, not a winding highway to an unknown place. Some of the most successful and high-profile police chiefs today simply could not leave their portfolio of programs and ideas at the doorstep of an interim chief’s office. This puts an additional burden on the hiring authority

to seek not only the expertise needed for the interim, but also the right mindset and insight into the nature of the job. With 27 years as a police chief at the time of appointment as the interim in Sanford, Chief Richard Myers considered the following as the most critical aspects of this limited term job: • Take the pressure off a beleaguered workforce and be the public face of the Sanford Police Department in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin homicide controversy. • Provide calm, professional leadership over day-to-day operations by frequent interaction with command staff and mentoring them in traditionally effective

management practices. • Address major crises head on while avoiding making changes in day-to-day operational strategies and tactics unrelated to the crises. • Focus on the external relationships, identify sources of disconnect with the community, and begin the arduous bridge building that was obviously needed. As the originally forecast of three to five months on the job evolved into a much longer time period, two additional tasks became part of the interim chief’s focus: • Conduct a thorough internal audit of the organization and provide both the city manager and the incoming “permanent” chief with a document that identifies challenges and needs and offers several potential paths forward. • Assist the city manager in his recruitment and selection of a new chief. After serving an 11-month term as interim chief in Sanford, Chief Myers quietly stepped aside in contrast to the high profile beginning of his appointment. It was time for the focus to fall on the newly appointed police chief. It is important for interim chiefs to not only provide a solid foundation for the new chief to build on, but to eschew the spotlight as the organization grows and progresses. When the office keys are turned over, with them goes the stress of the job but also any

credit that may arise from an improved agency. Over his tenure as interim chief, Chief Myers provided stability to the Sanford Police Department. He gained the trust and support of the men and women of the department and was able to establish effective relationships with the elected officials and community leaders. The city manager valued his assessment of the department and his bringing new eyes into its operations. After the new chief was selected, Chief Myers was instrumental in helping with the transition. Choosing to have an external interim police chief proved to be the right move for Sanford, given the circumstances and the extreme high profile that was facing the department.

NORTON N. BONAPARTE JR., ICMA-CM, is city manager, Sanford, Florida. He is the past president of both the New Jersey Municipal Management Association and the Maryland City/County Management Association and was a board member of the Florida City and County Management Association and the Kansas Association of City/County Management. (nbonaparte@sanfordfl.gov) RICHARD W. MYERS is a retired police chief, having served over 40 years in policing. A Life Member of IACP, he is a former executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, the former Chair/President of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, and currently consults through his LLC, RWM Limited. (richardwmyers@gmail.com)

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ALL HANDS ON

DECK

How a Small Town in Texas Navigated a Utility Billing Crisis

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• November 9, 2019

BY JASON LITTLE, ICMA-CM

It was a typical Saturday for me: soccer games in the morning followed by college football in the afternoon. As city manager, I always try to stay connected, so somewhere in the midst of the halftime show, I checked my city email. I was more than disheartened when I read, “Today is an unexpected and sad day for FATHOM which pioneered `software as a service’ for the water industry... Our focus has now turned to provide an exit for our clients…” The city had until November 29 to find another option for billing/software. Wait, what? We had a 15-year contract with this provider for utility billing software service, along with a turnkey solution for customer service, essentially minimizing the need for the city to build and operate an onsite, full-service utility billing department. Suddenly, we had two weeks to secure a different solution? What about the time necessary for procurement, contract negotiations, council approval, implementation, not to mention customer notification regarding payments and the changes necessary because of the sudden change? I immediately sent an email to several key folks in our organization, saying “ALL HANDS ON DECK!” Melissa is a fast-growing community about 38 miles north of Dallas in northeastern Collin County. In my tenure, the population has grown from 3,200 people to over 15,000. Growth rates are averaging eight to 10 percent a year with no signs of slowing down. Our community has attracted a population with a high expectation for efficient services. As such, organizational growth has been very strategic. Annual investments in the various capital improvements programs were prioritized to improve existing residents’ lives as opposed to growing the organization. A Crisis Unfolds

Melissa had entered into a contract with FATHOM for a full-service advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) utility billing

platform in 2015. Generally, the partnership worked well for the city and our customers, as we implemented a full meter replacement and AMI implementations, along with a call center. The Software as a Service (or SaaS) platform also was appealing to the city because this vendor would minimize the need for the organization to provide additional hardware, any software, technicians, or data security for this critical business function. The proposed call-center solution was also a critical element in the contract with FATHOM because the call center would not require the organization to add more staff to utility billing services. Because Melissa opted for this SaaS cloud-based solution from a previous SaaS platform, the city had no backup billing system that we could easily turn to as a bridge while we evaluated new options. Texas law regarding procurement had few options for situations like this, so we were all left wondering what steps we would take next. • November 11–14

In addition to Melissa, about 23 other utility providers throughout the United States were in the same position we were in, although it felt like we were all going in different directions. Rightfully so, there were many hard feelings and uncertainty about how to move forward. Questions in various meetings and conference calls revolved around securing the latest data, how easily that data could be incorporated into some other system, and how customers would be impacted. FATHOM identified one potential provider who could provide continuity of service, so for a brief moment, there appeared to be an option that could offer minimal disruption to the utility billing process and, most importantly, our customers. We referred to this provider as Plan B. • November 14–21

We met extensively with this Plan B partner over the week leading up to Thanksgiving, M AY 2 0 2 0 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | 33

and issues such as additional costs and procurement challenges became more of a reality for all FATHOM clients. Alternatively, the daunting task to implement a completely new solution within two weeks and minimize the potential impacts to the customers where water was already a hot topic made the risks with Plan B a little easier to rationalize. City leaders believed it was critical not to miss even one billing cycle in order to prevent major inconveniences to residents and to maintain cash flow. Customer communications was critical to let residents know the challenge we were facing, but not inundate them with the day-to-day information because of the fluidity of the situation. Melissa had even

gone as far as authorizing me as the city manager to complete negotiations and execute a contract with Plan B. • November 22

The next day during a meeting regarding multiyear financial planning with an outside consultant and friend, Lewis McLain, I was lamenting the uneasy position we were being placed in and fretting over the choices we did not have. He saw a challenge in this situation and casually suggested he take a look at the datasets the city would receive during this transition to Plan B. We forwarded a sample dataset and proceeded with our regular meeting. The city of Melissa felt like it had avoided a colossal failure by opting to partner with Plan B, with customers likely never realizing

what had transpired behind the scenes. Thanksgiving was the following week, and we all felt that we were making the best of a bad situation. • November 23–26

Over the weekend, the city was attempting to wrap up the contract issues with Plan B when word began to spread that Plan B might not acquire FATHOM due to some FATHOM clients filing legal proceedings. We received notice on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving that Plan B was withdrawing from the acquisition process and wished us well. We were again back at square one with time quickly running out. Seemingly simultaneously, McLain emailed us with an interesting idea. He had spent time over the weekend utilizing

various products and testing the uploading of the sample data we shared with him. He believed he could assist the city in the period we called “UB Triage,” while we sought a permanent utility billing solution. The temporary triage solution would not be able to offer customer convenience features like online data review or online payments, but we would be able to upload electronic reads, calculate bill sets, generate bills, and post payments. Our internal focus was to acquire all the closeout electronic data and feed it to McLain so we could begin the transition to this UB Triage solution. We continued to update the community as to our progress and to let residents know what changes they could expect.

PHOTO: BRYAN KILE

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â&#x20AC;˘ December

The vast majority of time during this month was spent working through quality control tests and implementation logistics that were critical to our billing processes. Additionally, securing the hourly reads and reporting from our vendor that could be uploaded into our Triage system was critical to not having to resort to a manual reading operation during this time. McLain had spent almost 250 hours over the month getting the system prepared to issue the December bills, as well as creating dashboards for utility billing staff to note changes to accounts and post payments. Internally, there were five employees, myself included, who spent most all of the month, including the holidays, conducting quality control checks on all aspects of the bills in order to prevent billing errors that would lead to an erosion of confidence that the city could navigate this unforeseen transition. Equally important to the Triage mindset we were in was to secure the permanent utility billing solution and seek to have the implementation process be as quick as possible. Discussions with various vendors set our expectations that a clean implementation timeline could be anywhere from four to nine months after the procurement timeline was completed. In addition to the multiyear financial planning McLain offers, he has a city news clipping service that shares articles related to local government or general items that could impact operations of local government. Ironically, he shared an article from a utility going through this FATHOM

We continued to update the community as to our progress and to let residents know what changes they could expect. transition and it referenced a popular software provider that was part of a purchasing cooperative system. If this were true, then the requirements under Texas law for procurement could be satisfied, and the city could move directly to contract negotiations. Staff interviewed this company and completed a demonstration of the solution. After discussion, the city contracted with Tyler Technologies for its Incode solution for utility billing services. Implementation is currently underway and the March bills were produced using the Incode system. As with any transition, we discovered that the closeout data was not as clean as we had hoped. We are again auditing the transactions that occurred as FATHOM closed to ensure accuracy of the customers data. This exercise should be completed by the end of April 2020. We are pleased with the progress we have made.

Even with all these moving parts and maybe even a little duct tape, the UB Triage produced bills that were mailed to customers only one week later than in months past. Of the more than 4,800 bills generated monthly, the only consistent issue we found were payments processed during the closing of FATHOM for which the city had no record. As previously mentioned, we are reconciling these transactions. We are preparing for the next bill set and expect a smoother bill cycle. Consultant Relationships Matter

This article began in my head about Software as a Service pros and cons list, but I realized that while SaaS details are an important takeaway, this story is even more about relationships. As for the SaaS issue, I think there are important details to evaluate when deciding if the SaaS is right for you, including ownership of data, who collects funds and how are funds collected, and your exit plan should the scenario we were faced with present itself. On the relationship front, I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t imagine a scenario where this issue would have ended as well as it did for the city of Melissa without the relationship with Lewis McLain. It has always been my goal to introduce the right outside professionals to this organization who can help this community be what it deserves to be. Consultants have a different meaning in different organizations, but it is too easy to forget that behind that consultant title are competent professionals and caring people. McLain was working with Melissa on a multiyear financial

planning process and took it upon himself to use his expertise and love of local government to offer his assistance in creating a solution that protected the city and reflected well on our ability to navigate through this crisis. My position was, and continues to be, that consultants are plentiful in our profession, but relationships with good ones who look after our communities should be nurtured and not taken for granted. The city of Melissa is forever grateful to McLain and his efforts to keep us afloat in this crisis. Beyond his work and commitment to this issue, he had to deal with a major personal issue at the same time that could have easily taken his full attention. He managed to handle both, which makes his commitment that much more significant. On the organization front, my fellow employees and I devoted a vast amount of time tending to this crisis. Our successful navigation through the challenges presented to the city is due in large part to our collective mission to not let this issue define this organization and the unwavering support and confidence the council had in us, even when the criticisms were loudest. I am extremely proud of the organization for stepping up and making the best of the situation. We have a lot of work in the coming months, but we could have easily sunk without the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commitment to this great community.

JASON LITTLE, ICMA-CM, is city manager, Melissa, Texas (jlittle@cityofmelissa.com).

M AY 2 0 2 0 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | 35

Covering the County WHEN IT COUNTS WALDO COUNTY, MAINE, ESTABLISHES THE NATION’S FIRST COUNTYWIDE EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM OPERATING ON AM RADIO CHANNELS

O BY DALE D. ROWLEY AND BILL BAKER

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ne of the basic responsibilities of a local emergency management program is to provide emergency public information and warning to the local population. Not providing information and direction to residents and businesses can cost lives and damage or destroy property. However, accomplishing this task can be difficult and costly. Determining the method of information dissemination that will reach the most people in a timely manner and provide the most information to the public will be based on the local types of hazards, geography, population demographics, existing communications technology, and the ability to pay for the system’s implementation and operation.

The HPR.0990 High Performance Antenna is the heart of Waldo Countyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s RadioSAFE System. Photo courtesy of the American Association of Information Radio Operators (AAIRO.org).

Waldo County, located in midcoast Maine, encompasses 852 square miles and has 39,800 residents and 26 municipalities. Maine is a home-rule state and, as such, most services are performed at the state or municipal government level. In 2013, after an ice storm brought numerous power outages, the Waldo County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) studied the various means of disseminating public warnings, the types of hazards most experienced, and the costs of implementing a communication system. As things go, Maine is a pretty moderate state when it comes to hazards that can cause disasters. Maine can experience minor earthquakes, but the state does not lie on any major faults. Hurricanes can strike; but the likelihood of anything greater than a Category 1 is very unlikely due to the cool waters that lie offshore. Maine did experience a major forest fire season 73 years ago, but the high humidity, and the type of topography and vegetation present does not lend itself to fast-moving fires. Floods do happen, but their scale is fairly minor compared to many other flood-prone areas of the country. Maine is, however, exceptionally prone to ice storms, blizzards, and wind storms that can cause power outages. The land area of Maine is about 90 percent forest land and nearly all the power lines are pole mounted. In January 1998, Maine experienced an ice storm that caused a nearly statewide power outage that lasted nearly two weeks for some residents. Since then, tropical storms and wind storms have also caused long-term, wide-area power outages. As with the rest of the nation, much of our population is replacing their landline telephones for cellular smartphones. In the past, even if a household lost electrical power, it still had the landline telephone energized from the telephone company central office. Now, when the area power grid is out, the cellphones for many start dying after the first day. M AY 2 0 2 0 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | 37

Searching for a Solution

On Christmas Eve of 2013, Waldo County experienced another destructive ice storm that crippled the regional power grid for almost a week. Once the freezing rain stopped, the temperatures fell well below freezing; at night the temperatures were below zero degrees Fahrenheit. The county decided to establish an overnight emergency shelter for those residents who were unable to keep warm or to find a place to go. County Emergency Management Director Dale Rowley began calling local television stations to request that they inform the public of the shelter. Unfortunately, most residents couldn’t watch TV. The county posted information on social media, websites, internet-based notification systems, and the 211 emergency call system. However, many residents didn’t have power for their computers or the ability to recharge their smartphone batteries.

All of which meant the county had no way to get the word to residents that the emergency shelter was open! The only option that seemed to remain available was to contact the local AM/FM broadcast radio stations. Many residents still have battery-operated AM/FM radios or have a radio in their car. Unfortunately, the radio stations couldn’t continuously broadcast the message. If residents weren’t listening at the “right” time, they did not get the message. Rowley began investigating possible solutions. He did know about the Traveler’s Information Station (TIS), which continuously broadcasts messages to the driving public on the turnpike highway during highway emergencies. In his research, he quickly discovered emergency radio advisory stations. Unfortunately, the TIS system is limited to 10 watts by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and will only cover around a five-mile

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signal distance. Since Waldo County covers over 800 square miles, the only option seemed to be procure 32 linked TIS units. Realizing that the county could not afford such a project, the EMA researched the parameters of a capability that could cover the entire county by reaching out to TIS equipment suppliers, including a company called Information Station Specialists. Rowley began a conversation with Bill Baker at this company regarding one of its radio systems called RadioSAFE. Condensed versions of the RadioSAFE system are available with 6-10-mile and 3-5-mile signal coverage distances. However, the need to establish a countywide emergency broadcast system created several new challenges. The first step involved acquiring a basic FCC AM broadcast radio license as used by TIS. This allows the broadcast system to transmit up to 10 watts. In order to reach

the entire county, significantly more power (wattage) was required, which led Information Station Specialists to design a high-performance radio antenna with the efficiency and power-handling capability to cover a radius of more than 20 miles. Additionally, the FCC required a waiver and a Special Temporary Authority (STA) are required from the Federal Communications Commission for operation. Procedures have been established for the waiver process. Ideal Channel for Emergency Use

Work is progressing. The ground radials and transmitting equipment are being installed at present time. The Waldo County EMA office, with the assistance of seasoned amateur radio operators, is in the process of implementing the nation’s first countywide emergency broadcast system utilizing universally available AM radio channels. The new wide-area

“RadioSAFE” system will be utilized in emergency/disaster situations in which citizens are cut off from power and communications—something that could easily have happened had Hurricane Dorian steered a slightly different course in September 2019 when the storm skirted by the Maine coast. The new system will hopefully be operational by June 2020. The county obtained a Subrecipient State Homeland Security Grant to help cover the costs of the project. Information Station Specialists designed a RadioSAFE wide-area

emergency broadcast system to meet the county’s public warning needs. The RadioSAFE system is located on a hilltop tower site in the town of Knox. Amateur radio pros Brit Rothrock (AB1KI) and Robert Hoey (W1EBA), who also work for the Waldo County EMA, have been working on the system’s planning and installation. The county’s RadioSAFE System will operate on AM frequency 530 kHz, a channel designated exclusively for TIS service in the United States. There are no other broadcast stations on 530 kHz in the nation now,

Waldo County emergency management director Dale Rowley (right) and Brit Rothrock (left). Photo courtesy of the American Association of Information Radio Operators (AAIRO.org).

making it an ideal channel for emergency use. This spring, Waldo County will erect road signs and develop a promotion campaign to

Information Station Specialists’ Geoff Penna adjusts a RadioSAFE System’s HPR.0990 antenna. Photo courtesy of the American Association of Information Radio Operators (AAIRO.org).

inform local residents regarding the presence of the emergency broadcast service. During an emergency, the county can send out a WEA (wireless emergency alert) to cellphones with a message that can direct people in the impacted locations to tune to the AM station for more detailed information. Providing emergency alerts with information and directions to our population is a vital component to our local emergency management program and a critical responsibility of our local elected officials. Each county and municipality needs to implement the localized processes and technological means with which to implement a public warning program. Lives and property depend on it.

DALE D. ROWLEY is director, Waldo County Emergency Management Agency, Belfast, Maine (emadirector@ waldocountyme.gov). BILL BAKER is president, American Association of Information Radio Operators (bill@aairo.org).

To learn more about RadioSAFE systems, visit theRADIOsource. com/products/radiosafe.htm. M AY 2 0 2 0 | P U B L I C M A N A G E M E N T | 39

The 10 s of CRISIS MANAGEMENT A road map for avoiding, preparing for, managing, and recovering from a crisis BY EDWARD SEGAL

Risk. Identify the risk triggers that would

cause a crisis for your city, town, county, agency, or department. Some risks—such as tornadoes, floods, and other weather-related events—may be more likely for your area. Other crisis triggers— including allegations of inappropriate behavior, lawsuits, and ransomware attacks—are universal.

Reduce. Take the steps that

are necessary and prudent to lessen known risks. These steps can be as basic as following common-sense accounting procedures in order to help prevent fraud and forgery to more extensive actions such as providing appropriate training or retraining to the employees at your agencies or departments.

Ready. Have a crisis

plan in place and ready to implement when it’s needed. Because one size will not fit all, the plan should be customized to meet the needs and realities of your government.

React. Know in advance

what event will trigger a crisis and who has the authority to activate it. Because different crises will require different responses, know in advance how you would react to a variety of different crisis scenarios. A crisis is no time to learn as you go along.

Recover. Know how 8

Reach Out. Immediately

communicate with those who are affected by or concerned about the crisis. You may have different publics and stakeholders— taxpayers, senior citizens, homeowners, and the business community—who would be affected by the situation and would want information and updates about the crisis and how it was addressed or resolved.

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your government would bounce back from a crisis. Planning your recovery from a disaster, scandal, or other emergency is just as important as planning your response to it. You will need to get back to normal as quickly as possible, and a recovery plan will help you do just that.

Public health emergencies. Cyber attacks. Mass shootings. Floods. These are just a few of the dozens of things that can trigger a crisis for local government leaders and staff. But all crises are not created equal. Some may come and go quickly with little or no lasting impact. Others may fester or linger for weeks or months and tarnish the image, reputation, and credibility of your government, agency, or department. The coronavirus crisis poses a set of unique challenges for local governments across the country. It’s unusual for a crisis to impact so many almost at once. Owing to the evolving nature of this emergency, there are many unanswered questions about the virus—the answers to which will be essential in continuing to address the crisis and ensure it doesn’t return later.

No matter what kind of crisis you face or how long it lasts, this much is true: • You must be ready to respond strategically, efficiently, and effectively. • Hope, luck, delay, denial, or stonewalling are not effective strategies for managing or trying to avoid them. They usually make matters worse. While it is seldom possible to predict when, where, or how a crisis will strike, you can at least get ready for it. There are several major steps you can take now to help ensure you are as prepared as you can be for when you have to deal with a disaster, scandal, or other emergency. I’ve boiled these steps down to the following 10 rules—“The 10 Rs of crisis management for local governments.”

4 Redundancies.

Have back-up and contingency plans in case they are required. Since it is impossible to plan for every eventuality, a Plan B, Plan C, or Plan D may be needed, just in case.

Research. Get all the information you can about your crisis, including details about what just happened, is happening now, or you expect to happen. Knowing the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the situation is essential in helping to respond strategically, effectively, and efficiently.

Rehearse.

Practice implementing your plan on a regular basis—at least once a year. Having a plan and not practicing it is not much different than having no plan at all. The more you practice implementing the plan, the more prepared you will be if and when you need to use it.

Remember. Keep in mind the

experiences of other local governments that have already gone through a crisis. What can you do to repeat their successes and avoid their mistakes? There is no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to the best ways to respond to, manage, and recover from a crisis. There are plenty of lessons from which you can learn.

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CORONAVIRUS CRISIS RESPONSE

EVENTS AND WEBINARS UPDATED DAILY AT ICMA.ORG/CORONAVIRUS AND ICMA.ORG/EVENTS ICMA has launched free online events for local government leaders—both members and nonmembers—to address the COVID-19 pandemic. These events will feature experts discussing the current situation, as well as how to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on your community and local government operations. Speakers will provide up-to-date information to help inform your decisions. If you have information that you believe would be particularly relevant to local government managers, we would look to share that as well. Send us your questions, suggestions, lessons learned, and resources at COVID19@icma.org. UPCOMING EVENTS (ICMA.ORG/EVENTS) MAY 8 | Fiscal Strategies During a Pandemic MAY 14 | Engagement During Crisis–City Managements’ Response to COVID-19

UPCOMING ONLINE LEARNING (CLASSROOM.ICMA.ORG) MAY 5 | ICMA-RC Financial Planning Series: Beneficiary Decisions MAY 13–JULY 22 | Effective Supervisory Practices Webinar Series JUNE 2-14 | A Budgeting Guide for Local Government Webinar Series JUNE 4 | ICMA-RC Financial Planning Series: 10 Question Retiree Guide

UPCOMING FREE COACHING WEBINARS (ICMA.ORG/COACHINGWEBINARS) MAY 21 | Managing and Mastering Council-Staff Relationships: The Nuance of Governance JUNE 18 | Lessons in Value-Based Leadership: Leading with Principle

Access past free events on-demand at icma.org/local-gov-life-podcast

PM Magazine, May 2020

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Ethical Leadership in the Time of COVID-19