PM Magazine, December 2025: Public Safety and Emergency Management
Mario A. Diaz
FEATURES
12
The Power of Vulnerability in Leadership
Lessons learned from crisis management
Mario A. Diaz
16
When High-Crime Properties Handcuff Police, Part 1
If owners refuse to address crime on their properties, call upon super controllers.
Shannon J. Linning, PhD, Tom Carroll, ICMA-CM, Daniel W. Gerard, and John E. Eck, PhD
22
Emergency Communication:
Lessons Learned from a Regionalized Approach, Part 1
An analysis of emergency communications across the diverse geographic and socioeconomic landscape of the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, identifies key challenges and corresponding solutions.
Griffin Moreland, Teagan Trammell, Orel Rhodes, Jennifer Enloe, Jack Lefavour, Jack Callahan, Maddie Luster, Lauren Champion, Justin Bosse, Abbey Anderson, Brooke Free, Ross Jackson, and Miner P. “Trey” Marchbanks III
26
Building a Stronger Police Department Through Organizational Management Planning
A well-structured plan that guides department operations and decision-making can help clarify roles, align resources, and foster employee trust for long-term success.
Mark L. Ryckman, ICMA-CM and Tom Wieczorek
30
Trouble on the Road: Unpacking the Challenges in Medicaid’s Ambulance Supplemental Payment Programs
Local government professionals should be aware of potential changes to ground emergency medical transport programs that could significantly affect public EMS funding.
Police Discipline: Fair, Consistent, but Rarely Equal
The application of the Douglas factors, in conjunction with a disciplinary matrix, enables police executives to tailor disciplinary actions to the specific circumstances of each case.
Chief Joseph P. Mitchell
38
Rutherford County Transit’s Vital Role in Hurricane Helene Evacuations
The department’s tremendous efforts in evacuating more than 100 residents, assisting medically fragile individuals, and supporting recovery operations alongside emergency personnel and the National Guard.
Kerry Giles
40
Living Where You Lead, Part 2: How Residency Impacts Work-Life Balance
How living in the community you manage can blur the line between work and home
Heidi Voorhees, Mitchell Berg, PhD, and Ian James
44
Tom Wieczorek 34
Strengthening Local Disaster Management Amid FEMA’s Uncertain Future
Marshaling human and financial resources for effective emergency management
Jay Juergensen
DEPARTMENTS
2 Executive Director’s Corner Leading Public Safety Forward
4 Ethics Matter!
A Very Different Kind of Gift Guide: Local Government Edition
7 Senior Advisors
Preparing for Your Job Interview with the Governing Body
8 Assistants and Deputies
Take a Break!
10 Insights
Rethinking Police Chief Selection
48 Women in Leadership
Using Your Voice to Lean In
50 Tech Updates
Essential Technology Questions (and Answers) for Decision-Makers
52 Professional Services Directory
Leading Public Safety Forward
Equipping leaders to champion the vital work of those who protect and serve every day.
BY JULIA D. NOVAK, ICMA-CM
For many local governments, the single largest expense category is public safety—police, fire, EMS, emergency management—labor-intensive and highly specialized fields that contribute significantly to the quality of life in local communities. This month’s magazine is dedicated to this public service.
Public safety is also an area where local governments are implementing artificial intelligence in meaningful ways. Whether it’s real-time language interpretation built into body-worn cameras, automated report writing, or drone first responders, our local communities are constantly innovating to provide this critical service.
JULIA
D. NOVAK, ICMA-CM, is executive director of ICMA.
Earlier this year, ICMA launched a public safety–focused SmartBrief, a curated newsletter sent out each Friday. This is another way of connecting our members with issues and innovation occurring across the globe. If you’re not already receiving this, you can scan the QR code on page 9 and sign up! It was well received by our members who beta-tested this for us, and we appreciate their insights as this new SmartBrief was developed.
International City/County Management Association icma.org
December 2025
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.
COPYRIGHT 2025 by the International City/County Management Association. All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced or translated without written permission.
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For more information on local government leadership and management topics, visit icma.org.
One of the unique aspects of being a professional local government manager is that you must be a jack of all trades. You must effectively lead an organization that is made up of highly trained specialists who risk their own lives, have the authority to use lethal force, and are
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ICMA
Creating and Supporting Thriving Communities
ICMA’s vision is to be the leading association of local government professionals dedicated to creating and supporting thriving communities throughout the world. It does this by working with its more than 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.
constantly ensuring that they protect individual rights while protecting and serving their communities.
These are employees who can’t just “take a late lunch” to attend the fourth grade orchestra concert their child is in. These are employees who will work every holiday. These are employees who perform a task that you are (most likely) not qualified to perform, and yet you are their leader. Being knowledgeable about the issues your employees face is one way you demonstrate an understanding (not expertise, but understanding) of what they face on a daily basis.
ICMA’s role in supporting you includes exposing you to hot topics and best practices while positioning you to lead your community with economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and equity. This month’s PM and the weekly SmartBrief on public safety are two ways we are equipping you to serve your community. For seasoned managers, this may be “common sense.” For those that are aspiring to generalist leadership roles, it’s important to become conversant in current issues faced by specialty departments. This goes beyond public safety but is certainly important in this specialized area. It’s our hope that ICMA resources help equip you to have meaningful conversations with the people who work for your organization, and allow you to be an advocate externally for the special skills and training they need to do their jobs every day. The role of “translator” is one of the ways professional local government managers provide value to their organization and their community.
Public safety professionals are at the heart of our communities—dedicated, highly trained, and often
PRESIDENT
Michael Land* City Manager Coppell, Texas
PRESIDENT-ELECT
Andy Pederson*
Village Manager Bayside, Wisconsin
PAST PRESIDENT
Tanya Ange*
County Administrator
Washington County, Oregon
VICE PRESIDENTS
International Region
Meighan Wark
County Administrative Officer Huron County, Canada
Lungile Dlamini
Chief Executive Officer
Municipal Council of Manzini, Eswatini
Jānis Lange
Chief Executive Officer
Riga City Municipality, Latvia
Midwest Region
Jeffrey Weckbach*
Township Administrator Colerain Township, Ohio
Cynthia Steinhauser*
Deputy City Administrator Rochester, Minnesota
Cori Burbach*
Assistant City Manager Dubuque, Iowa
Mountain Plains Region
Pamela Davis
Assistant City Manager Boulder, Colorado
Sereniah Breland
City Manager Pflugerville, Texas
Penny Postoak Ferguson* County Manager Johnson County, Kansas
Northeast Region
Steve Bartha* Town Manager Danvers, Massachusetts
Brandon Ford
Assistant Township Manager
Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania
Kristy Rogers* Town Manager Milton, Delaware
Public safety professionals are at the heart of our communities—dedicated, highly trained, and often working behind the scenes to ensure our collective well-being.
working behind the scenes to ensure our collective well-being. As local government leaders, it’s our responsibility not only to support these specialists but also to understand the unique challenges they face. By staying informed, embracing innovation, and fostering open dialogue, we can better advocate for and lead our public safety teams. I hope this month’s issue provides you with fresh insights and practical tools to champion the vital work of those who protect and serve every day.
Southeast Region
Eric Stuckey City Administrator Franklin, Tennessee
A Very Different Kind of Gift Guide: Local Government Edition
Beware of gifts because strings are always attached!
BY JESSICA COWLES
JESSICA COWLES is director of ethics at ICMA (jcowles@icma.org).
December means the march to the holidays is in full effect. For a season rooted in joy and gratitude, it can feel remarkably rushed. Don’t let its fast pace fool you into taking a break from high ethical standards! Ethics is the beacon of honesty and integrity in the profession. Without it, the organization loses public confidence.
Local governments can most assuredly count on gifts of appreciation from residents, businesses, and vendors during the holidays. This may come in the form of barbeque to those in law enforcement, cookies to code enforcement, and candies to public works. It can be a tray of deliciousness to procurement and Nutcracker tickets to administration.
All these gifts have something in common: they are a reward for past performance, and the givers are likely hoping it will buy goodwill in the future. Often, the intended recipients are front-line employees, who are typically among the organization’s least financially compensated. This can be a recipe for public trust disaster if not appropriately mitigated.
Consider these steps as to why the topic of gifting matters:
1. Use the Code of Ethics as a Framework Tenet 3’s guidelines on public confidence and influence, as well as Tenet 12 and the gift guideline, directly address why these are fundamental values for local government. (See the sidebar on the opposite page.) These concepts should be in any gift policy!
The core principle is accepting a gift with a higher value can undermine public confidence. People have many different motivations to pursue a career in public service. The unifying theme is the profession has a direct impact on public trust because this noble calling requires one’s everyday conduct to merit this high bar. At a time when
local government employee conduct is increasingly under the microscope, a slip-up can significantly diminish the organization’s capacity toward forward progress.
2. Assess State Law
Many states have laws that directly address gifts and the conflicts of interest they create. Some states do not permit accepting any gift, even those of very little value. When there have been bribery or pay-to-play scandals, a legislative solution is often to prohibit gift acceptance of any amount. Remember to always disclose any item considered a gift on state conflict of interest forms. The forms are public information and be assured some residents review them and note any discrepancies!
3. Establish a Local Gift Policy
Often a local government will provide additional guidance on what is an acceptable financial threshold, if any, on the value of a gift. The policy is intended to prevent perceived or actual conflicts of interest. Many are heavy on the “do nots” and it will help those determine the right path in those gray areas.
The Ethics Matter column in the December 2023 PM, “ETHICS MATTER! Deck the Halls: Gifts and Gratuities During the Holiday Season,” by Martha Perego, shares tips and more information on developing a gift policy.1
4. Anticipate Questions
Local government employees who come from other sectors where gifts are permitted may not expect the organization to draw such a firm line on gift acceptance. Expect that some employees may see other sectors be “rewarded” for their efforts, and they may feel this is unfair.
Members confronted with norms that are different from a previous employer should anticipate employee push-back and prepare in advance to explain why this topic matters in local government.
5. Train, Train, Then Train Some More
Training and vigilance on gifts and the conflicts they create are never done. There are always new ways local government employees will be challenged. We owe it to our employees to be honest about the difficulties they will face and give them the tools they need to address them.
Conflicts of Interest: A Fact of Life in Local Government
A leader has the ethical obligation to model the appropriate tone on gifts for the entire organization. Recognize that even with a gift policy and training in place, your employees may not always get it right. Maintaining a firm, fair, and consistent approach when expectations are not met helps prevent a larger public trust issue for the organization.
Gifts are sometimes tricky in local government because they can create a perceived or actual conflict of interest. Taking this into consideration, the Code references conflicts of interest more than 10 times because it is likely a member will be presented with this kind of challenge in their career.
I would enjoy hearing your stories of successful approaches to conflicts of interest so they can be publicized as a practitioner resource for members. Write me at jcowles@icma.org to share!
What the ICMA Code of Ethics Says About Gifts and Public Confidence
Tenet 3. Demonstrate by word and action the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity in all public, professional, and personal relationships in order that the member may merit the trust and respect of the elected and appointed officials, employees, and the public.
Public Confidence. Members should conduct themselves so as to maintain public confidence in their position and profession, the integrity of their local government, and in their responsibility to uphold the public trust.
Influence. Members should conduct their professional and personal affairs in a manner that demonstrates that they cannot be improperly influenced in the performance of their official duties.
Tenet 12. Public office is a public trust. A member shall not leverage his or her position for personal gain or benefit.
Gifts.Members shall not directly or indirectly solicit, accept or receive any gift if it could reasonably be perceived or inferred that the gift was intended to influence them in the performance of their official duties; or if the gift was intended to serve as a reward for any official action on their part.
The term “Gift” includes but is not limited to services, travel, meals, gift cards, tickets, or other entertainment or hospitality. Gifts of money or loans from persons other than the local government jurisdiction pursuant to normal employment practices are not acceptable.
Members should not accept any gift that could undermine public confidence. De minimus gifts may be accepted in circumstances that support the execution of the member’s official duties or serve a legitimate public purpose. In those cases, the member should determine a modest maximum dollar value based on guidance from the governing body or any applicable state or local law.
The guideline is not intended to apply to normal social practices, not associated with the member’s official duties, where gifts are exchanged among friends, associates and relatives.
Calendar of Events
UPCOMING EVENTS
The Current State of Student Debt and Forgiveness | Savi
December 4 | Free Webinar
The Public Sector Playbook: Strategies That Deliver Efficiency and Measurable ROI | Unite Us
December 4 | Free Webinar
Beyond the Numbers: How Local Governments Can Use Data for Effective Policymaking | University of Virginia
December 5 | Free Webinar
Leadership ICMA 2026
December 5 | Application Deadline
The Post-Covid Rise in Park Visitation — Is It Here to Stay? | Placer.ai
December 9 | Free Webinar
Demystifying the Magic: Ranking the Impact of AI Use Cases in Local Government | GovAI
December 11 | Free Webinar
The ICMA Executive Board nomination process is open!
ICMA invites you to consider the unique background and perspective that you can bring to the association as a board member. ICMA’s regional vice presidents play a critical leadership role within the local government management profession and represent members in their geographic region. Learn more about the role and expectations of board service, the nominations and election process, the 2025–2026 schedule, and eligibility requirements for your region by visiting icma. org/icma-executive-board-nominations-process. ICMA strongly encourages individuals who are interested in pursuing this leadership opportunity to reach out to their regional director or email icmanominations@icma.org.
For a full listing of events and details, visit icma.org/events. Shop all courses at learning.icma.org.
Preparing for Your Job Interview with the Governing Body
Thoughts from a senior advisor’s experience
While attending the North Carolina City/ County Management Association’s Winter Seminar this past February, I had the opportunity to sit with a group of about six managers, and the subject of job interviews came up. The discussion centered around the employment agreement, tenure, severance pay, etc. When I suggested that a manager should have their employment agreement in hand at the job interview, I was struck by the fact that not one of these managers had considered that. It got me thinking as to how a manager should prepare for their interview with the governing body.
Over my 40-plus years in municipal government through a myriad of governing body job interviews, I gleaned the importance of preparation and what that preparation should involve. A key step is researching the municipality’s website to see what services, programs, or projects the organization has. I learned that mentioning one or more of these in the interview is a definite plus with the governing body, as it reveals to them that you have reviewed their organization’s work. It’s even more impressive if you offer some positive critique of a program or project.
Another component of preparation is to research the community through reading media stories that might reveal some positive attributes that you can touch on in your interview. Knowing some things that are happening in the community shows the governing body the sincerity of your interest in the position. Further, offering some examples of your work history or your professional knowledge that might augment some projects or events in the community will positively impact your stance with the governing body.
As an example from my past, in my very first interview for a manager’s position in June 1982, I asked the governing body if it had held the required public hearing needed to receive what was then called “revenue sharing” from the federal government. This municipality’s allotment was $250,000. The board indicated that they had not, but would do so. The mayor called me the very next morning with the job offer, stating that I did not
BY STEVE HARRELL
even work for them yet, and I had already saved the town $250,000! I learned a very valuable lesson from that: come prepared to make a difference even in the job interview.
Lastly, I cannot overemphasize the value of having your employment agreement in hand to provide to the governing body at the interview. I was told by two governing bodies that hired me how professionally impressive it was that I was prepared enough to have my employment agreement ready to share with them. I have passed this point on to several managers during my tenure as senior advisor, and they have let me know of the positive impact that this had in their interviews.
To conclude, as with all aspects of life, preparation is the primary path to success. Whether it’s preparing a presentation to council, rolling out a new employee initiative, or ensuring a positive job interview for your next management position, take the time to research and identify the steps needed for that positive outcome.
STEVE HARRELL
Take a Break!
Consider a sabbatical policy as an innovative benefit for employees.
DODD is deputy city manager of Englewood, Colorado, USA.
BY TIM DODD
Like cities across the United States, the city of Englewood, Colorado, endeavors to provide a benefits package to employees that respects their commitment to the organization while also being an effective steward of public funds at a time of high inflation and declining and/ or stagnant revenues.
Over the past several years, the city has worked to implement low-cost, innovative changes to its benefits program, including:
• The establishment of EngleCares, a program through which employees may volunteer during the workday.
• Changing the retirement vesting schedule from five years to one year for all employees.
• Using forfeiture funds from those who leave the city before vesting to create a small percentage match to the city’s 457 retirement savings plan.
The city’s benefits broker noted that benefits offered by the city are “out of this world,” a theme that the city leaned into this fall with a space-themed “Out of This World” benefits fair. To ensure that benefits are innovative and meet the needs of employees, the city solicits, through focus groups as well as an annual employee satisfaction survey, ideas from employees for the leadership team (directors) to improve the employee experience.
In 2024, an employee came forward with an idea for a sabbatical policy to provide employees with additional time off to refresh, recharge, and pursue personal or professional development. She learned of a similar program at a public utility and, while the city found few examples of public sector sabbatical policies, the leadership team decided to conceptualize what such a program could look like. The sabbatical policy is intended to be part of the city’s comprehensive approach to employee benefits and is intended to promote employee well-being and support retention.
The policy will be implemented in January 2026 and provides additional time off on an incremental basis based on years of services. Employees are eligible for a three-week sabbatical at five years of service, a four-week sabbatical at 10 years of service, a five-week sabbatical at 15 years of service, and a six-week sabbatical at 20 years of service, as well as being eligible for a six-week sabbatical every five years thereafter. While not explicitly required, participating employees are encouraged to
provide a brief report or reflection on their experiences upon returning from sabbatical.
Those who are eligible are required to complete an application form at least two months in advance of their selected sabbatical period to allow for sufficient time in business planning and continuity. Department directors are required to review the feasibility of maintaining operations during the employee’s absence and respond to the application within one month of submission. The application also requires the submittal of a “backfill plan,” identifying key responsibilities and projects as well as suggested strategies for covering duties during sabbaticals. Creating this plan is also intended to promote cross-training and resilient leadership by encouraging employees to receive training and learn new skills when covering for coworkers.
Throughout summer and fall 2025, the leadership team and human resources department worked with the management fellow in the city manager’s office to fine-tune the policy and develop a strategy to implement it in early 2026. The leadership team wished to ensure that, in the first year of the program, employees who may be in between milestones would still be able to participate in the program. Per the terms of the policy, employees who are in between milestones during the first year of policy implementation can either take a sabbatical based on their most recent eligibility milestone and then take another sabbatical five years into the future, or stay on the five-year schedule and wait to use their sabbatical until they reach the next milestone date.
City leadership incrementally provided information to employees, primarily through routine all-hands meetings, on the development and implementation of the program. Before the official launch of the program, the human resources and communications teams will work together to build out an intranet page with detailed information on the program and the application. After the first year of the program, city leadership will collect feedback from employees who participated in sabbaticals, as well as their coworkers, to better understand how the program could be modified to meet identified goals while minimizing the impact on others in the organization.
Like other benefits offered by the city, the leadership team hopes that the sabbatical policy will be a low-cost, innovative way of providing high-quality benefits to employees to recognize their years of service and contributions to the organization.
TIM
Rethinking Police Chief Selection
Prioritizing performance over scale
BY J.T. MANOUSHAGIAN
It’s been said that hiring a police chief is one of the most important decisions a city manager can make. Unfortunately, many default to quantitative benchmarks like population, square mileage, or number of officers supervised. These traditional measures are familiar and seemingly objective, but mounting evidence suggests they are poor predictors of leadership effectiveness. Potential chief applicants have no control over the size of their city or how many people live there. What truly matters is how a chief performs, and past performance is perhaps the most useful marker for future performance.
During my career, I’ve observed highly capable and forward-thinking leaders passed over for police chief roles because their current or previous jurisdictions were considered “too small” or “not comparable.” The implication is that performance in a city of 20,000 says little about one’s capacity to lead a city of 100,000 or more. Yet this mindset ignores a critical truth: leaders don’t control the scale of their environment, but they do control how they lead within it.
ICMA has conducted extensive research on municipal public safety staffing and operations, analyzing cities of all sizes. Their findings consistently show that per-capita staffing models and populationbased assumptions offer limited insight into organizational workload, community needs, and executive capacity.
J.T. MANOUSHAGIAN is chief of the Lake
(IPMA-HR) launched the Chief Selection Advantage, a DOJ-funded initiative aimed at modernizing the police chief selection process. They concluded that municipalities still rely on unstructured interviews, vague job descriptions, and scale-based comparisons that overlook the very competencies that matter most in a contemporary chief: ethical leadership, reform-mindedness, emotional intelligence, and the ability to engage and earn the trust of diverse communities.
Effective leadership is less about managing a large number of people and more about managing the right systems, building the right culture, and delivering the right outcomes.
In one study of 61 municipalities, ICMA found that peak call volumes, seasonal trends, and community expectations were far better indicators of resource demand than crime rates or headcount. What’s more, they emphasized that effective leadership is less about managing a large number of people and more about managing the right systems, building the right culture, and delivering the right outcomes.
In 2020, ICMA and the International Public Management Association for Human Resources
That’s where competency-based hiring enters the conversation.
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has long advocated for structured, performance-oriented recruitment for executive roles. In a recent survey, 67% of HR professionals cited poorly defined job expectations as a primary reason for failed hires. Competency frameworks, when implemented correctly, offer a clear way to align candidate strengths with organizational goals.
There is also quantifiable evidence that this approach works. Municipalities that have shifted to performancebased hiring for executive roles reported, on average, a 22% improvement in organizational alignment and an
Worth Police Department in Lake Worth, Texas, USA.
18% increase in community trust scores within two years. These are not small gains. In policing, where public trust is essential, this kind of improvement is transformative. Still, many local governments hesitate to implement these practices. Some face resource constraints and lack the internal HR expertise to build and apply structured selection frameworks. Others are constrained by institutional inertia: long-standing promotion systems based on tenure and rank that resist change. And some city managers simply fear the risk. Hiring a police chief is a high-stakes decision. When faced with pressure to avoid controversy or get it “right,” decision-makers may fall back on the familiar: someone who has led a similarly sized department.
These are real barriers, but not insurmountable ones. Cities can begin by engaging stakeholders, elected officials, community members, and staff in
Selecting a police chief is one of the most consequential decisions a city manager can make.
defining the qualities they want in a police chief. ICMA, IACP, and SHRM all offer publicly available resources to support this process. Structured interviews, behavioral assessments, blind resume reviews, and external facilitation can help mitigate bias and ensure a more robust, equitable process. City managers should challenge themselves to ask different questions: not “How many officers have you supervised?” but “How have you earned the trust of your community?”
Not “What was your city’s size?” but “What did you do with the resources you had?”
Selecting a police chief is one of the most consequential decisions a city manager can make. It is not enough to choose someone who has “been there before.” We must choose someone who has delivered results— someone whose leadership, not their jurisdiction size, tells the real story. In doing so, we’ll help ensure that the future of policing is shaped not by tradition or convenience, but by competence, integrity, and vision.
The Power of Vulnerability in Leadership Lessons learned from crisis management
BY MARIO A. DIAZ
Picture this: You are overcoming a $10+ million budget shortfall in the upcoming fiscal year for the second year in a row, a hurricane is forecasted to strike, and an election is approaching with some influencers promising you a lifetime job while others want your immediate removal.
Additionally, a staff member is being arrested and you have a family emergency happening at home. The community is tense, the team is working around the clock, and the unknown looms. The media is breaking down the door for your comments, elected officials are asking what is next, and your family is waiting for you. What do you do?
Luckily, not all of these things happened to me simultaneously, but some of them did, and all within the same quarter.
I stood before my staff and community, not as a city manager with all the answers, but as someone committed to navigating the storm (literally and figuratively) together. I admitted what we didn’t know, assured them of what we did, and invited them to collaborate to strengthen the city’s response. These key moments taught me the importance of vulnerability in leadership. Acknowledging reality is one of the most challenging, yet essential aspects of leadership. During Hurricane Milton, uncertainty loomed. Models varied wildly, showing the storm potentially impacting
South Florida, the west coast of Florida, or central parts of the state. As the city manager, many looked to me for finite answers amid the storm’s ambiguity. I had to address our team, elected officials, and the community with honesty: I admitted what I didn’t know, emphasized that decisions were being made in collaboration with experts, and focused on protecting both the community and my staff. We ensured that the public had the information they needed to properly prepare, while also being clear that we didn’t have all the answers.
This transparency paid off. While we were fortunate to avoid the storm’s direct impact, our approach strengthened trust and underscored that vulnerability isn’t about weakness but about creating space for collective strength.
Similarly, my vulnerability was tested in a completely different context when a former employee exhibited erratic and threatening behavior. Safety concerns for
myself, city officials, staff, and the community dominated the weekend. Despite personal fears, I knew my role demanded calm and decisive leadership. I helped coordinate law enforcement actions, issued trespass warnings, and updated security protocols. Throughout it all, I kept stakeholders informed while remaining vulnerable enough to acknowledge the weight of the situation—a weight that at times could paralyze you with what-ifs. These moments of candor proved critical to maintaining the trust of the team and ensuring safety.
Sharing the Process
When others look at us in our leadership roles (not always as the chief administrative officer, sometimes as a friend, or in my case, as a husband or father), they often come with the expectation that we have all the answers.
However, sharing the decision-making process—the doubts, considerations, and rationale—can be a powerful way to build trust and strengthen buy-in.
I stood before my staff and community, not as a city manager with all the answers, but as someone committed to navigating the storm (literally and figuratively) together.
For example, during Hurricane Milton, I didn’t just inform stakeholders of the decisions being made; I explained why I was making them. I walked them through the logic behind the timing of service shutdowns, balancing the needs of the community and the personal needs of staff to secure their homes and prepare their families. Sharing this process reassured others that decisions were thoughtful, dynamic, and rooted in collaboration with experts.
In a different instance, when addressing the $10+ million budget shortfall, I outlined the competing priorities and trade-offs our team faced. Instead of presenting a polished plan as though it was final, I engaged the commission and staff by walking them through the fiscal realities and tough decisions required to close the gap. This approach not only fostered understanding but also created a shared sense of ownership over the solutions.
Key Takeaways
Inviting Input
True leadership recognizes the value of collective wisdom. By inviting input and encouraging dissenting opinions, leaders signal that they don’t have all the answers—and that’s okay.
For instance, leading up to the budget, I held open forums with staff and community stakeholders. These sessions were designed not just to inform but to actively listen. I asked questions like, “What am I missing?” and “What concerns haven’t been addressed?” These moments of active listening helped shape our final budget decisions, ensuring more inclusive and diverse perspectives.
Similarly, during the unfortunate events that led to a staff member being arrested, I sought input from other staff members and contracted experts regarding legal aspects, crisis management, media responsiveness, police operations, and restructuring our organizational chart. The feedback received from staff and the commission allowed me to view the situation from someone else’s perspective, helping me avoid tunnel vision or overemphasizing my personal feelings on the situation.
Since then, I have seen team members providing solutionbased ideas more freely. By witnessing my openness to successfully and empathically handling crises from a collective perspective and my ownership of decisions and their impacts, I have further gained the trust of those we work with.
Balancing Vulnerability and Authority
While vulnerability is essential, it must be balanced
with authority. I achieve this delicate balance by:
1. Acknowledging My Vulnerability as My Strength. Vulnerability should emphasize collaboration and shared purpose. For example, I often ask, “What are your thoughts?”, “What might I be missing?”, or even “How would you solve this?” to encourage open dialogue while demonstrating confidence in the team’s ability to contribute.
2. Choosing My Moments. Not every moment calls for vulnerability. During a crisis, transparency must align with providing clear direction. During Hurricane Milton, I shared uncertainties strategically, while ensuring the community felt confident in the city’s preparedness. During the situation with the former employee, I didn’t allow my limitations or second thoughts to deter a final decisive decision. Once a decision is made, I hold myself accountable and take responsibility for my decisions.
3. Following Through with Action. Allowing myself to be vulnerable to others ultimately leads to a more inclusive solution. Whether I was addressing the storm, our budget process, or the safety threat posed by a former employee, I paired open communication with decisive action to show that transparency drives meaningful outcomes.
Leadership, particularly in local government, is rarely about having all the answers.
Acknowledging Challenges:
Vulnerability allows leaders to confront uncertainty head-on while fostering trust. Sharing both known and unknowns during crises, like Hurricane Milton, builds collective strength.
Transparency in DecisionMaking: Explaining the rationale behind decisions helps stakeholders understand complex trade-offs and fosters collaboration. It turns doubt into a shared sense of purpose.
Inviting Input: Encouraging diverse perspectives empowers teams and strengthens decision-making, as demonstrated during the city’s budget discussions and crises.
Balancing Vulnerability with Authority: Vulnerability should coexist with decisive leadership. Leaders must strategically choose when to share uncertainties and ensure follow-through with clear actions.
Building Trust and Collaboration:
Vulnerability transforms leadership by creating authentic connections with teams and communities, inspiring them to engage and contribute solutions.
It’s about creating trust, fostering collaboration, and navigating challenges with authenticity. Vulnerability and transparency, when balanced with authority, can transform leaders from distant figures to relatable, trusted guides.
To my fellow leaders, don’t shy away from being vulnerable or showing vulnerability. Embrace it as a tool for connection, a
pathway to trust, and a foundation for a team cemented in support, integrity, generosity, honesty, and transparency.
MARIO A. DIAZ is currently an ICMA Member in Transition and an ICMA-CM candidate with 10 years’ experience in local government management.
When High-Crime Properties Handcuff Police
If owners refuse to address crime on their properties, call upon super controllers.
BY SHANNON J. LINNING, PhD, TOM CARROLL, ICMA-CM, DANIEL W.GERARD, AND JOHN E. ECK, PhD
This is the first in a three-article series about high-crime places.
Thinking Beyond Offenders, Victims, and Residents
A scrapyard on the edge of the rural English village of Staining generated many calls to the local constabulary.1 These included fights between staff and customers, theft of car parts, and arson. Residents complained that the scrapyard attracted people who stole cars and other belongings from their nearby garages, gardens, and sheds to trade at the yard.
Police intelligence gathering revealed that several chronic offenders frequented the yard; some were even employed by the yard. Police also uncovered several safety threats: a dilapidated rusty iron fence surrounding the property; vehicles piled six high in the yard, some of which had previously fallen over; and years’ worth of oil and pollutants that had been leaking into the water table and contaminating nearby marshlands. »
Police ramped up patrols in the area hoping to deter offenders. Some residents started a neighborhood watch. But these efforts failed. The constabulary found that “the offenders had been reported, arrested and intelligence gathered but still they came back time and time again to cause misery to the locals and put a strain on police resources.”2
Getting nowhere, a local constable decided to take a new approach. Instead of pursuing the crime problems, the constable pursued the yard’s safety problems. He contacted two agencies: the health and safety executives office and the government environmental agency. After learning of the dilapidated fence and piles of vehicles, a health and safety executive visited the yard and demanded that the business owner erect a proper fence and remove large piles of cars. After learning the yard was polluting the watercourse, the environmental agency visited the yard and demanded that the scrapyard owner remove the topsoil in the yard and install concrete flooring and modern drainage. Though the business owners initially fixed the fence and moved some vehicles, they refused to address the environmental issues the yard caused. So, the business owners closed the yard. Residents noticed an immediate improvement; crime in the village declined by 45% and there was an 87% reduction in crime within 200 meters of the scrapyard.
Three lessons can be learned from the scrapyard. First, instead of focusing on the people involved in crime, the constable focused on the
place. Property owners make decisions about their places that can create or suppress crime opportunities.3 We call people who operate properties place managers.4
Second, instead of trying to solve the auto theft and burglary problems associated with the scrapyard by arresting offenders, the constable focused on safety issues associated with the place. Properties with crime problems often have other problems, too: unpaid tax liens, building code violations, health code violations, and so on.5
Third, to address the safety and environmental issues, the constable identified the relevant agencies and prompted action from them. Addressing issues other than crime can end up reducing crime. The closing of this mismanaged scrapyard not only eliminated its safety and environmental problems, but it also eliminated the opportunities for crime. Thieves no longer stole from nearby properties because they no longer had a place that would purchase stolen goods.6
When looking to reduce crime, people typically focus on the offender and victim. People seldom focus on the place manager to solve the problem. But place managers are very powerful; they are the controllers of property.7 Research indicates that when owners act to prevent crime on their properties, they cut down crime.8
But sometimes place managers are uncooperative. When this happens, are you out of luck? Fortunately, no. You just need to find a way to put pressure on
Super controllers are institutions, organizations, or people who create incentives for place managers to prevent crime.
place managers to change their places. We call these people or organizations super controllers.
Using Super Controllers to Motivate Action
Super controllers are institutions, organizations, or people who create incentives for place managers to prevent crime.9 In the scrapyard example, the health and safety executive office and the government environmental agency were both super controllers. Both put pressure on the place manager— the scrapyard owner—to address problems on the property: the dilapidated fence, stacks of cars, and toxic waste spilling into the water table. It’s important to note that super controllers do not directly change any given place. Instead, they have indirect influence over place managers; it’s the place
managers who control and act upon the place, not the super controller.
As a city/county manager, you’ve probably encountered super controllers before. All businesses require valid business licenses to operate. Businesses wanting to sell alcohol have special rules they must follow to maintain their licenses. All bars, for example, are forbidden to sell alcohol to those underage. They also are not supposed to sell alcohol to individuals who are visibly intoxicated. Doing so increases the likelihood that the premises can experience problems, such as fights inside the bar and robberies on nearby streets.
If a bar is a hotspot for crime, one possible intervention is to have the corresponding liquor control bureau conduct an audit of the premises (Figure 1). If the liquor regulation agent learns that the bar staff are overserving or serving to minors, the agent can threaten to revoke the bar’s liquor license unless the owner makes changes. Without the license, the bar cannot serve alcohol.
The threat of losing one’s license will likely motivate the place manager to change how the place functions to reduce the over-serving, fights, and underage drinking. Changes could include training employees to check identification and forbidding the sale of alcohol to minors. In this example, the liquor board agent is the super controller, the bar owner is the place manager, and the bar is the place/property. The liquor control board does not take any direct action on the place. Instead, the place manager changes the place
because of the pressure from the liquor control board.
There Are Many Super Controllers at Your Disposal
Places with high crime are usually poorly managed. And poorly managed properties are often in violation of a variety of regulations; health and safety hazards, unpaid tax liens, unkept properties. To solve the crime problems at such places, it helps to involve more than just the police. You need to involve the city/
county agencies that deal with health and safety hazards, unpaid taxes, and unkept properties. Such agencies are super controllers.10
For example, an Anaheim nightclub had many fights, including two homicides. The police tried dealing with the problem using traditional strategies, like increased enforcement, but this failed. The police then noticed that the nightclub owner was operating under the wrong liquor license, was allowing too many people
into the nightclub, and was not following the rules of his dance-hall permit. So, the police enlisted the help of the state liquor board to investigate liquor license violations, the fire marshal to address occupancy concerns, and the treasurer to deal with violations of the dance-hall permit.11
If an apartment building is generating many calls for police service, investigate who owns the building. If owners are managing their buildings themselves, see if
you can convince them to apply some crime prevention strategies.12 But sometimes apartment owners contract property management companies to oversee daily operations. Sometimes the owner, who has placed trust in the manager, is unaware of the negligence. So, getting the owner engaged can lead to solutions. Clauses in the contract may give the owner the authority to discipline the negligent manager.
If you are dealing with a recalcitrant local store manager who reports to corporate headquarters, consider contacting their corporate headquarters. For example, one of us (John) once worked with police to address problems associated with a discount department store in Baltimore County, Maryland, USA.13 Some people were purchasing large quantities of gold and silver spray paint cans to get high by inhaling the fumes. They were then causing problems at nearby places, such as getting hit by vehicles and scaring residents. Police tried to enlist the store manager to solve the problem. The store manager initially resisted, so the police got the store’s headquarters involved. The store manager removed gold and silver spray paint from display shelves and restricted the sales of these colored paints.
Financial and insurance institutions may also be of use. Some insurance companies will offer discounts if clients apply crime prevention measures. In rural England, for example, farm insurance companies offered a 12% discount if farm owners installed trackers on their equipment in case of theft.14
Figure 1.
In addition to obtaining building permits, for example, a development company building single family homes will need to carry insurance. Builders risk insurance covers the site and materials used on the premises, but builders often will not be covered unless certain conditions, such as fencing enclosing the entire work site, are met. Thus, insurance companies can compel crime prevention action from builders.15 City/county governments can also specify and enforce good building practice. To reduce thefts of appliances, for example, the development and building services department can specify in building permits that developers must wait to install appliances until the day before closing.16
City managers should also not forget the value of code or bylaw enforcement. Some gang members, for example, will rent homes and
not mow the lawn. The tall grass provides an easy hiding place for their firearms; if police locate the firearms, the offenders can feign innocence saying they do not know where the firearm came from. Code/bylaw officers can warn the landlord of consequences (such as fines) if the grass is not kept to a minimum height. Often the landlords are unaware that their tenants are not keeping up the property. Not only will consistent lawn mowing make city lots look nicer, but they can also remove opportunities for crime.17
Addressing
issues other than crime can end up reducing crime.
Property owners make decisions about their places that can create or suppress crime opportunities.
In extreme cases when property owners are uncooperative, cities can get courts involved. Local prosecutors can initiate nuisance abatement lawsuits against property owners whose actions (or failure to act) disturb the health, safety, or enjoyment of area residents.18 Examples include unsanitary conditions, noise and disturbances, property neglect, and repeated public safety response to the property. If a property owner repeatedly fails to address the issues, the lawsuit can result in the property going into receivership; the court appoints a third party to take control of the property and make the necessary changes, often at the expense of the owner. As expensive as these court cases may be, they might be the cheapest way for a local government to reduce crime, reply to residents, and respond to elected officials.
Coordinate Your Existing Municipal Resources
Often when police begin investigating problem
properties, they learn that other agencies also have had contact with them. If, for example, the landlord of an old apartment building is turning a blind eye to drug dealing on her property, she may also be delinquent on her property taxes or failing to replace faulty wiring. While crimes at properties like this often attract the attention of the police, these properties may not be priorities for other city/county agencies. Police should convene otherwise siloed agencies with powers to solve property problems.
An effort in New Rochelle, New York, provides an example.19 Emergency services were receiving multiple calls about quality-of-life problems including building and fire code violations, as well as overcrowding and illegal housing. Many calls were repeats about the same few properties. So, the police department spearheaded the creation of a qualityof-life task force made up of many super controllers: fire department, buildings inspection, public works, and county electrical inspectors whose efforts were overseen by the law department.
The idea was to have various agencies jointly
inspect the properties they were receiving calls about and engage in coordinated efforts to get owners to address problems on their properties. The task force first tried to gain compliance voluntarily through education and general requests. If property owners did not act, the task force switched to enforcement. The local court and district attorney’s office worked together to aggressively prosecute uncooperative property owners. And the New Rochelle Corporation Council passed local legislation authorizing an escalating fine schedule for property owners with repeated violations. In the first three years, the task force inspected 183 properties and issued 557 summonses. The police found a 15% decrease in crime and a 22% reduction in calls for service.
Conclusion
To reduce crime, we must address problem properties. If a property owner doesn’t cooperate, the police are handcuffed. Therefore, the city/ county should consider super controllers. And as we will show in the next article, solving a place problem can have neighborhood-wide benefits.
ENDNOTES AND RESOURCES
1 Lancashire Constabulary (1999). The Nook Scrapyard: A POP’s Initiative. Submission to the Tilley Awards at the United Kingdom Home Office Policing and Reducing Crime Unit. Retrieved from: https://popcenter.asu.edu/ sites/g/files/litvpz3631/files/library/ awards/tilley/1999/99-21(R).pdf
2 Ibid, note 2.
3 Eck, J.E., Linning, S.J., & Herold, T.D. (2023). Place management and crime: Ownership and property rights as a source of social control. Springer Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03127693-4
4 Linning, S.J., Carroll, T., Gerard, D., & Eck, J.E. (2024). Do residents matter most in reducing crime? Public Management, 106(11), 30-34. https:// icma.org/articles/pm-magazine/doresidents-matter-most-reducing-crime
5 Smith, M.J., & Mazerolle, L. (2016). Using civil actions against property to control crime problems. Response Guide Series; Problem-Oriented Guides for Police (No. 11). Center for ProblemOriented Policing. Retrieved from: https://popcenter.asu.edu/sites/g/ files/litvpz3631/files/civil_actions_ against_properties.pdf
6 Madensen, T.D., & Eck, J.E. (2012). Crime places and place management. In F.T. Cullen & P. Wilcox (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Criminological Theory (pp. 1-18). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/ oxfordhb/9780199747238.013.0029
7 Ibid, note 3.
8 Linning, S.J., Carroll, T., Gerard, D.W., & Eck, J.E. (2025). Can the police solve all public safety problems? Public Management, 107(1), 40-44. https:// icma.org/articles/pm-magazine/canpolice-solve-all-crime-problems
9 Sampson, R., Eck, J. E., & Dunham, J. (2010). Super controllers and crime prevention: A routine activity explanation of crime prevention success and failure. Security Journal, 23(1), 37–51. https:// doi.org/10.1057/sj.2009.17
10 Shader, C. G., Gill, C., Zheng, X., & Carleton, B. (2024). City government as super-controller: A systematic review of non-police mechanisms that city governments can apply to reduce crime at hot spots. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 78, 101957. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.avb.2024.101957
11 Anaheim Police Department (2007). The Boogie! A nightclub that defied traditional problem-solving efforts. Submission to the Herman Goldstein Award for Excellence in Police Problem Solving, Center for Problem-Oriented Policing. Retrieved from: https:// popcenter.asu.edu/sites/g/files/ litvpz3631/files/library/awards/ goldstein/2007/07-01(F).pdf
12 Ibid, note 8.
13 Higdon, R.K., & Huber, P.G. (1987). How to fight fear: The citizen-oriented police enforcement program package. Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum.
14 Durham Constabulary (2023). OP Lyric. Submission to the Herman Goldstein Award for Excellence in Problem-Oriented Policing, Center for
15 Boba, R., & Santos, R. (2007). Single-family home construction site theft: A crime prevention case study. International Journal of Construction Education and Research, 3(3), 217-236. https://doi. org/10.1080/15578770701715086
16 Clarke, R.V. & Goldstein, H. (2002). Reducing theft from construction sites: Lessons from a problem-oriented project. Crime Prevention Studies, 13, 89130. Retrieved from: https://popcenter. asu.edu/sites/g/files/litvpz3631/ files/library/CrimePrevention/ Volume_13/06-Clarke.pdf
17 Hammer, M.G. (2020). Place-based investigations of violent offender territories (PIVOT): An exploration and evaluation of a place network disruption violence reduction strategy in Cincinnati, Ohio (Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati). Retrieved from: https:// etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/ send_file/send?accession=ucin1583999 744424994&disposition=inline
18 Smith, M.J., & Mazerolle, L. (2016). Using civil actions against property to control crime problems. Response Guide Series; Problem-Oriented Guides for Police (No. 11). Center for ProblemOriented Policing. Retrieved from: https://popcenter.asu.edu/sites/g/ files/litvpz3631/files/civil_actions_ against_properties.pdf
19 New Rochelle Police (2010). Fixing Broken Windows: Collaborative Approach to Housing Remediation.
Submission to the Herman Goldstein Award for Excellence in ProblemOriented Policing. Retrieved from: https://popcenter.asu.edu/sites/g/ files/litvpz3631/files/library/awards/ goldstein/2010/10-11.pdf
SHANNON J. LINNING, PhD, is an assistant professor in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.
TOM CARROLL, ICMA-CM, is city manager of Lexington, Virginia, USA.
DANIEL W. GERARD is a retired 32-year veteran (police captain) of the Cincinnati Police Department, USA.
JOHN E. ECK, PhD, is an emeritus professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION Lessons Learned from a Regionalized Approach, Part 1
An analysis of emergency communications across the diverse geographic and socioeconomic landscape of the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, identifies key challenges and corresponding solutions.
BY GRIFFIN MORELAND, TEAGAN TRAMMELL, OREL RHODES, JENNIFER ENLOE, JACK LEFAVOUR, JACK CALLAHAN, MADDIE LUSTER, LAUREN CHAMPION, JUSTIN BOSSE, ABBEY ANDERSON, BROOKE FREE, ROSS JACKSON, AND MINER P. “TREY” MARCHBANKS III
Have you or your city experienced an emergency recently? It could be a hurricane, wildfire, or other naturally occurring event, or it could be a mass shooting or other human-initiated event, such as a train derailment. What do all these things have in common? Well, someone had to be there to sort through things after the emergency, but just as importantly, before and during the emergency itself. Effective emergency management processes and procedures can ultimately make or break the efforts to prevent, prepare for, weather, and recover from an emergency. But what is effective emergency
management? In this article and the articles in the following two issues of PM, we will explore this question and many others.
As former students of The Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, we conducted extensive research and spoke with dozens of local government administrators regarding challenges in the profession of emergency management. The team has since earned their Master of Public Service and Administration degrees and are now serving as your colleagues in this challenging yet crucial profession. In our degree program, we were part of a capstone group tasked with solving a problem for a
client. Our client was Region 10 (the Rio Grande Valley Area) of the Texas City Management Association (TCMA), and our liaison was Elizabeth Walker, who served as president of the region. She tasked us with identifying gaps in emergency communication and management within the region and identifying solutions to enhance emergency communication effectiveness.
We hope this three-article series will allow other local government officials reading this to consider their emergency communication and management plans, ensure they are as effective as possible, and be prepared for when, not if, the next emergency comes to your doorstep.
Understanding Emergency
Management in TCMA Region 10
TCMA Region 10, which encompasses the dynamic and diverse Rio Grande Valley (RGV), is characterized by a unique set of challenges that test the limits of emergency management. The area’s vulnerability to various natural disasters, such as hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires, demands a robust and adaptable emergency communication strategy, specifically tailored to meet its geographical and socioeconomic nuances. The RGV’s geographic positioning along the Gulf Coast increases its exposure to hurricanes and resulting flooding, necessitating
preemptive emergency communication systems that can handle the sudden onset of such events.
The socioeconomic diversity of Region 10 also plays a critical role in shaping emergency management practices. With a population characterized by varying income levels and a rich tapestry of cultural backgrounds, there is a substantial need for emergency communication strategies that are not only comprehensive but also culturally sensitive. This diversity requires that messages be customized in language and delivery method to ensure they are accessible and actionable by all community members, regardless of their socioeconomic status
Furthermore, the region’s infrastructure presents additional complexities in delivering emergency services and information dissemination. While urban areas within Region 10 might benefit from relatively developed technological infrastructures, facilitating faster and more reliable communication, rural areas present a stark contrast. These areas often grapple with significant resource limitations and lack advanced communication technologies. This disparity leads to a digital divide, where rural communities face challenges in receiving timely and reliable emergency alerts. Such inconsistencies often hinder effective response efforts during crises, making
it imperative to develop infrastructure that bridges this gap.
To address these challenges, emergency communication systems must incorporate advanced technologies that can rapidly disseminate alerts across diverse platforms, ensuring wide reach. Simultaneously, traditional communication methods, such as radio and public announcements, must support these systems, especially in rural areas that lack internet connectivity. This dual approach ensures that all residents, irrespective of their location or access to technology, receive critical information during emergencies
By enhancing the resilience of communication infrastructures
The effectiveness of emergency response hinges significantly on the ability of communication systems to reach all segments of a community.
and tailoring emergency messages to meet the varied needs of their communities, local governments can significantly improve their preparedness and response capabilities, ensuring that all residents are well-informed and able to take appropriate actions during disasters.
Research Approach and Methodology
Our research into the intricacies of emergency management in TCMA Region 10 was structured around a comprehensive, multidimensional methodological approach. We initiated our study with an extensive literature review to grasp the existing standards and identify the gaps in emergency communication. This preliminary step was crucial not only for
grounding our research in established best practices but also for highlighting areas lacking sufficient study, especially those critically relevant to the unique geographical and socioeconomic contexts of the region.
To gain a deeper understanding of the on-theground realities and challenges faced during emergencies, we organized focus groups involving a diverse group of stakeholders. Participants included first responders, public officials, and leaders from nonprofit organizations operating within the region. These focus groups were instrumental in uncovering real-time challenges and provided a platform for stakeholders to express their experiences and concerns directly. The discussions illuminated the pressing need for enhanced coordination among the various emergency management entities, revealing that while some systems were effective, others were fragmented and inefficient in times of crisis.
Complementing these qualitative insights, we prepared
surveys and distributed them to a broader range of local government professionals. The survey data helped us quantify the effectiveness of the current emergency communication systems and pinpoint specific areas requiring improvement. This quantitative approach allowed us to assess the generalizability of the issues identified during the focus groups and evaluate the impact of these issues across a larger segment of the population.
The combination of targeted research methods and concise data analysis gave us a clear understanding of the current state and challenges of emergency management in Region 10. Our findings have informed actionable recommendations to enhance the region’s emergency communication framework, ensuring local governments can effectively reach all segments of the population during crises.
Key Findings from Our Research
Our research identified several key strengths and deficiencies in the emergency
communication capabilities within Region 10. Notably, there is strong existing coordination among certain agencies, especially in urban centers. The coordination, primarily facilitated by advanced technological infrastructure, allows for quicker dissemination of emergency alerts, contributing significantly to the efficiency of initial emergency responses. Outside of these urban centers, the issue of jurisdictional fragmentation affects the consistency and reliability of emergency communications across different areas of the region. This fragmentation often results in ineffective dissemination of crucial information during emergencies, making it difficult for all residents to receive timely and accurate updates
Our findings also highlighted significant gaps in reaching and effectively communicating with vulnerable populations, especially in rural areas where technological infrastructure is less developed. The prevalence of alert fatigue was frequently
noted as a significant issue, with repeated non-critical alerts leading to a general desensitization to emergency communications. This issue underscores the critical need for strategic and targeted messaging to maintain public attention and responsiveness during actual emergencies. From our focus group discussions, the most frequently mentioned topics related to emergency communication included the use of multiple communication channels, the strategic targeting of messages, and the importance of non-technologybased fallback options.
Participants emphasized the necessity of employing diverse communication methods to ensure inclusive and accessible information dissemination during emergencies. A critical gap identified was the lack of early warning systems, such as sirens, which are crucial for immediate alerts. Discussions revealed a consensus on the need for such systems to be integrated into the existing emergency communication framework
TCMA Region 10 Capstone Team (2023–2024). Not Pictured: Brooke Free]
to enhance the region’s preparedness and immediate response capabilities
Cross-sectoral engagement and collaboration were also highlighted as vital components of effective emergency communication. The need for a centralized dispatch system that includes all relevant entities was noted as a solution to overcome the current disjointed communication efforts. Such a system would enable more streamlined and coordinated emergency responses, ensuring that critical information reaches all stakeholders efficiently and reliably
These findings illustrate the complex landscape of emergency communication in Region 10 and underscore the importance of addressing both technological and structural challenges. By leveraging the strengths and addressing the identified gaps, Region 10 and all local governments can enhance their emergency communication systems to meet the diverse needs of their communities more effectively.
Recommendations for Strengthening Emergency Communication
Based on our research, we proposed six key recommendations to enhance emergency communication in TCMA Region 10:
1. Utilize Multiple Communication Channels: Combining traditional (TV, radio) and digital (social media, alerts) methods to ensure comprehensive coverage and minimize alert fatigue.
2. Tailor Messaging to Audience Needs: Employ clear, accessible language that considers the cultural and
socioeconomic diversity of the region.
3. Monitor and Evaluate Communication Efforts: Implement continuous assessments to adapt strategies based on real-time feedback and technological advancements
4. Promote Cross-Sectoral Engagement: Enhance collaboration among emergency services, local governments, and nonprofits to ensure seamless response efforts
5. Leverage Technology for Collaboration: Encourage the adoption of regional databases and emergency response applications
6. Implement a Public Information Officer (PIO) System: Centralize communication efforts through trained personnel to manage emergency messaging and reduce misinformation.
Each recommendation is designed to address specific challenges identified in our study and will be explored in greater detail in the following articles of this series. This step-by-step exploration will provide local governments with practical, actionable strategies to improve their emergency communication capabilities.
The Broader Implications for Local Governments
The findings from our study of TCMA Region 10 have significant implications that extend beyond the immediate geographic area. Local governments nationwide, and even internationally, can draw valuable lessons from this research to assess and enhance their own emergency
communication plans. The effectiveness of emergency response hinges significantly on the ability of communication systems to reach all segments of a community.
Engagement with the community is not just beneficial; it is essential. Local governments are encouraged to actively involve diverse community representatives in the planning and continuous improvement of emergency communication strategies. This involvement ensures that the plans are inclusive and reflective of the community’s needs, helping to build trust and foster collaborative relationships between government agencies and the communities they serve.
Investing in robust communication infrastructure and training for emergency personnel are critical steps toward improving the overall resilience of communities to emergencies. Regular reviews and updates of emergency plans, along with drills and training exercises, ensure that responses are swift, coordinated, and effective when emergencies occur.
We urge local governments to not only review and update their emergency plans regularly but also to strengthen their partnerships with regional emergency management agencies. These partnerships are invaluable for sharing resources, information, and best practices, ensuring that when, not if, the next emergency hits, all involved entities are well-prepared to protect and assist their communities effectively.
This comprehensive approach is not merely about responding to emergencies but building systems that ensure communities can withstand and rebound from disasters swiftly
and with minimal disruption. The next article in this series will discuss the key findings of our past research and how they have broad applicability to other urban and rural areas elsewhere.
In the third article of the series, we will address and opine on how your community can take steps to prepare for the inevitable disaster that will unfold in your area.
GRIFFIN MORELAND is assistant to the city manager, Pecos, Texas, USA.
TEAGAN TRAMMELL is management analyst II, Sugar Land, Texas, USA.
OREL RHODES is executive assistant to the general secretary/CEO, Baptist World Alliance.
JENNIFER ENLOE is captain of field operations, Texas A&M University Police.
JOHN “JACK” LEFAVOUR is executive officer, Longenecker & Associates.
JACK CALLAHAN is coal community development manager, Navajo County and Apache County, Arizona, USA.
MADELINE LUSTER is public relations, Bixby, Oklahoma, USA.
LAUREN CHAMPION is digital opportunity coordinator, Texas Broadband Development Office.
JUSTIN BOSSE is associate fleet analyst, fleet transfer –Houston.
ABBEY ANDERSON is assistant to the city administrator, Spring Valley Village, Texas, USA.
BROOKE FREE is director of sales, OsteoStrong – Houston.
ROSS JACKSON is policy analyst, right on crime, Texas Public Policy Foundation.
MINER P. “TREY” MARCHBANKS III is research scientist, The Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University.
Building a Stronger Police Department Through Organizational Management Planning
A well-structured plan that guides department operations and decisionmaking can help clarify roles, align resources, and foster employee trust for long-term success.
BY MARK L. RYCKMAN, ICMA-CM & TOM WIECZOREK
Successful policing depends on more than crime reduction strategies and operational tactics. A wellmanaged department with clear direction is the essential foundation for long-term effectiveness. An organizational management plan helps build internal consensus on how the department should operate and provides clear guidance for decisions related to staffing, technology, training, and community engagement.
What Is an Organizational Management Plan?
An organizational management plan outlines the structural, strategic, and procedural framework within which a police department operates. It is not intended as a technical document but is a practical tool to support decision-making. To be effective, the plan must be sustainable, embedded in day-to-day operations,
and integrated throughout the entire organization. It’s important to become part of the department’s culture rather than a one-time initiative. These plans help answer fundamental questions, such as:
• What is the department’s vision for the future and how does that vision align with the expectations of the city council, management, and the broader community?
• What is the department’s core mission and primary purpose?
• Does the department have a clear and effective governance structure with well-defined roles and responsibilities including a clear chain-of-command?
• What are the department’s needs regarding staffing levels, training, and technology?
• How can the department improve internal and external communications to keep staff and the community informed while improving community engagement to maintain trust and support?
By addressing these critical questions and more, departments can align resources, practices, and personnel with the overarching mission and vision. Ultimately, it will help ensure the police department is prepared effectively to meet changing community needs.
Employee Engagement Is Critical to Success
Although creating a plan driven solely by management might seem more efficient, it risks overlooking the insights of those who carry out the day-to-day work and may make staff feel undervalued.
A successful organizational management Plan requires input from all employees, both sworn and civilian, to ensure that everyone has a voice in the department’s daily operations and future direction. Some effective but practical engagement strategies are:
Kickoff Meeting
Aim to have a kickoff meeting where as many employees in the department as possible are present. This helps ensure everyone hears the same information at the same time, reducing misunderstandings and minimizing the rumor mill. Use this opportunity to explain the purpose of the organizational management planning process and how it will benefit the department. Outline the tentative project schedule, including major milestones, so employees know what to expect and how long the process is anticipated to take. Encourage participation, ask for their help, and emphasize that they are partners with management in defining how the department operates and its direction for the future. Be open to questions, answer them thoroughly, and temper expectations. If there are not sufficient resources to expand staff, explain it, but give concrete examples of achievable goals.
SWOT Analysis
Conduct an analysis of the department’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats involving employees at all ranks. Frontline staff often have valuable insights into equipment deficiencies, training gaps, and procedural inefficiencies that management may overlook. An independent third party can facilitate this process effectively, helping to draw out honest feedback without appearing judgmental or aligned with a predetermined outcome. Whenever possible, use neutral facilitators and provide opportunities for
An organizational management plan developed through collaborative, consensus-based processes can transform a police department.
employees to meet with them privately, allowing for more open and candid feedback without the presence of management.
Focus Groups
Organize small groups to explore key topics such as technology, communications, and employee wellness. These sessions provide employees with more time to discuss issues in depth and propose practical solutions based on their frontline experience. Focus groups can also serve as a follow-up to the SWOT analysis, allowing participants to elaborate on points raised during the initial meetings. The smaller group settings often create a more comfortable environment, especially for newer employees, and encourage more candid conversation. By prioritizing employee engagement throughout the planning process, departments can build a stronger, more adaptable plan with greater buy-in.
Analyzing Input to Develop the Plan Document
Carefully analyzing the input gathered during the engagement process is critical to developing a clear, actionable organizational management plan. The information collected will help identify common themes and priorities. Through this analysis, the department can develop mission and vision statements, establish measurable goals and objectives, and draft an implementation strategy that reflects the organization’s operational needs and longterm vision.
1. Developing Vision and Mission Statements: The
vision statement articulates the long-term aspiration for the department. What do we want to become?
The mission statement expresses the department’s purpose. Why are we here each day? These statements provide clear guidance to
ensure strategies and actions support the department’s core principles.
2. Goals and Objectives:
With the information gathered from the SWOT analyses, focus groups, and other feedback mechanisms, the next step is to analyze this input to develop specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant goals and objectives. These goals and objectives should be well defined to provide clear direction. Prioritizing easily implementable actions, or “quick wins”, that
demonstrate responsiveness can help build early momentum and trust in the process.
3. Formulating the Implementation Strategy and Timeline: Once the goals and objectives have been established, a comprehensive implementation strategy is needed. This strategy should outline the steps to achieve the goals, assign responsibilities, and set realistic timelines for completion.
4. Measuring Results:
The effectiveness of the plan needs to be gauged by measurable results. These metrics can be used not only to measure progress and impact, but also to assist in making adjustments as necessary.
Using a Consultant
While some communities have the internal staff capacity and expertise to conduct these planning processes independently, others may benefit from engaging an outside consultant. A qualified consultant brings valuable experience with these processes,
is a risk that employees may view the process as having a predetermined outcome, which can undermine trust and consensus.
Conclusion: A Plan for Long-Term Success
An organizational management plan developed through collaborative, consensus-based processes can transform a police department. It not only enhances operational efficiency but, if welldesigned and executed, helps build a culture of trust and shared responsibility.
offering fresh perspectives and proven strategies that can benefit the department.
Change can create uncertainty and apprehension among employees, particularly when it involves operational or organizational adjustments. An outside consultant, perceived as a neutral, objective party, can help ease these concerns. Skilled consultants know how to ask the right questions, build trust, and encourage employees to speak openly about challenges and potential improvements. Additionally, if the planning process is conducted solely by internal leadership, there
Success requires engaging all employees about current workplace conditions and their aspirations for the department. The plan can provide continuity during leadership transitions, serving as a roadmap that allows incoming members of the management team, as well as rank-and-file employees, to understand the department’s current position, priorities, and next steps. It can support recruitment efforts as well, helping the department to clearly articulate its needs and evaluate whether job candidates bring the skills and experience to address them. Ultimately, this structured approach not only provides a plan for today, but a guide for the future.
MARK L. RYCKMAN, ICMA-CM, is city manager and director of public safety in Corning, New York, USA.
TOM WIECZOREK is director of the Center for Public Safety Management, LLC.
Trouble on the Road
Unpacking the Challenges in Medicaid’s Ambulance Supplemental Payment Programs
Local government professionals should be aware of potential changes to ground emergency medical transport programs that could significantly affect public EMS funding.
BY TOM WIECZOREK
s the United States continues to grapple with rising healthcare costs and access inequities, Medicaid ambulance supplemental payment programs— typically called ground emergency medical transport (GEMT) programs—have emerged as a vital supplemental funding source.
However, these programs, initially designed to ensure that ambulance providers receive adequate reimbursement for providing medical care to Medicaid beneficiaries, are increasingly drawing scrutiny for inconsistency of design, implementation, concerns regarding cost allocation, and questions about long-term sustainability.
Further, changes to the Medicaid program proposed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are raising concerns that GEMT programs may undergo dramatic funding reductions in the near future. In some cases, it appears the changes may have already begun.
State and local leaders should keep a close eye on the looming changes to these programs as it could have a significant financial impact on public EMS systems.
The Origins of GEMT Supplemental Payments
GEMT supplemental payment programs were created to address a basic financial problem: state Medicaid programs often reimburse ambulance providers at rates significantly below the actual cost of service. With a significant proportion of ambulance patients covered by Medicaid, this underreimbursement often results in communities using local taxes to subsidize ambulance providers to meet local service delivery expectations. GEMT programs are typically funded through intergovernmental transfers (IGTs), certified public expenditures (CPEs), or provider assessments to allow states to draw down additional federal Medicaid funds, a portion of which are distributed to public ambulance
In the current EMS financial and staffing crisis, ensuring the financial sustainability of EMS delivery must be a policy priority.
providers to help close this reimbursement gap.
More than a dozen states, including California,1 Washington,2 and Texas,3 currently participate in GEMT programs in some form. At their best, these programs help stabilize emergency medical systems, keeping ambulances on the road in communities that might otherwise lose access to urgent care transport. But the structure and oversight of these programs vary widely, and their expansion has raised red flags for regulators and budget watchers alike.
A Patchwork of Provider Access to GEMT Funding
Another challenge is the limited participation allowed in some GEMT programs. In many cases, only publicly operated or governmentaffiliated ambulance providers are eligible. This exclusion of private providers—who often serve significant portions of the Medicaid population—creates a bifurcated system where similar services receive vastly different levels of support based purely on organizational structure. Non-governmental ambulance agencies argue that this creates an uneven playing field and may ultimately reduce competition and innovation in the EMS sector. Meanwhile, public providers warn that without these supplements, their budgets
would collapse, necessitating additional local tax funding or service realignments to match available funding.
Uneven Oversight and Risk of Abuse
One of the central issues facing GEMT programs is a lack of uniform oversight. Because these programs rely on a mix of federal, state, and sometimes local regulatory oversight, accountability is diffused. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides general guidelines but leaves much of the implementation to the states. States submit their own state plan amendments (SPAs) that outline how the GEMT program will be uniquely implemented in their state. This may lead to significant variations with how eligible GEMT reimbursements are determined, how costs are calculated, and what qualifies as a reimbursable expense.
Recent Federal Scrutiny and Reform Prospects
CMS has begun to take a closer look at GEMT programs, proposing tighter cost-reporting requirements and clearer guidance on allowable expenses. In an August 2022 letter to state Medicaid directors, CMS’s Center for Medicaid articulated their concern regarding potentially non-allowable costs being included in GEMT
cost reports, specifically, the inclusion of costs related to non-transport first response services, which CMS stated is not a covered Medicaid benefit.4 The potential inclusion of these unallowable costs may be leading to overpayments by CMS to states for GEMT programs. In July 2023, the CMS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) announced they were launching audits of Medicaid GEMT cost reports.5 The OIG findings from these audits are expected in 2025. While most stakeholders agree that greater transparency is needed, many states and local governments worry that increased scrutiny could jeopardize critical funding streams. Some states are now reevaluating their programs, seeking to better align them with federal expectations while preserving local EMS capacity.
Change Is Already Happening
Recent SPA approvals from CMS may signal changes occurring to GEMT reimbursements. In Texas, the state recommended and CMS approved a change in cost reporting guidelines, as well as a change in the calculation for GEMT reimbursements from simply service delivery cost to a calculation that includes the difference between the Medicaid reimbursement and the average reimbursement from commercial insurers.
This resulted in a reduction in the amount of federal GEMT reimbursement to providers from $56.8 million in federal fiscal year (FFY) 2022 to $29.2 million for FFY 2023—a 48.6% reduction in GEMT funding.6
A Call for Strategic Reform
As GEMT supplemental payment programs undergo increased scrutiny and uncertainty, policymakers must navigate a delicate balance: ensuring financial viability for EMS systems while safeguarding taxpayer dollars and preventing abuse. Reform efforts should focus on four key areas: 1. Standardization of Cost Reporting: States
Federal Fiscal Year 2022 vs. 2023
should adopt uniform methodologies to calculate actual ambulance service costs, reducing variability and potential for inflation.
2. Expanded Provider Eligibility: Programs should consider including private providers under similar terms, or structure EMS systems to be able to use GEMT programs for what they were initially intended: reducing local taxpayer burden due to Medicaid under reimbursements, ensuring broader access and fairness.
3. Increased Transparency: Public reporting of program expenditures and outcomes can build trust and inform better policy decisions.
4. Shift Toward ValueBased Models: Tying supplemental payments to measurable patient outcomes and quality metrics to promote both fiscal responsibility and better patient care.
In the current EMS financial and staffing crisis, ensuring the financial sustainability of EMS delivery must be a policy priority. It’s likely that GEMT funding at its current level will be dramatically reduced, if not eliminated altogether. Local, state, and federal officials should carefully analyze what a loss of federal GEMT funding will mean to local EMS agencies and the communities and patients they serve.
is the director of the Center for Public Safety Management (cpsm.us).
Figure 1. Changes in Texas GEMT Reimbursement,
Police Discipline: Fair, Consistent, but Rarely Equal
The application of the Douglas factors, in conjunction with a disciplinary matrix, enables police executives to tailor disciplinary actions to the specific circumstances of each case.
BY CHIEF JOSEPH P. MITCHELL
Police chiefs often struggle with the appropriate level of discipline to impose upon sustained violations of policy and procedures. As a law enforcement professional of more than 28 years and having taught internal affairs investigations for more than 12 years, I often hear the question, “What is a fair and just level of punitive discipline for a sustained complaint against one of my officers?”
I can certainly attest that adjudication hearings regarding policy or procedure violations in law enforcement are rarely about whether the employee committed the violation, but rather focus on the severity of discipline imposed. What can a law enforcement
executive do to support and defend the decision on the level of punitive action handed out within the framework of being fair and just while not necessarily equal?
Police Discipline Ideology
Police discipline is a crucial component of law enforcement, ensuring officers maintain the highest standards of conduct. However, one often misunderstood aspect of police discipline is the notion that while it strives to be fair and consistent, it is rarely equal. The principles guiding police discipline, such as the use of discipline matrices and
Douglas factors, help to ensure that discipline is reasonable and proportionate to the circumstances of each case.
Understanding Fairness and Consistency in Police Discipline
The core objectives of police discipline are to maintain public trust, reinforce organizational standards, and correct behavior that is inconsistent with the values of law enforcement. Fairness in this context means that every officer is subject to the same rules and that their actions are judged based on these established standards. Consistency ensures that similar violations are met with similar consequences, preventing arbitrary or biased disciplinary actions. However, fairness and consistency do not necessarily equate to equality in the discipline meted out. The concept of equality would imply that all officers, regardless of the specifics of their cases, would receive the same disciplinary measures for similar offenses. This approach, while seemingly just, overlooks the complex realities of each situation and the individual factors that may influence an officer’s behavior.
The Role of Discipline Matrices
Discipline matrices are tools used by police departments to standardize the disciplinary process. These matrices categorize various types of misconduct and outline corresponding disciplinary actions, providing a framework for decision-making. They serve as a guide to ensure that discipline is administered consistently across the board, considering the severity of the offense and any mitigating
While equality in disciplinary actions might seem desirable, it can lead to unjust outcomes if applied without considering the nuances of each case.
or aggravating factors. For example, a discipline matrix might prescribe a range of penalties for an officer found guilty of misconduct, such as a reprimand, suspension, or termination. The exact penalty within this range is determined by considering the specifics of the case, ensuring that the discipline is not only consistent with past decisions but also fair in relation to the circumstances of the incident.
The Influence of the Douglas Factors
The Douglas factors, named after a 1981 U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board case, provide a set of criteria that police executives can use to evaluate the appropriate level of discipline in each case.1 These factors include considerations such as the nature and seriousness of the offense, the officer’s past disciplinary record, the impact of the misconduct on the department’s reputation, and the potential for rehabilitation. The Douglas factors are:
1. The nature and seriousness of the offense, and its relation to the employee’s duties, position, and responsibilities, including whether the offense was intentional or technical or inadvertent, or was committed maliciously or for gain, or was frequently repeated.
2. The employee’s job level and type of employment, including supervisory or fiduciary role, contacts with the public, and prominence of the position.
3. The employee’s past disciplinary record.
4. The employee’s past work record, including length of service, performance on the job, ability to get along with fellow workers, and dependability.
5. The effect of the offense upon the employee’s ability to perform at a satisfactory level and its effect upon supervisors’ confidence in the employee’s ability to perform assigned duties.
6. Consistency of the penalty with those imposed upon other employees for the same or similar offenses.
7. Consistency of the penalty with any applicable agency table of penalties.
8. The notoriety of the offense or its impact upon the reputation of the agency.
9. The clarity with which the employee was on notice of any rules that were violated in committing the offense, or had been warned about the conduct in question.
10. Potential for the employee’s rehabilitation.
11. Mitigating circumstances surrounding the offense such as unusual job tensions, personality problems, mental impairment,
harassment, or bad faith, malice, or provocation on the part of others involved in the matter.
12. The adequacy and effectiveness of alternative sanctions to deter such conduct in the future by the employee or others.
The courts have left decisions on the level of discipline imposed by law enforcement executives stand when they are decided upon based on a methodology of being fair and reasonable, as evidenced below:
When applying these factors, the “determination of an appropriate penalty is a matter committed primarily to the sound discretion of the employing agency. The role of the [governing body on determining final discipline] is not to insist that the balance be struck precisely where the board would choose to strike it if the board were in the agency’s shoes in the first instance.”2 Instead, the question is whether “managerial judgment has been properly exercised within the tolerable limits of reasonableness.”3
In Sutton v. Civil Service Com. 91 Ill. 2d 404, 411 (1982), the Illinois Supreme Court stated:
“The question, though, is not whether this court would decide upon a more lenient sanction than discharge were it to determine initially what discipline would be appropriate. Nor is it whether this court would conclude in view of the mitigating circumstances suggested by Sutton that a different penalty would be more appropriate.
The question is whether, in view of the circumstances presented, this court can say that the Civil Service Commission, in opting for discharge, acted unreasonably or arbitrarily or selected a type of discipline unrelated to the needs of the service.”
The application of the Douglas factors, in conjunction with a disciplinary matrix, enables police executives to tailor disciplinary actions to the specific circumstances of each case. This structured methodology helps reduce subjectivity in the decisionmaking process and provides a clear, defensible framework for justifying disciplinary outcomes in legal proceedings. This approach ensures that the discipline is fair and reasonable, considering both the specifics of the offense and the individual officer’s history and intent. As a result, two officers who
Conclusion
commit similar infractions might receive different penalties if their situations differ in meaningful ways.
Why Equality Is Not Always the Goal
While equality in disciplinary actions might seem desirable, it can lead to unjust outcomes if applied without considering the nuances of each case. Treating all officers the same, without regard to the context of their actions, could result in disproportionate punishment or fail to adequately address the underlying issues that led to the misconduct.
For instance, an officer with a long history of exemplary service might receive a lighter penalty for a first-time offense compared to an officer with a history of repeated infractions. This differentiation acknowledges the broader context of each officer’s career and behavior and examining the incident through factbased lens (i.e., totality of the circumstances), ensuring that discipline is not only consistent but also just.
Police discipline, guided by discipline matrices and the application of the Douglas factors, is designed to be fair and consistent, though not necessarily equal. The goal is to ensure that discipline is proportionate, reasonable, and tailored to the unique circumstances of each case. Ultimately, the use of disciplinary matrices coupled with the application of the Douglas Factors provides law enforcement executives with a court-tested methodology for determining a reasonable level of discipline to be imposed for violations of policy and procedure. Ultimately, by recognizing that fairness and consistency do not always equate to equality, police executives can better uphold the standards of their departments while fostering an environment of accountability and integrity.
ENDNOTES AND RESOURCES
1 Douglas v. Veterans Administration, 5 M.S.P.R. 280, 305-06 (1981)
2 Norris v. Securities and Exchange Commission, 675 F.3d 1349, 1355 (Fed. Cir. 2012) (internal citations and punctuation omitted)
3 Douglas v. Veterans Administration, 5 M.S.P.R. 280, 302 (1981)
This article first appeared in IADLEST Standards & Training Director Magazine, June 2025 Edition.
CHIEF JOSEPH P. MITCHELL is assistant village manager of Oak Brook, Illinois, USA. After 27 years of service, he retired as police chief from Orland Park, Illinois, USA, in 2022.
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Rutherford County Transit’s Vital Role in Hurricane Helene Evacuations
The department’s tremendous efforts in evacuating more than 100 residents, assisting medically fragile individuals, and supporting recovery operations alongside emergency personnel and the National Guard.
BY KERRY GILES
When Hurricane Helene struck Rutherford County, North Carolina, USA, in September 2024, it brought more than just torrential rain and fierce winds. It delivered a test of resilience,
transit department vehicles. Emergency personnel quickly mobilized, retrieving three vehicles to begin evacuating residents from areas facing imminent flood threats. These initial evacuations were vital, especially as concerns mounted over the potential failure of the Lake Lure dam, which threatened to engulf Chimney Rock Village and neighboring communities. The ability to act decisively, even under communication constraints, underscored the importance of preparation and trust in collaborative partnerships.
role in ensuring the safety of residents during one of the county’s most significant natural disasters.
In the early hours of September 27, 2024, as the storm’s severity became apparent, Emergency Management Director Frankie Hamrick reached out to Rutherford County Transit for immediate assistance. With power and cell service compromised, Transit Director Kerry Giles made the critical decision to grant the emergency management department direct access to
Later that morning, Giles reported to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to serve as the public information officer, a role that quickly became critical. With the influx of media inquiries and desperate reports from families of missing persons, she ensured the steady flow of timely and accurate information to the public. Her work provided clarity during chaos and hope to those awaiting news of their loved ones. Meanwhile, on September 28, Giles, her husband Bill, Transit Operations Manager Jeff Hill, and County Commissioner Michael Benfield took to the field, joining the evacuation efforts personally. Their journey into Lake Lure was fraught with danger—navigating partially cleared, debris-laden roads— but their determination resulted in the safe evacuation of more than 100 residents. Their efforts highlight how leadership grounded in empathy and courage can save lives.
Among the many evacuation stories, one stands out for its poignancy and humanity. Two elderly sisters from Chimney Rock Village, stranded by a section of road obliterated coordination, and community commitment. Among those who rose to meet the challenge was Rutherford County Transit, whose dedication and adaptability played a pivotal
by the Rocky Broad River, faced evacuation challenges that could have easily ended in tragedy. With one sister requiring a walker and the other assisting her, their vulnerability was stark. Transit staff utilized wheelchair lifts and sheer determination to ensure their safe passage to the emergency shelter at RS Central High School. During the journey, the sisters shared stories of loss and resilience, including the destruction of nearby homes and their hopes to process their trauma through simple, meaningful activities like playing Scrabble. These intimate moments remind us that beyond logistics and operations, disaster response is about human connection and compassion.
For Jeff Hill, the challenge extended into the darkest hours after the storm. Dispatched to Chimney Rock Village, he found the designated meeting location abandoned. Refusing to turn back, he pressed deeper into the darkness, crossing a still-intact bridge and locating four adults, six dogs, three newborn puppies, and two cats stranded in the storm’s aftermath. With car keys and pet leashes washed away by floodwaters, Hill’s determination ensured they made it to safety. His decision to go beyond the initial plan reflects the critical thinking and courage required in disaster response. It also illustrates how public transportation personnel can act as frontline heroes when circumstances demand extraordinary action.
In the days following the storm, Rutherford County faced another pressing crisis: caring for medically fragile residents dependent on oxygen and other essential medical
Beyond logistics and operations, disaster response is about human connection and compassion.
services. Recognizing the need, the EOC established a specialized medical shelter, and Transit took on the critical task of transporting vulnerable individuals to safety. From transferring patients from the general shelter to alleviating pressure on Rutherford Regional Medical Center, Transit played an instrumental role in maintaining continuity of care. The coordination of these efforts showcased not only logistical skill but also a deep sense of responsibility to the community’s most vulnerable.
Rutherford County Transit’s role extended beyond evacuation. As roads remained impassable and resources scarce, Transit ensured residents without transportation could access food distribution sites and medical appointments. They also delivered meals to seniors when the senior center temporarily closed to serve as the EOC, ensuring no one was left hungry or isolated. Moreover, their support extended to partnering with the National Guard, who faced significant logistical challenges. Transit provided vehicles, reducing the strain on military resources and allowing for more efficient movement of personnel and supplies. This
collaboration exemplified the strength of interagency partnerships and the power of shared solutions.
Public transportation is often not the first resource that comes to mind during an emergency, but as Hurricane Helene demonstrated, it can be a vital asset in moving residents to safety. A key factor in maintaining Transit as an effective emergency resource is the collaborative relationship with Emergency Management. The emergency management director serves on the transit advisory board, strengthening connections and ensuring that Transit remains a trusted and integrated part of emergency response strategies.
The experiences during Hurricane Helene highlight several lessons for other communities preparing for disasters:
Empower Immediate Action: By authorizing emergency personnel to access Transit vehicles without delay, Rutherford County ensured that critical evacuations were not stalled by communication challenges.
Leadership Requires Flexibility: Kerry Giles’s transition from transit director to public information officer exemplifies the need for adaptable leadership in crisis situations.
Prioritize Vulnerable Populations: Specialized evacuations for medically fragile individuals and seniors were vital, underscoring the importance of planning for diverse community needs.
Strengthen Partnerships: Collaborating with organizations like the National Guard enhanced operational efficiency and broadened available resources.
Commit to Compassion:
The human stories—like that of the two sisters or the evacuees with their pets—reaffirm the importance of empathy-driven response strategies.
As Rutherford County reflects on its response to Hurricane Helene, the path forward is clear. Investments in resilient transportation infrastructure, ongoing emergency preparedness training, and cultivating robust community partnerships will be critical. Public transportation is
not merely a daily convenience but a cornerstone of disaster resilience, capable of saving lives and restoring hope in times of crisis. Rutherford County Transit’s efforts during Hurricane Helene were nothing short of heroic. They demonstrated that even in the darkest of times, dedication, courage, and community spirit can guide the way to safety and recovery. As other communities look to strengthen their disaster response plans, Rutherford County’s example stands as a powerful testament to the essential role of public transportation in ensuring no one is left behind.
KERRY GILES is the transit director for Rutherford County, North Carolina, USA.
LIVING WHERE YOU LEAD, PART 2:
How Residency Impacts Work-Life Balance
BY HEIDI VOORHEES, MITCHELL BERG, PhD, AND IAN JAMES
How living in the community you manage can blur the line between work and home.
It was the night before Thanksgiving, and I (Heidi Voorhees) was at the local grocery store with my 18-month-old son and my 5-year-old daughter, buying ingredients for our contribution to the Thanksgiving festivities. At the checkout, I was carrying my son, who was determined to get the candy located nearby. The woman ahead of me in line looked at me sympathetically, and then just as my son put his hands on my face, she asked me if
I knew when her street would be resurfaced. Speaking through my son’s fingers, I asked as professionally as possible, given the circumstances, if she could call me on Monday, and I could give her the information.
I lived where I worked for 14 years, with 10 of those years serving as the village manager. Residency had its advantages and disadvantages with respect to the ability to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
In our November PM magazine article, “Living Where You Lead,” we examined the results and effects of residency on the recruitment and retention of managers and administrators based on a survey completed by 446 managers and administrators nationwide. In this article, we will delve deeper into the survey results related to how residency impacts work/ life balance and share coping strategies for maintaining a healthy balance, no matter where you live and work.
Survey Findings on Work-life Balance
This article begins with an examination of those who responded to the survey on whether they felt they maintained a sufficient work-life balance. The overall results show that 4% indicate a “very poor” balance, 20% indicate a “poor” balance, 19% indicate having “neither a poor nor good” balance, 43% indicate a “good” balance, and 14% indicate having a “very good” work-life balance.
We then examined the data based on the type and size of the community a manager worked for, regardless of whether they lived in the community or not, to gain a better understanding of how well one feels about
maintaining a sufficient work-life balance:
• In suburban communities, respondents noted a more favorable work-life balance than their counterparts in rural or urban communities. Those reporting a “very poor” to “poor” work-life balance were 19% suburban managers, 34% rural managers, and 29% for urban managers.
• In communities less than 5,000 in population and more than 100,000 in population, managers report a higher rate of “very poor” to “poor” work/life balance than the municipalities of other sizes. Managers in smaller communities typically perform a wide variety of functions for their community, which often puts them in more regular contact with residents. Managers in larger cities also report poorer work-life balance than their suburban counterparts. This may be due to more media/ social media attention on their positions.
Urban managers who are required to have residency in the community have the highest percentage of “very poor” and “poor” worklife balance compared to their rural and suburban counterparts.
We then parsed the data to specifically examine the type of community and how those who are required to live in the community compared to those who voluntarily chose to reside within their community feel about their work-life balance.
This set of findings reveals that 34% of the respondents who are required to reside in the community where they work report a “very poor” to “poor” work/life balance. Interestingly, this number drops to 20% of managers reporting a “very poor” to “poor” work/life balance when they live in the community but are not required to do so. They chose residency as opposed to having it imposed upon them.
The data also reveals that the percentage of urban managers who are required to have residency in the community has the highest percentage of “very poor” and “poor” work-life balance compared to their rural and suburban counterparts. (See Figure 1.)
FIGURE 1
On the other hand, the percentage of rural managers who voluntarily live in their communities has the highest percentage of “very poor” and “poor” work/life balance. (See Figure 2.)
Overall, 51% of managers who are required to live in the community where they work reported having a “good” and “very good” work-life balance. This number increases to 61% of respondents who live where they work but are not required to do so. (See Figures 1 and 2.)
It makes sense that control over where one lives and how one lives might impact feelings of work-life balance. Years ago, a psychology researcher named Angus Campbell found that happiness in life is tied to control. Campbell said, “Having a strong sense of controlling one’s life is a more dependable predictor of positive feelings of well-being than any of the objective conditions of life we have considered.”1 When residency is required, managers often find themselves choosing a smaller or otherwise less desirable home to live in to
afford their new community, or they make compromises regarding their partner’s career or children’s school. Managers are often at the peak of their career when their children are in middle school or high school, making a forced move for career advancement very personally challenging. Elected bodies would be wise to consider this concession if they are interested in the retention of their new manager.
Survey Findings on Contact with Residents and Community Stakeholders
One of the survey questions focused on manager contact with residents and other community stakeholders outside of normal working hours. The data was broken down by managers who lived in the community where they worked versus those who did not live in the community where they worked. Fortysix percent of managers who live in the community where they work reported “very frequent” to “somewhat
• Residency promotes credibility with their elected officials and residents within their community.
• Residency can help managers gain a better pulse on what is going on in the community.
Residency Advantages for Work-Life Balance and Impact on Family Members
From the survey, those managers who reside where they work cited the following advantages:
frequent” contact, while 29% of managers who do not live in the community where they work reported “very frequent” to “somewhat frequent contact.” Those managers who shared their thoughts on the topic cited several advantages to living in the community where one works, frequently mentioning the following:
• Many managers noted that living in the community enables them to be more accessible to the community. They noted that having more frequent informal interactions with neighbors and other residents during off hours can improve relationships between local government and the community.
• Having greater access and interactions with residents and community stakeholders enables managers to position themselves to anticipate, gain a greater understanding, and be more responsive when an issue or problem arises.
• Gaining the perspective of a resident helps inform their work in formulating policy.
• Living close to home: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average commuting time in the United States is 26 minutes each way—nearly an hour a day. Reducing this substantially can provide a few more hours for activities more enjoyable than commuting.
• Proximity to children’s schools: The ability to volunteer easily or attend school events (using personal time, of course) or be available for emergency calls was noted.
Non-Residency Advantages for Work/Life Balance and Impact on Family Members
From the survey, those managers who do not live where they work cited the following advantages:
• Anonymity: Managers can maintain a certain level of anonymity. One manager stated they can run errands on the weekend in their gym clothes without worrying about running into residents.
• Impact on family: Many managers commented that not living in the community they serve is important for their family. Their spouse and children are not questioned about the decisions that the manager makes, nor subject to any backlash from those decisions.
• Spouse’s career: Relocation can be difficult in two-career households. Managers in a suburban environment can often change positions without relocation, thus not impacting their spouse’s career.
• Children’s schools: Relocation can also be challenging when the manager has schoolage children. Managers are hesitant to relocate, particularly when their children are in high school. Parents of a child with special needs also hesitate to relocate at any time if their child is doing well in their current environment.
• Friendships without hidden agendas: Managers who live outside of the community can develop friendships and social connections without fear of accusations of favoritism or concern that there is an ulterior motive for developing a friendship with the manager.
Managers who do not live in the community where they work were universal in noting the need to attend festivals and community events; eat in local restaurants; volunteer in the community (Rotary, Lions, or other service organization); and generally be visible and accessible to the residents and other stakeholders. Many highly successful managers have followed this path and have been so visible that many in their community thought they lived there.
Strategies for Improving Work-Life Balance
The survey comments show that managers understand they are public figures and subject
to contact outside of working hours, but as one respondent said, “At times it can be overwhelming.” Respondents to the survey cited the following strategies for improving worklife balance when living in the community:
• As previously mentioned, many managers noted the importance of shopping locally, volunteering, and attending festivals and community activities. They went on to suggest, however, that it was important to belong to religious institutions outside of the community. This can be particularly important if the manager’s religious involvement includes “being vulnerable,” as one respondent commented. One former library director noted that many years ago he had to change his church attendance to one outside of the community where he lived and worked. He did so because the church members brought books to church services, so he could return the books to the library.
• Similarly, several managers agreed with engaging locally through community activities, volunteering, and shopping, but also the need to go outside of the community for recreational and entertainment activities, ensuring quality time with their family.
• Another suggestion is to manage finances, haircare, and healthcare outside of the community to ensure privacy.
• While some managers said they do not take any extra steps to ensure their privacy, others commented on setting boundaries with residents who approach them on the weekend with
non-emergency issues, saying they would “be happy to speak with them during working hours or to set up a time that is convenient for both parties.”
• Many respondents said they have very minimal or no personal social media to preserve their privacy.
• One respondent said they grocery shop “entirely on Instacart, knowing that a trip to the grocery store is a community meeting.”
Many of these suggestions work more effectively for managers in a suburban environment where options for healthcare, entertainment, shopping, religious observance, and recreation outside of their community are more available. This is likely the reason more suburban managers report a better work-life balance than their rural or urban counterparts.
Finally, ICMA has published several articles and developed a number of resources on strategies for maintaining a healthy work-life balance, including an entire issue of PM Magazine, titled “Making Work-Life Balance a Priority.”. Additionally, an ICMA senior advisor in your state can serve as a trusted and confidential resource for you if you are seeking additional support.
Concluding Comments
The advantages and disadvantages of residency will continue to be discussed and debated by local government leaders. While everyone in the local government profession understands they are “living in a fishbowl,” each person likely has a different tolerance level for how transparent the fishbowl walls are. Some may
be completely comfortable with total visibility, while others want the walls to be more opaque, while still others may want to duck behind a large rock or tall grass in the fishbowl from time to time. Community visibility is often a family decision as well. While the manager may be completely comfortable with their high-profile career, their family members may not be as comfortable.
As local government professionals evaluate the next step in their career, they must thoroughly consider the many sides of residency and nonresidency in the community they serve and how it fits with their own and possibly their families’ tolerance for visibility.
ENDNOTE
1 Scott Miker, Happiness Comes from Feeling in Control,” April 2021. https:// www.scottmiker.com/improving-systemsand-habits/2021/4/14/happiness-comesfrom-feeling-in-control
HEIDI VOORHEES is a former village manager and consultant and is now retired. She serves as a volunteer coach through the ICMA Coach Connect program and continues to write and speak on issues pertaining to local government.
MITCHELL BERG, PhD, is a clinical assistant professor at Indiana University’s Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
IAN JAMES is a recent graduate of the IU Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs program and is currently completing an internship in the town management office of Plainfield, Indiana.
Strengthening Local Disaster Management Amid FEMA’s Uncertain Future
Marshaling human and financial resources for effective emergency management
BY JAY JUERGENSEN
No matter where you get your news, extreme weather, natural disasters, and the rising tide of mass shootings are making the news.
In the 30 minutes of what we know as “network” news, there is only 15 minutes of story content and disasters of all kinds are taking up more and more of that limited space. While there might be a sprinkle of entertainment news, the other stories dominating the news are the conflicts overseas and the controversies in the nation’s capital, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that what is happening in Washington will find its way to impacting every American community, big or small.
Regardless of where you find yourself on the political spectrum, the austerity associated with staff and programmatic budgets being marshalled through the halls of Congress and to President Trump is unprecedented. Fiscal rolls backs on infrastructure, education, healthcare, and of course, disaster preparedness and recovery will have a decades long effect on our communities for a couple of major reasons. Thinking strategically about the financial and human resources your community will need in the wake of these changes will be critical to effective disaster management.
Federal Expenditures
Federal government expenditures touch every part of our lives and are a significant contributor to the local economy in every corner of our country in both the private and public sector. In the public sector, competitive
applications or formula-based awards are the two ways federal transfers fill local coffers through direct grands or state “pass throughs.” Forty years ago, the federal government accounted for just under 11% of state and local budgets (10.6% in 1989), and according to the census department’s Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, that percentage has grown significantly, especially with surges during the Great Recession and COVID. Now, 39 of the 51 states (including DC), rely on the federal government for more than one-quarter of their budget while twenty-three receive nearly 30% or more and nine have almost 40%.1
Then, there’s the 2.4 million federal workers scattered across the United States, as well as medical professionals providing care underwritten in part by Medicare and Medicaid, employees of local businesses with defense or other federal contracts, staff at local human service agencies, and postal workers. The purchasing power of employees in the
public, private, and nonprofit sectors is another way federal expenditures are infused into the local economy. And that’s before consideration of all the goods and services these agencies, companies, and organizations purchase from local vendors, such as vehicles, technology, equipment, fuel, and office supplies.2,3
Human Capital
Federal, state, and local public agencies have been bracing for the continued loss of seasoned public servants as the last wave of baby boomers exit the workforce, taking with them enormous technical expertise and institutional knowledge. This process has been accelerated by the Trump Administration as staff across nearly every agency, has been decimated while communities hastily struggle to determine what if any program or service they may need to absorb while uncertainty regarding the talent pool looms large.4
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was established in 1979. Over its nearly 50-year history, it has evolved and matured into an agency with an identifiable brand and programs critical to disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. From investments
in local infrastructure that mitigate the impact of natural disasters to the training of local first responders to provide mutual aid as well as direct reimbursements for losses suffered by disaster survivors, FEMA is baked into the DNA of Americans and is synonymous with disasters.
FEMA’s bottom-up approach is consistent with the knowledge that, just like politics, everything is local. So, Trump’s March 19 Executive Order 14239, “Achieving Efficiency Through State and Local Preparedness,” leaves a lot of uncertainty.5
In April, critical resilient infrastructure grant programs were terminated, while in June, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated, “I want to be very clear. The President wants [FEMA] eliminated as it currently exists. He wants a new agency.”6,7
Yet, FEMA is not the only agency that plays a critical role in preparedness as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been forced to significantly reduce staff, including weather forecasts. The National Weather Service (NWS) lost nearly 600 staff when its forecasting offices were already facing 40% vacancies. Early warning systems
managed by meteorologists at NWS play a critical role in communication coordination between forecasters, emergency managers, and the public. These cuts to NOAA and NWS programs, staff, and data are making communities more vulnerable to storms like the one that hit Kerr County, Texas in July 2025.8 Mitigation projects preemptively protect communities against damages caused by future disasters and can save between $6 to $13 for every $1 invested, and everyone believes that is money well spent. How communities will replace $2.1 billion in supplemental infrastructure support from the enormous programs focused on mitigation, as well as coordinate across boundaries and help disaster survivors, remains to be seen. If these funds are delivered to the states as block grants often determined by population, rural communities will be put at even more risk. If states and local communities will be expected to backfill these funds, they may not be able to underwrite the investment and as a result, put their community at greater risk or make the capital outlay and likely forego some other important community projects.9,10
Finally, there are some roles that local communities simply cannot support on their own. Natural disasters seldom comply with municipal boundaries, yet local response relies on the ability to prepare with warning of conditions hundreds of miles away. Mutual aid with support from communities outside the disaster zone is essential, with the full understanding that coordination across agency and geography is tantamount to success.
And just because the federal government may be abandoning programs does not mean the demand for these services will disappear. States and local leaders will have to make some hard fiscal choices as the burden shifts, straining existing resources as new revenue streams will need to be developed.
Size Matters
In most smaller or rural communities, the city/county manager or administrator ends up wearing multiple hats. Small communities struggle more with stretched financial and human resources. They likely do not have as many specialized agencies, from land use planning to parks. There is less of a chance that they have disaster management professionals or a separate emergency management department or agency. That means the city/county manager is likely also the emergency manager. It means that the training, professional networking, and support that emergency managers are getting in larger communities are not part of the small town city manager’s portfolio of experience. This has the potential to undermine the effectiveness of the city/county
manager when a disaster strikes, simply because they will lack the depth of expertise their peers may have acquired.
The August 2024 issue of PM Magazine highlights strategies that communities can deploy to integrate, and there is likely a lot we can learn from places that are integrated because they have to be.11
Balancing Future Concerns
In a recent ICMA survey, city/ county managers suggested that financial matters and disasters concerns are nearly equal as the most important challenges facing their community. Forty-two percent of survey respondents stated that fiscal concerns—including rising costs, lack of financial flexibility, greater demands for a wider array of needs, and the pressing demands of infrastructure costs on their budgets—was their greatest concern. Collectively, natural disasters, industrial disasters, and violence or mass shootings was the number-one challenge reported by 37% of survey respondents.
What that tells us is that future fiscal challenges are essentially equal to future disaster concerns. But I wonder if city/county managers spend
equal time focusing on those matters. I will bet they are not even close. If fiscal concerns are equal to concerns over disasters, how might city/ county managers balance these competing priorities knowing that disaster and emergency management will get less attention.
We know that states are going to be stretched thin as the impact of federal budget cuts and agency attrition are felt locally. State governments and state-wide organizations such as ICMA affiliates12 can play a critical role in helping local government leaders, especially those in small towns, be better prepared.
Human and Financial Solutions
Technical
Assistance—
Just because a community does not have a separate emergency management agency or emergency manager does not mean they should be without a plan. ICMA state affiliates could gather plans from communities around the state, organize them, and place them in a central repository for all members to access. A committee of local governments partnering with the State Emergency Management Agency could
select emergency plans to review and develop a template of best practices, allowing a small community to adapt one from a peer. A small competitive grant program could allow access to professional technical assistance to aid city/county managers in preparing their own unique plan. Additionally, webinars, trainings, or other resources could be offered to strengthen emergency management skills.
Rainy Day Fund—Landuse policy is considered a local matter. In On the Move, Abrahm Lustgarten, argues that for years, disaster prone communities have been subsidizing state insurance funds as insurance companies were no longer willing to underwrite the risk in these hurricane and fire-prone places. As difficult as it may be, local communities may need to make some hard land-use decisions, while also taking specific steps to discourage people from returning to disaster-prone areas. If communities are going to replace FEMA programs and investments, they’ll need more financial resources, and communities should consider new revenue that causes residents living in these highrisk places to bear the burden of mitigation and recovery. This will not be popular. However, in the same way that property tax and other incentives are used to encourage economic development and infrastructure investments, special assessment districts could collect an additional stream of revenue where property owners would pay a little more to invest in disaster preparedness infrastructure and standby recovery resources. The enabling legislation should
coachwood
ensure the revenue is placed in a “lockbox” to prevent elected officials from syphoning it off for another purpose. When a disaster strikes, the fund can help survivors while a portion of the future revenue stream could be leveraged against bond-supported mitigation infrastructure investments.
Improving Survivor Success—FEMA’s Individual Assistance (IA) provides direct financial assistance and support to individuals and households who have suffered loss due to a presidential-declared natural disaster. FEMA’s average IA payout is $3,208 per household, as confirmed in field research in states such as Michigan, Missouri, and Texas. But, in Michigan and Missouri, only half the claimants were successful. On its own, the claims process can be daunting, but the appeals process even more so.
While IA programs are managed by states, local communities should ensure there is, according to Elizabeth Melton, CEM, disaster expert and senior manager at CohnReznik, “a survivor-centered approach.” She also suggests, “Establishing memoranda of understanding with partners that are likely to support individual and household recovery is key.”13 Partnering with local human and social service agencies to assist residents in applying and appealing can significantly increase a claimant’s success. Imagine if just 100 more households are successful— that’s another $300,000 of spending power in an impacted community. Who would turn that down?
At the same time, communities are often overwhelmed with donations
of clothing and unnecessary items. Even though these things might seem helpful, the storage and management of the donations can distract local leadership from focusing on other important challenges.
Sam Anselm, ICMA-CM, city manager of West Plain, Missouri, will tell you, “Send cash, not goods. Gift cards for local retailers allow survivors to spend money on things they know they need and stimulates the local economy.”
Know Your Neighbors—
According to Dr. Jamal Zaki, Stanford University professor of psychology and author of Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness, “There is a lot of evidence throughout history and from the scientific literature that when people face disaster or trauma, oftentimes they respond not by falling apart but by coming together and by helping one another, stepping across lines of difference that sometimes divide them and trying to be there to support each other during the hardest times.” Some folks call it mutual aid, others call it community.14
As a disaster expert and survivor, I’m particularly drawn to this work. I am forever impressed by how disasters bring folks together in unexpected ways, based upon a fundamental understanding that taking care of our neighbors is part of who we are. It’s part of the social contract that we have one to another and I argue that mutual aid/ community is part of our genetic code.
Mutual aid among electric utilities is commonplace. But if FEMA no longer provides mutual aid training, local communities will have to
ensure they are plugged into a network of trained professionals and colleagues with everything from front-end loaders to extra orange cones who can be called up to assist. Beyond state emergency management agencies, the ICMA network of professionals can also play a critical role. Sam Anselm will also tell you the other big take away from his experience after the historic 2011 EF-5 tornado in Joplin, Missouri, where he was assistant city manager at the time. “Know your neighbors. Our ability to respond and recover was based upon support we received from other communities in the region that sent their equipment and their people our way.”
Conclusion
As federal support for disaster management faces unprecedented uncertainty, local communities must adapt with resilience and ingenuity. The evolving landscape demands that city administrators and emergency managers—especially in smaller communities— embrace new strategies for technical assistance, fiscal planning, and survivor support. By fostering mutual aid networks, leveraging local expertise, and developing sustainable revenue streams, communities can better prepare for and recover from disasters, even as federal programs recede. Ultimately, the strength of disaster management will depend not only on policy and funding, but on the collective commitment of neighbors, leaders, and organizations to safeguard one another and build a more resilient future together.
JAY JUERGENSEN is a nationally recognized expert in community and economic development, disasters and recovery and capital programs/public works management, having implemented $30 billion of investment in more than 31 communities and 20 states. (j-assoc.com)
Using Your Voice to Lean In
Leadership begins when you speak up instead of holding back.
BY DOMINICA SMITH
With more than 20 years of experience in public service, I have learned that leadership is not defined by a title or position—it is defined by influence. True leadership requires courage, resilience, and the power of voice. For women especially, our voices are not just tools of communication; they are instruments of change.
I started my career in public service as a temporary worker, eager to learn but often quiet, believing my work alone would speak for me. Even in that entry-level role, I was entrusted with projects that stretched me and opened doors to spaces I never imagined I would enter so early in my journey. It was there that I met my mentor, Susan Welsh, who chose to invest in me. On every evaluation, she left the same two words: speak up. At first, it was uncomfortable. But over time, I realized she was giving me the key to leadership. The day her evaluation no longer carried those words was a turning point. I had not only found my voice; I had learned how to lean in with it.
That lesson carried me into roles where my voice became my greatest tool for influence. I spoke at council meetings and in boardrooms, where decisions directly impacted communities. Over time, those conversations prepared me for larger stages. I walked the halls of Congress, stood before policymakers at state capitals, and engaged national leaders on issues that shaped entire regions. In those spaces, I discovered that speaking up was not just about being heard—it was about driving results. I advocated for priorities that secured critical funding, advanced infrastructure, and influenced policies that led to lasting change.
As women, we are sometimes conditioned to think of each other as competitors. But leadership is stronger when we lift as we climb. Using our voices to lean in should never be just about personal advancement; it must also be about creating space for those who will come after us.
Leadership, however, is not tested only in professional spaces—it is also tested in personal ones. I have had to balance the realities of being a wife, a mother, and a leader, sometimes all at once. I have walked with my husband through a cancer diagnosis and endured the heartbreak of infertility and miscarriages, all while raising a daughter who dreams of Broadway theater and pediatric medicine. These experiences, which I later reflected on in my book Faith Period, reminded me that resilience is not the absence of hardship—it is the determination to rise
in spite of it. They also taught me that balance is never perfect, but it is possible when we give ourselves grace. At home, I encourage my daughter to use her voice, just as my mentor once encouraged me. Supporting her reminds me that leadership is not only about the workplace—it is about legacy. It is about ensuring the next generation steps forward with confidence, courage, and conviction.
Looking back, every stage of my journey demanded growth, every challenge built resilience, and every opportunity reinforced the power of leaning in with my voice. Women leaders today no longer question whether we belong at the table—we know we do. The question is: how will we use our voices once we are there?
For me, success has never been defined by titles alone. Success is influence. It’s using my voice to shape decisions, open doors, and create change that outlasts me. Success is resilience—the ability to rise again when challenges threaten to silence you. And success is legacy—knowing that the women who come after us, including my own daughter, will have a wider path because I chose to lean in.
My challenge to women leaders, and to those aspiring to lead, is this: do not hold back. Speak up. Lean in. Lead boldly. My story is one of resilience, growth, and conviction. And as for me, I will continue to climb the ladder of success—not only for myself, but to leave a legacy where women’s voices are not just heard, but amplified, valued, and remembered.
DOMINICA SMITH is senior director, special projects (Office of CEO), for Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program at the Harvard Kennedy School is hailed as a life-changing, transformational career development opportunity unlike any other.
The William Ferguson, Jr. Scholarship, awarded by ICMA, and named in honor of The Ferguson Group founder, will be awarded to an ICMA member to attend the 2026 program.
Criteria:
• Must be an ICMA member.
• Must meet other scholarship criteria.
• Application deadline: January 31, 2026.
Essential Technology Questions (and Answers) for Decision-Makers
Practical technology guidance to improve digital services, manage IT infrastructure, comply with regulations, and adopt emerging technologies responsibly
BY MARC PFEIFFER
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)
This column was written to address questions that elected and appointed officials may have about technology and its impact on their agencies. Feel free to share it with them.
As an elected or appointed representative of your local government, you have the final responsibility to ensure that its technology tools are managed efficiently, effectively, and securely. Local governments manage technology through effective planning, informed decisionmaking, and prudent budgeting. Doing so is essential, but many governing body members have questions about how to make informed decisions about their technology tools.
For the next two months, we are asking and answering tech questions that you might be wrestling withto help you understand your existing systems and make sound decisions. It’s an excellent opportunity to enhance your tech knowledge. It will help you work with your technology staff and contractors and move forward responsibly without falling behind or overspending on unnecessary technology.
Website Modernization
How do we decide between refreshing our current website versus a complete rebuild?
The decision hinges on mobile responsiveness, security, and user experience. You’ve crossed the credibility line if your site isn’t mobile-friendly (more than 60% of users are on phones). A refresh works if the underlying platform is modern and secure—just updating design, content, and navigation. A rebuild is needed if you’re using outdated technology, lack security controls, or can’t easily update content.
Key indicators for rebuild: the site was built before 2018, requires IT assistance for basic updates, lacks online form capabilities, and generates frequent
security warnings. The business case is simple: a poor website costs you more staff time fielding calls and dealing with frustrated residents than a modern one does to maintain.
Begin with a comprehensive needs assessment that covers mobile responsiveness, ADA compliance, and user-friendly navigation. Since 80% of residents prefer to get information online, your site must serve as a digital town hall. You want to enable services and information that are done or available in person to be replicated digitally. It won’t be everything, but you want to meet your residents as best you can, where they are; be it online, in-person, over the phone, in their language, and accommodating their physical capacity needs.
Determine the need for refresh versus rebuild, assess content management capabilities, and consider ongoing security requirements. Cost expectations range from $10,000 to $ 100,000 or more, depending on the complexity. Since cost data varies widely by vendor and features, consider issuing a formal request for information with projected requirements to get accurate pricing.
Include one-time and recurring costs in your evaluation, as hosting, security, and maintenance add up over time. Conduct a formal competitive procedure or use a cooperative purchasing contract to solicit proposals from vendors for those contracts. Request references from similar communities and include ongoing costs (annual support typically runs 10–15% of initial project cost).
What do we need to know about ADA compliance requirements?
Website accessibility ensures that residents with disabilities can use your municipal website just as easily as everyone else. This includes individuals who are blind or have low vision, those with hearing impairments, or those with motor disabilities that impact their ability to use computers.
Although there’s no single federal law specifically governing municipal websites, the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA) applies to public services, and courts are increasingly expecting government websites to meet accessibility standards. Those are known as the “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA” and can be easily found online via a search. Municipal governments with a population under 50,000 must comply by April 26, 2027; larger municipalities must comply by April 26, 2026. Key requirements include:
• Text descriptions for images so screen readers can describe them.
• Proper heading structure for easy navigation.
• Keyboard navigation capability for those who can’t use a mouse.
• Sufficient color contrast for people with vision issues.
• Video captions for people who have hearing limitations.
Accessible websites work better for everyone, including older residents and those using mobile devices. Basic compliance costs $2,000 to $5,000 for existing websites, plus ongoing monitoring. Start with automated accessibility scans (some online services provide them for free), then budget for compliance costs. Most website vendors now include basic accessibility features, but you must actively request full compliance in new contracts. You can find a lot of guidance on this through your current vendors, internet searches, or prompting an AI chatbot for explanations or guidance.
Digital Services and Expectations
Which paper-based processes should we digitize first for maximum impact?
Begin with high-volume, routine transactions, such as property tax and utility bill payments, business license renewals, and straightforward permit applications. These deliver return on investment through reduced staff time and improved resident satisfaction. Target “phone tag generators” where residents call multiple times to check the status.
For fees, choose whether to absorb credit card processing costs (3–4%) or pass them on to users through convenience fees. Many municipalities pass fees on to users to offset significant savings; others absorb them as a convenience or to encourage online use and reduce paper-based transactions.
How do we benchmark our digital services against similar communities?
Visit the websites of 5–10 communities of similar size in your area. Create a checklist that includes mobilefriendly design, online payments, permit applications, meeting agendas/minutes accessibility, legal ad posting and management, contact forms, and social media presence. The basic expectation is Amazonlevel convenience for simple transactions. Residents should be able to pay bills, submit requests, and find information 24/7 from phones. You’re behind if residents regularly call during business hours for things they could do online.
How do we explain costs and timelines when residents demand new digital services?
Be transparent about the total cost of ownership, not just purchase prices. Include ongoing hosting, security, updates, and staff training costs. Timeline reality: simple projects take 3–6 months; complex integrations take 6–12 months.
Set expectations as “We’re committed to improving services systematically rather than rushing and creating problems.” What’s reasonable: basic online services, mobile-friendly interactions, and improved response times. What’s unreasonable: same-day service or highly customized solutions that larger cities can afford.
What emerging technologies should we prepare for?
Focus on three areas:
• Cloud-based services (inevitable for cost and security).
• Artificial intelligence for routine inquiries (chatbots for common questions).
• Integrated data systems (so residents don’t repeat information across departments, avoiding “data silos” where information gets trapped in separate systems that don’t talk to each other.
Choose vendors with connection capabilities. Methods, known as APIs, enable different software systems to connect and share data, as well as with cloud services. The key is flexibility—buy systems that can grow and connect with other tools rather than standalone solutions. Check out next month’s issue for more tech questions and answers!
The AI Edge
APRIL 8-10, 2026 | ORLANDO, FLORIDA
This conference will spotlight the growing potential and necessary guardrails for the rapidly expanding AI frontier. You’ll gain practical guidance, exposure to new technologies, and a broader perspective on how AI can efficiently and effectively improve local government operations.
Democracy and the Public Trust
MAY 13-15, 2026 | PHILADELPHIA,
PENNSYLVANIA
2026 marks the 250th anniversary of American democracy, yet today’s public servants continue to face heightened polarization in their communities. We will explore how to restore and maintain public trust, addressing heightened polarization and how to strengthen democracy at the local level.
