ICMA will host these events to help public administrators innovate and adapt their leadership practices, management strategies, and operations in the name of more resilient and equitable outcomes for their work and their communities. Collectively called the Local Government Reimagined Conferences, each event will have a unique theme and focus.
FEATURES
Turning Community-wide Broadband Access into Smart City Opportunities
Leveraging a public-private partnership delivering citywide internet access into a strategic master plan to become a smart city.
Luis Estevez
20 Generative AI and Cybersecurity Resources from ICMA
Helping you find the information you need to elevate and protect your organization, community, and residents.
24 Preparing Your Community for Risks of Prolonged Power Outages
How do you continue to deliver services to your community without the power we’ve all come to depend on?
David Gassaway 28 Your AI Readiness Assessment Checklist
Thoughtful AI deployment is crucial for public sector success, so consider these five points to ensure that your organization is prepared.
Jordan Anderson
Is Crime Widespread?
To reduce crime, you should focus on the tiny fraction of addresses that experience most of the crime.
Shannon J. Linning, Thomas Carroll, ICMA-CM, Daniel W. Gerard, and John E. Eck
The Hidden Value: Employersponsored Health Clinics
A holistic and proactive approach to fostering a healthier workforce
Sabrina Joy-Hogg and Louisa K. Meyer
IDEALS CivicPRIDE: Service by All for All
Case Study
Communities Against Scrap Metal Theft
Mental Health
City Management Foundation’s Mental Health Initiative
Assistants and Deputies
Power of a Municipal App
What Elected Officials and CAOs Need to Know, Part 7: What Is Your Municipality’s Cybersecurity Posture? 38 Inside ICMA ICMA Senior Advisors of the Sunshine State
with Data-driven Storytelling
In Defense of the ICMA Code of Ethics and the Complaint Review Process
For the past 100 years, adherence to this Code of Ethics has been the bedrock of ICMA membership.
When I joined ICMA more than a decade ago, I was the chief communications officer for Prince William County, Virginia, USA. My county executive encouraged me to join her in attending the ICMA Annual Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, so that I could connect with city and county managers and learn from their experience. What drew me to ICMA was the members’ commitment to building public trust and adhering to a nonpartisan, professional administration of government—principles that are grounded in the ICMA Code of Ethics.
JASON D. GRANT, PhD, CPM, is director of advocacy at ICMA (jgrant@icma.org).
One hundred years ago, ICMA members adopted the Code to distinguish how ICMA members differed from elected officials and others who might use their positions for personal gain or political interest. Today, the Code, and its fundamental tenets to which we all ascribe as ICMA members, undergirds every action we take as public servants in local government.
Members have an enormous level of responsibility and authority. As such, we believe that it is essential to serve the public good and to put the public’s needs above individual interests; even for those in the community who may think or believe differently than we do. We believe that we must demonstrate a commitment to the
Public Management (PM) (USPS: 449-300) is published monthly by ICMA (the International City/County Management Association) at 777 North Capitol Street. N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002-4201. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mailing offices. The opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of ICMA.
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ICMA CODE OF ETHICS Established 1924
BY JASON D. GRANT, PhD, CPM
equitable and lawful administration of government through our words and deeds in both our personal and professional lives. The Code affirms those principles and offers guidance on how to conduct ourselves as public servants.
Adherence to the Code is the bedrock of ICMA membership. As part of our obligation for membership, we affirm our commitment to the Code in much the same way that many other professions require those who bear the title of their profession to do so. And like other professions, our Code is written, adopted, and enforced by fellow members.
I have had conversations with folks who have raised concerns about holding fellow members accountable to the Code. We expect that when disagreements occur about whether certain conduct violates the Code, the discussions are civil and respectful because our profession in the public eye demands it.
This is why, more than 50 years ago, ICMA adopted the Rules of Procedure for Enforcement of the Code, which dictate the process that should be followed when ICMA receives an ethics complaint.1 The Executive Board’s Committee on Professional Conduct determines violations of the Code through due process for the member. ICMA staff members that support the CPC apply the Rules to
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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 13,000 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.
every complaint. It is important to note that staff members do not file ethics complaints themselves nor determine case outcomes in what is a difficult task in service to the profession’s integrity.
Many reported violations are never made public as the CPC closes a case where the member’s conduct did not violate the Code and the outcome remains confidential. For conduct that violates the Code, the CPC may issue a private censure or recommend that the Board publicly censure the member. A public censure is determined by the Board and may include revocation of the Credentialed Manager designation, membership suspension, permanent bar, or expulsion. This ensures that through a peer-review process the issues have been fully investigated and deliberated on the established facts of the matter as ICMA reaches a decision.
PRESIDENT
Tanya Ange*
County Administrator Washington County, Oregon
PRESIDENT-ELECT
Michael Land*
City Manager
Coppell, Texas
PAST PRESIDENT
Lon Pluckhahn*
Deputy City Manager
Vancouver, Washington
VICE PRESIDENTS
International Region
Colin Beheydt
City Manager Bruges, Belgium
Doug Gilchrist
City Manager
Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
Lungile Dlamini
Chief Executive Officer
Municipal Council of Manzini, Eswatini
Midwest Region
Michael Sable* City Manager Maplewood, Minnesota
Jeffrey Weckbach
Township Administrator Colerain Township, Ohio
Cynthia Steinhauser*
Deputy City Administrator Rochester, Minnesota
Mountain Plains Region
Dave Slezickey*
City Manager The Village, Oklahoma
Pamela Davis
Assistant City Manager Boulder, Colorado
Sereniah Breland City Manager Pflugerville, Texas
Northeast Region
Dennis Enslinger
Deputy City Manager Gaithersburg, Maryland
Steve Bartha*
Town Manager Danvers, Massachusetts
Brandon Ford
Assistant Township Manager
Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania
Southeast Region
Jorge Gonzalez*
The ICMA Credentialed Manager designation and membership in ICMA are respected because the requirement to adhere to the Code provides public confidence that the individual is held to a higher standard of ethical conduct in their role within local government. The Code and the review process informs our own behaviors and establishes a culture where all of us collectively agree to abide by the Code in our daily lives. By publicly affirming our commitment to the Code and holding ourselves accountable, we plainly demonstrate how we choose to lead and serve with principle.
Invest in Your Organization: Bring ICMA’s Training to Your Organization! In-Person
and Online Training for Your Team
Bring ICMA’s Certificate and Micro-Certificate programs to your jurisdiction. Offered live online and in-person, we will bring the training to you. Choose from 13 topics. Schedule the perfect training for your team at a time convenient for you. Invest in your organization today! Scan the QR code to learn more.
OCTOBER
How Community Engagement Strengthens Small Cities and Towns
October 8 | Free Webinar
Data-Driven Decision Making — Certificate Program (Fall 2024)
October 8–December 17 | Certificate Program
Effective Supervisory Practices Training Series (Fall 2024)
October 9–December 18 | Webinar Series
Cybersecurity Readiness: How to Protect Local Government Assets
October 15 | Webinar
Navigating Workplace Challenges: Strategies to Maximize the Performance of Difficult Employees
October 17 | Free Coaching Webinar
Solace Summit 2024
October 17–18 | Conference | Manchester, United Kingdom
A Budgeting Guide for Local Government (Fall 2024)
October 24–November 7 | Webinar Series
How the Public Sector Is Leading AI Adoption in Service Delivery
October 29 | Webinar
Fall 2024 Environmental Services Industry Update
October 30 | Free Webinar
Leadership ICMA Returns April 2025
NOVEMBER
Modernizing Budgeting: A Transformational Shift to Priority-Based Budgeting
November 7–November 21 | Certificate Program
Healthy Workplace Relationships: A User’s Guide
November 13 | Webinar
Your City Is Changing: Here’s How to Measure It
November 19 | Free Webinar
Talent Retention Toolbox: Strategies for Keeping Your Best Talent
November 21 | Free Coaching Webinar
Reimagined for the next generation of local government leaders, this flagship ICMA program will impart leadership lessons while participants form lasting connections with their peers.
Registration is limited to 35 ICMA members. Receive your alert when applications open later this year. Join the list! Visit icma.org/leadershipicma or scan the QR code.
For a full listing of events and details, visit icma.org/events. Shop all courses at learning.icma.org.
CivicPRIDE: Service by All for All
Highlights from the 2024 CivicPRIDE Inclusion Summit BY PAM DAVIS
CivicPRIDE, an ICMA affiliate, is a nonprofit professional association committed to equity and belonging in local government management. Our mission is to advance inclusive local government by empowering LGBTQIA+ leadership. One way of doing so is through our annual CivicPRIDE Inclusion Summit.
As our board developed the program for this year’s summit, held June 26, 2024, we wanted to emphasize that while advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is often framed as “new” or “specialized” work, we contend that DEI work, at its most effective, isn’t performed as a standalone effort. Advancing DEI for all can and should be integrated into everything local governments do—from infrastructure maintenance to policy development. This year’s summit theme, “Service by All, for All,” exemplified this message.
The summit’s panel discussion of LGBTQ+-identified local government leaders featured Monica Davis, deputy city administrator, Oakland, California; Brian Staley, public works director, Adams County, Colorado; and Stephanie Stephens, executive director, California Park and Recreation Society. There were so many key takeaways from our speakers, but here are just a few:
• Leadership is shaped by identity and lived experience. LGBTQ+ leaders seek to lift others as they rise because they viscerally understand barriers to career growth when embodying a minority identity.
• Some panelists, along with many LGBTQ+ community members, experienced rejection from family leading to financial insecurity during early adulthood.
• For LGBTQ+ leaders, simple office conversation can be stress-inducing. A question like “how was your weekend?” forces us to choose how much of our identity we are willing to share. Blending of our personal and professional selves may come with greater challenges or freedoms dependent on whether our workplace climate is welcoming.
• There are specific considerations for ensuring equitable services for the LGBTQ+ community. For example, it is important to scrutinize the relevance of gender identity for access to programs or facilities.
• We can all enhance inclusivity in our organizations and communities whether we are executives or entry-level employees.
This year’s “Stories of Pride” interview featured Boulder, Colorado’s police chief, Stephen Redfearn. We are grateful to Chief Redfearn for so openly and authentically presenting the complex intersections of policing and LGBTQ+ communities. The month of June was identified as Pride Month specifically to recognize the anniversary of the June 28, 1969, Stonewall Uprising in New York City. The raid by police at the Stonewall Inn and subsequent riot and protests are regarded as key events leading to the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. Chief Redfearn gave attendees a unique perspective:
• It is possible to reconcile painful history with a desire to support better policing and those working in the field. Many officers today, including those serving as LGBTQ+ community liaisons, work diligently to prevent that history from being repeated.
Our identities and lived experiences are assets and motivators for public service.
• Policing is only part of the story that played out at Stonewall. Other layers of government created the discriminatory laws and policies that police enforced throughout the midtwentieth century. This does not excuse the damage done to the LGBTQ+ community at the hands of police, but does shed light on the need for city/county administrators and elected officials to consider the disproportionate burden or harm that can be inflicted on one segment of the community through policy and its enforcement.
• Our identities and lived experiences are assets and motivators for public service. Embrace the opportunity to be the person you needed when you were younger.
Save the date for the 2025 CivicPRIDE Inclusion Summit, taking place Wednesday, June 25. If you are interested in learning more about CivicPRIDE or becoming a member, please visit civic-pride.org.
PAM DAVIS is assistant city manager of Boulder, Colorado, USA.
Defending Communities Against Scrap Metal Theft
The battles of brass and copper
BY RICH MORAHAN
$1.8 million, 415 hydrants. Those are the raw numbers from south Los Angeles County’s yearlong skirmishes with brass-targeting fire hydrant thieves. It can cost upwards of $4,500 to replace a hydrant with a scrap metal value of $400. Not a very community-friendly equation.
The main target of the brass gangs is Golden State Water Company, which delivers quality reliable water to more than one million people in over 80 communities throughout California, including Los Angeles County. Millions of dollars and hundreds of hydrants are big numbers, but the risk to public safety from these thefts could be catastrophic. With wildfires popping up throughout the western United States, access to water and good water pressure is even more critical than saving dollars.
The skirmishes started small, and there had been some warnings from other locales, from Spokane, Washington, to Monterrey and Bakersfield, California, but by early 2024, Golden State knew that they had to fight back on a number of fronts.
A Three-Pronged Strategy to Deter Hydrant Theft Law Enforcement Buy-in
RICH MORAHAN
writes frequently about security and marketing for a number of industries, including ATMs, information management, petroleum and propane distribution, and vending.
You can contact him at 617-2400372, rmwriteg@ gmail.com, or rmorahan.com
Although tampering with a fire hydrant is a federal offense, it took a little effort for Golden State to convince law enforcement to devote some attention to a so-called “victimless crime.” As the prospects of long-term drought and pervasive wildfires arose, law enforcement began to respond with arrests of small gangs and opportunists.
Citizen Awareness
Equally importantly, Golden State got the public and its customers involved. The crimes usually took place in plain sight. The public needed to be convinced that the thefts were a big deal. One Golden State customer’s remarks are probably typical: “It’s mind-boggling that someone would come into a neighborhood and just steal a fire hydrant.... You’re putting a whole neighborhood in danger.” But that’s just what these gangs are doing.
Hardening the Target
Lastly, Golden State hardened the target. They turned to D&M Manufacturing of Lake Elsinore, California, to install shields and locks on hydrants in vulnerable locations. D&M’s mission is to go beyond making cages for security— their goal is to “lock it down, lock it up, and control the
valve.” They manufacture, in the United States, a wide variety of security cages, valve covers, and enclosures. Their security collar for fire hydrants features a “hockey puck” lock from Lock America of Corona, California. Like D&M, Lock America is a U.S.-based company with decades of experience manufacturing security products. The lock has a stainless steel body and all-brass keyway for heavy-duty protection in all weather conditions. The pick-resistant keyway allows millions of registered key combinations for maximum flexibility. Golden State has installed more than a thousand shields, targeting areas they consider vulnerable.
Hydrant shield installation.
The Task Force and Public Awareness Campaign
To address the issue of fire hydrant theft, the county and the water company have formed a task force—much like another task force recently formed in response to stolen copper wire—that meets biweekly and includes L.A. Sheriff’s Department officials from nearby stations.
Water company staff and first responders might notice some missing hydrants, but General Manager Nutting acknowledges that they need the public to bring thefts to their attention by contacting Golden State’s customer hotline. Golden State employs billboards and messages in mailings, websites, and social media postings to build
public awareness and encourage reporting. “The customers are the ones that are most likely to see it first, so we encourage them to contact us,” she said. Law enforcement, public awareness, and the hardware are starting to impact the problem as thefts are dropping and arrests rising.
Copper Theft Remains a Problem
While Los Angeles County appears to have been the biggest hydrant battleground—and the public seems to be gaining the upper hand there—the battle for copper appears to be ongoing nationwide. While Los Angeles is one of the main fronts, the battle ranges from Tacoma, Washington, to Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Louisville, Kentucky.
The Los Angeles City Council recently approved a pair of motions Wednesday to create a new LAPD Copper Wire Task Force, as well as a reward program designed to encourage people to report copper thefts and other streetlight crimes in the city.
Copper wire theft is even more costly than brass theft. “We have witnessed this issue escalate at a very alarming rate,” said Councilmember Kevin de León, who introduced the motion. “Just five years ago, we were
For information about security locks: Lock America, Inc.
9168 Stellar Court, Corona, CA 92883 laigroup.com, sales@laigroup.com
dealing with 500 to 600 cases of copper wire theft each year. In the past fiscal year, that number skyrocketed to a staggering 6,842 cases, with repair costs exceeding $20 million.”
The task force plans to roll out a comprehensive campaign with public involvement key in deterring and reporting thefts. At select locations, the city plans to harden targets, install cameras and alarms, and control access points. It has also created a reward program to encourage the public to target thieves.
In an effort to deter thieves who steal valuable copper wire from city streetlights and vandals who damage streetlights—and in a nod to renewable energy—Los Angeles has launched a solar streetlight pilot project in Van Nuys. During the pilot program, the city will collect data over the next year to determine how well the lights work and to make sure the lights remain on for two or three nights even if the sky is overcast and the streetlights don’t have much opportunity to recharge. The solar lights have “little to no street value,” Director of Street Lighting Miguel Sangalang said, and city officials hope that will deter criminals from stealing them.
Millions of dollars and hundreds of hydrants are big numbers, but the risk to public safety from these thefts could be catastrophic.
Solar lights may be practical in the future, but the copper battles will be ongoing for quite a while. Success will come from small victories on many fronts—such as a reward program to spotlight perps, blocks to perimeter access, and replacing bolts with camlocks for access doors.
In the best and worst of times, small crimes can add up to a big one quickly. Making communities liveable and sustainable requires vigilance and teamwork between public agencies, law enforcement, and community residents. Golden State Water is an example of a company that has met its customers’ problem head on with a multi-tiered approach. Los Angeles and other communities across the country will need similar strategies to deal with thefts of these kinds.
Author’s Note: Thank you to Marko Mlikotin and General Manager Kate Nutting of the Golden State Water Company (gswater.com) for their contributions.
For information about hydrant shields and collars: D&M Manufacturing 10 3rd St. Lake Elsinore, CA 92530 866-308-9911, 951-674-1908 backflowtheft.com, info@backflowtheft.com
This streetlight is the victim of copper wire theft. Replacing the bolts on access doors with high-security cam locks is one way to control access to wires.
SIMPLIFY PAYMENT PROCESSES TO CAPTURE
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From bill presentment and payment processing to funds settlement, disbursements, and reporting, Tyler’s end-to-end transaction management platform empowers governments to manage the entire payment life cycle, increasing back-office efficiency while creating smooth resident interactions.
California City Management Foundation’s Mental Health Initiative
Supporting city managers, deputies, and assistants with free mental health services
BY KEN STRIPLIN, ICMA-CM AND PAM ANTIL
In recent times, city managers have faced unprecedented levels of stress. The convergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the nation’s hyper-political climate has transformed what was once a challenging but manageable profession into a crucible of mental strain. This shift reflects a broader mental health crisis affecting professionals across various fields.
The California City Management Foundation (CCMF) recognizes this critical issue and has taken proactive steps to address it. CCMF’s new initiative aims to support the mental health of city managers, assistants, and deputies with the hope that other states will follow suit with similar programs.
Free Mental Health Services for CCMF Members
In July 2024, CCMF began offering free mental health services exclusively for its members. Membership is open to all California city managers, assistant city managers, and deputy city managers—whether currently serving or retired. Understanding the demanding nature of their roles, CCMF is enthusiastic about providing a service that helps city/county managers cope with heightened stress and maintain their well-being.
Prioritizing Self-Reflection and Awareness
“City managers benefit from prioritizing counseling, allowing them sustained periods of reflection,” asserted Frank Benest, retired city manager of Palo Alto.
“Effective leadership begins with self-awareness. For local government leaders, understanding personal strengths and triggers is instrumental in their roles.”
Access Anywhere, Confidentiality Assured
CCMF has partnered with Beverly Foo-Colon, a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), who is an experienced psychotherapist specializing in mental health and worklife balance. Through this collaboration, CCMF offers remote mental health services via Doxy.me, a confidential and secure tele-therapy platform. The services include:
• A personalized initial evaluation.
• Three to six free individual therapy sessions, with the option to continue beyond six sessions in consultation with Beverly.
CCMF and Beverly Foo-Colon maintain strict confidentiality between members and the clinical provider. Verification of membership precedes the start of sessions.
“Remote access ensures all members can benefit from this resource,” stated Pam Antil, ICMA and CCMF board member. “Regardless of their location, city/ county managers can prioritize their mental health. It is our hope that the CCMF program will become the model that is adopted by other state associations.”
A Nationwide Model
CCMF’s program sets a precedent for similar initiatives nationwide, providing much-needed mental health support to city managers. For more information about the mental health program, as well as CCMF membership and services, visit cacitymanagers.org.
KEN STRIPLIN, ICMA-CM is city manager of Santa Clarita, California, USA.
PAM ANTIL is city manager of Encinitas, California, USA. She serves on the ICMA Executive Board as the vice president of the West Coast region.
DISCOVER YOUR MEMBER BENEFITS
Make the Most of Your ICMA Membership
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members have access to a wide range of resources like these, plus many more online.
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Receive personal and financial support with the Members in Transition program if you have been fired, forced to resign or otherwise involuntarily separated.
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ICMA recognizes members through this program, highlighting their extraordinary accomplishments and dedicated service to the profession.
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ICMA.ORG/CREDENTIALING
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ICMA Coaching Program
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ICMA offers a suite of services to help participants grow, make decisions that benefit their career, gain perspective from others, and achieve their goals. Including coaching and mentoring support. Personal guidance in your local government career from local government professionals.
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Explore everything ICMA membership offers at ICMA.ORG/BENEFITS
The Power of a Municipal App
Using technology to enhance resident engagement
BY CASEY LUCIUS, PhD
Keeping residents informed is an ongoing challenge for most communities. Many residents think local officials don’t communicate enough or provide enough information, even though the city may produce press releases, monthly email blasts, and post regularly on social media. Nevertheless, they want more.
Here on Marco Island, there has been a push for a hard-copy newsletter to be mailed to every home. This can be costly and time consuming, and the information may be obsolete by the time it reaches mailboxes. A few years ago, as I started researching the best ways to enhance our resident engagement, I proposed the idea of trying a municipal app to see if this added layer of communication would meet the needs and desires of our residents. It has been two years, and we have had great success leveraging this technology.
This article will outline the benefits of utilizing a mobile app and lessons learned for smooth implementation. If you are considering ways to enhance community engagement, keep reading.
What Exactly Is a Municipal App?
A municipal app is a software application, free of charge to users, that can be downloaded on a smartphone or tablet, giving cities and counties one more way to keep residents informed. The app also allows residents to report issues to their local government. For example, in the month of July, Marco Island sent 22 notifications to residents through the “MyMarco App”—everything from road closures and boil water notices to a tropical storm warning. We also received 53 reports from residents during that same period. The majority of these reports were directed to the police department and public works and included abandoned chairs on the beach, right of way obstructions, environmental violations, debris in the road, and drainage issues.
Things to Consider
In late 2021 and early 2022, I researched eight companies in my quest to improve our resident engagement. Some products were prohibitively expensive for our modest budget. Some vendors focused primarily on linking residents to the main website or providing a chat window to answer quick questions. Then there were a few companies that developed a customized smartphone application with links to the municipal website, integrations with GIS and other software systems, a function for
residents to report problems, and push notifications to residents. This was exactly what I was looking for in a new engagement platform.
Marco Island is a mid-size retirement community in Southwest Florida, so I was concerned whether older residents would use the app and feel comfortable with this new form of communication. In December 2023, a marketing and data company named Razorfish conducted a study examining baby boomers’ openness to adopt new technologies. Their findings showed that boomers (generally ages 60–79) have an “early adopter” attitude toward technology and have confidence in using new technology. Seventy percent of boomers are eager to learn how to use new technologies and devices. This is to say, don’t shy away from using technology due to age demographics, but instead think about the reach of your communication. Having a multi-prong approach will ensure that at least one method of communication will reach your intended audience.
CASEY LUCIUS, PhD, is assistant city manager of Marco Island, Florida, USA.
Speaking of a multi-prong approach, many communities rely on social media platforms. Depending on whether the city/ county allows commenting, social media can get negative quickly and unfortunately it can be a hub of misinformation even while the community is trying to relay the facts. With an app, the local government can push out important information to residents and there is no response, just the information. Of course, we’re not trying to silence residents, which is why the reporting feature of the app is so important. If residents have a problem, they can report it through the app using a photo, description, and location data, and it will go to the appropriate department for action. This is a much more productive approach than having residents post complaints on social media.
On the other hand, utilizing an app is definitely not the same as mailing a glossy newsletter, but it is fast and easy for staff, and it gets important information to residents as quickly as possible. There may be a need for a glossy newsletter with long-term information like how to contact councilmembers or staff, but if you need to report a road closure or a boil water notice, an app notification is the way to go.
Maximize Staff Involvement to Ensure Success
Committing to a municipal app is just that—a commitment—and you will need the buy-in of department heads to ensure successful implementation and follow-through. For example, if a resident reports a cracked sidewalk, the project team should identify who that report will be sent to, who will be responsible for contacting
the resident, who will address the issue, and who will close out the ticket. This could be one person, or it could be four different people depending on the size and structure of your local government. A designated project manager will keep things moving and make sure each department is answering information requests from the app developer and testing app features before the app goes live. The IT Director will also be essential for making sure the app is connected to both an Apple and Google developer account and integrating the app with your other software programs.
We spent three months in the development phase coordinating with the app software development team and our internal project team. Once it was all set up, there was one week of staff training and one week of testing. We spent a few weeks marketing the app to residents, businesses, and visitors through post cards, social media, a press release, and a newspaper advertisement with a QR code. We went live and launched the MyMarco App four months after signing the contract, and in our first month we had over 2,000 downloads. Now that we are two years into implementation, the process is seamless. We set an internal standard that requests should be responded to within three days and closed out within one week, and a few managers are assigned to check the reports and make sure we are meeting our goals.
Having a municipal app can really enhance resident engagement, but it will take time and commitment from staff. Once it’s in place, the time invested on the front end will pay off as residents experience two-way communication with their local government from the convenience of their phone.
What Elected Officials and CAOs Need to Know, Part 7: What Is Your Municipality’s Cybersecurity Posture?
How to understand your cybersecurity status
When it comes to cybersecurity, there are no easy or perfect solutions because the threats constantly evolve. The goals, however, are twofold. The first is to ensure that your security control environment is adequate to meet the risks that your municipality faces. The second is that you have a sound incident response and recovery plan. This article focuses on controls, i.e., the practices and technology used to protect your digital environment. We will cover preparing for a security incident in a future article. There is no one-size-fits-all set of controls for every technology environment. Just being online requires a minimum level of tech-environment awareness. Recent news reports of the chaos created by hacker intrusions and technology supplier errors make that clear. In some cases, cyber insurance providers mandate that minimum standards or specific services be included in your control environment.
MARC PFEIFFER, an ICMA Life Member, is a marginally retired New Jersey town administrator and state agency manager. He is currently a senior policy fellow and assistant director at Bloustein Local, a unit of the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University. (marc.pfeiffer@ rutgers.edu)
Too Many Choices
There are many frameworks, schemas, risk control models, certification programs, and other approaches to guide (and sometimes confuse) technologists about the choices they make. They are important resources. It is also critical that elected officials and senior managers understand how well prepared your organization is to deal with threats. There may be disagreements between experts on what solutions should be used. These disagreements are often tempered by budget considerations. These discussions are critical, and organizations need to have them. That’s where your tech expert team should step in.
There are many ways to define these controls. They include the minimum standards you need to meet along with the tools and practices required to meet them. They will be driven by your agency’s budget, your exposure to risks, and the sophistication of your plans to recover from a successful attack. Things can go upside down very quickly; assuming it will not happen to you is irresponsible. This is why you must have confidence and trust in your tech expert.
BY MARC PFEIFFER
Can’t Live Without Them:
Secured, encrypted, and routinely tested backups.
Employee cybersecurity awareness training and phishing testing looking for social engineering vulnerabilities.
Cyber incident response plans. (When were they last tested?)
Multifactor authentication (MFA) for remote access to your network and for privileged or administrator access.
If Not Done Well, We Are at Serious Risk:
Use automated filtering to look for malicious content in incoming email, web content, and network traffic.
Privileged access management to ensure workers only have access to the services they must use.
Monitoring of all devices that are physically connected to the network (i.e., endpoint detection and response).
Ongoing patch and vulnerability management (i.e., making sure software is up to date and device access points are secure)
It’s Hard to Get These Right:
Ensuring that device configurations are as secure as possible (i.e., hardening) to prevent intrusion.
Logging and monitoring of network traffic to identify suspicious activity. (If they get in, you want to detect them.)
Replacing or protecting older, but critical hardware and software that cannot be upgraded to current standards.
Managing digital supply chain cyber risks (ensuring that your service providers are keeping their products and services secure).
Figure 1. Cybersecurity Control Practice Minimums
ahead of the budget cycle. Why annually? Because cybersecurity threats and responses are constantly evolving and require ongoing diligence.
What the Tech Team Needs to Do
Your tech team needs to understand your agency’s work in relation to your tech environment. As they understand the municipality’s ever-evolving business processes and outsourcing needs, they can maintain a control model. That is the basis for management of user accounts and use configurations, implementing and maintaining upto-date security tools, managing and regularly testing data recovery plans, and training employees in security awareness. By being part of leadership when tech decisions are made, they can move ahead with confidence to determine what is needed for each control.
Finally, these discussions involve network, confidential data, and computer security. Most public information access laws have exceptions for public disclosure of these records. Care must be taken to ensure confidentiality. At the same time, it is necessary to document your actions. That will provide data and audit trails in the event of a
“Just as you wouldn’t let just anyone wander into your home, don’t inadvertently leave your IT infrastructure “unlocked.”
What to Ask the Tech Team
See Figure 1, Cybersecurity Control Practice Minimums. The color groupings represent the importance of each of the controls relative to one another. They are rough measures based on actions that give the greatest protections against the two primary cyber threats: criminals breaking into your systems because of mistakes made by undertrained employees, and hackers breaking into your network via software or hardware flaws. All the items on the list are important but their weight varies based on the risk factors of individual agencies. How do you find out where you stand? Ask your tech expert to report about your “minimum cybersecurity control practices.” They should answer the following questions:
• Are we doing enough of everything on the list? If not, what else do we need to do?
• What are our options to meet those deficiencies?
• What are the risks of not fully doing them? Knowing the answers will allow for informed decisionmaking. This should become an annual exercise done
breach and allow your insurer and liability attorneys to have the information they need to respond to the event and its aftermath.
The key is to be proactive. Just as you wouldn’t let just anyone wander into your home, don’t inadvertently leave your IT infrastructure “unlocked.”
Author’s Note: This article was based on the author’s previous writings and the contents of:
• “Cyber Resilience: Twelve Key Controls to Strengthen Your Security,” developed by Marsh (insurance broker and risk advisor), marsh.com/es/en/services/ cyber-risk/insights/cyber-resilience-twelve-keycontrols-to-strengthen-your-security.html.
• “How an Organization Should Properly Implement Cyber Safeguards to Achieve Reasonable Cybersecurity,” excerpted from “A Guide to Defining Reasonable Cybersecurity,” Center for Internet Security, cisecurity.org/insights/white-papers/ reasonable-cybersecurity-guide.
Turning Community-wide Broadband Access into Smart City Opportunities
Leveraging a public-private partnership delivering citywide internet access into a strategic master plan to become a smart city.
BY LUIS ESTEVEZ
By now, anyone reading this article has heard about the latest innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) and easy commercial access to AI tools to incorporate into daily life. Back in 2023, I downloaded ChatGPT to my tablet and proceeded to ask it life’s more vexing questions, such as: “Is cold fusion technically feasible?” and “Is Die Hard really a Christmas movie?”
When I asked ChatGPT what it believed to be the future of the city management profession, it told me that it is likely to be shaped by 10 key trends and challenges. The very first item on that list was about smart cities: “Cities will continue to adopt technology and data-driven solutions to improve efficiency, sustainability, and quality of life. City managers will need to understand and implement smart city initiatives.”
This response immediately grabbed my attention as a deputy city manager of a community that was completing construction on a new citywide fiber optic network. Placentia, California, USA, entered into a unique public-private partnership with SiFi Networks to deliver fiber optic broadband internet access to every resident and business within the city. The Placentia FiberCity® Project is a privately funded, $36 million investment in Placentia that will not only eliminate the city’s “digital divide,” but also create new economic development opportunities for both the public and private sectors within the community. The project now provides access to new technologies that were unavailable to much of the
community, particularly to disadvantaged areas, and will allow the city to provide expanded as well as new services that were not previously available with existing technology limitations.
As is common in many other communities, existing internet services providers in Placentia were unable to provide universal broadband access to the entire community due to cost and other implementation constraints. In some instances, broadband access providers will only install fiber within high-income areas of a community where providers can realize a return on investment by offering faster speeds at a higher cost to areas that can afford it most. As evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, lack of access to broadband internet connections can have harmful impacts on student academic achievement and private business attraction or expansion. The pandemic demonstrated that there will be a continual growing need for reliable broadband access for residential and business communities.
One key challenge in expanding broadband access to all homes and businesses is the cost to construct a network using traditional methods that makes it far too expensive for service providers to prioritize for a single community. Even modest expansions of existing fiber service areas have been met with resistance from local providers due to cost constraints and other market factors.
Placentia and SiFi Networks developed construction means, methods, and standards that allow for faster and less expensive installation of fiber lines within city roadways through micro
trenching. Each residential and commercial/industrial property will be able to take a direct fiber drop into their homes or buildings connected to the fiber line in the street.
Through advance planning efforts, the system installation was coordinated with the construction of new residential development projects creating new “smart homes” in the community. The city also coordinated the fiber installation with the annual street resurfacing program as part of its “dig once” policy. The new system provides gigabit-level data transfer speeds, which is more than three times as fast as what is currently available from existing service providers for the same price. Placentia granted SiFi access to all public rights of way throughout the city and dedicated significant resources
to the FiberCity® project and team to effectively deploy the system as quickly as possible, while minimizing construction impacts to the community. The Placentia and SiFi team worked together to develop new micro trenching construction standards that allow for much faster installation of the network rather than using traditional street trench construction methods that
are cost prohibitive, extremely time consuming, and very disruptive to the surrounding community. The city has also committed additional resources and attention to prioritizing this effort for the community’s benefit, and the project won the 2022 Helen Putnam Award for Excellence from the League of California Cities.
While the new fiber network will undoubtedly benefit
Achieve Compliance and Build Resident Trust
Powering and Empowering Government
Like your community, your website is an actively growing and changing entity. To ensure that as you add and update content, links, forms, documents, files, and tools, your website remains accessible to every community member, you need integrated quality assurance and web governance tools. No matter the size of your team and budget, we have easy-to-implement and maintain tools to empower your content creators. Use the QR code to get in touch with us and learn more about web accessibility solutions. You can also call 888-228-2233 or visit www.CivicPlus.com for more information.
residents and the business community, the Placentia local government will receive a significant direct benefit as well in the form of its own closed loop municipal fiber network. Placentia entered into a separate smart city agreement with SiFi for the purpose of constructing a fiber system for their exclusive use for its business operations and other economic development activities. As part of this agreement, SiFi has delivered fiber optic service drops to every city facility and property, and all city data traffic will pass securely between these facilities on a closed loop fiber system. Several additional service demand points have been strategically placed throughout Placentia for future connection of smart city devices. And therein lies the crux of smart city applications—the ability to
Steve Cukrovstock.adobe.com
communicate with any object or any person anywhere through the Internet of Things (IOT).
IOT applications are also known as smart city devices and include such things as air quality sensors attached to streetlights, public WiFi connections, smart streetlight networks, bus shelters with digital media boards, autonomous driving networks, gunshot detection devices, license plate readers, information kiosks, and public safety drones, to name a few. Numerous public agencies are already utilizing drones in a myriad of public safety applications such as for search and rescue, monitoring and responding to crimes in progress, and firefighting. Still others maintain revenue-sharing agreements with freeway digital billboard operators or offer free public WiFi at public facilities. More recently, several cities in Texas have started experimenting with a last mile drone home delivery program in partnership with a local WalMart.
It’s the ability to communicate with technology that then communicates with the community that makes smart city applications such a powerful tool to improve and expand upon the services we provide to our communities. The data generated by many of these devices can assist local government in making smarter, more informed, and data-driven decisions. It also presents opportunities to enhance services in real time, such as deploying smart trash cans, information kiosks, or smart parking systems—real-world applications that allow local government to operate more efficiently. These technologies also present numerous opportunities to generate new sustainable revenue sources. Broadband access in every corner of a community provides
The pandemic demonstrated that there will be a continual growing need for reliable broadband access for residential and business communities.
unlimited possibilities for local government to connect with and serve communities. These same technologies, however, present new public policy concerns that require vetting, and local governments must be prepared to answer how they plan to protect privacy and personal data.
All of these possibilities require strategic planning and thoughtful analysis because the most important question each community contemplating smart city technology must ask itself is “why?” Technology can be used to solve just about any
problem we may encounter, but we must ask ourselves why we would install this device and connect it to our network. What purpose will it serve? What problem will it solve? Is it a solution in search of a problem? It’s easy to get caught up in fun, new technologies, but are they ultimately something that will benefit the community?
A community-driven master planning effort will help guide local government and focus its priorities where the community feels the technology will provide the greatest benefit and value-added service. Does your community want home drone delivery from their local supermarket? Do they want to see free WiFi in parks and sports fields so they can live-stream their kid’s games? Could we make a particular neighborhood safer if gunshot detection devices were installed on their streetlights? In this transparent manner, local government is also able to gain the community’s buy-in and trust. It will be critical to ensure that the protection of privacy and personal data is a central tenant of strategic smart city planning efforts as it will be
an expectation, not a request, of your community. Investment in a master planning effort also provides local agencies with the data they need to determine how best to monetize their networks and establish new public/private revenue generating partnerships. Regardless of how someone may feel about the rapidly encroaching world of AI, rapid advancements in technology have been a central guiding force in the advancement and evolution of our society for decades now. Always preparing for how technology will either help or hurt us should be the central tenant in how we manage that change.
In case you’re wondering what ChatGPT had to say about the movie Die Hard, here’s what it told me: “The debate continues, but many consider Die Hard a Christmas movie due to its holiday setting and themes, even though it’s an action film.” Hardly a definitive answer, but real life is rarely that definitive.
LUIS ESTEVEZ is a member in transition who has spent 25 years in local government management in California.
GENERATIVE AI AND CYBERSECURITY Resources from ICMA
Helping you find the information you need to elevate and protect your organization, community, and residents.
Harnessing the power of Generative AI will be a gamechanger for local governments around the world. ICMA and its partners have come together to develop a number of resources on emerging trends, tools for getting started, risks and rewards, and the responsible use of AI in cities, towns, and counties. Find our latest articles and offerings at icma.org/topic-search/generative-ai.
WEBINARS
Find these webinars and more at icma.org/events.
Cybersecurity Readiness: How to Protect Local Government Assets
October 15, 2024
Over the past decade, dozens of state and local governments across the United States have been the victims of cyberattacks that have often brought their operations to a grinding halt. According to cybersecurity experts the frequency of these attacks has increased exponentially in recent years, making the need for a strong defense more important than ever. But how do you prepare
your jurisdiction for these ever-increasing threats?
In this webinar, you’ll join Hemant Desai, ICMA’s chief information officer, as he discusses strategies for evaluating the state of your local government’s cybersecurity measures with Lea Eriksen, chief information officer for Long Beach, California. They will cover:
• The most common IT vulnerabilities and threats faced by local governments.
• Basic defensive practices applicable to jurisdictions of any size.
• Where to turn for helpful cybersecurity resources.
• How to manage new threats posed by the rise of AI.
Cybersecurity is crucial for every local government. To support managers and their IT professionals in the constant race against hackers and other cybercriminals, ICMA offers resources that describe ransomware and other cyberattacks, explain vulnerabilities and risks, and provide advice for securing systems and preventing breaches. Find our latest articles and offerings at icma.org/topic-search/cybersecurity.
How the Public Sector is Leading AI Adoption in Service Delivery
October 29, 2024
Join Samsara for a free webinar on how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing local government service delivery. A recent survey from Wakefield Research (samsara.com/ resources/state-of-connectedoperations-report-ai/) shows that AI adoption is high in the public sector, at nearly double that of other industries. This is particularly true in physical service delivery, including trash pickup, road maintenance, and other similar operations. In these service areas, the public sector is using AI in surprising ways—and 100%
of organizations already using AI report at least one benefit as a result of their investment.
In this webinar, we will discuss the public sector as a surprising forerunner in using AI technology—particularly when it comes to physical service delivery—and highlight some innovative and unexpected uses of AI in governments.
Learning Objectives:
• Understand the latest trends in AI adoption in the public sector.
• Uncover surprising use cases of AI in day-to-day service delivery.
• Learn from other government pacesetters about how they are harnessing AI to transform their operations.
PODCASTS
Find these podcasts and more at icma.org/podcasts.
Voices in Local Government, Episode 45: GovAI Coalition: Your Voice in Shaping the Future of AI
Guests: Khaled Tawfik, chief information officer, San Jose, California; Savita Chaudhary, assistant city manager and chief information officer, Fairfield, California; Albert Gehami, privacy officer, San Jose, California
Learn about free resources and membership in the GovAI Coalition.
• What the GovAI Coalition is and why individuals, departments, and entire local governments should formally join, regardless of technology skill level, geography, or population size.
• The difference between staff admin policies and council policy and how councilmanager relations tie in.
• Free AI resources.
Voices in Local Government, Episode 41: Immediate Impact of AI on Local Government, Part One
Guests: Santiago Garces, chief information officer, Boston, Massachusetts; Hemant Desai, chief information officer, ICMA Sponsored by Zencity, in this part one of two episodes, the immediate impact of artificial intelligence on local government is discussed:
• Defining AI and generative AI and dismissing common myths or misconceptions.
• How can AI be used as a precise tool for a specific project right now?
• How can local governments vet vendors?
• Application for smaller towns and counties.
• Are generative AI tools going to remain free?
• AI’s ability to help and/ or hurt public discourse and local government employees caught in the middle.
Voices in Local Government, Episode 42: Immediate Impact of AI on Local Government, Part Two
Guests: Santiago Garces, chief information officer, Boston, Massachusetts; Hemant Desai, chief information officer, ICMA
Sponsored by Zencity, in this second part, we cover the following topics:
• How should IT or HR departments answer when employees ask, “How will AI make my job easier instead of replacing me?”
• How residents can use AI to help themselves and create better interaction with local government.
• What is the next step for local governments and individual staff after experimenting?
• AI architecture.
• Creating internal guidelines.
• Fear and optimism from our favorite fictional AI.
Voices in Local Government, Episode 14: Ransomware: Plan, Respond, Recover Guests: Nancy Rainosek, chief information security officer, State of Texas; Dan Lohrmann, field chief information security officer, Presidio Cybersecurity experts discuss the challenges of ransomware, how to coordinate appropriate resources, and answer audience questions, including:
• If it happens, should we pay or not?
• What do the stats say on release rates?
• Our city manager is non-technical and IT is limited. Who should be in charge of cybersecurity?
• What are best practices for involving law enforcement and does it even help?
• When a serious attack is reported, should we power off all devices? (Spoiler: No, but disconnect from the internet, WiFi, and bluetooth.)
Voices in Local Government, Episode 7: Cybersecurity in Local Government Guests: Parham Eftekhari, executive director, Cybersecurity Collaborative; Hemant Desai, chief information officer, ICMA In this episode, we discuss how local government leaders and their technical experts can overcome limited resources and mitigate cyber risk with layered security. Parham Eftekhari and Hemant Desai discuss the universal threat of cyber attacks and the unique challenges local governments face as highprofile targets, including:
• What are best practices?
• What do we prioritize?
• How can we train a reluctant staff?
• How to translate between a city manager and the CTO role?
• How can we demonstrate urgency to gain more resources?
• What are realistic and measurable goals beyond did we suffer a major attack or not?
UPCOMING FREE WEBINARS – Register at icma.org/coachingwebinars
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Skill Building – Navigating Workplace Challenges: Strategies to Maximize the Performance of Difficult Employees
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21
Workplace Development – Talent Retention Toolbox – Strategies for Keeping Your Best Talent
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Additional free coaching resources at ICMA Coaching:
• Access digital recordings on ICMA’s Learning Lab
• Career Compass monthly advice column
• CoachConnect for one-to-one coach matching
• Live speed coaching events, talent development resources, and more. Join our list for coaching program updates and more. Email coaching@icma.org
Learn more at icma.org/coaching
Preparing Your Community for Risks of Prolonged POWER OUTAGES
BY DAVID GASSAWAY
How
do you continue to deliver services to
your community without the power we’ve all come to depend on?
Imagine this scenario. City Manager Langford stared at the dark streetlights. The summer storm had been far more fierce than expected, perhaps the worst the area had ever seen. Langford assured the worried faces in the emergency operations center that power would be restored soon. But hours passed, and the city remained dark. Eventually, the electrical utility’s government affairs representative called with an update. The storm had wiped out the three main substations and flooded the backups. Helicopter inspections revealed that the nearest operable station was 50 miles away and near failure. There was no timeframe for system restoration.
Langford checked with the public works department, who reported that emergency generators were running, and critical infrastructure was operable. To be on the safe side, Langford had the numbers crunched. The backup power supply would last a little over 72 hours before they were out of fuel. That was reassuring since they had never been that long without power.
At dawn, the government affairs representative called again with an update. Langford stood in shock with the phone at her ear. Stunned, she turned to her team: “We need to prepare for at least two weeks without power.” The weight of her own words began sinking
in. They were plunged back into a pre-electric age, and it was her job to navigate them through it.
We all hope to never be in the situation of City Manager Langford. However, communities across the nation find themselves increasingly facing prolonged power outages as a reality. Whether from aging distribution infrastructure, natural disasters, or criminal threats, the nation’s electricity infrastructure is a growing threat to the maintenance of public order and public safety that must be given due attention.
Increasing and Complex Threat Environment
According to the Department of Energy (DOE), the vast majority of the nation’s electrical grid was built in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Seventy percent of transmission lines that distribute power across regions is more than 25 years old, with the majority of that approaching an end-of-lifecycle age of 50-plus years. While investments are being made to modernize systems through automation, interconnection monitoring technologies, and distributed generation management, faulty grid infrastructure presents an increasing risk to resiliency. Power demand is also seeing increasing growth rates. According to Raymond James Equity Research’s Energy Group, U.S. electricity demand was mostly flat over the past quarter century. Increasing energy efficiency largely offset population and industry growth. But two demand drivers are projected
to accelerate consumption: electric vehicles and artificial intelligence. These technologies are expected to grow electricity demand from increasing around 0.4% per year to 2.8% per year through 2030.
Recognizing the challenge, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill provides $10.5 billion through the DOE for increasing grid resilience across the nation, the largest investment in U.S. history. While the investment is expected to increase transmission capacity to allow for more renewable energy production, it may fall short of the needed investment in resiliency. One estimate by Rhodium Group—in partnership with Princeton University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the nonprofit Energy Innovation— shows a need to increase renewable energy production by 46 to 79 gigawatts per year to meet greenhouse gas emission reduction targets to hedge against climate change. However, transmission
and red tape are slowing renewable projects.
Without accelerating the pace to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet increasing electricity demand, climate change will continue to present more challenges to community resiliency. Half of California’s most destructive wildfires in the past decade were caused by electrical infrastructure. This caused the California Public Utilities Commission in 2019 to set rules that allow electric utilities to shut off power if weather conditions presented an elevated risk of wildfire. Known as public safety power shutoffs, the rules have affected millions of Californians when weather is most dangerous: hot and windy.
Earlier this year, Texas saw an adjacent challenge with Hurricane Beryl. While City Manager Langford’s story is fiction, it’s not far from the realities faced by city leaders in the Houston area. Hundreds of thousands of residents were without power for more than a
week. Those outages, tragically, attributed to the deaths of at least 10 people from heat exposure due to electricity loss.
Then there are the increasing risks caused by an ever-moreconnected world. As we expand internet-connected software systems to manage our energy systems, we expose ourselves more to cyberattack risks.
The U.S. director of national intelligence has been explicit in stating the cyber vulnerabilities to grid distribution. “Threat actors are becoming increasingly capable of carrying out attacks on the grid.”
Whether attacks are from state actors such as China or Russia, or from non-state actors such as organized cybercriminals, the risks are growing by the day.
Rising to the Challenge
The vast responsibility that managers have in delivering services to our communities, compounded by limited resources, often consumes us with a task-oriented focus. The need to review budgets,
respond to quality-of-life emails (read: potholes), tend to personnel matters, and prioritize our elected officials can limit our focus on emerging threats. In my conversations with colleagues, I rarely find that time is being spent thinking about building resiliency of electrical infrastructure or preparing for a prolonged power outage. I see a three-pronged approach for preparing our communities for these threats.
First, managers and their teams must develop a better understanding of the local electricity supply and distribution networks in their communities and regions. Only 24 million Americans live in communities with publicowned utilities. My guess is that leaders in communities with their own electrical utilities are ahead of the curve in understanding their systems. But that leaves more than 70% of U.S. electricity customers who receive their power from investor-owned utilities. This dynamic makes it easy to ignore electricity infrastructure in our communities as it’s the utility’s responsibility. Until recently, I was guilty of this mindset myself.
To improve knowledge of systems within your community, closer collaboration with electrical utility service providers is critical. Pacific Gas & Electric in Northern California, the nation’s largest utility company, has made strides in increasing access to distribution resources and integration capacity maps. The GIS-based mapping shows where transmission and distribution lines run across the system, details voltage feeds, and identifies capacity availability for new demand. The mapping also
provides analysis for lines served by renewable energy sources, an important factor in identifying opportunities for microgrids that can improve local community electricity resiliency. By understanding local electricity infrastructure, managers can develop a better understanding of where risks exist within their community, and plan for maintaining essential services in a prolonged outage.
This leads to the second and most KISS (keep it simple, stupid) prong of the approach; prepare for a prolonged outage. Per FEMA guidelines and general best practices, most organizations have an emergency operations plan and conduct emergency operations trainings. Often led by our emergency first responders, tabletop training is a wellformed strategy to identify ways your organization may respond to varying emergencies. While training often focuses on the most common threats faced by a community, like wildfire and earthquakes here in California, a tabletop can easily be developed to respond to a prolonged power outage. As an example, a prompt can be that a cyberattack has taken out the electric grid in your community and power is expected to be out for more than a week. How do you respond?
These trainings often raise more questions than they answer in the moment. And that’s okay. By creating the environment for your teams to focus on the problem, the questions identified will daylight areas where planning is needed. Questions should range from the big picture, like how long you can last on backup power, to the more administratively mundane, such as how you process payroll
by paper in the digital age. By developing an understanding of the challenges that your community is likely to face, you can then allocate resources to prepare.
Recommendations
1. Explore microgrids that combine renewable generation with backup storage sufficient to power critical operations centers such as emergency response, hospitals, water/ wastewater treatment, and grocery stores.
2. Build relationships with your utility provider to ensure that you have access to information through channels that don’t rely on electricity. This can also lead to conversations about their plans to serve critical users.
3. Identify how your operations will shift to a paper-based system. As a millennial manager myself, that’s a daunting task having professionally grown up fully reliant on computer systems. For example, how will monitoring water systems happen without SCADA (the supervisory control and data systems for managing water/wastewater systems)?
4. Acknowledge the limitations of your response resources. For example, small communities may not have access to fuel supplies sufficient to operate emergency generators for more than a couple days. Knowing what’s most important to power can help you conserve resources longer.
5. Communicate with your community in advance. Articulating the limitations of your abilities to serve the community can set clear expectations for residents
during an outage. The final prong of my recommended approach is advocacy with our state and federal lawmakers. The President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council identifies significant public and private action as necessary to prepare for catastrophic outages. ICMA, state associations, and the National and state Leagues of Cities must prioritize raising awareness to the dangers we face. While we can prepare for our community to be without power, the larger the outage across a region the more state and federal resources will be strained in coordinating a response. By collectively advocating, we can highlight the need for further investments in infrastructure resiliency, response planning, and public awareness of the rapidly evolving threat we face.
SOURCES:
U.S. Department of Energy, What does it take to modernize the U.S. electric grid?
Pavel Molchanov, Raymond James, When It Comes to U.S. Electricity Demand, Chatbots Matter More Than Cars
UtilityDive.com, DOE announces ‘largestever investment in America’s grid,’ giving $3.5B across 44 states
California Public Utilities Commission, Public Safety Power Shutoffs
Nichola Groom, Reuters, Record US renewable energy investment not enough to meet climate goals - report
Adam Zuvanich, Houston Public Media, Hurricane Beryl caused at least 20 Houstonarea deaths, with half power outage-related Chuck Brooks, Forbes, 3 Alarming Threats to the U.S. Energy Grid – Cyber, Physical, and Existential Events
U.S. Energy Information Administration, Investor-owned utilities served 72% of U.S. electricity customers in 2017 PG&E Integration Capacity Analysis (ICA) Map, https://www.pge.com/ b2b/distribution-resource-planning/ integration-capacity-map.shtml
DAVID GASSAWAY is city manager of Fairfield, California, USA.
Your AI Readiness Assessment Checklist
Thoughtful AI deployment is crucial for public sector success, so consider these five points to ensure that your organization is prepared.
More than 75% of IT leaders agree that generative artificial intelligence (AI) will significantly transform their organizations, but “AI readiness” in the public sector is shockingly low. By their nature, many public sector organizations lack the agility and financial resources to quickly adopt and integrate AI technologies into their operations, and many of their operational systems rely on aging technology. In addition, some agencies have ethical concerns about AI involving fairness, transparency, privacy, and human rights, adding further delays in their AI adoption.
Indeed, implementing AI can be risky if it’s not done right. But when public sector organizations consider AI with a thoughtful and deliberate approach, they are more likely to find success with improved efficiency and cost savings. With strategic implementation, AI also creates greater opportunity for citizen engagement via digital platforms, creating a lean service delivery without compromising quality.
AI Readiness in the Public Sector
AI readiness requires careful planning, strategic alignment, and a comprehensive
understanding of an organization’s landscape. Public sector entities must not only consider the technological aspects of AI, but also how it will be deployed, adopted, and used in the workforce and in publicfacing applications involving their community. These AI strategies must enable organizations to rapidly pivot to adapt to evolving social, technological, economic, and environmental trends.
As the adoption of AI and related applications accelerate change and disrupt the public sector, successful organizations are transitioning from outdated contingency planning models to a philosophy based on “readiness for constant change.” Once AI is implemented, they must be prepared for continuous change. But before starting AI integration, organizations should conduct a comprehensive AI readiness assessment to help ensure seamless transition in the fluid world of AI.
AI Readiness Assessment: A Checklist for Success
A strategic AI readiness assessment considers five broad areas: opportunity discovery; data management; IT environment and security;
risk, privacy, and governance; and adoption.
Opportunity Discovery
Organizations identify areas where AI can add value and develop a business case to justify investment on AI initiatives. Public sector entities need to identify and define key strategic goals and objectives for their organizations. Potential participants may include employees, residents and end users, officials, contractors, and regulators. Organizations may also research best practices about how other similar public sector entities have deployed AI.
Data Management
Organizations identify key data stakeholders and identify, profile, and catalog existing data assets. The process varies among public sector entities. States and large cites, for example, may have more mature and complex data sets with vast amounts of information, while a small town may have smaller, simpler datasets. In this phase, the organization analyzes and classifies datasets based on their use, availability, sensitivity, and utility.
IT Environment and Security—Public sector entities need to evaluate their hardware, software, licenses, and security controls to ensure a safe environment for AI usage. They should also look at data storage, sharing and
BY JORDAN ANDERSON
retention policies, and the unique security requirements for AI. In addition, organizations will need to review user accounts and access considerations.
Risk, Privacy, and Governance—With a deluge of sensitive information at their fingertips, organizations need to implement a risk management framework, data privacy controls, and governance processes to ensure safe data usage and compliance with regulatory frameworks. They need to certify that content created by AI is subject to governance processes, including content review and validation prior to releasing externally. They should also analyze organizational risk associated with the use of AI and measure the risk profile against key AI risk benchmarks.1 Because they deal with an extensive amount of personal information, public sector entities also need to consider data privacy and protection regulations and best practices.
Adoption—For successful adoption and integration of AI, public sector entities need to leverage effective change management practices to enhance data and AI literacy, create shared understanding, build trust, and drive cultural alignment to democratize the use of data and AI within the workforce.
Employees should be using AI to make their jobs easier, serve customers better, and fuel their innovation engines. In the public sector, this may require organizations to conduct a team skillset assessment. As with many industries, the public sector is unique when it comes to cultural and organizational considerations for AI.
Data and Technology, Organizational Alignment, and People
Of these five dimensions, public sector entities need to consider three overarching components. In terms of data and technology, organizations need to ask themselves if they have the right systems, datasets, controls and governance in place to leverage AI in a safe and responsible manner. They also need to ensure their AI initiatives strategically align to their organizational goals. Perhaps most importantly, they need to consider how they will deploy AI so that their workforce understands how to responsibly leverage the technology to accelerate the pace of their work to become more efficient and innovative, ultimately creating more value for the populations they serve. When AI is introduced without proper explanation and training, employees may go back to familiar manual processes they are more
comfortable with. Some workers may perceive AI as a threat to their jobs, creating hesitancy or resistance to adopt. As such, successful AI deployment requires upskilling of employees to enable them to effectively and safely leverage AI in their daily workflow.
Mitigating Risks
It’s critical for public sector entities to deploy AI in a way that prioritizes safety and responsibility across the organization. AI tools can easily sift through an organization’s entire data landscape, including personal information from the people served by the organization, accessing sensitive information without realizing it. This leads to a risk of inadvertently releasing AIgenerated content containing classified or confidential information, posing significant reputational, financial, and legal liabilities to the public sector entity.
As such, public sector workers need to be able to recognize the potential risks associated with AI and understand how these tools can be used effectively and responsibly. As in other industries, public sector employees should avoid placing unwavering trust in AI generated content, and should instead hold a level of skepticism, conduct their
own research, cite sources, recognize potential for bias, and verify the accuracy of content prior to public release.
Although the U.S. government has some established AI guidelines,2 comprehensive state and federal regulatory frameworks are still in development. Organizations need to prepare for compliance with these future regulations. Noncompliance could potentially result in suspension of AI operations until they meet regulatory standards, resulting in an increase in time, effort, and resources. For this reason, public sector organizations need to align their AI initiatives with the latest governance and risk management practices to fortify themselves against future regulatory changes.
AI’s Promising Future in
the Public Sector
AI can streamline the internal processes of public organizations and improve the quality of public services directly impacting residents and society. AI’s practicality extends beyond office automation of routine tasks like processing applications, issuing permits, and managing records. It can also be used to detect fraud anomalies in financial transactions and tax filings. Like other industries, many public sector entities are using AI-powered chatbots and
virtual assistants to provide 24/7 support for resident questions.
State and local law enforcement agencies are using AI for predictive policing to augment existing crime prevention efforts. AI is also being used in state and local elections. Some states use AI systems to enforce signature matching rules on absentee/mailin ballots. In other cases, some states leverage the technology to improve transportation infrastructure, including AIcontrolled traffic lights and AI-powered modeling, predictive analytics to understand how long road treatments will last, and bridge deterioration predictions.
Public sector entities can also use AI for environmental monitoring using satellite and sensor data, aiding in the prediction of a natural disaster. Social service agencies can use AI to identify and provide services to vulnerable populations using predictive analytics.
These examples are just a small glimpse of the possibilities of AI applications in the public sector. Indeed, AI can transform public sector operations, making them more efficient, responsive, and data driven, with a direct impact on the communities they serve. But organizations need to embrace a thoughtful, deliberate approach as they start their AI journeys and consider using the AI readiness checklist to ensure sustainability for years to come.
JORDAN ANDERSON is a director with Baker Tilly’s digital solutions team.
Is Crime Widespread?
To reduce crime, you should focus on the tiny fraction of addresses that experience most of the crime.
BY SHANNON J. LINNING, TOM CARROLL, ICMA-CM, DANIEL W. GERARD, AND JOHN E. ECK
This is the second in a series of six articles about crime reduction.
In 2009, city officials in Middletown, Ohio, USA, were concerned that housing voucher subsidies were driving the increase in police calls for service. The police stepped up patrols in areas with many voucher recipients. This did not work, so the police asked a University of Cincinnati team (including coauthor John Eck) to help find a better approach to reducing calls for service. Using data from Middletown, the team uncovered that most properties with housing vouchers had very few calls to the police, but a small proportion of these properties generated many calls. And this was also true for properties with no voucher recipients. In short, calling the police was not widespread among any group.1
The team looked at who owned the properties with many calls. It turned out that most property owners had residential units that generated few calls to the police. But the properties of a small percentage of the owners created most of the calls. (Analyses ruled out the possibility that owners with more units had more calls.)
This was true for both voucher properties and non-voucher properties. So, the team recommended that the police focus their attention on the relatively few property owners whose properties generated most of the calls.
In this example, city officials acted as if they thought crime was widespread, or widespread among housing voucher recipients. But the evidence indicated that crime was very concentrated. It was concentrated among a relatively
few addresses and among a relatively few owners of these addresses.
It is not surprising that city officials acted as if crime was widespread. Watching the evening news or reading internet postings, one gets the impression that crime is everywhere, particularly in high-crime neighborhoods. But rolling out blanket strategies across neighborhoods, or for large population groups, often is a costly mistake.
In this article, we show why this is a mistake and how you can craft anti-crime initiatives that reduce crime, cost less, and don’t antagonize communities.
The Law of Crime Concentration
In 1989, Lawrence Sherman and two other researchers discovered that, in Minneapolis, 22% of the addresses
experienced all the robberies, that 27% of the addresses experienced all the auto thefts, and that 11% of the addresses experienced all the burglaries. Overall, 10% of Minneapolis’s addresses had about 70% of all calls for police service. And 40% of the city’s addresses had no calls for service. Even in high crime neighborhoods, most places had little or no crime, but a few had a great deal.2
In the third of a century since their groundbreaking discovery, multiple researchers have replicated Sherman’s findings. John and three of his graduate students reviewed all evidence and found zero studies showing crime is widespread; studies always show crime is concentrated. Across all studies, 10% of the places had 65% of the crime. Keep in mind, “place” is an address or a street segment. It is not a neighborhood.3
Perhaps just as startling, it does not matter what type of place you are considering. Most bar crimes occur in a few bars, and most bars have little crime. Most motel crimes occur in a few motels, and most motels have little crime. This pattern is true of bus stops, construction sites, parks, worship places, apartment buildings, convenience stores, bigbox stores, and every other type of facility researchers have studied. There are no exceptions. This fact is so important that crime preventers use “risky facility” analysis to focus attention on the places that matter.4
In 2010, Aiden Sidebottom and Kate Bowers of University College London examined the theft of bags in 26 British bars belonging to the same chain. The most bag-theft prone bar
A few places have much of the crime
had 22% of all the bag thefts. The five most bag-theft prone bars had 59% of all the bag thefts. The researchers looked at whether it was the large bars that were the biggest problem; they weren’t—bar size did not drive thefts, apparently.5
Crime concentration is an example of the rule you may know of as the 80/20 rule. Most of anything (the 80 part) is created by a small number of things (the 20 part). Though we use the numbers 80/20, the numbers are seldom actually these, but there is always a large number that is due to a small number.
You have probably encountered the 80/20 rule in your work. Most of your employees do a fine job, but a small proportion cause most of your headaches. The 80/20 rule is true of offending. A very small proportion of
people commit most of the crime. We need to focus our attention on them. And data shows it is true of victims. A small proportion of victims are involved in a large percentage of the victimizations. We need to focus our help on them. And so it is with addresses, property parcels, businesses, and other very small places.6
When preventing crime, we often see a curve like the one in Figure 1. If we rank addresses from the highest crime location on the left to the zero crime places on the right, and then plot how much crime is at each place, we always see a curve that looks like a hockey stick, with the blade sticking up on the left and a long handle to the right.
Risky Facility Analysis
That crime is highly concentrated at a relatively few tiny places—addresses, land
Figure 1. A Few Places Experience Most of the Crime (The 80/20 Rule)
parcels, homes, businesses— continues to surprise policy makers. But don’t take our word for it. Take the crime concentration challenge in your city, town, or county. Here is how. Estimate the number of addresses and street corners, produce a list of all crimes in a year or two years, and then aggregate crimes by the address where they occurred. Count the number of addresses with one or more crimes. Subtract this count from the total number of addresses. You should immediately notice that you have far more addresses with no crime than addresses with one or more crimes.
Now, rank the addresses with crime from the single address with the most crime to the many addresses with a single crime. If you plot the number of crimes at each
Most places have no crime
address, you will see the most crime on the left end of your chart and the fewest on the right. Finally, find the most crime-prone addresses—say, the worst 10% (the 10% on the extreme left) and calculate the percentage of your city’s or county’s crime at those places. You have now completed a “risky facility” analysis.
We guarantee that the worst 3–7% of the places will probably experience 50% or more of the crime. If you have the time, do the same calculations for each neighborhood of your city/ county. We know what you will discover (not the precise numbers, but the broad pattern).
How can we be so sure of your findings? Because we have looked at every study of crime that has attempted to do these calculations. They all show the same results: crime follows the 80/20 rule.7 Crime follows this rule in the United States and every other country where anyone has bothered to gather and analyze the data. It follows the rule in big cities and small cities. It follows it in any subdivision of cities: census tracts, police districts, planning areas, and so forth.
Focus on Places, Not Neighborhoods
In short, crime is seldom a neighborhood problem. Crime is usually a place problem.8 From this fact comes three simple rules for crafting useful crime reduction initiatives. First, focus on very small places: addresses, if possible; street segments (a street from intersection to intersection), if necessary. Second, use the 80/20 rule to identify the highest crime places. Third, ask why crime is so great at these places but not in other nearby places?
Doing these three things— focusing on addresses, using the 80/20 rule, and asking why—
Crime
is seldom a neighborhood
problem. Crime
is usually a place problem.
improves the chances that your crime prevention initiative will reduce crime because it focuses resources where they are needed rather than thinly spreading them where they are not. It can reduce costs because you are not spending resources where they are not needed. And it reduces the chances that the initiative will involve people who have nothing to do with the problem.
Recall the Walmart example in our previous article.9 Theft was not a problem of Paducah or a neighborhood in the city. It was a problem with two stores. This is the same result that Sidebottom and Bowers found in British bars; bags thefts were not a neighborhood problem, they were mostly a problem in five bars.
If neighborhoods were not driving crime, what was? Paducah not only had two Walmarts, but it also had a Sam’s Club. All three are owned by the same corporation, yet the Sam’s Club was virtually crime free. But the two types of big box stores have two different management styles: one style fosters shoplifting and the other does not. In the British bars, what separated the many low-theft bars from the few high-theft bars? The hightheft bars had two doors that patrons could use, but low-theft bars had only one door. Two doors made it easier for thieves to enter, pick up a bag, and walk out the other exit without doubling back. The number of entrances is also a management decision. In both examples, the source of the trouble comes back to how the places were managed.
Conclusion
The title of our article asks a question: Is crime widespread? Our answer is no. If you spread your scarce resources across your city to fight crime, or even across a neighborhood, you will spread them too thin.
Instead, ask yourself, does the 80/20 rule apply? When you focus resources on the relatively few places that have most of the crime, you will do better.
We’ve shown you that identifying the few places with the most problems is your most efficient way to reduce crime. Knowing where to focus your city’s or county’s resources is an important step. But what do you do next? Often, there is an urge to partner with people in the community. But which people? In our next article, we explain who you should work with to have the greatest impact on crime.
ENDNOTES AND RESOURCES
1 Payne, T.C., Gallagher, K., Eck, J.E., & Frank, J. (2013). Problem framing in problem solving: A case study. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 36(4): 670–682. https://doi.org/10.1108/ PIJPSM-01-2012-0081
2 Sherman, L.W., Gartin, P.R., & Buerger, M.E. (1989). Hot spots of predatory crime: Routine activities and the criminology of place. Criminology, 27(1), 27-56. https:// doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1989. tb00862.x
3 Lee, Y., Eck, J.E., O, S., & Martinez, N. (2017). How concentrated is crime at places? A systematic review from 1970 to 2015. Crime Science, 6: 6. https://doi. org/10.1186/s40163-017-0069-x
4 Eck, J. E., Clarke, R.V., & Guerette, R.T. (2007). Risky Facilities: Crime Concentration in Homogeneous Sets of Establishments and Facilities. In Graham Farrell, Kate J. Bowers, Shane D. Johnson, and Michael Townsley (eds.), Imagination for Crime Prevention: Essays In Honour of
Ken Pease (vol. 21; pp. 225–264). Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press.
5 Sidebottom, A. & Bowers, K. (2010). Bag theft in bars: An analysis of relative risk, perceived risk and modus operandi. Security Journal, 23(3), 206–224. https:// doi.org/10.1057/sj.2008.17
6 Eck, J.E., Lee, Y., O, S., & Martinez, N. (2017). Compared to what? Estimating the relative concentration of crime at places using systematic and other reviews.” Crime Science, 6: 8. https://doi. org/10.1186/s40163-017-0070-4
7 Ibid, note 3.
8 Linning, S.J., Olaghere, A., & Eck, J.E. (2022). Say NOPE to social disorganization criminology: The importance of creators in neighborhood social control. Crime Science, 11: 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-02200167-y
SHANNON J. LINNING, PhD, is an assistant professor in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. She researches place-based crime prevention and problemoriented policing.
TOM CARROLL, ICMA-CM, is city manager of Lexington, Virginia, USA, and a former ICMA research fellow.
DANIEL GERARD is a retired 32-year veteran (police captain) of the Cincinnati Police Department, USA. He currently works as a consultant for police agencies across North America.
JOHN E. ECK, PhD, is an emeritus professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati, USA. For more than 45 years, he has studied police effectiveness and how to prevent crime at high-crime places.
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The Hidden Value: Employersponsored Health Clinics Revolutionizing Primary Care
A holistic and proactive approach to fostering a healthier workforce
BY SABRINA JOY-HOGG AND LOUISA K. MEYER
Imagine you wake up with an intense swelling on the side of your face. Anxiety sets in as you ask, “what is going on?” You look in the mirror and you see a difference in your face that wasn’t there when you went to bed. Now you’re scared, and you know it is time for medical attention. This is what happened to Alice, a Richmond city employee. Luckily, this event occurred just two weeks after the opening of Marathon Health, the city of Richmond, Virginia’s first employersponsored health clinic, which is conveniently on the employee health plan.
Alice called the clinic about the issue and was immediately booked for a same-day appointment. The nurse practitioner (NP) treating her examined her face and identified the issue as a swollen gland. To be on the safe side, the NP recommended follow-up
testing. Alice was sent to the hospital for an outpatient IV and sonogram.
The sonogram located a cyst in Alice’s gland. Though benign, the cyst had the potential to put pressure on the arteries in her neck, which could have led to a life-threatening rupture. “If the clinic hadn’t been so accessible and efficient and the NP had not been so thorough in her follow-up, they probably wouldn’t have caught the cyst,” shared Alice. “All of this happened within one week. If I had gone to my primary care doctor, it would have taken at least two weeks just to get an appointment, only to receive antibiotics and not a comprehensive assessment. In this case, the clinic’s care was potentially lifesaving.”
In today’s dynamic workforce landscape, where the health and well-being of employees are increasingly valued, employer-sponsored health centers or clinics are emerging as an innovative model of comprehensive care and proactive wellness. These clinics, nestled within the community, offer a myriad of benefits that extend far beyond those offered by traditional healthcare. From fostering a healthier workforce to driving cost savings and boosting productivity, the advantages
When healthcare is more immediate, engaging, and personalized, costs go down and outcomes improve, which is a win-win for everyone.
of employer-sponsored health clinics for primary care are manifold and transformative.
Richmond cut the ribbon on its first health clinic operated by Marathon Health on January 12, 2024. A second location is set to open soon in the center of downtown just a few blocks from city hall. The health clinics share the same focus: providing high-quality primary care at accessible locations for employees and their families who participate on the city’s health plan, while reducing the overall cost of healthcare for both the employee and employer. The model prioritizes individualized care, savings, and efficiency in time and financial investment, and improved outcomes for a healthier workforce. They offer a range of services, from preventive and acute visits, behavioral health, and occupational health to onsite medicine (pharmacy), physical therapy, and certain specialized tests, all in a one-stop-shop.
When healthcare is more immediate, engaging, and personalized, costs go down and outcomes improve, which is a win-win for everyone.
“As organizations continue to prioritize the holistic needs of their workforce, employer-sponsored health
clinics will undoubtedly play an increasingly pivotal role in shaping the future of healthcare delivery in the workplace,” says Sabrina Joy-Hogg, senior deputy chief administrative officer. Joy-Hogg led the charge to bring health clinics to the city of Richmond after her experience with Marathon Health when she worked for the city of Charlotte, North Carolina.
“The opening of shared network centers in the Richmond metro area is a testament to Marathon Health’s commitment to expanding access to quality healthcare across the nation,” says Jeff Wells, MD, CEO and co-founder of Marathon Health. “By establishing partnerships with local employers, we work collaboratively to support healthier communities, enhance productivity, improve health outcomes, and reduce
overall healthcare costs.”
How exactly do health clinics revolutionize that collaborative role between employer, employee, and wellness, and what are the impacts?
Enhancing Access and Convenience
Booking a medical appointment since the onset of COVID-19 has become increasingly frustrating for most people. A survey done in 2022 revealed that the average wait time to make a doctor’s appointment was 26 days. The almost-a-month wait can escalate a variety of health issues drastically. Remember Alice—imagine if she had to wait 26 days to have her swelling examined. The cyst would have had the opportunity to grow and put pressure on her arteries. In 26 days, her diagnosis could have been very different, potentially life-threatening. This doesn’t
even account for the anxiety, frustration, and potential days of absence from work Alice could experience.
Marathon Health found that industry-wide in 2022, the average waiting room time at the doctor’s office was 14.3 minutes. Marathon Health’s book of business results in 2023 show over 80% of members wait less than five minutes in the waiting room, which is approximately onethird the average waiting room time. Enhanced accessibility also is seen in the longer-thanaverage clinic appointment time of 32 minutes—five times longer than a typical doctor’s visit.
The clinic takes the pressure off when making an appointment, especially with a customer-friendly mobile app. It provides a lower barrier of entry thanks to its convenience and by taking the time to provide the care necessitated without
the restrictions of limited appointment times seen in traditional models. Employees can easily fit appointments into their workday without disrupting their productivity, leading to higher rates of engagement with preventive care and early intervention.
Proactive Health Management
Prevention is paramount in maintaining a healthy workforce, and employersponsored clinics excel in promoting proactive health management. Through regular check-ups, screenings, and wellness programs tailored to the specific needs of the workforce, clinics can empower employees to take charge of their health and well-being.
Marathon Health has measured success in patient outcomes through its proactive health management approach, with 59% of high-risk members making improvements on
Marlowe Road.
quality measures. It has seen a 23% reduction in ER visits for engaged members, a 19% reduction in high-risk blood pressure, and a 31% decrease in moderate to severe anxiety.
By addressing health concerns early on, clinics can mitigate the risk of chronic conditions, reduce absenteeism at work, and prioritize wellness within the organization.
Cost-Effective Care Delivery
Employer-sponsored health clinics are not only beneficial for employees but also yield substantial cost savings for employers. By providing primary care services on-site or locally, employers can reduce healthcare expenditures associated with emergency room visits, specialist referrals, and absenteeism due to illness. Proactive management of chronic conditions and preventive care initiatives can lead to long-term cost containment by averting costly medical interventions down the line.
Richmond’s foray into health clinics requires very low or no co-pays or out-ofpocket payments depending on which city healthcare plan the employee is on. Alice’s same-day clinic appointment was completely covered, and she also received three free antibiotic shots. “I didn’t have to wait years or pay a co-pay for the visit or the in-office antibiotics!” she exclaimed when describing her clinic experience.
Marathon Health sees $2,000 in average annual savings for every engaged employee, costing engaged members 28% less per member per year and a 31% cost decrease for members with a high risk or chronic condition.
Customized Healthcare Solutions
Unlike traditional healthcare settings, employer-sponsored clinics have the unique advantage of catering to the specific needs and demographics of the workforce they serve. Whether it’s offering tailored wellness programs, mental health support services, or chronic disease management, clinics can adapt their offerings to address prevalent health concerns within the organization.
Employees are helped every step of the way of their health journey. If an employee needs services the clinic cannot provide, Marathon Health will utilize their referral team to assist the employee with scheduling the specialist and subsequent referrals.
It doesn’t end with physical health; the clinic provides resources for mental health.
In 2023, 32% of adults in Virginia reported symptoms of anxiety and/or depression. City employees are a part of that 32%. In the past, the city provided mental and emotional health support through the Employee Assistance Program. With the opening of the Marathon Health clinic, a behavioral health specialist is available to employees either in-person or virtually. Additionally, the city has elected to provide physical therapy without needing a referral and occupational health for sworn police and fire personnel.
The city’s goal with this healthcare model is to treat the whole patient; in other words, provide holistic care. This personalized approach encourages a sense of trust and loyalty among employees,
enhancing overall job satisfaction and retention rates.
Promoting Employee Engagement and Productivity
A healthy workforce is a productive workforce, and employer-sponsored health clinics play a pivotal role in promoting employee engagement and productivity. By prioritizing the health and well-being of their employees, organizations demonstrate a commitment to their workforce’s holistic needs, fostering a positive work environment and boosting morale. When employees have easy access to primary care services, they are more likely to address health issues promptly, minimizing the impact of illness on productivity and job performance.
An engaged and productive workforce is at the core of what it means to be an “employer of choice.” Richmond has prioritized employee benefits and wellness to become an employer of choice in recent years. “This expansion and opening of Richmond’s Marathon Health Clinic signals that we are committed to our employees’ long-term health and well-being. As a workplace of choice, it is imperative that our current and future employees and employers know that the city prioritizes its employees’ well-being and provides opportunities for them to thrive,” stated Mayor Levar Stoney. “We are grateful for this partnership with Marathon Health and look forward to expanding its reach to other locations in Richmond.”
Conclusion: A Holistic Revolution in Primary Care
A successful benefits program in the era of workplace wellness understands employees as an organization’s most valuable asset. Predominant healthcare models of the recent past put the responsibility of wellness fully on the individual with little consideration of the environment and support it offers to maintain health. The clinics create the structure to help employees take care of themselves through a multi-dimensional model of health and well-being that translates into more vibrant, collaborative, and productive workplaces. In a time where employee health and well-being are paramount, employersponsored health clinics stand out as an innovative beacon of comprehensive care and proactive wellness. By enhancing access to primary care, promoting proactive health management, driving cost savings, and boosting productivity, a multitude of benefits result for both employees and employers alike.
SABRINA JOY-HOGG is senior deputy chief administrative officer, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
LOUISA K. MEYER is senior policy advisor for finance and administration, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
ICMA Senior Advisors of the Sunshine State
Helping members in need in so many ways
As an ICMA senior advisor, I have been asked on a number of occasions, “Who are senior advisors and what do you do?” When that question is asked by either an elected official or an ICMA member, it’s an opportunity to explain the benefits that the ICMA Senior Advisor program offers to members and their communities.
During my senior advisor orientation, I still remember Kurt Bressner, who served for many years as the Florida senior advisor coordinator, saying, “We are colleagues who come alongside our members and their communities. Remember, we are not consultants.”
The Florida City/County Management Association (FCCMA) Board of Directors has established excellent policy direction and expectations for their Florida senior advisors. The coordinator attends each board meeting and reports on what the senior advisors have been involved in during the previous quarter. This allows the board to ask questions and provide input and direction to the senior advisors. The following are a few of our regular activities:
Manager and Interim Manager Recruitment
KEN PARKER, ICMA-CM (RETIRED), is an ICMA senior advisor in Florida, having worked in the public sector for 43 years until his retirement in 2013.
In 2023, the senior advisors came to the FCCMA board with a proposal. Advisors were receiving inquiries from cities and counties on how to recruit a manager. Several years ago, Kurt Bressner developed a memorandum with a template that outlined the recruitment process, which many of us used to provide assistance to cities and counties, yet we often receive additional questions that are not covered in the memorandum. Thus, the FCCMA board authorized a committee composed of senior advisors and private recruitment firms to develop a recruitment guide, which was formally adopted by the board at their May 2024 meeting. The senior advisors will take on the responsibility of keeping the guide current.
Senior advisors are available to assist with manager recruitment for small cities and counties (based on population criteria set by the FCCMA board). Board policy makes it clear that senior advisor participation in recruitment is in partnership with the local government. We make it clear that we are not a professional recruitment firm and that our services are not comprehensive. The city or county will incur expenses such helping to prepare recruitment materials that will be placed on their website, conducting background checks, advertising costs, travel expenses, and accepting resumes.
BY KEN PARKER, ICMA-CM (RETIRED)
We’re often contacted by local governments seeking assistance in finding an interim manager. Many retired managers or members who are between positions (members in transition or MITs) desire to fill interim manager positions. We provide cities and counties with a listing of individuals who may be able to assist them as an interim manager.
Managers in Transition
A major emphasis of the Florida senior advisors is remaining connected to those members who are in transition. We contact MITs at least once a month either in person, with a phone call, or by email or text. We also provide them with notices of job vacancies, job announcements from national recruiting firms, and interim manager opportunities. At the February 2024 FCCMA board meeting, the board authorized the senior advisors to work with the membership committee to revise and update materials that are provided to members in transition. The plan is to present the updated guide to the board in May 2025.
Connecting with Members to Spread Awareness
When an individual joins FCCMA, senior advisors are asked to contact the new member. This provides an opportunity to welcome and encourage the new member to become involved in the association, as well as introduce them to the Senior Advisor program.
We stay connected to our membership by attending regional manager meetings. Many of the Florida counties or regions hold monthly manager meetings, and attending these meetings allows us to stay connected to members and remind them that we’re here to provide support.
At the FCCMA Annual Conference, the senior advisors staff the booth where members receive their gift bags, allowing us to interact with members and make them aware of our availability to assist them. While at the conference, we’re available to review resumes and provide helpful hints on effective resume and cover letter preparation. At the annual Florida League of Cities conference, we often serve as session panelists and we have a booth in the exhibit hall where we interact with members and elected officials.
Working with Councils
Florida senior advisors have been called upon to work with several city charter review commissions as they are
reviewing their charters. Senior Advisor Dan Kleman and Lynn Tipton, FCCMA executive director emeritus, developed a presentation that can be used when working with a charter review commission or in speaking to civic groups and others about the council-manager form of government. When the council-manager plan is being challenged, often senior advisors are called upon to make presentations in its defense; or when a local government is considering adopting the council-manager plan, senior advisors will speak about its benefits.
We are sometimes asked to facilitate council goal settings retreats. A number of Florida senior advisors have worked with local governments in preparing or updating their strategic plan.
I often tell managers that we are your safe place. We are often a manager’s sounding board. We listen to their frustrations, answer their questions, and give them advice. We provide members with career counseling. We are available to mentor and coach and help them find the resources they need. Senior advisors are often called upon to provide ethics advice or in some cases provide a member with direction on who to call to get their question answered.
The Florida Senior Advisor program is very robust, with eight senior advisors committed to serving both ICMA and FCCMA members. In 2023, the Florida senior advisor team was involved in more than 1,000 different activities and provided more than 1,800 hours to our members. Don’t hesitate to contact us, or a senior advisor in your own state, should you need assistance.
100 Years of Global Engagement and Professional Ethics Intersect in Puerto Rico
Lessons learned and challenges ahead for increasing ethical standards
ICMA honors National Hispanic Heritage Month by highlighting ethics resources developed by its partners in Latin America. ICMA and the Local Government Hispanic Network (LGHN) participated in the ninth annual Experiencia Puerto Rico conference, bringing together more than 400 municipal leaders from across the Caribbean and Latin America. The focus of this year’s conference was “Ethics, Compliance, and Transparency,” a wonderful theme for ICMA as we celebrate 100 years of global engagement and the ICMA Code of Ethics.
Panelists from the session, “Development of an Ethical Culture in Local Governments,” discussed the importance of fostering an ethical culture in public service, how to overcome challenges, and how to measure its impact. We’ve asked the panelists to share some takeaways from the session:
Luis A. Pérez Vargas, JD Executive Director, Puerto Rico Office of Government Ethics
“Our joint presentation emphasized strengthening ethics in public service as essential for improving citizens’ quality of life and ensuring effective governance. Corruption is one of the most complex and persistent problems facing Puerto Rico, as well as governance systems worldwide. Its impact goes beyond direct economic losses, affecting social development, weakening democratic institutions, and eroding public trust in governments. Given its high complexity as a social phenomenon, it is crucial to promote multisectoral and international partnerships that facilitate the analysis of its variables, allowing for the identification of its scope and impact on critical areas for society. These partnerships also help identify initiatives implemented by other entities to address the major challenges that corruption poses to a country’s governance. ICMA provides a vital space to discuss these challenges and promote innovative and collaborative solutions.
The Puerto Rico Office of Government Ethics (OGE) has developed educational and legal advisory initiatives to promote ethics in public service, such as online courses, advertising campaigns, and personalized guidance. Through the Center for the Development of Ethical Thought, our office implements various educational methods that address the different generational profiles and functions of public servants. Empirical studies like the ‘Corruption Radiography’ allow the OGE to analyze adjudicated cases of ethical violations and collect data on the public servants involved. This analysis facilitates the evaluation of the state of ethics in government entities and the adjustment of preventive strategies. Another initiative developed by the OGE includes advertising campaigns designed to address relevant topics regarding compliance with the Puerto Rico Office of Government Ethics Act, Public Law 1-2012, and the promotion of ethical behavior in public service. Access more Puerto Rico OGE resources at eticapr.com.”
Salvador Torres Director, ICMA Mexico-Latin America
“ICMA has been present in Mexico since 1992, and ICMA Mexico-Latin America (ICMA-ML) was founded in 2004. Mexico faces huge challenges in its public sector with the topics of corruption and ethics. International indexes like the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPC) and Freedom in the World Report give the country a low ranking. Between 2015 and 2016, Mexico’s federal congress approved a constitutional reform and multiple laws to foster ethics and integrity in the Mexican public sector. It was the first official effort in the matter and a new landscape. To implement the laws, various models and tools, as well as multiple initiatives were developed by the federal, state, and municipal governments, as well as by civil, private, and academic organizations.
ICMA-ML’s contribution to these initiatives was the development of the Public Ethics Consolidation Program (PEC or CEP in Spanish) in 2016, and it was grounded in ICMA’s long and broad experience of promoting ethical conduct. Prior to the development of CEP, ICMA-ML had captured feedback from over two decades of field work and technical assistance with Mexican public servants to develop this program. Through the CEP Program, public officials and institutions learn about the skills, tools, and infrastructure necessary to make ethical decisions and conduct themselves in a manner that is not only in accordance with ethical principles and legal standards, but also how to identify and address risks, ultimately resulting in gaining citizens’ trust and confidence. Notably, the CEP Program also has a “citizen component” based on the Citizen Index of Institutional Strength for Public Ethics (ICIFIEP). This index seeks to measure, from a citizens’ perspective, the level of institutional strength for public ethics existing in subnational public entities based on the Mexican General Law of Administrative Responsibilities requirements.
The implementation of the CEP Program since 2016 has provided some valuable lessons. At the start, the program was focused mainly on training public servants on ethics-related topics. Even though public servants may be trained in ethical behaviors and decision-making, once they are back at their daily routines facing a multitude of internal and external challenges and/or pressures, ethical behavior can easily diminish. For this reason, ICMA-ML has concluded that a solid institutional framework that prioritizes ethics as critical to good stewardship of public resources is imperative. Simply, the use of an institutional tool to identify risks, address them, and measure outcomes, coupled with training and the strong implementation of a code of ethics or conduct, is more effective. Better tools available to citizens to hold public institutions accountable and provide feedback are needed. Over time, ICMA-ML also learned that the ICIFIEP Index is a complex tool that requires a lot of time to implement. For this reason, ICMA-ML is already working on developing “ICIFIEP 2.0” in order to make it more useful to civil organizations and their constituents.
Active participation by public entities and its citizens are critical components to fostering a meaningful and effective culture of ethics, and ICMA-ML is trying to do its part to promote these efforts in Mexico. For more information on CEP and ICMA- ML’s work, visit icmaml.org or email storres@icmaml.org.”
Jessica Cowles Ethics Director, ICMA
“Our panel presentation at Experiencia Puerto Rico had several key takeaways on how to promote, measure, and institutionalize an ethical culture within the organization:
• Ethics in public service means we uphold respect for the democratic process and laws, as well as roles and contributions of elected and appointed officials.
• As public servants in this noble profession, we have an obligation to be good stewards of community resources. Corruption undermines public trust in local government at its very core.
• A failure to remain neutral in partisan politics weakens public confidence that local governments work for the greater good of every community member.
• An ethical culture starts at the top of the organization and needs to be a priority at the highest level.
• Model the behavior you want to see to set the right example and understand how your professional and personal conduct sets the tone for the entire organization.
• We promote personal integrity, honesty, accountability, openness, impartiality, evidence-based decisions, and transparency; they should be integrated into all departments and operations.
• Have a formal ethics complaint process, procedure, or policy, then follow it!
ICMA’s role is to be a convener of local government professionals and facilitate discussions about what local governments are facing worldwide with a responsibility to share the best practices, initiatives, and resources that its global partners and affiliates develop. You can also visit icma.org/ethics to access ICMA ethics resources and training opportunities.” Scan the QR Code for an expanded edition of this article in Spanish. Escanea el código QR para obtener una edición ampliada del artículo en español.
Engaging Residents with Data-driven Storytelling
BY JENNIFER PERKINS
When paired with a compelling story, data helps residents understand the local government’s priorities and where their taxpayer dollars are going.
Municipal government is complex. It faces unique challenges, but its operation is critical for the growth and evolution of the communities it serves. The relationship between the local government and its residents is built on a mutual understanding that residents pay taxes and governments provide services in return. Therefore, it is imperative that constituents trust that their local government makes wise budgetary choices that benefit the community.
Data and Storytelling
An important function of government is to help stakeholders understand the activities that keep their community running smoothly. One of the best ways that city officials can explain the reasoning behind their decisions is to show it through data, as it provides concrete evidence of a city’s needs.
To enhance resident approval, governments should detail the project and its desired outcomes to stakeholders through compelling storytelling paired with data gathered from an asset tracking solution. It may not sound enticing to tell a story about the need to spend $5 million to dredge the local stormwater drainage pond, for example, but with context, data, and the right level of detail, storytelling could help to secure necessary funds.
Data is integral to storytelling. This is where a computerized maintenance management (CMMS) system and asset investment planning (AIP) software each play a crucial role for local governments, as CMMS collects and tracks work done on community assets, while AIP tracks risk and condition to create more accurate long-term financial plans. Together, these solutions support leaders in their decision-making with data.
Why Address the “Why”
So why do local governments need to tell stories at all? While government leaders with insight into public infrastructure may understand an asset’s story through data, external stakeholders may need a more relatable and tangible reason why the government has decided to pursue certain projects over others.
Government officials must communicate how they plan to use taxpayer money and the expected outcomes of those plans to receive community support for projects, especially
those that may require additional funding. It could be challenging to receive budget approval if residents believe the government is wasting money. In short, to receive community support, local government officials must demonstrate the fiscal and operational outcomes that will happen upon the project’s completion.
The Important Elements of Storytelling
Stories are one of the best ways that people retain information, particularly if they are relatable and relevant, and when coupled with concrete data, residents can better understand how their local government is budgeting taxpayer dollars, making it easier to support projects in their entirety. However, it does take time, trust, and a lot of data to build buy-in from the community for major capital expenditures.
Storytelling sounds easy, but it can be a complex process to ensure constituents better understand a complicated subject. To be effective, stories must contain three important elements:
Audience-appropriate Detail: Government officials need significant amounts of data to make decisions, but not all data needs to be externally shared. It is more effective
JENNIFER PERKINS is a senior government industry specialist, at Brightly, a Siemens company.
to synthesize the data into a story to communicate both need and solution. Too many charts, graphs, or data elements can make the issue more difficult to understand. A good story combines the right amount of data and detail for the audience.
Relationship to the Larger Context:
A community’s master plan is its “big picture,” as it lays out the objectives the community agreed upon. The plan provides guidelines for the local government’s activities and expenditures. For example, a town may want to grow its business community and therefore put resources into tax credits and economic development activities. Without the larger context, these efforts appear random and unrelated. They must be tied to a story that brings together diverse projects to reach a stated goal—in this case, the goal of the master plan.
Supported with Data: Effective storytelling must utilize data. For example, if a local parks department proposes redeveloping a highly used park, and
the cost is higher than the townspeople anticipated, the town may not receive public support needed to gather additional funding if they only know about the higher cost. However, with data, the town can show how aging infrastructure and old equipment impacts the park’s usability, leads to high water utility costs, negatively impacts a nearby wetland, and creates an unsafe environment for local children. The story becomes more compelling with data and instills trust in the town’s intentions. This example illustrates that the easy answer isn’t always the right answer, even from a fiscal point of view. Spot-fixing the park would have been ineffective as the same issues would have likely persisted. Therefore, governments must collect and associate data to identify trends and issues that may otherwise go unnoticed.
How to Tell the Story
As governments look to tell data-driven stories, asset investment planning (AIP)
software is playing a critical role in helping governments prioritize capital investments and long-term financial goals. AIP provides real-time insights into the status of the community’s physical assets and infrastructure, helping local government officials make decisions on which projects and upgrades to prioritize and where to allocate the budget.
AIP solutions can also track and predict an asset’s lifecycle, providing insight into the community’s infrastructure. Its predictive modeling helps community leaders prove capital spending needs and assess asset risk and health based on different funding scenarios and deferred maintenance requests. These details let the government decide if they will use the funds to upgrade, repair or replace the assets in question. When paired with a compelling story, this data goes a long way to ensure residents understand the local government’s priorities, and in turn, where their taxpayer dollars are going, which helps to solidify the trust between the government and its people.
PROFILES OF LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT IN ACTION
“Participation in the ICMA Voluntary Credentialing Program demonstrates a dedication to professional growth and adaptability. It fosters a culture of continuous improvement and excellence. The adage, “the only constant in life is change,” aptly describes our work in public service and this program prepares us to navigate and lead through the ever-evolving landscape of our communities.”
Dianna Wright County Administrator, Clay County Liberty, MO
Credentialed since July 2008
Demonstrate your commitment to professional development and lifelong learning. Join the growing number of those who have earned the ICMA-CM designation.
ICMA Credentialed Managers are viewed with growing distinction by local governing bodies and progressive, civically engaged communities. For more information, visit icma.org/credentialedmgr
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www.grantsforcities.com
Designed by ICMA subject matter experts, these self-paced online courses help local government professionals develop their skills in key topic areas. Ideal for new hire orientation or for those looking to broaden their knowledge in a specific area.
Key Features
n Self-paced, on-demand, online learning
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n Certificate upon completion to add to your LinkedIn profile and resume/CV
