PM Magazine, August 2018

AUGUST 2018 | icma.org/pm

I NSI DE 2

ETHICAL LEADERS

12 SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIZING 16 ASSISTANT MANAGERS TALK SHOP 23 FROM KENYA TO KANSAS

THINK AND ACT LIKE A

STRATEGIST

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contents August 2018 | Vol. 100 No. 7

features

8

STRATEGIC THINKING What sticking to logic and rationale means for your community’s strategic plan.

Norman Wright, Salem, Oregon

23

Fellowship Experiences: One ICMA Fellow’s Journey From Kenya to Kansas

departments

12 SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIZING

2 Ethics Matter!

Ethical Leaders

Abbas Sabur, Washington, D.C.

5 Survey Snapshot E-Government Survey

Convey important information in an engaging way using social media.

7 On Point What Is An Impactful Initiative Your Community Has Taken to Improve the Quality of Life for Residents?

23 Commentary From Kenya to Kansas

16 ASSISTANT MANAGERS TALK SHOP

28 Management Minute Airborne Accuracy for Infrastructure

Beth Payne, Washington, D.C.

29 Professional Services Directory

Challenges don’t turn an assistant’s professional world upside down.

31 Balancing Act Get It Done Now 32 Council Relations Passing the “Elected Service” Baton

20 DEALING WITH TERRORIST THREATS

A briefing on preparedness actions and resources for local governments.

icma.org/pm This issue of PM is available online and mobile at icma.org/pm July 27, 2018.

Sean Britton, Broome County, New York icma.org/pm

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ethics matter! | effective leadership

BY MARTHA PEREGO, ICMA-CM

ETHICAL LEADERS The conduct we love and loathe in our leaders

A

s part of their lifelong research on effective leadership, authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner are attempting to answer the question: What do we look for and admire in leaders? Survey results from more than 75,000 individuals from across all sectors in the world were consistent and clear.

The number one attribute we demand from our leaders and admire when we see it is honesty. A character trait—not knowledge, skills, or abilities—was the first choice every time.

It eclipsed innovative, inspiring, competent, fair-minded, and similar good qualities. Those other attributes are certainly important but not more than working for someone who is honest.

Honest individuals are truthful, credible because they are consistent in their values and conduct, and people of integrity who can be trusted.

And why is this result important? It’s much more than just an esoteric search for enlightenment. The whole point in asking the question to begin with is because success in achieving any goal or mission depends on the ability of leadership to inspire others to join, commit, and move the cause forward.

If I don’t trust you because I don’t think you are honest, will I really contribute my best to even the most worthy effort? What happens to my reputation, credibility, and self-respect when I sign on to work for a dishonest leader?

For a real-world perspective on leadership in local government, emerging leaders in the management profession who participated in ICMA’s Emerging Leaders Development Program (ELDP) classes on ethics were asked to weigh in on a similar set of queries.

These included “Describe the personal trait or conduct of one of your

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leaders that you so appreciated and admired that you try to emulate? And on the flip side, cite an example of the leader’s conduct that was so uninspiring that you would never act that way!“ Here’s what the respondents had to say: • When issues get political and the way forward is unclear, my city manager demonstrates respect for the process and position. He brings honor to the title.

• Lead by example. It’s not what she says she is going to do, it’s what she does. And I contrast that with another who lacked consistency in his actions with regard to rewards and punishments.

• Be a truth seeker. I actually work with someone who wants an honest opinion and, in the process, sometimes can change mine. It took time to get comfortable, but it created a relationship built on respect.

• Respect people, not status. Working for someone who showed great respect for the “generals” [the elected officials] but was dismissive of the “troops” was demoralizing.

• At all the commission meetings, the manager took responsibility when things didn’t go well or as planned.

Having once worked for a manager who was quick to publicly blame the staff, this approach motivates me to perform better.

• How you achieve the ends matters.

Being aggressive on the numbers to the point that it defies reason just to make the project attractive is not okay. Staff’s credibility is on the line when the results don’t deliver as promised.

• Pay attention to what keeps you up at night. I had a supervisor involved in a questionable situation who shared

P U B LIC MANAG E M E NT | AUG UST 20 1 8

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2018–2019 ICMA EXECUTIVE BOARD PR E S I D E NT

David Johnstone City Manager—Retired, Candiac, Quebec, Canada PR E S I D E NT-E LE CT

Karen Pinkos* Assistant City Manager, El Cerrito, California PAST PR E S I D E NT

Lee Feldman* City Manager, Fort Lauderdale, Florida VI CE PR E S I D E NTS

WEST COAST REGION

Bruce Channing City Manager—Retired, Laguna Hills, California Martha Bennett* Chief Operating Officer Metro Council, Portland, Oregon Maria Hurtado Assistant City Manager, Hayward, California MOUNTAIN PLAINS REGION

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Lon Pluckhahn* City Manager, Marion, Iowa Patrick Klein Assistant City Manager, Kansas City, Missouri Wally Bobkiewicz* City Manager, Evanston, Illinois SOUTHEAST REGION

Carl Harness* Chief Human Services Administrator, Hillsborough County, Florida Edward Driggers* City Administrator, Greer, South Carolina W. Lane Bailey* City Manager, Salisbury, North Carolina NORTHEAST REGION

Carlos Baia* Deputy City Manager, Concord, New Hampshire Stephanie Mason* Township Manager, Doylestown, Pennsylvania Matthew Hart* Town Manager, West Hartford, Connecticut INTERNATIONAL REGION

Dennis Hovenden Chief Executive Officer Frankston City Council, Victoria, Australia Frans Mencke City Manager, Hoorn, Netherlands Tim Anderson Chief Administrative Officer, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada *I C MA C R E D E NTIALE D MANAG E R (I C MA-C M)

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with us that her “decision point” about the right thing to do came from a sleepless night.

• Be willing to admit when you are wrong. Credibility is more important than your ego.

• Don’t lie or be deceitful. Even on minor issues, undermines my trust and confidence in you. I remember the philosopher who said, “I’m not upset that you lied to me. I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”

• Good leaders believe in the power of delegation. They trust staff members enough to give up control and, in turn, give away the credit.

A bad leader needs to have a hand in everything.

• Don’t just wave the government flag.

Search for the fair and equitable resolution. Weigh all perspectives. Is it right for the community? Is it right for the other parties?

• Take your fair share of the pain. Get furloughed, decline the bonus, be an equal participant in the cost reduction plans taking place, even if your contract provides otherwise. To opt out at this time or negotiate for even more just seems greedy.

Kouzes and Posner note: “Honesty is strongly tied to values and ethics. We appreciate people who know where they stand on important principles. We resolutely refuse to follow those who lack confidence in their own beliefs. We simply don’t trust people who can’t or won’t disclose a clear set of values, ethics, and standards and live by them.”

Some self-reflection on how honest you are and how well you live out your values is important regardless of your experience or position in the organization. How would you answer these questions posed by the researchers that are core to demonstrating ethical leadership?

• Is my behavior predictable or erratic?

• Do I communicate clearly or carelessly?

• Do I treat promises seriously or lightly?

• Am I forthright or dishonest?

MARTHA PEREGO, ICMA-CM

Ethics Director, ICMA Washington, D.C. mperego@icma.org

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A comfortable retirement should be the reward for a job well done.

People who dedicate their lives to serving others deserve an organiztion that dedicates itself exclusively to them. For over forty years, we’ve met the challenge to help public sector workers realize their retirement dreams.

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E-GOVERNMENT SURVEY INTRODUCTION The International City/County Management Association, in partnership with OnBase by Hyland, conducted a 2017 survey to assess the information technology and e-government solutions being used by local governments. This survey was the latest in a series of ICMA e-government surveys; the previous version was conducted in 2011. The 2017 survey was sent to municipalities with at least 75,000 residents and counties with at least 50,000 residents.

Services Available Electronically for Residents

SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS • Between 2011 and 2017, local governments continued to expand the array of services available online for their residents, including payment of taxes and completion of permit applications.

• Downloadable forms and GIS mapping/data remain the most popular services available electronically for residents.

• Outsourcing to Application Service Providers and purchasing programs from vendors became more popular online service delivery strategies between 2011 and 2017.

• Local government associations and public-private partnerships remained infrequently utilized resources for online service delivery.

• In-house IT departments are the most popular structure for managing local government information technology projects and activities.

• Local governments view a lack of financial resources as their top barrier to implementing e-government solutions.

100%

Services Available Electronically for Residents Services Available Electronically for Residents

100% 80% 100% 80% 60% 80% 60% 40% 60% 40% 20% 40% 20% 0% 20% 0% 0%

Forms that can be downloaded Forms that can be Forms that downloaded can be downloaded

GIS mapping/ data

Payment of taxes

Payment of fines/fees

Permit applications

Payment of utility bills

GIS mapping/ data GIS mapping/ data

Payment of taxes of Payment taxes

Payment of fines/feesof Payment fines/fees

Permit applications Permit applications

Payment of utility bills license Payment of Business 2017 applications utility bills 2011 license applications

Ways Local Governments Provide Online Services 100% 80% 100% 100% 60% 80% 80% 40% 60% 60% 20% 40% 40% 0% 20% 20% 0% 0%

Business license applications Business

2011 2011

2017 2017

Ways Local Governments Provide Online Services Ways Local Governments Provide Online Services

Purchased programs from vendors and Purchased integrated into programs from Purchased our databases vendors and programs from integrated into vendors and our databases integrated into our databases

Developed in-house by local Developed government in-house Developed bystaff local in-house government by local staff government staff

Outsourced to application service Outsourced providers toOutsourced application service to application providers service providers

Developed by consultants and localby Developed government consultants Developed by staff and local consultants government and local staff government staff

Developed by a local government Developed by association a local by Developed government a local association government association

Developed through a public-private Developed partnership through a Developed

public-private through a partnership 2011 2017 public-private partnership

2011 2011

2017 2017

Percent Ranked as a Top Five Barrier to E-Government Initiatives 100% 80% 100% 100% 60% 80% 80% 40% 60% 60% 20% 40% 40% 0% 20% 20% 0% 0%

Percent Ranked as a Top Five Barrier to E-Government Initiatives Percent Ranked as a Top Five Barrier to E-Government Initiatives

Lack of financial resources Lack of financial Lack of resources financial resources

Staff resistance to change Staff resistance to resistance change Staff to change

Lack of technology/web staff inof the Lack IT department technology/web Lack of staff in the technology/web ITstaff department in the IT department

Lack of collaboration among Lack of departments collaboration Lack of among collaboration departments among departments

Issues regarding cyber security Issues regarding Issues cyber security regarding cyber security

Visit icma.org/research for more information on the 2017 E-Government Survey

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on point | improved quality of life

WHAT IS AN IMPACTFUL INITIATIVE YOUR COMMUNITY HAS TAKEN TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE FOR RESIDENTS?

GREGG TODD

ANGELA CHRISTIAN, ICMA-CM

ANDREW NELSON

County Administrator Queen Anne’s County, Maryland gtodd@qac.org

Town Manager Newport, North Carolina achristian@townofnewport.com

City Administrator Kemmerer, Wyoming anelson@kemmerer.org

Affordable housing has been a struggle in our county (population 49,770) for many years. To address this, a moderately priced dwelling unit (MPDU) ordinance was passed in 2004. It requires that 10 percent of a residential development be provided at a reduced rate to individuals who have an income equaling 80 percent or less of the average household income in our local metropolitan statistical area.

The real success of the program began a few years ago when changes were made to the law that enabled a developer to provide a fee in lieu of a residential unit. The fee-in-lieu payments are managed by the county’s housing and community development department and are used as no-interest home loans for individuals meeting the income criteria.

This has greatly expanded the MPDU’s impact on affordable housing in the county.

For Newport, it is recreation. In just four years, the town (population 4,829) has reshaped its recreation opportunities and events.

In the middle of town stood the community’s largest park that had seen better days—affectionately labeled “shabby chic.” The overhaul began with replacing playground equipment that was more than 20 years old, then adding new paint, and finally, holding a few events there.

Never underestimate the power of bright colors to attract kids to your playground. Now parents and grandparents share twirling on the merry-go-round or finding shark teeth in the fossil dig pit, recapturing the joy of playing outside with no electronic games.

With new LED lighting and sidewalk improvements, more walkers are enjoying our urban trails. Resident volunteers became involved in creating a park master plan and developed a bike and pedestrian plan that led to a new part-time town job position.

The most popular events include summer water slides, movies in the park, a community festival, and spring break activities. Recreation added value by attracting all age groups, providing opportunities for healthy lifestyles, and creating a connection to the community.

When I started as Kemmerer’s (population 2,656) city administrator, trust in the city was extremely low. One of the best things the city has done since that time has been having better communication through both its resident notification system and an online and social media presence in order to better understand what improvements residents desired to improve our quality of life.

People want information, and they want to be heard. Since most don’t bother coming to meetings, we have proactively tried to reach out online to provide correct and timely information.

This has helped us communicate our action plan to incrementally improve parks, facilities, and other amenities in a way that creates reasonable expectations rather than knee-jerk reactions.

The best results come from simple, regular, individualized, and timely responses from the city to the resident.

Everyone is not always pleased with the content, of course, but that doesn’t relieve our responsibility to provide it, even to the belligerent types.

We have had a tremendous, positive response to city initiatives through active online communication and have more than doubled subscriptions to our notification system while significantly decreasing complaints.

icma.org/pm

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Strategic

Dealing with the daily stuff that comes after the strategic plan

THINKING

L

By Norman Wright

ocal governments are becoming more strategic than ever before.

They’ve had to. The steady increase of unfunded mandates, taxing limitations, and costs of capital have left managers and staff members with fewer resources and greater demands.

This has always been the case. One of the most timeless and inescapable

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truths of our work is that we can’t do everything. But it sure seems like this is more true today than ever before.

Our strategic approaches are commonly conveyed through plans that define our values and vision and often include our schedule of work for the next year. The values and vision explain why we make our choices. The schedule of work shows how we’ll carry those choices to completion.

All this material is usually created in

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a wonderful strategic retreat that might take a couple days or couple months to complete. From that point, many organizations formalize and systematize their plans through the budgeting process, programming the necessary money for each endeavor.

It’s all part of what has been the proven practice of corporate, military, and government bureaucracy for decades. It is classic, deliberate strategy at its finest.

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point, here is another expression, also originating from the military: “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower said this during a speech given in 1957.

It was the prevailing logic behind the preparations made for exercises during World War II. The concept here is that the practice of planning fosters a certain way of thinking. Anyone can stick to

as we can. Every great executive has a strategic calculator stored in his or her mind. It produces a rough calculus built on several straightforward variables. It’s a formula we use when deciding future courses of action (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 isn’t a mathematical proof, of course. And some variables matter more than others on any given day. All the same, consider this a basic attempt

STRATEGY IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR IS ABOUT CHOOSING TO DO THINGS THAT WILL STRENGTHEN THE COMMUNITY WHILE KNOWING YOU CANNOT DO IT ALL.

Use the Exercise of Planning Something happens, however, in the months that follow the initial strategizing. Visions and values and workplans get buried in minutia and distraction.

The foundation that we built begins to crumble under the weight of more new stuff.

New development proposed on the edge of town. Rising health insurance premiums. A troubled water system.

Whatever the case, there is an expression from the military that comes to mind: “No plan survives contact with the enemy.”

I think this expression rings true for all of us. We build plans, budgets, and then some new crisis du jour wallops us, coming out of nowhere to wreck our focus. Then comes the dilemma: Do we ignore the latest “emergency” and stay focused on our plan? Or do we deviate from the script and address the issue?

There is no simple answer to this question and our biggest mistake is to pretend that there should be. To that

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their plan, doing nothing else but what’s in the plan.

Effective leaders, however, use the exercise of planning to clarify their priorities, map the broader dynamics at play, and visualize their outcomes. Planning, as a daily practice, is thus essential.

It is inevitable that an organization will veer off course from a leader’s plans. And when this happens, a leader often hangs his or her head in defeat for failing to stick to the plan, as if this “failure” were brought about by a lack of focus or discipline.

But it isn’t. Not necessarily. Because when we look at our work as a strategic practice, rather than a strategic plan, there is an important distinction that we’re able to embrace.

Two Spheres for Strategy: Deliberate and Emergent Great strategies are formed in two fundamentally different and equally important spheres: the deliberate and the emergent. The sooner we acknowledge this and find a way to embrace it, the sooner we will get to the next level of great strategic practice. Thankfully, we’re halfway there. Deliberate strategy is one of government’s hallmarks.

Emergent strategy is a hallmark, too.

We just haven’t formalized it as well

to find the universal method we use to make decisions on any given day. As an expression, you could describe this formula as: A good action is one that makes sense, fits the current need, is affordable, novel, timely, feasible, and won’t blow up in our faces.

This formula isn’t just ours. A similar version is used by elected officials when they sit at the dais and consider their agenda items. Their calculation is not the same, though. In fact, their method is quite mysterious!

That’s where a lot of our misunderstanding occurs. On the occasions that we use our formulas in the same way, it is quite powerful; sharing similar mental formulas is what allows us to almost read each other’s minds. Getting to that point of consistent, shared, and calculated judgment is the heart of strategic thinking. It is not strategic planning, per se.

Strategic planning is slower, more deliberate. Strategic thinking is more responsive, a higher form of reactivity.

It responds to the issues and needs and opportunities that emerge from day to day—the stuff none of us could ever anticipate or plan for.

Focusing on Priorities Consider again the old expression: No plan survives contact with the enemy.

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Often, we encounter new challenges and react defensively. We raise our strategic plans up as a shield and say, “We can’t deal with that issue now! It’s not on the strategic plan!”

This is an admirable thing. It’s often the right thing to do. The strategic plan is a great tool for saying no. But the strategic plan must also be a tool for saying yes. And there’s really only one way to understand the difference: priorities.

To be a great strategic thinker, all that’s needed is to tweak the formula in Figure 1 in a few simple ways using the lens of your strategic plan; try a new version as shown in Figure 2.

This revised formula replaces relevancy with priority. Why? Because what is currently relevant (i.e., topical) is usually unimportant! The priorities of our strategic plans dictate what really matters—things like affordable housing or public safety. The more relevant topic— relevant to the daily conversation—is often minor, something like a complaint about the lighting at the new gas station.

It’s a fresh issue. It’s also a minor issue according to our plan’s priorities.

The revised formula also adds outcome as a new variable. This is because we spend far too much time on any given day thinking about our risks

and costs. We are hypersensitive in this way, and this natural tendency must be leavened with the thought of a return on our desired outcomes.

Yes, something costs money and staff effort, but what do we get out of it? What’s the outcome? Beginning with that desired end in mind, that outcome, is a great way to think about return on investment.

I eliminated “novelty of idea (NoI)” because we too often get fixated on new, flashy ideas. Things we call innovation are often just ideas we like for their novelty. New approaches are great but they shouldn’t be a factor in deciding

The Formula for a Good Decision Figure 1. Usual Formula for a Good Decision.

RoS +

Re

+

FC +/- NoI +

Reasonableness of Scope Does this make immediate sense?

How easily can this be explained to others?

Ti

+

CF

-

Ri

=

GD

Ti

Time How long will it take?

Re

Relevancy How directly does this course of action relate to an existing, urgent issue?

CF

Current Feasibility How well can we do this work with our existing resources, systems, and policies?

FC

Financial Cost Can we afford it?

Ri

Risk What is the likelihood of failure?

RoF

NoI

Novelty of Idea Is this a new course of action? A repeat of past efforts? Does it feel innovative?

GD

Good Decision With all these factors in mind, what’s the best decision?

Graphic by Norman Wright

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icma.org/pm Graphic by Norman Wright

The for aDecision.

Strategic Decision Figure 2.Formula Strategic Formula for a Good RoS +

Re

+

FC +/- NoI +

RoS +

Pr

+

FC

+

-

Ti

Ti

+

CF

-

Ri

Ri

+

O

=

SD

Reasonableness of Scope Does this make immediate sense?

How easily can this be explained to others?

Ri

Risk What is the likelihood of failure?

Pr

Priority (replaces Relevancy) How directly does this course of action relate to our plan’s priorities?

O

Outcome (replaces Novelty of Idea and Current Feasibility) What will be the result if all goes as expected?

FC

Financial Cost Can we afford it?

Ti

Time How long will it take?

RoS

SD

Strategic Decision With all these factors in mind, what’s the best decision to serve our long-term strategy?

Graphic by Norman Wright Graphic by Norman Wright

our action. Innovation for the sake of innovation is not, in fact, innovation.

Finally, “current feasibility” is eliminated because we are terrible judges of what we are capable of doing. If we have the time and can afford to support something, it’s feasible. Period. Those factors are already in the equation so thinking any further on feasibility is redundant, at the least, and wrong-headed at the worst.

When we think of feasibility beyond cost and time, we usually think of it in terms of willpower or energy—as in, our own energy to do something. That is an extremely unreliable gauge.

Sticking to the Rationale On emergent issues (i.e., the stuff that comes after the plan), discipline isn’t about sticking to a plan’s tasks, ignoring those new issues, keeping everyone rigidly on track. It’s about sticking to the rationale—the thread of logic that we used to write the plan in the first place.

We can get much better at being strategic thinkers when we formalize that logic. That’s the real discipline.

That’s the real strategy. icma.org/pm

WHEN WE THINK OF FEASIBILITY BEYOND COST AND TIME, WE USUALLY THINK OF IT IN TERMS OF WILLPOWER OR ENERGY—AS IN, OUR OWN ENERGY TO DO SOMETHING. THAT IS AN EXTREMELY UNRELIABLE GAUGE.

So, to conclude, great strategy is about great rationale. You have priorities to address and outcomes to achieve.

Make a plan to do this. Define the goals, values, and vision.

Those type of efforts are deliberate because they take a lot of resources.

Once we commit to them, the strategic plan must reflect that commitment because we cannot deviate without enormous cost. Stick to the plan when the “enemy” puts up resistance.

But in everything else, which is almost everything you’ll face on a daily basis, stay nimble. Stick to the rationale; give yourself permission to work offscript. You’re going to anyway.

Because you have to. Strategy in the public sector is about choosing to do

things that will strengthen the community while knowing you cannot do it all.

It’s a difficult job. Especially when we fight against the shifting winds. A community agrees to something but then, next month, says that something else is a greater emergency. Until the next month.

Those issues usually aren’t worth a lot of time; however, sometimes they are. You have to know how to tell the difference. Embracing the deliberate and emergent, the long-term plan, and the daily practice of planning is the path to take.

NORMAN WRIGHT is community

development director, Salem, Oregon (norman.wright@outlook. com).

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SOCIAL MEDIA

By Abbas Sabur

STRATEGIZING

How Lawrence, Kansas, changed its engagement strategy

S

ince late 2015, the Lawrence, Kansas, Police Department (PD) has been using Twitter to establish a way to regularly engage with its residents. Like other police department Twitter accounts, its feed included typical updates on matters pertaining to resident safety,

12

ongoing investigations, or safety warnings. Needless to say, they didn’t garner much engagement from their residents, or anyone else.

In March 2016, the defeat of the local University of Kansas men’s basketball team at the hands of Villanova’s Wildcats inspired the PD to take a different ap-

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proach in getting the residents’ attention.

This time, they would try something a little more daring: “Sorry, we can’t investigate Villanova ripping your heart out of your chest, the crime occurred outside our jurisdiction. #RCJH” Relaying the visceral response of a hometown team taking a loss to an Elite

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Eight rival, the department discovered something valuable about how they were engaging with their residents— better to say, residents discovered something valuable about their police department.

“The feedback in general has been overwhelmingly positive,” says Lawrence City Manager Tom Markus. “The public has a natural curiosity for what’s occurring in police work, and the police department’s Twitter account satiates that desire, while also working to humanize the people behind the badge.

“Initially there was some pushback from some members within the department, but by now most have recognized the added value and benefit it provides, and have grown to accept it, if not embrace it.”

It wasn’t always that way. Like many local government communication channels, there was the bureaucratic process of getting more “eyes on it” before posting it publicly on the Internet. Set up to be a platform for quick conversation, that procedure proved to be obsolete.

“The process involved supervisory approval before the tweets could be sent. It was quickly realized that this process was burdensome and was counterproductive to the timely and relevant updates that the platform is most well suited for. As time went on, more and more trust was placed with the person sending the tweets, and it became clear that administrative approval was not necessary and was needlessly burdensome, so it was done away with.”

While the city’s police department uses humor with its social media to engage a growing online audience of more than 110,000 people, its umbrella strategy is focused on disseminating information, complementing city-wide communications, and responding to

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PHOTO: LAWRENCE, KS POLICE DEPARTMENT

The Lawrence, Kansas, Police Department is committed to connecting with Lawrence, Kansas its community, both online and face-to-face. resident inquiries for things like core service information, trash pick-up, construction, and more.

This spans across all the city’s communication channels, including each department’s individual social media account.

From an increase in recruitment, to numerous crimes being solved from tips coming from residents following the police department’s account, the benefits the city has seen from this engagement strategy is proof that taking the time to discover an advanced—and personal— way to engage with the community is well worth the effort.

Social media can’t take all the credit.

A coordinated effort between department communications isn’t anything new for Lawrence, but Markus says it takes a bit of individualism to be inclusive in the way they reach their population.

From personal conversations at assisted living facilities, to luncheons with civic group leaders, the city’s staff members have diverse ways of reaching their audiences. Using a combination of efforts through traditional media, old-fashioned face-to-face engagement, and technology-driven engagement, the city reaches multiple segments of the community through a diverse communication strategy.

Through staff’s concerted communication efforts, city staff is regularly invited to present at civic group meetings, as well as participate in interviews through such traditional media as television, radio, and print journalism.

Seriously, Laugh a Little All that said, Markus still recognizes the power of a good joke to engage residents.

“THE EXPECTATION OF OUR COMMUNITY IS THAT WE WILL MEET RESIDENTS WHERE THEY ARE, AND WE AS AN ORGANIZATION HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO MEET THAT EXPECTATION.”

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TAKING THE PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE RESIDENT ENGAGEMENT AND EXPOUNDING THEM INTO A DARING SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY HAS PAID OFF.

The humor, like laughter, has been infectious. Recognizing its effectiveness in professional management, Markus mentioned that he and his executive staff use it to support each other through the sometimes difficult challenges that come with public service.

“There’s a lot of power in a smile or a laugh,” he continues. “The engagement we see on a daily basis would be extremely difficult to realize in an offline manner. The expectation of our community is that we will meet residents where they are, and we as an organization have an obligation to meet that expectation.”

The Lawrence staff members are doing just that. Taking the principles of effective resident engagement and expanding them into a daring social media strategy has paid off. Now,

of familiarity with the officers behind the account’s amusing delivery. Something that he notes would be difficult without the timely and relevant updates that Twitter is most suited for.

Some Advice

what could easily come across as “stuffy,” public safety blasts are being delivered with a special sense of humor that the police department shares with its community.

“The positive interactions have undoubtedly enhanced the police department’s relationship with the community,” Markus says. “Many residents, especially college students, now feel more comfortable approaching an officer to have a conversation about the Twitter account, where in the past they may not have felt the same feelings of familiarity that allowed them to do that.”

Yes, you read that correctly. The city got college students engaged. Markus explains that the police department’s account provides a window into the world of police work that builds a sense

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“Social media engagement should lift the entire organization. The last thing you want is departments competing for likes and retweets,” Markus noted when asked what advice he offers other local government managers.

Managers looking to boost their own social media engagement should present a coordinated message and avoid oversaturation of social messaging. Markus recommends developing “a user group with representation from key departments; then charge that user group with developing a social media strategy and [scheduling] key communications campaigns over a period of several months.

“Good strategies are coordinating the most effective communicators and facilitating collaborative learning, because leaning on the advice and insights of your colleagues will keep you apprised of the evolving channels of communication.”

And, for the next generation of local government leaders who may be facing their own shifts in technology and communication channels, Markus offers some simple advice: “The most important thing is to learn how to communicate in a personal way, face-to-face.”

ABBAS SABUR is digital marketing

coordinator, ICMA, Washington, D.C. (asabur@icma.org).

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ASSISTANT MANAGERS

By Beth Payne

TALK SHOP

Eight professionals share insights on responsibilities

T

he role of the assistant management position traditionally has been to help the local government manager carry out administrative functions and oversee the coordination of policy implementation in a local government organization, among other duties.

Sometimes an assistant serves as an interim manager during a manager’s personal time off or when the position has been vacated. In previous PM articles, authors have noted that an assistant can be viewed as an extension of the manager by staff members and elected officials.

The position is one that holds a great deal of responsibility and, at the same time, publicly supports the administrator and recommends or advises on policy decisions. Earlier this year, I asked eight assistants to send me their thoughts on what responsibilities of their position are the most helpful to a local government manager and to a local government organization.

Assistants encounter problems, just like in any other job.

But for these eight assistants, challenges don’t seem to turn their professional world upside down or bring them a lot of grief. Just the opposite. They all seem to enjoy the many demands of their work. Here is how they responded.

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David Bush Deputy City Manager, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada In Cambridge, it is critical that a deputy city manager (DCM) develop a constructive and trusting partnership with the councilmembers, the city manager, the corporate leadership team, and the senior management team.

The position provides guidance, encouragement, communications, advice, and decision support on delivering corporate initiatives, which includes all risks and impacts.

As DCM, I need to provide visible and positive leadership to staff that is consistent with the commitments of the city’s strategic plan and the leadership governance model, which includes developing and nurturing an inclusive, respectful, and motivational work environment for staff.

My work also includes ensuring that functions within corporate services meet the city’s regulatory requirements by promoting employee engagement, implementing continuous icma.org/pm

improvement through innovation that embraces diversity and provides cutting-edge service delivery.

I manage department capital and operating budgets, introduce cost containment strategies, develop and assess management operating procedures, and take corrective action where necessary.

Above all this, I believe in “stewardship of the whole, not ownership of a piece” and believe we always need to have some fun as we serve our communities.

Justin Constantino Former Assistant to the City Administrator, Goddard, Kansas Until this past April, I was assistant to the city administrator, Goddard, Kansas, and then transitioned to the position of senior planner, College Station, Texas. I found that the strongest aspect of being an assistant is the versatility of the position.

Working primarily in smaller communities, the flexibility allowed me to oversee certain departmental operations and to serve as a staff liaison to several resident advisory groups. In turn, this allowed the local government manager more time to focus attention on furthering staff development, strengthening the staff’s relationship with the city council, and focusing on the overall health and well-being of the community.

The ability to work closely with the local government manager and anticipate the manager’s needs translates to an ability to anticipate the needs of residents, elected officials, and my fellow coworkers. This results in a greater appreciation for, and a stronger understanding of, the daily responsibilities of my colleagues and the importance of their individual roles within the organization.

The assistant position typically allows for regular access to both the local government manager and the executive leadership team, which personally provided me with a strong foundation in community development, public works, and parks and recreation.

Having recently begun a new role as a city planner with a larger community, I am confident that I would not be where I am today without the flexibility and versatility that the assistant position provided.

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Kimiko Black Gilmore Assistant City Manager, Kansas City, Missouri I believe that all the responsibilities of assistants are paramount to the success of local government managers and the communities they serve. Assistants are able to support managers in a variety of capacities, using the many skills and abilities that led them to the assistant level.

It is my opinion, however, that the most important responsibility and skill is to be able to work in high-stress environments, while managing multiple projects and people.

Regardless of the community size—large city, county, town, village, or hamlet—working on behalf of the public is intense.

Just the magnitude of attempting to ensure that all residents are offered quality services and that tax dollars are allocated appropriately to achieve that goal, can be overwhelming. More often than not, the assistant needs to pay attention to multiple tasks that are related only because they occur in the same community. Wearing multiple hats is more than a fashion choice; it is an assistant’s way of life.

Assistants provide the necessary support so a manager can be freed up to fully implement the governing body’s priorities.

The more comfortable an assistant is with the ever-evolving dynamics of local government, the more confident the manager will be with the assistant’s role.

Paulette Hartman Assistant City Manager, North Richland Hills, Texas As assistant city manager, I oversee several departments, including parks and recreation, library, code compliance, animal services, consumer health inspections, planning and zoning, building permits and inspections, and communications.

I also assist and consult with the city’s human resources department on organizational culture and employee recognition. Because of these varied duties, it is difficult to choose which of these responsibilities are most helpful to the city manager and to the entire organization.

In fact, I don’t believe it is a specific responsibility or skill. It is more the ability to lead and direct the areas within my oversight in a manner that is in accordance with the policy direction set by the city council so that it reflects positively on my boss, the city manager, and enables employees to serve in the best interests of our community as a whole.

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The areas I directly oversee touch a lot of lives and, other than public safety, are the service areas most visible to residents. The most helpful thing I can do is ensure that goals, objectives, and values established by elected officials are communicated and carried out through the various departments.

Doing this, employees from the department directors to front-line staff are effectively engaged in achieving the vision and objectives of the council. So clear communication with my boss and with employees who report to me is critical, along with understanding and reviewing service levels from inside the organization and understanding the customer experience of that service.

Having served as a city manager in a small community, I offer a somewhat different perspective. I can say that my current assistant position has prepared me to move into a manager role for a similar-size or larger community.

My role as assistant to the city manager years ago prepared me to be the manager of a small town, and moving along, my role as the manager of a small town did prepare me to be an assistant or a manager of a midsize city.

I also believe that since I have been a manager, that experience gives me a different perspective on my current role and allows me to assist my current boss in a different way than perhaps assistants who have not, because I know what it’s like to report directly to councilmembers and to sit on the hot seat and know the management pressure of it all.

Kyle Kordell Assistant to the Village Manager/Deputy Village Clerk, Lake Zurich, Illinois I believe that flexibility and catching all the small things that fall through the cracks are a great aid to a manager. Flexibility provides the ability to manage any given function or project wherever and whenever the need exists.

The manager is constantly bombarded with a flurry of time-consuming action items that often require much discussion and reflection before a decision is made. As an assistant, my position is most helpful by remaining adaptable to the changing demands of the day and making sure more routine matters are successfully handled— things the manager is able to forget about because he knows they will be completed.

This includes providing administrative guidance to executive staff, contacting local reporters to make sure they have the accurate facts for a news story, and ensuring local legislative items are provided to elected officials in a timely fashion.

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The assistant position is here to relieve the manager of such day-to-day duties. My motto is to remain flexible and catch the small—but important—things.

Thomas Moton Deputy City Manager, Wilmington, North Carolina I have been in an assistant role for nearly 20 years and worked in four organizations, each with its own unique set of expectations. My responsibilities always have evolved based on emerging organizational issues and the “tough jobs” that required supervision.

In my previous position as Rocky Mount, North Carolina, assistant city manager, I supervised public works and water resources, parks and recreation, public relations, and human resources. I managed implementation of the city’s strategic plans, various initiatives, and special projects.

I supported the city manager in carrying out her duties by providing analysis, assessment, and recommendations on workforce matters; budget and capital improvement planning; policy formulation; innovative service delivery; and operational effectiveness and efficiency. Effective communications with the manager, elected officials, staff, and the community are high priorities of the assistant position.

As I did in Rocky Mount and now in my more recent position in Wilmington, I model leadership behaviors that foster teamwork and appreciation for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Plus, I try to maximize employee and community engagement opportunities. Talent development, strategic planning, and being proactive in anticipating possible problems are valued in my role.

Capitalizing on opportunities to leverage organizational and community resources through local and regional partnerships are important responsibilities. Building and strengthening relationships with civic leaders, residents, neighborhood groups, and government agencies at local, state, and federal levels, along with private sector and nonprofit organizations, are also part of my responsibilities. All of these are helpful to both the manager and the community.

I think my willingness as an assistant to oversee crossdepartmental projects has been another skill that managers have found especially helpful.

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Kristi Williams Assistant Town Manager, Westborough, Massachusetts One of my key responsibilities is the human resources function for the town. This responsibility uniquely positions me to spend a significant amount of time in various departments getting to know the employees and becoming familiar with a department’s operational challenges.

This vantage point serves to inform how decisions are made at the management level and various departments’ operational needs, which is valuable to the manager in evaluating budget requests, negotiating union agreements, and creating project teams.

I am also responsible for the town’s capital budget. Like the HR role, this function of my position requires that I work with each individual department to understand its individual capital needs.

Once requests are submitted, I am able to look at all requests and identify opportunities for collaboration among departments, suggest alternative funding sources, and obtain information needed for the committee to prepare the final five-year capital plan for the community.

Additional responsibilities of my position include taking on special projects and directly supervising several departments.

In doing this, I identify stakeholders and often create an interdepartmental team that works together to solve an identified problem or to implement an innovative program. These projects are largely driven by community or departmental needs and are part of larger organizational goals.

My role in working directly with staff allows me to provide valuable insight to the manager and advice on all matters, resulting in a team-oriented approach to managing the town.

Victoria Yarbrough Assistant City Manager, Sierra Vista, Arizona I act as the chief operating officer for Sierra Vista and manage all city operations with the exception of public safety and economic development/ tourism. This keeps the manager from getting down in the weeds of these operations, and it maintains a buffer so he can be the impartial final word on personnel decisions, budget decisions, and so on.

Working with city departments and divisions to identify solutions to complex issues and guide them through the

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presentation of solutions to the manager, and sometimes the council, too, provides a finished product for consideration.

This keeps them from wasting their time working through a project that is in process.

I certainly inform the manager on high-priority items that he needs to know about, and seek guidance along the way, but it keeps the smaller stuff at a lower level.

Managing the strategic planning process is also high on the list of my most helpful organizational responsibilities. I ensure the planning process runs smoothly every two years.

Then I make sure the finished product gets to councilmembers and residents, and that staff members prioritize the goals in their own areas. Finally, I ensure that council receives regular reports and updates.

There is so much else that I get to do, but rounding out the rest of the list would be running an engaging and smooth budget process, managing special projects, nurturing staff motivation, and promoting and maintaining a healthy organizational culture. All what I love about my position!

BETH PAYNE is editor, Public Management (PM) magazine,

ICMA, Washington, D.C. (bpayne@icma.org).

Assistants’ Track, ICMA 2018 Annual Conference Assistants’ Exchange (Friday, September 21).

The Conference Host Committee is offering an Assistants’ Exchange Program just prior to the conference. This will involve spending the day as the guest of a participating local government in the greater Baltimore area. Visit the Assistants’ Exchange Program page of icma.org/ conference for information on how to apply.

Assistants’ Luncheon (Monday, September 24), Leading from Where You Are: An Assistant’s Way Forward. Subject: Three practicing assistants share their career journey of how they lead from where they are.

Separate registration is required for this event.

Assistants’ Forum (Monday, September 24), Leading from Where You Are: The Next Step Forward. Subject: How to make a significant impact in your organization by expanding your influence no matter where you are in your career. Also, celebrate with graduates of ICMA’s 2018 Mid-Career Managers Institute.

No registration required.

Educational Session: Showcasing Yourself (Tuesday, September 25). Subject: What do recruiters and councils look for in candidates?

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DEALING WITH

TERRORIST

By Sean Britton

THREATS

A briefing on preparedness actions and resources for local government managers

V

iolence is a potential threat to every community—a threat that demands preparedness from local government administrators. Recent events in the United States, as well as around the world, highlight the need for valid strategies to prepare for—and respond to—violent actions affecting the public.

The intention of this article is to provide a fundamental understanding of active shooter incidents and complex coordinated attacks for managers, so they may better assess their own community’s efforts to prepare for and respond to these events.

Methods of Attack The criminal justice system mitigates violence within the community by arresting and prosecuting individuals involved with various criminal activities. This strategy of prevention may be effective in reducing violence associated with profit-motivated criminal enterprises, but it does not necessarily address the threats posed by an individual motivated by ideology or other factors.

The FBI defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or

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coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” One example is the detonation of a pipe bomb by a 27-year-old male in the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City on December 11, 2017.

Another recent example is of a 29-year-old male who killed eight individuals, and injured eleven others, with a pickup truck in Manhattan in October 2017. Although both of these events occurred within New York City, it definitely is not the only local government at risk from a terrorist attack.

Methods for inflicting a terrorist action against the public include both an active shooter incident and a complex coordinated attack. The FBI also defines an active shooter as “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area.”1 While this article uses the term “active shooter,” these incidents may also be identified as active-assailant or active-threat, since violence is not

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limited to the use of firearms given that such other handheld weapons as knives or even motor vehicles can be used.

While an active shooter may be terrorism-inspired, terrorism may not be the sole trigger of these incidents. Other factors, including severe psychiatric illness or an unexpected life event like job loss, divorce, or death of a loved one, may be a contributor.

According to research performed by Texas State University in partnership with the FBI, 160 active shooter incidents occurred in the United States between 2000 and 2013, with an increasing frequency in more recent years.2 Among the incidents in which duration could be ascertained, 69 percent ended within five minutes, and of those, 52 percent ended within two minutes. Approximately 60 percent of all incidents during this time period ended prior to the arrival of law enforcement, sometimes as a result of unarmed residents restraining the shooter.

In 40 percent of these incidents, the event ended by the shooter committing suicide. The most frequent locations icma.org/pm

for these events were commerce centers (46 percent), followed by educational environments (24 percent), followed by government properties (10 percent). Of the government properties, 50 percent were local government facilities.

Complex coordinated attacks are described as several terrorist actions occurring in close succession. Firearms, explosive devices, and vehicles are all methods that can be used in this type of attack.

The largest complex coordinated attack to date was perpetrated by 10 men associated with the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba terrorist group and involved four separate sites within Mumbai, India, in November 2008.

In another instance, Islamic State terrorists killed 130 and injured hundreds more by conducting a series of attacks within a 20-minute period in Paris in 2015.

A complex coordinated attack involving suicide bombers killed 31 and injured 300 at two sites in Brussels in 2016.

Taking Preparedness Measures All emergencies start and end on the local government level. Local government typically provides or ensures the provision of such emergency services as law enforcement, fire suppression, and emergency medical services.

Responses to these events are multidisciplinary and require coordination and icma.org/pm

collaboration among various emergency services disciplines. Managers have a duty to residents to ensure effective preparedness actions have been taken.

The first action to take is to engage emergency management and emergency services leadership to determine what preparedness actions have already been accomplished. The Federal Emergency Management Agency outlines several components to ensure effective preparedness for a threat or hazard: planning, organizing and equipping, training, conducting exercises, and evaluating/improving procedures.3 Planning involves stakeholders coming together to develop a written plan of how a hazard or threat will be managed.

For a plan to be effective, it must have the support of any unit or individual assigned a role within the plan.

Plans alone don’t control emergencies; however, they do provide a shared understanding of roles and anticipated actions to be performed. Local government staff should verify the agency or individual(s) assigned with plan development.

While the planning process may involve agency representatives, the person in charge needs to verify that the final plan has the official support of each agency’s chief officer.

It is critical to ensure there are individuals with varied skillsets and organizations represented during the planning process. Events causing mass casualties and fatalities will require emergency response from organizations beyond police, fire, and EMS. Examples of response actions performed by nontraditional response agencies include performing crisis counseling for survivors and managing the mortuary needs of decedents. Often the planning process will require the inclusion of nongovernmental agencies.

Beginning in 2013, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) formed the Joint Committee to Create a National Policy to Enhance Survivability from Intentional Mass Casualty and Active Shooter Events to develop a protocol for national policy to enhance survivability from active shooter and intentional mass casualty events.

This committee compiled its recommendations into the Hartford Consensus, which now has three subsequent updates. These four reports can serve as a tool for emergency planners to develop effective preparedness plans for these events.4 Planning efforts can also be guided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Interagency Security Committee’s (ISC) document Planning and Response to an Active Shooter: An Interagency Security Committee Policy and Best Practices Guide.5 Organizing and equipping involves the equipment and supplies necessary for response to the event. While the identification of necessary equipment and supplies is accomplished during the planning process, the procurement occurs during this phase.

Fire departments and emergency medical services agencies have been

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Managers should work to ensure their communities have followed the preparedness actions necessary to improve the response to these types of events. increasingly purchasing ballistic vests for personnel in recent years. These capital acquisitions may have significant impact upon agency budgets.

This phase can also involve making the strategic decision to purchase and locate bleeding-control items, including dressings and tourniquets, in public places and government facilities. Increasingly, bleeding-control supplies are being located with automated external defibrillators (AEDs).

Local government managers should remain informed on the personal protective equipment being selected by response agencies within their jurisdiction and if public access bleeding-control initiatives are underway.

Training involves providing instruction to both responders and the community at large. Responder training is discipline-specific and can include emergency medical services practitioners completing the National Association of Emergency Medical Technician’s Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC).6 Civilian training can include the American College of Surgeons “Stop the Bleed” course, which is a brief course (less than two hours) on bleeding control for injured patients.7 Recent active shooter incidents have demonstrated that actions taken by bystanders prior to the arrival of emergency responders may decrease morbidity and mortality. Managers

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should assess what training is being taken by responders or offered to the public as community education.

Exercises, often known outside of the emergency management community as drills, test whether organizations have the capabilities for which they have planned, equipped, and trained.

Until an organization exercises a plan, it has no way of knowing how well personnel will execute a mission.

Exercises take resources—time, money, and supplies—to both plan and conduct. Managers should verify that response organizations within their jurisdiction are conducting exercises and then support these exercises by allocating needed resources.

Critical evaluation drives improvement in performance. Exercises need to be objectively evaluated to ensure response organizations are able to perform mission-essential functions.

Organizations do not grow and develop without acknowledgment of well-performed exercise elements and constructive criticism of areas requiring performance improvement.

Managers should challenge response organizations to identify both strengths and weaknesses in current capability levels. The identification of weaknesses is then able to drive future planning efforts, equipment and supply purchases, and training offerings.

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An Unfortunate Reality Active shooter incidents and complex coordinated attacks will continue, unfortunately, to pose a threat to public health and safety for the foreseeable future. Bottom line, the research I’ve conducted shows that managers should work to ensure their communities have followed the preparedness actions necessary to improve the response to these types of events.

ENDNOTES AND REFERENCES 1 Blair JP, Schweit, KW. A Study of Active Shooter Incidents, 2000–2013. Texas State University and Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington D.C., 2014.

2 Ibid.

3 U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Plan and Prepare for Disasters. Retrieved from https:// www.dhs.gov/topic/plan-and-prepare-disasters on April 26, 2018.

4 American College of Surgeons. The Hartford Consensus. Retrieved from https://www.facs.org/ about-acs/hartford-consensus on April 26, 2018.

5 Interagency Security Committee. Planning and Response to an Active Shooter: An Interagency Security Committee Policy and Best Practices Guide. November 2015.

6 National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians. Tactical Emergency Casualty Care course. Retrieved from http://www.naemt.org/ education/tecc on April 26, 2018.

7 American College of Surgeons.

BleedingControl.org. Retrieved from https://www. bleedingcontrol.org on April 26, 2018.

SEAN BRITTON is a deputy

county emergency medical services coordinator, Broome County, New York (sean.justin.britton@gmail.com).

icma.org/pm

commentary | value of a fellowship

BY JANEK SUNGA

FROM KENYA TO KANSAS Fellowship leads to unlikely career path

I

never planned to end up working in local government. As this was written, it’s been one year since I made the move to Wichita, Kansas, from Kansas City, Missouri, to accept a management fellowship position.

I grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, where city hall never had the best of reputations. See, come election time, the men who were tasked with representing the good citizens of Nairobi—and they were mostly men—exercised their democratic right in a most ignominious fashion. A fashion that was unbecoming of their high office. This was when mayors were elected by fellow city councilors.

Elections would take place in council chambers amidst high passion. As soon as the clerk would announce the results, all sense of decorum would inevitably flee the chambers. Parliamentary procedure would be quickly forgotten as anarchy reigned supreme. Chairs would be thrown across the aisle. Blows would be traded right there on the floor.

I remember one particularly bad incident where the sergeant-at-arms was compelled to fire his gun to restore order.

It was a wonder no one was hurt. Yes, we would always get our mayor but at the price of common decency. You don’t have to imagine why municipal management was not in my career path.

New Doors Open I came to the United States eight years ago for college. I got my bachelor’s degree in English at Park University, and I immediately joined graduate school at the same university. My intention was to get my M.P.A. so I could work in the national government of Kenya.

In graduate school, however, I took a class in urban redevelopment and from that point, I started considering a different path. icma.org/pm

Author on vacation in Kenya last year.

As an undergraduate, I participated in a public affairs internship known as Coro Kansas City. This was a 10-week intensive and immersive experience in public affairs. I got an inkling of what make cities tick, but it was that class in urban redevelopment that led me here. I realized I was developing a small expertise in local government.

Because Kansas City was my home for close to seven years, the first fellowship that I applied for was the Cookingham/Noll Management Fellowship. I had heard great things about it and was wary of making another big move. I also paid attention to management internships from around the greater Kansas City area, including Olathe and Kansas City, Kansas. I applied to Wichita almost as an afterthought.

It was a competitive process. I have come to appreciate just how highly

competitive it was because I have now been on both sides of the interview table. I had to fill out what seemed one of the longest application forms known to man, in addition to submitting a writing sample, resume, and cover letter. Those were just the preliminaries.

Once I was selected, I had to undertake a Skype interview. I had expected the Skype interview panel to consist of one or two people.

Instead, once I accepted my call, my laptop screen opened to a conference room full of people. I should have immediately shut that laptop and run out of there. Instead, I panicked for exactly the one second that it took me to scream in my mind.

“You got this covered,” I reminded myself as the interview began.

“Hi Janek, I am Bob Layton, the city manager. Congratulations on your selection. I have several staff members

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City hall located in the heart of downtown Nairobi, Kenya. here with me from around the city. I’ll let them introduce themselves.”

It was a panel of heavy hitters: an assistant city manager, the fire chief, and several senior staff members. The two fellows who would be replaced were also there. They were probably eight or so people. The panel should have spelled my demise.

But I survived. In fact, I thought I had handled the interview quite well.

I got the call to come to Wichita for an interview. I met four other candidates there. I had looked at their LinkedIn profiles before, so I knew they were aptly qualified. The interview was another panel interview. I was more relaxed for this one and even managed to crack a few jokes. That’s how I knew that I also had this one covered.

So when I got the call, I did not hesitate. I immediately said yes.

I am one of two fellows that were hired and both of us have found our niche. Ian Hutcheson received his bachelor’s degree from McGill University in Canada. He just got his M.P.A. this spring from the University of Kansas.

He is primarily responsible for coordinating the mayor’s youth council. He also keeps up with the city’s City Council (CC) Tracker, which is a technology that allows councilmembers to ask questions or submit tasks to city staff while keeping the city manager informed on the issues. It is a tool for helping elected officials and professional

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managers work within the appropriate boundaries of their authority, without sacrificing efficiency in communicating and executing work.

We both rotate working at council meetings. I am responsible for developing the city’s sustainable communities rating with the nationally recognized STAR Communities program.

dispense with formality, let’s stick to first names, not nicknames.

As an African, titles are important to me. One reason I am enamored with the Game of Thrones is for such magnificent titles as Daenerys Targaryen Stormborn, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Mother of Dragons, The Urburnt, and so on.

Bob just sounds pedestrian and short.

The Bob I know is the city manager for the 50th largest city in America. This Bob is the manager for an organization of more than 3,000 people. This same Bob oversees an annual budget of more than $500 million and a $2 billion capital improvement program. In my opinion, he deserves more than “Bob,” but I reluctantly call him that because that’s what he actually prefers.

The main satisfaction of working at city hall is that, when you write policy,

IT’S BEEN AN UNPARALLELED EXPERIENCE, BUT NOT EVERYTHING I HAVE SEEN HAS BEEN GREAT. I also write the weekly report that the manager submits to the councilmembers. We also occasionally collaborate on special projects like when the manager asked Ian and me to revise the city’s code of ethics.

Manager as Mentor I am grateful to Manager Layton for his mentorship. It is an American thing, but I still find it strange to refer to him as Bob. I have heard him referred to as Mr. Layton, but that’s usually at community events, and it’s from people outside the organization.

I remember beginning a conversation by starting, “Robert …” And I was immediately cut short by a coworker.

“Nobody calls him Robert,” I was told. In my opinion, if we are going to

P U B LIC MANAG E M E NT | AUG UST 20 1 8

you have the satisfaction of seeing it translate into real world consequences.

You can see it happen in front of your eyes. City hall is just a stone throw’s away from its residents.

At Wichita, we have the same philosophy in mind. In addition to city hall on Main Street, we have three neighborhood resource centers that serve as neighborhood city halls. Civic engagement is an everyday part of our vocabulary.

Resident Engagement an Eye-Opener The fellowship has made me privy to resident engagement at the local level in a mature democracy. Last summer began with a controversy on the future of one of our oldest swimming pools. Soon after another controversy flared: the future of continued on page 26 icma.org/pm

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(from page 24) a key infrastructure, Century II, which is our convention center.

Shortly after, it was the future of a park in the middle of the downtown entertainment district, Old Town. It was a baptism of fire for me. Apart from public-safety issues, I didn’t realize local government could be that intense.

I have learned that unlike other department directors, the police chief is almost as vulnerable to politics as the manager. At least the other department directors have the manager as a cushion.

For the police chief, the ire that comes usually emanates directly from the public.

In that sense, the politics-administration dichotomy seems to vanish. When there are bad roads to be fixed, it is the manager who will be blamed. It’s highly unlikely that a resident on the street knows the public works director’s name, but you can bet that she knows the police chief’s name. The chief is the most wellknown of the department directors. When something is stolen, people will blame the police chief for not doing his or her job.

Value of Partnerships I have also learned that a local government does not exist in a vacuum. There are many other organizations that it works with to help fulfill its duty of making an exceptionally well-run place. The most successful partnership that I have observed so far for Wichita has been with Wichita State University (WSU).

Wichita and WSU collaborate on a variety of projects that are mutually beneficial. Often departments will engage the Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs’ Public Policy and Management Center.

WSU supports the city many times by providing policy analysis. I know students are appreciative of the opportunity to tackle real world problems. Many students eventually find their way here into local government.

The city manager and the president of WSU, John Bardo, have a cordial relationship. I often encounter Misty

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Author along with Ian Hutcheson, city of Wichita, Kansas, Management Fellows for the class of 2017–18.

Bruckner, the program director for the Public Policy and Management Center, at meetings that the manager is holding with the community.

WSU provides professional development to the city. Many city employees have undergone the mini-M.P.A. program. WSU also funds my own job, the management fellowship.

Limited Power It’s been an unparalleled experience, but not everything I have seen has been great. I have seen the limited power that a bureaucrat possesses. There were times that I was surprised that the true experts were not in control; however, that might be due to my bias as someone who has been trained in the profession. Maybe I see bureaucrats as true experts rather than residents on what needs to be done.

I might also be biased because I am sitting here on the 13th floor of city hall.

After one particularly long excruciating battle, the manager reminded me that he is not an elected official so the people have a right to voice their opinion and

P U B LIC MANAG E M E NT | AUG UST 20 1 8

see it implemented. I guess that’s how democracies work. Fellows get to meet the city manager at least once a week for one-on-one conversations.

My experience here in the United States and Wichita will hopefully help me when I return home. Government in most developing nations, including Kenya, is plagued by corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency. I am not interested in simple copy-and-paste solutions.

That has never worked before.

Whenever African countries were forced to adopt leading practices and solutions from the West with no thought to local context and applicability. things have gotten worse. I hope to go back and work in Nairobi.

On the first day of work, Bob said something that stuck with me: “You are allowed to bring your brain to work.” I just loved that. I have been trying to bring my brain to work ever since.

JANEK SUNGA is an incoming

Ph.D. student at Northern Illinois University Political Science Department, DeKalb (Janek.sunga@park.edu).

icma.org/pm

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management minute | managing expansion

BY TONY AGRESTA

AIRBORNE ACCURACY FOR INFRASTRUCTURE Aerial imagery a $60,000 win for Indiana city Rapid Growth = Aggressive Improvements

IMAGE COURTESY OF NEARMAP

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armel, Indiana (James Crider, director of administration), is a fast-growing community.

Considering that growth is expected to continue in 2018 and beyond, the city needed a visual tool that was better able to manage the city’s expansion projects across several government departments.

After years of using low-resolution aerial imagery provided by the county, the city realized it needed something better for analyzing and displaying accurate information.

Carmel’s engineering department turned to a mapping company to provide high-quality, aerial images that are frequently updated to integrate with its existing applications. The city now uses the imagery to aid data accuracy, verify customer claims, educate developers, enforce compliance, and prepare presentations for internal government meetings.

Through impervious surface digitization and internal audits, the engineering department has collected $60,000 in revenue from 2015 through 2017.

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A suburb of Indianapolis, Carmel is home to the Meridian Corporate Corridor (U.S. 31), which has Indiana’s second highest concentration of office workers next to downtown Indianapolis. The walkable, bike-friendly, and sustainable city has seen consistent growth in both residential population and corporate headquarters during the past 20 years. More than 100 corporate headquarters are located in Carmel, and the population has grown from 30,000 in 1996 to 100,000 today.

The city is in the middle of a fouryear, $300-plus million concentrated infrastructure improvement program that includes new roundabouts, intersections, interchanges, and stormwater management and drainage projects. These projects will improve infrastructure and the transportation system by making streets safe for motorists and better for the environment.

Outlining the infrastructure plan uncovered key challenges for Carmel, especially the fact that departments were relying on outdated data and imagery that was highly pixelated.

Outdated and inaccurate data. The engineering department lacked an upto-date, high-resolution base map for its data platforms. Updated maps and GPS information are a crucial part of accurate data representation to determine stormwater billing.

At the time, the department used aerials taken once annually by the county. By the time the imagery was processed and delivered six to eight months after capture, it was a year and a half out of date and didn’t represent new developments. Because of this lag in the

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process, it was impossible to calculate stormwater billing fees for new developments, which meant a loss in revenue.

Poor-quality imagery. The previous aerial imagery the county provided was taken at a less-than-optimal, six-inch resolution, which made it difficult to see detail. “Originally, when the city’s stormwater data was mapped, it didn’t convert into ArcGIS (geographic information systems software) properly,” noted Shane Burnham, GIS technician for Carmel. “The pipe data was off by 15 to 20 feet. Combined with the low-resolution imagery, it was nearly impossible to tell the difference between a smudge and a storm inlet.”

From Challenges to Found Revenue Contracting with a high-resolution, aerial imagery provider, Carmel has not only been able to address previous pain points, it has ultimately transformed challenges into a $60,000 revenue gain.

Data accuracy and image quality.

With imagery that is updated four times a year, as soon as a property is completed and water meters are installed, the department can digitize that information and start billing. Instead of realizing revenue annually, the department sees revenue quarterly.

Claims. With improved aerial imagery, the department can quickly and successfully verify damage claims made by residents. If residents make a claim that the city created a pothole or damage on their property while working on a city project, the city can now look back at historical imagery to verify when the pothole originated.

Working with developers. Carmel has become a real estate hotspot for developers and investors. Often these developers aren’t from Carmel and are unfamiliar with the area and land. The city has used continued on page 30 icma.org/pm

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30

aerial imagery to educate developers by displaying existing drainage patterns, wetlands, and soil types, all through detailed aerial captures.

Compliance. The Carmel engineering department has specific codes and requirements to keep the drainage and quality of city water in check. Each new development is required to install two post-construction stormwater treatment measures to remove pollutants from runoff before it exits the site.

The department can use historical imagery to see if the surfaces were protected during the construction process. With historical imagery, staff can determine if construction crews were tracking dirt on the pervious asphalt. This gives the city a backbone to enforce compliance and saves the time of going back and forth with companies. Situations that would sometimes take years to resolve are now sorted out in one meeting.

Detailed presentations. Engineers now go into every presentation with confidence using imagery. Prior to the high-resolution imagery, presentations used to be on basic slides with bullet points. Now, with historical imagery, city officials can see each stage of progress.

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balancing act | staying focused

BY JEFF DAVIDSON

GET IT DONE NOW Avoid common pitfalls that slow your progress

T

he two most common mistakes that professionals make on the path to accomplishing short-term tasks are overpreparing and at the same time, strangely, underestimating what will be necessary to succeed.

Overpreparation has stopped many would-be get-it-done enthusiasts right in their tracks. Consider, for example, the sales professional who makes fewer sales calls per week, and as a result closes even fewer sales, because he or she gets stuck in the semiperpetual state of overpreparation. This involves doing excessive research on the client, the product, the presentation techniques, and so forth.

The overprepared local government manager means to do well. His or her anxiety level, however, might prompt the individual to unnecessarily complicate one task after another en route to actually completing the overall job.

This is the person who, on the day when a project is finally ready to be finished, is distracted by five other tasks to handle. Why? He’s soooo wound up, that he can’t focus on the task at hand.

Less Is More If you can, forsake the crutches that seemingly aid but often impede your progress. The crutch that frequently impedes most individuals is information.

Too often, many people want to have a broad swath of information, data, figures, statistics—you name it—all assembled before launching a task. More data is not always the answer, especially in a society where we’re deluged with information.

Forsaking crutches simply means you will not allow extraneous factors to impede your progress. If you have five magazine articles that support your argument, having an additional four or five icma.org/pm

articles is not going to make that much of a difference.

You don’t want to fall into the trap of rounding up resources that, in retrospect, will prove to be only marginally helpful and unnecessarily draw from the time you expend on completing the task at hand.

Overpreparation has stopped many would-be get-it-done enthusiasts right in their tracks.

Underestimate No More On any project or task, big or small, it pays to total up what it will cost in terms of time, energy, dollars, or other resources. The paradox faced by otherwise competent managers is that they often underestimate the time that it will take to complete a task, even short-term tasks.

This is the individual who is perpetually racing the clock. His or her to-do list grows longer and longer because this person is inappropriately optimistic about how much can be accomplished in a day, an hour, or other short time span.

In the information-based society engulfing us, it can be difficult to estimate how much time it will take to complete a particular task, especially in those cases where we’re undertaking a task for the first time. You might ask yourself: • Who might know how long it’s going to take to learn a new software routine?

• Who can say precisely how much time it will take to complete a particular form?

• How much time will be needed to review a team member’s first interim report?

• How long will it take to respond to the three critical e-mails that just arrived?

You can make a strong case that a large proportion of the tasks you face on any given day are “first-time” type tasks, and the time to complete them in is not abundantly clear at the outset. That’s why it’s useful to establish benchmarks and set reasonable time limits.

A Good Habit to Acquire Ultimately, our habits define us, especially on the job. Reputations can be enhanced or diminished largely as a result of the work habits we exhibit. Once you develop the habit of taking a task to completion, you find that your ability to get things done consistently improves.

You become the opposite of a procrastinator, which is a self-starter.

You get better and better at jumping right in without a lot of mental claptrap.

Unlike the legion of people who might engulf themselves in endless numbers of short-term tasks, you rise above it all to recognize that get-it-done-now types of individuals are in demand, and sleep better to boot.

JEFF DAVIDSON, MBA, CMC, is

principal, Breathing Space® Institute, Raleigh, North Carolina (www.BreathingSpace.com or Jeff@ Breathingspace.com). An author and presenter on work-life balance, he holds the world’s only registered trademark from the United States Patent and Trademark Office as “The Work-Life Balance Expert.”®

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council relations | retreats

BY MIKE CONDUFF, ICMA-CM

PASSING THE “ELECTED SERVICE” BATON A consistent approach keeps the governance race on track

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t first blush it seemed a bit presumptuous. The term-limited mayor and the council, which included several of her incumbent onthe-ballot councilmembers who all had at least one challenger, were interviewing the two finalist firms for facilitating the annual council retreat and strategic planning session. It was scheduled to be conducted just 45 days after the election.

Since the mayor, for sure, and potentially several of the members on the interview panel would not be at the retreat, it would seem more respectful of the yet-to-be-elected mayor and council to wait until after they were seated to select such a key consultant.

When queried about this, the mayor used a double athletic metaphor that I really enjoyed: “Our community has a long tradition of good governance, and the annual retreat is a critical component of our institutional process. We always do this in mid-June in order to mesh with the budget calendar.

“While I obviously will not be there, it is my responsibility to pass the baton to my successor as effectively as I can.

Having the retreat already teed up for them and the new council is simply my way of serving them—and this community that I love—as best I can.”

Both phrases—passing the baton and teed up—are great images for elected service.

A Consistent Approach Just like in a relay race where each leg is concluded with the successful passing of a baton, local governments that operate at or near peak effectiveness have a consistent approach to the business of governance. They know the budget is adopted at the same time each year.

32

For that document to reflect their current priorities, they must transmit those desired outcomes to the manager and staff, with ample time allowed to incorporate any changes from prior years.

And to develop those outcomes reflective of the current governing body, a thoughtful and intensive session with that group must be held. For that session to occur, all of the logistics associated with it have to be taken care of. If at any point in this “race” the baton is dropped (a process not completed or occurring later than necessary), governance suffers and the organization loses effectiveness.

To develop those outcomes reflective of the current governing body, a thoughtful and intensive session with that group must be held.

Also, just as having a golf ball on a tee makes the ball easier to hit (well, for most of us!) even though the current “racers” won’t be there for the actual baton handoff, their responsibility is to make it easy for the new folks to accomplish it.

Remarkably, in these contentious times, even the individuals seeking the office of mayor and councilmember seemed to appreciate the process they were observing, seeing it as one less thing they would have to undertake upon assuming office.

“I will have enough to learn and take care of in my first 45 days as it is,” one of the candidates told me after the meeting. “While I certainly have my own agenda and if I am elected will want to do some—maybe even many—things

P U B LIC MANAG E M E NT | AUG UST 20 1 8

differently, this process has clearly led to some great decisions being made for our town over the years.”

And then she used her own visualizing phrase, taking me back to my college rowing days, “I don’t see any reason to rock the boat on this one.”

Key Takeaways I am often reminded by my training colleagues that athletic metaphors don’t resonate with everyone, and since the organization’s governance is in many ways the purview of the elected officials, the takeaways of this running, golfing, and rowing imagery for managers seemed to be: • Help the governing body institutionalize such a process as an annual council retreat and goal-setting session by keeping it consistent from year to year. (We always do this. . . .)

• Even during an election procedure, let prospective officeholders know about their attendance and participation expectations. (This year’s retreat is going to be. . . .)

• Take care of as many of the logistics (e.g., time, location, facilities, participants, processes) as possible ahead of time so that the elected officials can concentrate on their value add. (The details are all taken care of, and what we really need from you is. . . .)

Remember that while we can’t hit the governance shot for the elected officials, we can, in the outgoing mayor’s words, get it “teed up” for them.

MIKE CONDUFF, ICMA-CM, is

president and chief executive officer, The Elim Group, Denton, Texas (mike.conduff@theelimgroup.com).

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