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)
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May 2020
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