PM Magazine, November 2019

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Technology and Innovation + Wi-Fi on the Beach in Sunny Isles 16 High-Tech Town Halls in Plano 6 Better Citizen Health Data in Providence 10

CELEBRATING VETERANS: FROM THE NAVY TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT SEE PAGE 36.

NOVEMBER 2019 ICMA.ORG/PM

NOVEMBER 2019 VOL. 101 NO. 10

F E AT U R E S

6

CONTENTS

6

Rethinking Town Hall

Innovating Resident Engagement by Blending Technology and Old-fashioned Human Interaction Mark D. Israelson, ICMA-CM, Plano, Texas

10 City Health Dashboard

Developing Local Health Data to Support Equitable Health Outcomes in Providence, Rhode Island Ellen Cynar, Providence, Rhode Island

16 On the Cutting Edge

Sunny Isles Beach Elevates City Services by Embracing Technological Initiatives Christopher J. Russo, Sunny Isles Beach, Florida

22 Creating Sustainable Citizen Engagement

Involve City Residents in Solving Problems Myung J. Lee, Cities of Service

28 What Don’t You Know? Uncover and Manage Unknown Cyber Threats

D E PA RT M E N T S 2 Ethics Matter!

Honor Cookingham's Legacy

4 Celebrating 100 Years 42 Career Track

Every Employee Is a Chief Experience Officer

44 Leadership

How a Tennessee Intercounty Agency Finds and Stops Risky Activity Ron Bernier, Tyler Technologies

Want to Change a Culture?

Ride a Road Grader

32

Oak Ridge, Tennessee: Securing the Future of the American Museum of Science and Energy

Bienvenido. Bienvenue.

Bem-Vindo. Akeyi.

No Matter How You Say It, the City of San Antonio Welcomes Asylum Seekers with Dedicated Coalition (Part 1 of 3) Melody Woosley, Jennifer Herriott, and Tino Gallegos; San Antonio, Texas

46 ICMA Award Spotlight

22 44

48 Professional Services Directory

36 From Love of Country to Love of Community

How Mentorship Helped Four Navy Veterans Move into Public Management Rob Carty, ICMA; Lowell Crow, ICMA-CM, Freeport, Illinois; Jake Johansson, Port Orange, Florida; Bob Geis, Chesapeake, Virginia; and Doug Beaver, Norfolk, Virginia

International City/County Management Association NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 1

ETHICS MATTER!

Honor Cookingham’s Legacy End Corruption in Local Government The systemic corruption that greeted L.P.

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

Cookingham when he became city manager of Kansas City in 1940 was colossal. The story of his courage, determination, and success in fighting corruption and bringing ethical management to the city is legendary. It’s a story told to students who aspire to a career in local government, in part to demonstrate the profession’s impact on imparting ethical leadership and management at the local level.

As city manager for Kansas City from 1940 to 1959, Cookingham knew firsthand the determination and courage it takes to end systemic corruption of epic proportions. He also understood that there is no other option if the goal is to build a functioning city that serves all the people.

Just how corrupt was Kansas City before Cookingham arrived? For two decades, every facet of the city, operating under a council-manager structure, was run and controlled

by Tom Pendergast, a very corrupt, unelected political boss.

If corruption thrives when the risks are low, penalties mild, and rewards great, Kansas City was lucrative territory!

Illegal gambling was a $12 million enterprise—that’s roughly $216 million in 2019. In some precincts, ghost voters outnumbered registered voters, thus giving Pendergast control over city council elections. With control over who got elected, Pendergast influenced their choice for city manager.

International City/County

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November 2019

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2 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | NOVEMBER 2019

BY MARTHA PEREGO, ICMA-CM

A small note signed by Pendergast got you a city job.

Patronage hiring bloated the payroll with both no-shows and police officers who could neither read nor write.

“Voluntary” payroll deductions from the police in a single year contributed over a million dollars, in today’s terms, to Pendergast’s political party. No wonder crime in Kansas City at that time was worse than in Chicago during Capone’s era.

Pendergast was eventually convicted of federal tax evasion. Cookingham was hired by a reform-minded mayor and city council whose campaign symbol was a broom.

Cookingham’s Five Steps to Reform

Fast forward, we are living in an era of far less corruption.

Much credit goes to the leadership we see in elected and appointed positions. There are better laws, regulations, and enforcement. Professional associations elevated ethical standards for the unique disciplines serving in local governments. Organizational practices and policies that promote transparency and level the playing field sustain the efforts.

Yet, there are still too many breathtaking examples of corruption in cities and counties. What lessons can we learn then from the steps Cookingham took to rid the organization of corruption? Here they are replete with examples from the time.

Public Management (PM) icma.org/pm ICMA 777 North Capitol Street, N.E. Washington, D.C. 20002-4201 EDITORIAL OFFICE: pm@icma.org ADVERTISING SALES: 202-367-2497 Tilman Gerald The Townsend Group, Inc. tgerald@townsend-group.com ICMA MEMBER SERVICES: 800.745.8780 | 202.962.3680 membership@icma.org

ICMA Creating and Supporting Thriving Communities ICMA’s vision is to be the leading association of local government professionals dedicated to creating and supporting thriving communities throughout the world. It does this by working with its more than 12,000 members to identify and speed the adoption of leading local government practices and improve the lives of residents. ICMA offers membership, professional development programs, research, publications, data and information, technical assistance, and training to thousands of city, town, and county chief administrative officers, their staffs, and other organizations throughout the world.

Public Management (PM) aims to inspire innovation, inform decision making, connect leading-edge thinking to everyday challenges, and serve ICMA members and local governments in creating and sustaining thriving communities throughout the world.

Change the culture. All employees were told, “It is the policy of this administration to discourage political action among city employees. The only allegiance which any employee owes is to all the people of Kansas City.” Cookingham knew that the obligation of leadership is to set the right tone.

Build a competent leadership team. Cookingham had both the necessity and luxury to hire all new department directors. Prior to his arrival, the interim city manager cleaned house of the Pendergast legacies. Not all the new staff were familiar with municipal management, but they were competent and understood for whom they worked. Walking into an organization beset by corruption at the top, the challenge for any new manager is to quickly but accurately assess the ethical integrity of the team. Who participated or tacitly participated in unethical conduct?

Rightsize the workforce with the right skill set. In their first six months on the job, the new department directors fired more than 2,200 employees who were not needed, not qualified, or viewed as not loyal. That was one-third of the workforce.

Be a good steward of public resources. Existing contracts were reviewed and renegotiated to the city’s benefit. Future purchases were subject to competitive bidding, which is today’s standard.

The practice of buying concrete from a company aligned with the former political boss ended immediately.

2019–2020 ICMA Executive Board PRESIDENT

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

James Malloy* Town Manager, Lexington, Massachusetts PAST PRESIDENT

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

International Region

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

The prolific assignment of city vehicles to staff for their personal use ended. City vehicles were allotted based on need, and personal use was prohibited. Cookingham declined the use of a city vehicle.

Don’t compromise your principles. Despite dramatic reductions in force, Cookingham was under significant pressure from the new council to move faster to clean house. The directive was to rid the place of all Pendergast cronies and to do it quickly!

But not all the employees were bad. Cookingham stood his ground, methodically explained why various employees in the current workforce met the city’s needs, and eventually got council’s support. However, the day he met with the council he brought along his letter of resignation just in case he didn’t prevail.

Fight the Good Fight

The United States in particular has a long and rich history of corruption both in the private and public sectors. It has taken new laws, enforcement, and an army of Cookinghams over many decades to make local government more ethical. That effort by any measure has significantly reduced systemic corruption.

Yet, still it occurs at seemingly minor and breathtaking levels.

Should we just regard corruption as a shared human condition to be tamed and corralled, but never eliminated? Or do we pledge to try harder?

In memory of L.P. Cookingham and many other leaders, please try harder. Work to strengthen your culture. Be vigilant in strengthening your processes to reduce the likelihood of bad acts.

Trust but verify the integrity of your staff. Consider introducing “frauditing” to your standard operating procedures. Install a thirdparty confidential mechanism to encourage staff and residents to report wrongdoing. Engage law enforcement when the situation merits. Independent prosecutors who follow the facts and the law are important allies.

Lastly, remember that you set the tone. Make sure your personal and professional conduct meets the highest standards.

Midwest Region

Southeast Region

Wally Bobkiewicz* City Administrator, Issaquah, Washington**

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

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

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

ICMA Executive Director Marc Ott Director, Member Publications

Lynne Scott lscott@icma.org

Managing Editor

Kerry Hansen khansen@icma.org

West Coast Region

Newsletter Editor

Kathleen Karas kkaras@icma.org

Michael Land* City Manager, Coppell, Texas

Maria Hurtado* Assistant City Manager, Hayward, California

Art Director

Erika White ewhite@icma.org

Design & Production

picantecreative.com

Raymond Gonzales County Manager, Adams County, Colorado

Edward Shikada* City Manager, Palo Alto, California

Northeast Region

Peter Troedsson* City Manager, Albany, Oregon

Mountain Plains Region

Heather Geyer* City Manager, Northglenn, Colorado

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

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

NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 3

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PM

1919 – 2019 PM in January 1998 Many of the local government issues in the late 1990s are still relevant today. Here are just a few from the January 1998 issue of PM magazine:

✶ Census 2000: Geographic and Address List Partnerships Linda Franz wrote about the roles tribal, state, and local governments hoped to play in Census 2000. The article focused on the earliest partnership activities, geographic preparations, and the census address list.

✶ Local Government Internet Policies: Kent County’s Experience Dennis Marstall wrote about the hottest thing in local government at the time—the internet. He noted that the rush of local government to become part of this new frontier was enticing. However, many governments had failed to implement comprehensive internet policies for employees.

✶ Detect and Prevent Antitrust Violations Robert Connolly’s article focused on federal antitrust laws, which were enacted to preserve our system of free competition. He noted that due to a manager’s role in bids, quotes, and awarding of contracts, they are in a position to observe and identify violations of antitrust laws. The article gives tips on how to manage the local government procurement process, staying within the boundaries of the law.

100 years

Celebrating 4 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | NOVEMBER 2019

All NEW

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If you are interested in finding a coach, sign up today at icma.org/coachconnect.

Find coaches by department, subject expertise, scope of general workplace navigation, or demographics.

Registering takes five minutes and uses the same sign-on credentials as ICMA’s main login.

CoachConnect brings the power of data and search to help players find coaches that match their needs.

New ways to connect • New app • Tips and tools to improve your coaching relationships • Calendar and LinkedIn Sync

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Rethinking

TOWN HALL

Innovating Resident Engagement by Blending Technology and Old-fashioned Human Interaction

6 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | NOVEMBER 2019

BY M A R K D. I S R A E L S O N

The city of Plano, Texas, prioritizes communication and engagement. We define good engagement as intentional, relevant, two-way communication between the city and our residents.

This is easy to describe, but much harder to accomplish.

In a city with more than 284,000 residents, encouraging genuine communication with city leadership is a formidable challenge. How can residents effectively express concerns? How can they obtain answers to both frequently asked and more obscure questions? Finally, how can the city ensure it is listening and providing timely responses to resident concerns?

The city of Plano uses an innovative combination of staffing resources, social media, and technology to host quarterly town hall meetings that allow for resident participation in a variety of ways. This approach ensures candid communication that benefits both parties.

Town hall meetings are nothing new in Plano. But the way we now conduct them is very different.

Nearly 30 years ago, the city hosted quarterly, inperson town hall meetings at various venues across the city. Attendance was low. Although broadcast extended the reach of information, residents did not have the opportunity to submit input unless they attended the town hall.

Time for a Change

In 2012, Plano launched a new format for our quarterly town halls. Noting the success that the city of Frisco, Texas, experienced through the use of phone outreach, we brought in its vendor to provide phone outreach to residents and connect them to the physical meeting.

The platform provided by the vendor provides three key elements. First, it allows residents to ask questions and hear the meeting live via landline or cellphone.

Next, it broadcasts their voices to the meeting location in real time, sounding as clear as if they were actually in the room. Finally, adding to the phone and in-person outreach, we harnessed the power of social media and the skills of our communications staff to extend realtime participation into the digital realm.

Each quarterly town hall meeting addresses a major topic of resident interest. The summer town hall meeting always focuses on the city budget, as part of the public input process. Another annual town hall is focused on roads and infrastructure issues—always a subject of resident questions and concerns.

Resident-generated concerns drive the topic selection for the meetings. As a result, recent town halls have discussed property taxes and regional transportation.

NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 7

Plano’s innovative town hall strategy ensures residents can participate via the method of their choice.

Recognizing that city issues require regional cooperation and collaboration, whenever possible we invite partner agencies such as our school district, transit agencies, the appraisal districts, and the Texas Department of Transportation to join us at the town hall. This gives our residents direct access to ask questions while also providing our partner agencies the opportunity to hear from and connect with them.

Adding Digital Options

The digital town hall service calls more than 44,000 Plano households for each session. It also provides a web sign-up tool, allowing us to reach residents who want to participate from their mobile phones for the town hall session. The use of the web and text opt-in process allows us to regularly connect with mobile phone users while remaining compliant with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Individuals who answer and stay on the line are automatically connected to the virtual telephone town hall meeting. Phone participants can submit questions, participate in polls, opt-in for city email updates, and more.

The process is simple, because each town hall is staffed by a virtual host, question screeners, and call collectors. Telephone

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audience members can ask their questions live over the phone.

Those attending a town hall in person hear each question as it is asked over the phone.

As noted earlier, social media is the third key element of our old-meets-new town hall meeting success. Beginning a month before the meeting, the city begins to gather questions across several social media

platforms, including Twitter, Nextdoor, Facebook, and Reddit. Residents are asked to submit their questions in advance of the meeting, allowing them another avenue to engage with the city even if they are not able to participate live by phone, social media, or in person.

Town hall meetings are broadcast live on the city’s PEG

channel and web livestream, as well as on the city’s Facebook page. During the town hall, a member of the communication team live tweets the meeting while another manages questions and answers on the Facebook platform. Social media questions are worked into the town hall meetings, along with phone and liveaudience questions.

City management and communication staff track prescreened questions submitted from the phone audience and social media using a web-based control panel. A member of city council serves as an inperson moderator, introducing the town hall topic and key participants. Plano’s staff, representing a variety of city departments, are on hand to answer questions. From the

participant’s perspective, the mixed-platform environment provides a truly seamless experience.

As you might expect, it is impossible to answer all questions submitted before and during a one-hour town hall event. Typically, our team can answer 25 to 35 questions, depending on question complexity. Communications staff keep a record of submitted questions. Telephone participants who are unable to have their question answered during the town hall are invited to leave a voicemail, which is answered the next day. Unasked social media questions are answered the next day as well.

The mixed-platform town hall service provides analytics on the phone portion of the town hall, including how long

each resident participated and how they voted in polling questions. It also makes a record of any questions that residents submitted. Email addresses— when provided—allow residents to opt in to regular news updates from the city.

Giving Residents a Choice

Plano’s innovative town hall strategy ensures residents can participate via the method of their choice. As a result, instead of just a few participants at each town hall, we average anywhere from 500 to 1,000 live participants via phone, social media, or in person.

We recognize not everyone can be at every meeting in person. We know some residents do not have cable television service, while others do not have internet. Some no

longer have a home phone, and a growing number of people merely want to text or post comments. For others, social media is truly a social experience—they want to have a back-and-forth conversation with their city.

We reimagined how to communicate and engage with our residents, and we are so glad we did. This interaction with our residents, meeting them where they are and engaging with them there, is a worthwhile investment of staff resources, time, and technology.

MARK D. ISRAELSON, ICMA-CM, is city manager, Plano, Texas, and an ICMA member (marki@plano.gov).

NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 9

City Health Dashboard Developing Local Health Data to Support Equitable Health Outcomes in Providence, Rhode Island

BY ELLEN CYNAR

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From climate change to immigration; from the digital divide to gun safety; cities are grappling

with how to address complex environmental and systemic issues that affect resident health. Along with physical or mental state, health is an expression of access, connectivity, and opportunity.

Cities are increasingly held responsible for developing creative public health solutions that can respond to the unique needs of their communities; however, significant gaps in data and resources exist at the local level in support of these changes. The city of Providence is addressing this gap through partnership across unsuspecting disciplines, and by ensuring local public health efforts are both equitable and reflective of the community.

Providence is Rhode Island’s capital and largest city with approximately 179,000 residents, a sixth of the state’s population. Our residents are far more ethnically diverse than the state as a whole, with almost 42 percent of Providence residents identifying as Latino, compared to the 15 percent of Rhode Islanders. This is also reflected in the languages spoken within our community—nearly 21 percent of residents are nonEnglish speaking, in comparison to only eight percent statewide. Providence’s role as the central hub for Rhode Island transportation, entertainment, education, health and social services only enriches the city’s vibrant cultural background.

At the same time, racial and ethnic inequities faced by a large portion of Providence’s population contribute to disparities in health outcomes faced by many current residents. Some of the city's most diverse census tracts have life expectancies1 of 71.9 years—a full 10 years less than female life expectancy in Rhode Island—and six years shorter than all Rhode Island males. Economic disparities also negatively impact health outcomes in Providence; twice as many Providence residents live in poverty (26.9 percent) than in the state as a whole (13.4 percent).

Rhode Island’s public health services are consolidated at the state level. This unique governing structure leaves Providence with some of the most significant health inequities in the state but no local authority over public health surveillance, funding, or services. Therefore, it’s imperative that Providence commit itself to advocating for the health of its residents and for the needs of communities most impacted by racial, gender, economic, and other inequities.

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Addressing health disparities in Providence’s diverse population requires a scalable approach at the community level.

Without local data, however, cities like Providence are often forced to analyze or report health-related data at the county, state, or regional level, burying or diluting health inequities.

When city-level data is available, it’s often irregularly collected, 12 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | NOVEMBER 2019

creating a static or inconsistently told narrative over time. The lack of consistency in reporting will ultimately fail to serve cities like Providence, where the social and environmental characteristics are far different than the counties or states in which they reside. Rhode Island’s consolidated health structure at the state level further exacerbates the issue, leaving gaps

in local data surveillance.

Therefore, overlooked or outdated data lead to policies and interventions that miss the individuals who need resources the most.

Supporting Providence’s current public health efforts is the Healthy Communities Office2 (HCO), the city’s lead agency for health policy and promotion initiatives.

The HCO was created by executive order in 2012, following decades of dedicated substance abuse prevention work. As the scope of work expanded to better meet the needs of our community, the HCO became uniquely positioned as the coordinating body in the city of Providence for healthy living policies, activities, and systems improving public health outcomes for residents. This, coupled with cross-departmental problemsolving, has been a major source of Providence’s success in creating spaces and services that support health.

To address the lack of comprehensive, reliable city health data, Providence has partnered with the Department of Population Health at NYU School of Medicine3 to create a robust health data portal—the City Health Dashboard (www. cityhealthdashboard.com).

Over the past three years, we have worked collaboratively with the NYU team and several other communities to identify indicators that are meaningful to cities and available consistently at the national level. The City Health Dashboard is now home to 37 indicators of health and its drivers for the 500 largest cities in the nation with a population above 66,000.

When available, data is reported at the census tract level, enabling communities to develop solutions at a localized level.

Tools such as the City Health Dashboard are

important first steps in understanding health at a city-level and provide a starting point for local government to implement health policy. This ability to examine demographic and neighborhood differences, and compare data across cities, aides in the identification of resources and best practices as a core function of city government. Whether it is the Department of Public Works; the Department of Arts, Culture, and Tourism; or Purchasing Office, the drivers of social and environmental health are often managed by departments that don’t have “health” in their title.

Therefore, it’s critical that cities are prepared to use local health data to develop crossdepartmental decision-making that supports equitable health outcomes for the residents they serve.

The HCO’s “health in all policies” framework engages a wide variety of community-based organizations; coordinates inter-departmental city resources; provides linkages to decision makers such as the

mayor and city council; and facilitates community-driven plans as it relates to health equity. The HCO’s work has included the improvement of community parks and playgrounds; promotion of inter-modal transportation; funding to better engage children in nature-based learning; and program support for free meals in the city’s parks and recreation centers.

Many of our documented successes use data to start a conversation and then develop interventions centered on the voice and experience of residents. Here are two: Opioid Overdoses

Like many cities across the country, the opioid overdose crisis has significantly impacted Providence, which experiences the highest rate of overdoses and overdose deaths in Rhode Island.4 Serving as frontline responders is Providence EMS, which is integrated with the Providence Fire Department. Although the city has historically worked with state and local agencies to address the opioid epidemic, local leaders

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Opioid Overdose Deaths Across Rhode Island's Cities

recognized that more needed to be done.

In 2017, the HCO partnered with Providence EMS to design a new methodology for identifying overdose incidents and analyzing overdose data. The HCO also partnered with graduate students from the University of Pennsylvania’s Master’s of Urban Spatial Analytics Practicum to develop a spatial risk model of opioid overdoses for the city. This new statistical methodology and modeling has identified high risk geographical areas in order

to target interventions and outreach activities for overdose prevention.

In January 2018, the HCO and Providence EMS partnered with The Providence Center, the state’s largest and most comprehensive communitybased behavioral health organization, to launch Providence Safe Stations (www.pvdsafestations.com).

The purpose of Safe Stations is to address the overdose epidemic by providing quick, confidential access to supportive services. Available 24 hours a day, seven days

14 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | NOVEMBER 2019

a week, an individual can visit any of the city’s 12 fire stations, speak with the trained staff on duty, and immediately get connected to treatment support and services via peer recovery specialists. In the past year, over 125 individuals have accessed Providence Safe Stations and the program has served as a model for cities across Rhode Island and the country.

Youth Obesity Prevention

Obesity—and its associated racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities— disproportionately affects Providence residents, especially youth.5 Of local concern is the documented combination of sedentary activity and lack of access to healthy meals, when school

is out during the summer months. To address the issue, obesity-prevention researchers have proposed several solutions including greater access to physical activity programming and healthy foods throughout summer months.

Providence has numerous built-in assets to support childhood obesity prevention, including its 100+ neighborhood parks and green spaces, which are within a ten-minute walk for all resident youth from any point within the city. There are also 12 recreation centers located throughout the city that serve as important neighborhood hubs.

Providence also administers the state’s largest free summer meals program for youth.

Historically, these resources have been underutilized by residents. For example, in 2012 an estimated 11 percent of Providence youth participated in the summer meals program, despite the almost 90 percent eligibility for free or reduced school meals. In 2014, the HCO embarked on a multiyear needs assessment to identify barriers to participation in summer activities, which involved talking with youth and families in order to help identify points of engagement.

This needs assessment work resulted in the development of the Eat Play Learn PVD Initiative (www. eatplaylearnpvd.com), a partnership between the mayor’s office, HCO, city departments, and dozens of

community partners. The initiative has three goals: ensure access to healthy, fresh food options (“Eat”); encourage physical activity and creative engagement (“Play”); and increase yearlong learning and summer employment opportunities (“Learn”). The result is a coordinated approach to community engagement in summer activities, and resources that support youth health, including obesity prevention. Over the past four years, Providence has seen significant increases in summer meals consumption, parks use, and summer learning and recreation programming under the Eat Play Learn PVD Initiative. The continued success of this initiative is

rooted in a combination of thoughtful analysis of local data, coordination across departments and community partners, and communitydriven solutions to reach all Providence youth.

These initiatives are examples of how local government health policy, implemented using local data collection, supports Providence’s most vulnerable communities. Providence is not alone in the increasing responsibility cities are facing to provide opportunities for sustainable healthy living.

Though the nuances of each city can add layers of complexity to what is representative of “health,” Providence is an example for what is possible through internal and community-wide

collaboration. Data-informed decision-making and cross-sector collaboration is just the beginning of the process to making our city a more inclusive, thriving community.

ENDNOTES AND RESOURCES

https://www.cityhealthdashboard.com/ ri/providence/metric-detail?metric=837 2 http://www.providenceri.gov/healthy 3 https://med.nyu.edu/pophealth/ department-population-health 4 https://www.cityhealthdashboard.com/ ri/providence/compare-cities?metric=26 &comparisonCity=176 5 https://www.cityhealthdashboard.com/ ri/providence/metric-detail?metric=29 1

ELLEN CYNAR, MS, MPH, is director, Healthy Communities Office, Providence, Rhode Island (ecynar@providenceri.gov).

NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 15

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On the

Cutting Edge

BY CHRISTOPHER J. RUSSO

Sunny Isles Beach Elevates City Services

by Embracing Technological Initiatives

F

or the last several years, the city of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, has been breaking barriers and driving technological advancements to the forefront of our agenda. In late 2015, Mayor George “Bud” Scholl launched the Mayor’s Technology Initiative, challenging staff to develop ideas to keep our city on the cutting edge of new technologies and conveniences that can better serve our residents. Much of our IT department’s functions contribute to the internal workings of the organization, but as technology advances so rapidly, we are always seeking new projects to elevate city services and improve quality of life.

NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 17

The mayor’s technology challenge has generated a number of initiatives, such as interactive touchscreen kiosks in two of our most popular parks and Soofa benches with solar-powered charging stations at most parks. We have two additional projects, which are raising our level of innovation to new heights. The first, implementing free Wi-Fi along the length of our beach, is already complete and proven to be successful. The second, undergrounding fiber optic cable throughout the city, has been in development for several years, but is poised to provide great benefits.

Coastal Connection

In a time when our cellphones are always within arm’s reach and most daily tasks are digital, connecting our residents and visitors with free Wi-Fi has become a priority. The city first offered free Wi-Fi in 2008 in four public parks. We now offer Wi-Fi in nine of our 11 parks and on all shuttle buses, which residents can use to view our shuttle’s mobile tracking app, another IT public improvement initiative.

The prospect of providing Wi-Fi on the beach was one of the first ideas the IT department pitched as part of the mayor’s initiative. Our beach is approximately 2.5 miles long with 10 lifeguard stands dispersed throughout.

As our namesake implies, the beach is one of our top attractions, drawing nearly one million visitors each year.

So naturally, offering free Wi-Fi on the beach for our residents and visitors was an exciting prospect.

Challenges

Devising a plan for this project created some challenges. As a coastal city, all work on the beach must adhere to the Coastal Construction Control Line (CCCL) program—through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection—which determines an area of jurisdiction where special siting and design criteria are applied for construction and related activities. The CCCL program also regulates activities that might cause beach erosion, 18 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | NOVEMBER 2019

destabilize dunes, damage upland properties, or interfere with natural (or environmental) coastal habitats or public access.

Given these conditions, we developed a solution that removed the requisite power and cables being laid out on the beach. Since we were already utilizing wireless communication to connect other city facilities, the best solution was to go wireless. We equipped seven out of the 10 lifeguard towers along the beach with solar-powered units that serve as the access points for power and link the towers.

From conception to implementation, the project took just about a year. Six months were spent on testing the concept for power, and once the solution proved successful, implementation across the lifeguard towers took approximately six months. We can proudly say that since 2018 nearly the entire stretch of our beach has access to free city Wi-Fi. Two additional lifeguard stations will be equipped with solar panels in the future as one is in the process of being rebuilt and another is going to be moved.

Once the work on these two lifeguard towers is finalized, there will be total Wi-Fi coverage along the beach.

Equipping the beach with Wi-Fi cost approximately $75,000, with $10,000 allocated per lifeguard tower installation. Chief Information Officer Derrick Arias praises the project as a win-win for both the city and its residents. Providing free Wi-Fi on the beach is a great visible project for the residents, and also requires minimal maintenance on the city’s part. Because of our existing wireless connection throughout the city, there is low impact of upkeep. This project reaps only positive rewards, and we have already received a positive response from the public.

Elevating Through Undergrounding

As mentioned earlier, much of our IT department’s responsibilities fall internally, and one of its major challenges has been communications between our different locations throughout the city. Sunny Isles Beach is still considered a young city; it was incorporated only 22 years ago. For most of this time, we did not have any assets in the ground; there was no fiber or cable that we owned and could utilize for city purposes.

Because Sunny Isles Beach is a geographically compact city, 1.48 square miles of upland, simply being connected wirelessly was manageable in the beginning. However, as our services and offerings grew, there were limitations to solely being wireless; our connection was only so reliable.

Many of our staff work around the city in various locations, including city hall and several of our parks. It is important for us to maintain solid, reliable communication across these work stations.

This reality led to the proposal of undergrounding fiber optic cable throughout the city. The purpose of this project is to transfer the connection of our city’s primary locations from the existing wireless network to fiber optic cable. The notion of fiber optic cable was first introduced several years ago, however, the preparation that goes into a project of this magnitude requires extensive and comprehensive planning. In order to integrate the fiber, the path of each connection must be dug up to lay the necessary conduit. And because our city is small, yet highly populated, haphazardly excavating the ground for this is both impractical and highly expensive.

We initiated the project in phases as other construction was occurring around the city. In order to incur the least amount of disruption to our residents, we mapped out all work taking place or scheduled to take place around the city. This afforded us the opportunity to sync our efforts with those other projects and build the foundation for the fiber. As you can imagine, this is a lengthy and laborious process.

Synchronization

Five years ago, we embarked on one of the city’s most extensive and complicated capital improvement projects—utility line undergrounding throughout the city—in which we began undergrounding the utility lines along the main state road, Collins Avenue. As this undergrounding took place, we took the liberty of laying our own conduit, which would later be used to connect our facilities with fiber. This phase of the project is complete, but there is still additional undergrounding that must take place around the city. Once the undergrounding between locations is complete, we will create a path and connect each individual building to handle the fiber.

The first completed piece of the project connected our Government Center to one of our main parks, Pelican Community Park, which also houses our community center. The majority of our city employees and the bulk of our services and recreational programs are found in both of these buildings. To connect these locations cost $28,000, which includes a one-time preparation cost in the Government Center that will service the entire undergrounding of fiber. The Government Center will serve as the hub for the project; all locations will connect here.

Next Steps

We have plans to connect five additional locations, all of which are key city landmarks and parks: 1. Heritage Park, located at the northern end of the city, provides a playground, interactive water attraction, and a stage for special performances; 2. Newport Fishing Pier, a top attraction; 3. Town Center Park, a popular spot for families with young children; 4. Intracoastal Park, located at the southern end of the city, where many enjoy the playground and public art; and 5. Gateway Park, which hosts many cultural events and is also the future location of a new multifaceted facility that will feature a variety of programs, events, and services.

NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 19

Once these additional locations are budgeted, the undergrounding and execution will take between 12 and 18 months to complete. This time frame allows for the network to be designed and additional construction to be completed in order to connect the conduit between locations.

Trials and Tribulations

An endeavor as ambitious as this is not without its challenges and setbacks. The initial construction required to place the conduit can take years. Decisions must be made regarding when and where to place the conduits; know that it will not happen overnight and that it takes time before you will even be able to utilize the fiber and see results. Unlike the low maintenance impact of Wi-Fi on the beach, this project requires consistent maintenance once complete. Because we have numerous construction projects happening in different locations around the city, if another project ruptures the conduit by accident, we will experience the repercussions of losing connectivity and the efforts it takes to resolve the issue.

Leveraging Connectivity

While the undergrounding of fiber optic cable is a long and strenuous process that requires strategic planning, the internal and external benefits outweigh the challenges. With more robust and reliable connectivity, fiber optic cable will benefit the citywide CCTV camera project. This service currently feeds approximately 500 cameras throughout the city to our Police Communications Center and the Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) System. The fiber optic cable will aid in the connection of the cameras.

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City staff will also benefit from faster network connectivity in their workstations throughout the city. Increased connectivity speed is vital to increasing productivity as we continue to move toward mobile workstations. Additionally, the free public Wi-Fi we offer in our parks and now along the beach will improve with increased speeds.

It is important to note that the size of our city is an advantage with a project such as this. We have limited ground to cover and a limited number of facilities to connect. Larger cities beginning this same process will need to invest more time and funds into undergrounding their fiber optic cable. But if you do not take the leap, you will never reap the benefits. I strongly believe that other cities will see an incremental investment when synchronizing the undergrounding with other construction work occurring around your city, and a huge connectivity payoff once running the fiber underground.

On the Technological Front Line

The city of Sunny Isles Beach considers several determinants when deciding which projects merit an investment of time and money: viability, impact on residents, benefits, and capability.

Each project is researched and designed so the execution is seamless and efficient. Technology is always top-of-mind in Sunny Isles Beach as we work to provide accessible services to all residents.

We are always asking, “What’s next? How can we better serve the tens of thousands of individuals who call Sunny Isles Beach their home?” It is our staff ’s drive and determination, along with support from the city commission, that transform those visions and goals into reality. We are always looking toward the future, searching for the latest innovations that will propel our city to the forefront of the technological arena.

CHRISTOPHER J. RUSSO, city manager, Sunny Isles Beach, Florida (crusso@sibfl.net).

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Creating Sustainable

Citizen Engagement Involve City Residents in Solving Problems

BY MYUNG J. LEE

nyone who has worked in local government for long knows that, despite what the newest smart city technology may offer, there are no quick fixes for the challenges cities and citizens face. That doesn’t mean that participating in city government to help meet those challenges needs to be difficult or complicated for residents.

Earlier this year, Cities of Service (www. citiesofservice.org) named ten finalists for our 2019 Engaged Cities Award. Cities of Service is a nonprofit organization that helps mayors build stronger cities by changing the way local government and citizens work together. We define citizens as residents—regardless of their legal status—who actively participate in their community and who see themselves as an integral part of their city.

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2Go r a C

Cities of Service Aurora

This year’s finalist cities worked together with citizens to create solutions ranging from addressing loneliness to fighting high crime rates and revamping poorly designed city websites. The finalists confirmed what we’ve seen time and time again: the most effective and lasting solutions succeed because of careful planning, commitment from city leaders, and thoughtful collaboration that makes it easy for citizens to contribute their time and insights.

crow dfun

ding

Any city can implement these types of solutions, and each offers lessons about effective engagement that every city leader should keep in mind: Add Capacity to City Hall by Making it Easy for Citizens to Contribute.

Cities of every size face budget constraints and daunting problems—from homelessness to blight—that cannot be solved by city staff alone. There are many solutions aimed at engaging citizens by adding capacity to city hall through working with city staff.

Find ways for citizens to tell you what they know.

In Flint, Michigan, nearly 40 percent of properties were blighted in 2018.

At the time, the city did not have the data to develop a blight elimination plan or the resources to carry it out.

Therefore, city leaders recruited community groups to gather data on every property in the city, which they then submitted to the newly developed Flint Property Portal. The portal displays citizen-generated data on property conditions so residents can easily report and learn about blight in their neighborhoods. The comprehensive database helped residents, for example, find out who owned a vacant lot and offer to mow the overgrown lawn.

Over time, numerous city departments, as well as partner organizations and businesses, began to use the portal to inform their decisions about economic development, crime prevention, and more.

This data helped the city apply for, and receive, a $60 million blight elimination grant through the U.S. Treasury Hardest Hit Funds, allowing them to remove thousands of blighted properties identified by residents. Community members also used the portal to create and implement neighborhood improvement plans, including caring for more than 690 vacant lots by mowing lawns and removing trash.

Community members also used the portal to track maintenance of more than 690 vacant lots and create and implement neighborhood improvement plans, which included fixing sidewalks, community gardens, and more.

Don’t let lack of clear process hinder engagement. San Francisco,

although very different from Flint, also relied on resident participation to help solve

NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 23

Cities of Service London

Therefore, finding ways for residents to easily contribute can add capacity and increase the city’s ability to solve problems of any size while providing residents with a deeper connection to their city.

Removing Barriers and Bureaucracy Helps Citizens Pursue Their Passions.

Some of our Engaged Cities Award Finalists have created novel ways for residents to pitch and develop their ideas, avoiding more complicated processes that might deter residents from engaging with the city.

Crowdfunding works for cities, too. Two of

local problems. The city had a large number of residents with skills that could be used in support of efforts to address issues such as homelessness and access to healthcare. However, it did not have the capacity or infrastructure to manage volunteers, and companies that wished to provide pro-bono services did not have a way to engage with the city.

The city created a new program, Civic Bridge, that systematically and effectively brought together private sector volunteers and city staff to develop solutions for public challenges. Through the program, volunteers contributed approximately 20 percent of their time over a 16-week period. City staff identified challenges that could benefit from pro-bono help, matched volunteers with city teams, scoped projects, and coached teams on their work.

This new program allowed city leaders to draw on the

Cities of Service Orlando

expertise of hundreds of residents that work in the private sector, while ensuring that their time and hard work produced results. The program has resulted in many solutions, including a new public system for residents to apply for affordable housing

24 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | NOVEMBER 2019

online, saving them countless hours standing in line to apply in person. The city estimates that companies have provided $3.9 million in pro-bono work through the program to date.

No city can rely solely on available budget and staff to address every challenge.

the 2019 Engaged Cities Award finalists—London and Plymouth, United Kingdom—have used crowdfunding platforms to remove bureaucracy and add transparency to the process of distributing funds for community development.

While the two cities’ strategies varied in significant ways, both allowed community groups to propose projects on crowdfunding websites.

Residents could then directly contribute funds to support the project and if projects met certain criteria, city officials contributed matching funds and support to the most promising initiatives.

Crowdfunding makes it easy for community members to pitch their ideas to the city, and the wider community, and see how funds are distributed. Both crowdfunding programs have led to a wide variety of new community initiatives based on the needs and desires of citizens; ranging from programs that fight loneliness, to

Cities of Service Atlanta

City leaders embarked on an extensive process to engage residents to help design and maintain new green infrastructure on previously vacant and neglected properties.

transforming derelict buildings into community spaces.

London has backed 100 successful campaigns with £1.8 million, enabling a total of £4 million in funding for community projects. And for every £1 spent by Plymouth, residents have donated nearly £2.7, for an additional £956,000 in support for communities.

Through this process, both cities have engaged residents that have historically had little interaction with the city who now feel connected to their neighbors and empowered to tackle challenges in their communities, working with local government as a partner rather than solely a provider of services.

Make it simple for citizens to develop their ideas. In

Lakewood, Colorado, creating a more sustainable city was important to residents, so the city created a certification program, inviting community members to propose and implement a variety of sustainability workshops, events, and projects that helped the city meet its sustainability goals. Completed projects earned credits, and once a neighborhood reached 60 credits the city certified them as a sustainable neighborhood.

As a result, thousands of residents from eight city neighborhoods have participated in more than 400 projects that make

their community more sustainable. Among other projects, residents convinced the car sharing service Car2Go to create a “hotspot” parking area in Lakewood and implemented zerowaste programs by creating composting and recycling projects across neighborhoods and at citywide events.

Lakewood’s program is now being replicated in Denver and Fort Collins, and has also spurred the city council to move its sustainability efforts forward, leading to Lakewood’s first citywide sustainability plan.

Creative solutions like these make it possible for residents to apply their own expertise to city

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Cities of Service Chicago

problems, without extensive time and funds from the city.

Improving Processes Leads to Stronger Engagement and Better Service Delivery.

Just as it’s difficult to maintain personal relationships if you cannot easily communicate with one another, poor interactions with the city leave residents feeling frustrated and disengaged.

Get back to basics. In

many cities, the processes and services that residents use on a regular basis—such as the city website and 311 system—are difficult to use or out of date.

In Bogotá, Colombia, service requests were collected through phone calls, email, social media, and its website. These requests were not always getting to staff who could effectively help, and the variety of entry points made the requested data difficult to analyze, hindering city staff’s ability to use the data to make decisions and resolve problems.

As part of an effort to improve and integrate both in-person and online services, Bogotá city leaders re-engineered the system for receiving data and created a new web portal and app to collect, track, and analyze service delivery. To further engage residents,

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staff incorporated citizen input as they proceeded through service delivery brainstorming meetings and focus groups to help improve the system. Resident use of the new system and app has increased dramatically, and the city has identified and solved problems based on the better-organized data and reduced response times.

Create a culture change in city hall. Just as in Bogotá,

residents were telling the staff of Orlando, Florida, that they were frustrated with the service delivery process. The feedback from residents was that the city’s website was difficult to

navigate and online forms were confusing. Too often, community members had to spend their time traveling to city hall to access services and fill out forms that could have been made available online.

To mitigate this, the city’s new digital service team created the Digital Service Academy, which taught city staff how to create and test user-centered digital services in just three days. The academy helped participants build prototypes for new, more accessible online service request forms, and then get feedback from residents before making them publicly available. This process would typically take place within a week’s time. The digital service team also worked with staff to incorporate resident insights into other city initiatives.

As a result of these efforts, service satisfaction among residents has increased by 60 percent and city staff have created 170 userfriendly online services now available on its new, easy-touse website. Perhaps most importantly, more than 100 city staff members have a better understanding of usercentered design, creating a culture in city hall that puts resident needs first.

Improving processes, programs, and tools that citizens use on a regular basis to engage with city government takes time and patience, but it yields tremendous results: residents get the services they need, the city can better solve important problems, and trust in government improves.

Commitment to Long-Term Partnership with Citizens is Essential.

At Cities of Service, we have seen that a one-time

survey or a few social media posts do not get the kind of engagement necessary to draw on the time, talents, and insights of residents.

Cities must foster lasting relationships with citizens to have a significant impact.

Investing time in community relationships pays off. In Chicago,

for example, the city had encountered a common problem—street flooding, especially in the city’s west side—and city staff knew they needed to create green infrastructure to mitigate it.

However, at the time, the city did not have adequate resources to maintain new green spaces.

City leaders embarked on an extensive process to engage residents to both help design, and maintain, new green infrastructure on previously vacant and neglected properties. The design process included meetings with multiple community groups to receive input and buy-in from residents; which resulted in 10 new green infrastructure projects on the west side of the city that community groups are committed to maintaining.

City staff estimates that the new infrastructure can hold more than 500,000 gallons of stormwater. These new sites have also helped attract investment in local businesses, while beginning to improve public perception of these struggling business corridors.

Citizens should be partners, not just service recipients. In Atlanta, city

leaders also committed to long-term partnerships with residents to solve a pressing problem. With a large portion of the city lacking access to

fresh food, city leaders worked with residents to transform vacant, blighted lots into urban gardens and food farms to increase access to healthy food.

The city leased vacant cityowned property to residents and provided training, public promotion, fundraising assistance, and other support to ensure their success.

Thanks to this long-term effort, citizens and community groups are now using acres of previously unused land in the city to produce healthy food for their communities. Residents have created four community gardens; two urban farms that sell their produce at farmers markets to Atlanta residents; and the Urban Food Forest at Brown Mills, a seven-acre food forest producing nuts, fruits, vegetables, herbs, and mushrooms.

Relationships solve problems. After Aurora,

Illinois, experienced a sharp increase in violent and property crime in 2014 and 2015, city leaders and police decided to increase their efforts to create and develop relationships—both between neighbors, and between residents and police.

City staff identified individuals who could lead new neighborhood groups, and provided starter kits and extensive behind-the-scenes support to help community members organize group meetings and neighborhood connection events. Police and other city officials attended these meetings and events, building trust between residents, police, and city government.

These relationships paid off.

In the first year of the program, the crime rate dropped by

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seven percent in the areas with the highest rates of violent and property crime and another nine percent the following year.

Citywide, crime in Aurora fell by 20 percent between 2016 and 2018.

These projects in Chicago, Atlanta, and Aurora involve long-term commitment from both the city and citizens, ensuring sustainable solutions that will have a lasting impact.

Much of their success is a result of the city demonstrating a commitment to engaging directly with the community on a consistent basis.

contribute their knowledge, talents, and time. By removing barriers that hinder good relationships between city government and citizens, city leaders are building a foundation for stronger cities and a stronger democracy.

The solutions of the 10 Engaged Cities Award finalists vary significantly, as do the cities themselves, yet they all serve as models for other city leaders who wish to better serve residents. These cities improve the daily lives of residents by making the process as easy as possible for citizens to

For more information about the Engaged Cities Award finalists and other resources such as blueprints and case studies, visit citiesofservice.org.

Cities of Service is a nonprofit that helps mayors build stronger cities by changing the way local government and citizens work together. Cities of Service helps a coalition of more than 270 cities tap into citizen insights, skills, and service to identify and solve critical public problems.

MYUNG J. LEE is executive director of Cities of Service (myung@ citiesofservice.org).

NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 27

WHAT DON'T YOU KNOW?

BY RON BERNIER

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How a Tennessee intercounty agency finds and stops risky activity on its network, and how any-sized local government can apply managed threat detection, even on a small budget.

Uncover T and Manage Unknown CYBER THREATS

he cyber threat environment is dynamic and evolving. New vulnerabilities emerge daily, and attacks are becoming more sophisticated. It’s nearly impossible to effectively manage the threat environment alone, particularly when attacks now fly under the radar of traditional detection technologies.

Scarce resources, and the public’s prioritization of spending on more frontline city services, can compel local government leaders to seek internal support more readily. On matters of cybersecurity, however, the increasing complexities and rapid evolution of technology may mean that the most effective tools and knowledgeable staff to fight cyberattacks simply aren’t available.

The following steps can help your organization build a robust cybersecurity culture, while laying the foundation for a more sustainable IT infrastructure.

NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 29

We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know

Local government entities of all sizes are challenged by under-resourced IT teams working in an environment of constant threat. When asked what kept him up at night, Mike Caffrey, an IT executive for East Tennessee Governments said, “We don’t know what we don’t know.”

“Detecting cyber threats is a full-time job, and we just didn’t have the resources to dedicate to it,” Caffrey added. “The task is time consuming. There is a huge amount of data that needs to be sifted through. Plus, attacks don’t always happen during normal business hours.”

In-House vs. Outsourcing

To alleviate that burden, Caffrey’s team has implemented a managed threat detection and response (MDR) service that can keep watch on his network 24/7. This follows an interesting industry trend.

Recent articles in GovTech1 and CompTIA2 have made sound cases for why local governments might be better off outsourcing some or all of their IT operations, including cybersecurity.

In GovTech’s interview with Teri Takai, the executive director of the Center for Digital Government and former chief information officer of the Department of Defense, Takai

30 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | NOVEMBER 2019

points out some pain points similar to Caffrey’s for local governments struggling to keep up with cyber threats: • Lack of resources, • Aging technology, • New technology that doesn’t integrate with existing systems, • Lack of size and scale to appropriately meet evolving challenges, and • Lack of executive understanding and appropriate funding/ support.

As Takai noted, “There is no ‘one-time spend’ that makes a jurisdiction 100 percent secure.”

Neither can a jurisdiction

expect to handle cybersecurity threats on its own. This can be a tough sell, particularly when sharing resources.

However, there are successful emerging models of cyberthreat management that particularly involve collaborations, partnerships, and economies of scale.

Partnership and MDR Options

Opportunities exist among federal, state, and local governments—as well as between traditionally siloed departments such as IT and public safety—to join forces and share technology and expertise. Jurisdictions

analyze event logs from the Tennessee Intercounty Agency’s network, including end point activity, to uncover suspicious behavior. Any potential compromise is investigated and confirmed by the analyst, and the information security team is notified immediately.

In the first few days of operation, analysts uncovered a variety of network behaviors that presented significant risk to the agency. Noteworthy risks that had been previously undetected included: 1 Tech Support Scams

can connect with a shared technology partner, particularly in tech infrastructure and threat monitoring and detection.

Utilizing an MDR service, as Caffrey did in Tennessee, is another avenue to economically detect malicious behavior and safeguard data. It allows organizations to benefit from cybersecurity domain expertise without the need to invest in training, development, or headcount, as outlined in a recent blog post, “Why Your Business Should Consider Managed Threat Detection.”3 MDR Identifies Risks

With the service Caffrey implemented, security experts

Analysis of firewall logs uncovered many instances of users visiting malicious websites containing” tech support scams.” Users are often redirected to these sites during normal browsing and enter the malicious site unknowingly.

These fake sites encourage users to provide personal data, install programs giving hackers control of their system and network, or, worse, allowing them to install a remote access tool (RAT) giving them access to the system.

2 Fraudulent Programs

The new system also found a fraudulent Adobe Flash player installed on the agency’s network. A common online scam tricks the person browsing into downloading a fake version of a popular software.

While it appears legitimate, the fraudulent program tries to infect the victim with malware or collect personal information.

3 BitTorrent (BT)

Traffic that pointed to peerto-peer file sharing known as BitTorrenting (BT) was also

identified. BT is a common protocol for transferring large files and is often used to download illegal and / or copywritten material.

This poses a risk to local governments because if an illegal file is successfully downloaded, the agency could be held liable.

4 Potentially Unwanted

Program (PUP)

Analysts found multiple instances of PUPs. These programs are not necessarily malicious, but their unintended use may compromise the privacy of the user, weaken network security, or degrade system performance.

5 Advanced Persistent

Adware (APA)

When reviewing the agency’s endpoint activity, analysts found an APA installed on one of their devices. According to Booz Allen Hamilton, an APA “leverages advanced techniques, typically only seen in attacks attributed to Nation-State-level Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), to evade detection, maintain persistence, and connect to a Command and Control (C2) server to facilitate the second stage of the attack.” If left undetected, this activity posed a significant threat to the agency.

Newfound Security and ROI

The investment in the MDR service paid off immediately for the Tennessee intercounty agency. With trusted analysts alerting Caffrey to any system vulnerabilities, his network is secure, and his team’s time is freed up for other strategic

priorities. “It’s much less expensive than hiring full-time employees to find threats,” Caffrey said. “And it’s saving my team time because we don’t have to chase down false positives anymore.”

Culture Is Key

Another important—and budget-friendly—action is to cultivate an organization-wide cybersecurity culture, one in which every department is involved in the ongoing effort.

Creating this culture means developing cybersecurity awareness throughout your entire organization, which will lead to organizational practices that support the secure execution of your business strategy.

As Takai noted in the GovTech piece, “The ability of smaller organizations to address the threats without collaboration, shared resources, and support of the technology partners is a thing of the past.” All of us with tight budgets should consider partnerships, resource sharing, and managed threat detection options to stay ahead of cyberthreats and avoid potentially devastating loss.

ENDNOTES AND RESOURCES

https://www.govtech.com/blogs/ lohrmann-on-cybersecurity/how-localgovernments-can-address-cybersecurity.html 2 https://www.comptia.org/ about-us/newsroom/blog/comptiablog/2019/06/27/ten-reasons-why-localgovernments-should-outsource-all-itoperations 3 https://www.tylertech.com/resources/ blog-articles/why-your-business-shouldconsider-managed-threat-detection 1

RON BERNIER, CISSP, MCSE, is director and chief architect of Tyler Detect, Tyler Technologies’ managed threat detection service (ron.bernier@tylertech.com).

NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 31

Bienvenido.

Bienvenue.

Bem-Vindo.

Akeyi.

T

he United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that there are currently 70 million people around the world who have been forcibly displaced by violence, the highest number since World War II. Local government and community-based organizations have historically played a crucial role in working with the federal government to accept and integrate refugees into communities as they transition to life in the United States. Today, border communities from Texas to California are responding, without federal assistance, to

Asylum seekers pose in front of the Migrant Resource Center

32 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | NOVEMBER 2019

No Matter How You Say It, the City of San Antonio Welcomes Asylum Seekers With Dedicated Coalition

a surge of asylum-seeking families crossing the Southern border by providing shelter and humanitarian assistance.

Earlier this year, community nonprofit organizations in San Antonio, which have aided asylum seekers traveling through our community for years, saw a dramatic increase in the number of families crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas. Asylum seekers, primarily from Central America, began to enter the United States by crossing the Rio Grande, surrendering to Border Patrol, and expressing fear of returning to their home countries.

The influx to San Antonio is primarily attributed to changes in Border Patrol policy. Earlier this year, Border Patrol began screening and releasing asylum-seeking families quickly with a Notice to Appear, Order of Release on Recognizance, and transporting them to the closest commercial bus terminal, including small stations in the cities of Eagle Pass and Del Rio, Texas. With limited resources in these small border communities, migrant families boarded small shuttle vans, which travel to San Antonio’s downtown Greyhound station several times a day.

Despite being situated over 150 miles from the border, San Antonio was facing the same challenges as border cities when large numbers of asylum-seeking families began to arrive downtown.

Nonprofit and faith-based organizations looked to the city for leadership and assistance.

New Coalition Addresses Migrant Needs

Together, the city and our dedicated nonprofit partners, with the support of a generous community, formed a unique coalition, focused on compassionately addressing the needs of migrant families traveling through San Antonio, while ensuring the health and safety of the community.

To that end, the city’s Human Services Department opened a Migrant Resource Center in a city-owned property across from the bus station. In addition to meals, travel, and basic needs assistance, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District provides on-site medical assessment services at the center.

From March through August 2019, San Antonio welcomed more than 30,000 families from Central America, Africa, the Caribbean, and over a dozen other countries who traveled to San Antonio from the border, after being released by Border Patrol and legally allowed to travel throughout the United States.

The Community Rises to the Challenge

On March 28, the local Univision News affiliate reported live from the Greyhound station where approximately 100 migrant families had been dropped off by vans bringing them from Eagle Pass. The families, many with young children, were hungry, without money, and did not know where they were or how to get to cities where their sponsors or families lived. Univision made on-air appeals for donations and assistance.

The community responded that night, bringing pizzas, tacos, clothing, diapers, and money to the bus station. Catholic Charities, the Interfaith Welcome Coalition, and the city’s Immigration

NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 33

Note from an Asylum Seeker (translated) (found taped to the wall of the Migrant Resource Center) I will never forget this date between fears and tears of joy. We managed to get to San Antonio, sadly knowing that we could not travel, when we found a nice person of noble heart.

the daytime Migrant Resource Center on March 30 and managed ongoing overnight shelter operations at Travis Park Church one block away.

They brought us to a nice place where it’s better than home. It’s a joy to know that in such a big country there are people who are thinking of us immigrants.

Adapting to EverEvolving Needs

We are not bad, we do no harm. We are only looking for a future for our children.

God bless all these beautiful people.

“The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack.”

—Psalm 23 Honduras — We are immigrants.

Liaison were also on scene coordinating with a nearby church to shelter stranded families. Another 200 asylum seekers were dropped off the next day, again without travel plans or resources.

While community donations flooded in, the number of families needing shelter and assistance exceeded the capacity of community organizations to respond, and nonprofit agencies reached out to the city for help. As most of the arriving migrants were families with small children,

identifying safe shelter was paramount.

The San Antonio community faced a challenge—one that neither the city nor the nonprofit and faith communities could solve alone. This challenge led to the development of an innovative community strategy involving the collective work of nine city departments, nine communitybased organizations, and a community of 1.5 million generous San Antonio residents. Leading with compassion, the city opened

Children from countries around the world gather to watch a movie

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The mission was simple— provide a compassionate layover for families, while connecting asylum seekers to resources and family and health services. Initially, 100 to 200 asylum seekers—primarily from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala—were served daily. As operations continued into the summer, the number arriving or being sheltered daily ranged from 100 to almost 500, sometimes varying between those numbers within the span of a week.

Early on, the city understood that providing health screening and care was crucial to the well-being of the families, volunteers, and the community at large, especially after several cases of chickenpox were identified. The San Antonio Fire Department’s Mobile Integrated Health Team made regular visits to the Migrant

Resource Center to assess health concerns, and the Metropolitan Health District developed protocols for assessing migrants and preventing the spread of illnesses at the center.

The number of sick migrants with colds, cough, and nausea led to the opening of a medical station in a conference room space next to the Migrant Resource Center for triage and minor medical care. Metro Health also implemented physician and nurse volunteer recruitment, monitored food safety, and coordinated the medical transport for migrants to nearby hospitals.

Meeting the Special Needs of African Migrants

Eight weeks into this initiative, during the first week of June, an estimated 300 asylum seekers from Africa—primarily the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola—crossed the Rio Grande en masse near Eagle Pass and surrendered to Border Patrol. The challenges for the African migrant families were different from those of Central American migrants in that most spoke only French, Portuguese, or Lingala. Additionally, they arrived without a host destination or contacts in the United States, and lacked resources to travel onto another destination.

Many families had been traveling for more than six months and arrived with a greater need for basic services and medical attention. San Antonio put out a call for French-speaking volunteers and opened a second shelter at a city community center over a weekend in early June to accommodate this second surge of asylum seekers while working with Congolese and Angolan communities in San Antonio and

Downtown San Antonio

nationally to identify resources to help the families. A violent thunderstorm that weekend downed power lines and caused power outages, requiring transition of migrants in the middle of the night to a third shelter location.

Through these challenges, city and nonprofit staff and faith representatives have learned to trust in our relationships and collective commitment to achieving the common good. We have also learned, through trial and error, to constantly evaluate and adapt our practices to respond to the changing needs of the arriving families, political landscape, and community response. Examples of evolving practices included development of a standard operating procedure that was shared with volunteers, partners, and community stakeholders; securing availability of local transportation services for access to banks, money wiring services, local transportation hubs, and hospital transports; and coordinating with local hospitals and medical providers on establishing intake and release processes to ensure those admitted were returned to the shelter.

Tackling Fears and Misinformation

Around the time of the African migrant influx, Infowars, a conservative media outlet, reported that asylum seekers from the Congo or Angola were potential carriers of the deadly Ebola virus. San Antonio’s Public Health Official called a news conference with local media outlets to dispel Infowars’ baseless report that African asylum seekers might have Ebola or carry the disease.

The city’s public health and media relations teams worked diligently to establish unified messaging across providers, identify agency spokespersons, respond to media and community requests within 24 hours, train staff and volunteers on responding to the media, and hold a press conference to address unfounded concerns regarding Ebola and other communicable diseases. At the same time, the Metropolitan Health District and volunteers continued to address the very real medical needs presented by asylum seekers traveling for weeks or months, ranging from severe blisters, dehydration, chicken pox, scabies, and

stress-induced early labor. As of the end of August, more than 2,500 migrants have received medical services in San Antonio, including assessments, prescriptions, and more extensive medical services through partnerships with local medical centers and hospitals.

The Impossible Becomes Possible

Neither San Antonio nor our community partners believed the Migrant Resource Center and shelter would operate for more than a few weeks. The typical practice of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities was to detain both individuals and families for screening and processing. Nevertheless, Border Patrol began releasing asylum-seeking families to travel to their sponsor location, and the number of migrants released skyrocketed throughout the spring and into the summer.

Our dedication to being of service has remained constant, and migrant operations will continue to evolve to meet the ever-changing needs of the families we serve. We stand committed with our partners to continue the effort as long as necessary and ensure our visitors’ stay here in San Antonio is safe, brief, and compassionate.

This effort demonstrates the city’s core values—teamwork, integrity, innovation,

and professionalism—in action. Over the last several months, 1,192 city employees representing every one of our 35 city departments have volunteered at the Migrant Resource Center or shelter.

This initiative has affected the city’s organizational culture and employees in a meaningful way; strengthened our relationships with the nonprofit community, especially faithbased organizations; and demonstrated San Antonio’s compassion to the world.

Migrants have expressed their thanks for services in a multitude of ways (see sidebar, “Note From an Asylum Seeker”). Gracious, even in the most difficult times, our migrant guests have affected San Antonio as well. We are proud to say that in San Antonio, residents and visitors from across the world changed each other’s lives for the better.

MELODY WOOSLEY is director of the Department of Human Services, San Antonio, Texas (melody.woolsey@ sanantonio.gov).

JENNIFER HERRIOTT is interim director of the Metropolitan Health District, San Antonio, Texas (jennifer. herriott@sanantonio.gov).

TINO GALLEGOS is the first immigration community liaison, San Antonio, Texas (tino. gallegos@sanantonio.gov).

San Antonio is a global city with a dynamic economy and workforce, a deep cultural heritage, and diverse communities that are resilient and welcoming. It is one of the strongest fiscally managed cities in the country, maintaining an AAA and AA+ rating by Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service, and Fitch Ratings, respectively, nurturing entrepreneurship, encouraging investment, and funding infrastructure.

America’s seventh-largest city offers a vibrant business climate and growth opportunities in bioscience, financial services, aerospace, cybersecurity, energy, transportation, manufacturing, and health care. In 2015, UNESCO designated San Antonio’s 18th century Spanish colonial missions as a World Heritage Site—the first in Texas. Proudly called Military City, USA®, San Antonio is home to one of the largest populations of active duty military, veterans, and crucial military commands.

NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 35

From LOVE of COUNTRY to LOVE of

Community How Mentorship Helped Four Navy Veterans Move into Public Management

BY ROB CARTY, LOWELL CROW, JAKE JOHANSSON, BOB GEIS, AND DOUG BEAVER

36 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | NOVEMBER 2019

Few people could say that local government management is not an interesting profession. As unlikely as it might seem, four U.S. Navy installation commanders stationed in the Mid-Atlantic area of Norfolk, Virginia, around the same time got that local government bug due to mentoring from managers.

You never know when a positive interaction, experience, or guidance will mint a new local government professional, even as a second career.

All four are now working in local government and these are their stories. Here they share some great lessons in how mentoring, encouragement, and engagement can motivate others to join this journey into public management.

Lowell Crow, ICMA-CM City Manager | Freeport, Illinois

Three years prior to my transition to civil service, I began looking at careers where skills that I had gained in the military could be used in the civilian sector. All veterans choose to serve for many reasons, such as love of country and a desire to serve and protect our community. Transitioning to local government gives us the opportunity to continue to serve and make a difference at the local level, and this was attractive to me as a post-Navy career. Additionally, working closely with the municipalities in the area I found that the work I did with them was both varied and exciting and would provide the broad leadership challenges that I enjoyed in the Navy.

The first steps I took in my career transition involved applying to the master’s in public administration degree program at Old Dominion University and becoming a member of ICMA. At the same time, I connected to members of the profession about how to break into local government. This included working with Jack Tuttle, former city manager of Williamsburg, Virginia, who had also transitioned to local government, and joining a variety of organizations that would give me experience in areas such as economic development and tourism; things important to communities that we didn’t do in the Navy (though some retired Navy ships are now great tourist attractions).

Moving on to my second job in local government, and having been through several recruitments, the help that recruiters provided along the way was invaluable. Many of today’s local officials have little, if any, military experience which requires helping them recognize veterans as a key asset; especially if the community does not have a base near it. Working with recruiters helped me develop my resume and focus on available jobs that would be a good fit. Even today, I have found that headhunters are a vital resource.

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The advice I received throughout the career transition process from non-service members was to focus on educational opportunities outside the classroom, which served to help further my knowledge base. Once I got my first job, I worked with ICMA Senior Advisors and participated in the Emerging Leaders program through ICMA, which assigns a mentor who I could lean on for advice. Making time to attend all the ICMA national and state conferences enabled me to develop key relationships with many fellow local government managers and administrators—again, more people to lean on for advice.

This is a people business, both in the people we serve, and those we connect to for mentoring, coaching, and guidance.

I believe the biggest hurdle you will face in the career transition process is the multitude of stereotypes of what military leaders are like. When I interviewed for my second position, after serving in local government for three years, I was still getting asked how I was going to transition from a military to civilian career. Many base commanders have a large civilian workforce that work for us, and those workforces present the same challenges in local government.

An example of this is how local government functions at a slower pace, oftentimes driven by the political nature of a decision which can become frustrating.

I would advise those that are looking to become a mentor to take the time to discuss a career transition with those that are seeking a role in local government. City and county managers and administrators provided me with useful information, while identifying gaps in my base of knowledge.

My final piece of advice, once you make the transition to local government, is to get involved at the state and national levels. For example, I served on the State of Illinois Board as the downstate president, the evaluation committee for the ICMA Annual Conference in Kansas City, and presently on the Credentialing Advisory Board for ICMA. The relationships I have formed over the years allow me access to a network of individuals in the profession. Finally, continue your education with classes such as an emerging leaders’ course, middle managers course, and Senior Executive Institute; this will grow your knowledge base substantially.

Jake Johansson City Manager | Port Orange, Florida

The end of one career isn’t necessarily the end of working altogether, especially if you’re not ready for the kind of retirement filled with mostly leisure time. As I began exploring transition from the military, I found myself interacting more frequently in Virginia’s Tidewater area with local government managers, and found their work appealing to my interests. I was eventually introduced to Jim Bourey, former city manager for Newport News, and he started mentoring me about two years before my scheduled retirement.

He convinced me that local government was very similar to what I was doing as an installation commanding officer, which initially led to my transition to local government. Jim had also spent time mentoring Lowell as I later found out.

It’s important to remember that when many military members leave service, there is a certain amount of change in leadership position and responsibility they had prior to hanging up the uniform. At the end of the day, I still wanted to continue in a leadership role taking on the challenges that come with leading a 500-plus person organization. I’m also motivated by giving back to the public, as I did during my 36 years in the Navy, and wanted to experience the direct positive results from my work in public service. Conversely, there aren’t too many days that go by where I don’t hear from a citizen that isn’t happy with the way their tax dollars are being spent, or some service that doesn’t meet expectations.

I started the process three years before retirement, as I was working towards my master’s in public administration at Old Dominion, based on Lowell Crow’s lead. My mentor, Jim Bourey, also provided me some direction while in school, and encouraged me to join ICMA as well as VLGMA (the Virginia state association). This is where I was exposed to many different people in all phases of the profession. Eventually, during an ICMA Annual Conference, I was introduced to two executive search firms that were instrumental in my future success.

In partnership with the executive recruiters, ICMA, and local government manager mentors such as Jim Bourey; Jim Baker, the city manager of Chesapeake, Virginia, and another great mentor; we identified the top two areas that could plague a senior officer

Joellen J. Cademartori, chief executive officer, and Heidi Voorhees, president, of GovHR, have aided in the transition of many veterans to the local government world. “As recruiters, we’ve had great success with candidates who have experience in the military. The candidates have had state-of-the-art leadership and management training and typically have numerous transferrable skills in budgeting, human resources management, capital planning, engineering and infrastructure improvements. Many candidates also supervise civilian workforces as a part of their duties, sometimes including union personnel. Their work has often involved

Joellen J. Cademartori

representing the military to communities adjacent to their base, providing them with a citizen interaction component that is so critical to the work of local government.”

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Heidi Voorhees

in becoming a local government manager. First, everyone has a preconceived notion that all military leaders are authoritarians. Second, is convincing recruiters and local government managers that naval base and installation/garrison commanders do the same thing as local government managers.

The good news is, a lot of executive recruiters have become more aware of these stereotypes, with the increase of retired military that are transitioning into local government.

I think veterans’ bias is still present today, depending on where you are; however, there are ways to counter that bias while working towards a position in local government. I attended the Civic Leadership Institute, which became a platform for me to shed my military mold and show other leaders in the area what I had to offer. Unfortunately, in other parts of the nation, being a retired senior military officer is a non-starter when it comes to job applicant finalists.

My final piece of advice is that once you have transitioned from the military to local government, become a mentor!

Visit the ICMA veteran’s website and volunteer your time and energy. I’ve had several military members contact me for mentorship and advice, most of whom ended up in local government across the nation. The transition from military service to local government gave me the sense that our community was bigger than us, and that we were a very important cog in a bigger wheel of the local community we called the Hampton Roads area.

Bob Geis Deputy City Manager | Chesapeake, Virginia

I feel the same sense of mission and teamwork in local government that I felt in the Navy. Serving in local government, and truly helping people as they move through their daily lives, provides very similar job satisfaction as in the military. I know that every day I will play a role in helping make someone’s life better by working to provide improved services to our citizens. The starkest difference between the two is that local government functions intimately with a political body for policy guidance. In some cases, a very simple decision is impacted by what could be strictly political reasons, even though it may only help a handful of citizens. The power of “not in my backyard” can certainly be frustrating. This is an important lesson to learn early in your tenure as a local government leader.

My transition to local government was slightly unusual in that I wasn’t planning on retiring when the opportunity to move from the military into local government presented itself. I didn’t start my transition planning until I accepted a new position in the city of Chesapeake. For me, reaching out to local city managers immediately prior to applying for my current position was instrumental in cementing my decision to actively seek a role in local government. I also participated NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 39

in the CIVIC Leadership Institute, a regionally focused executive leadership program in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. This program helped me understand the importance of looking at issues not just through your own lens, but from the lens of others impacted by the decision.

If an installation commander is considering a career in local government, I believe it is vital to talk to local government leaders in your area to get a feel for the types of responsibilities they have. As installation commanding officers, our skills are highly transferable to local government. I think those who have

I discovered the draw of local government during my tenure as an Installation Commander in Virginia Beach. Almost immediately after taking command, a Navy jet assigned to my base crashed into an apartment complex 2.1 miles from the airfield.

Miraculously, no one was killed or seriously injured, and the immediate response was exactly as we trained. Both Navy and city first responders acted accordingly by using the emergency and disaster management plan at the time. However, it wasn’t until after the fire was out, that I witnessed how civil servants in local government can have such an immediate and positive impact on their citizen’s lives.

Following the incident, we worked together to secure housing for the displaced residents, while mitigating the area of impact and helping residents return to a sense of normalcy. Throughout the process, I witnessed city leaders, their staff, and Navy personnel respond in support of a shared mission. It was afterwards that I began talking to Jim Spore, the Virginia Beach city manager at the time, about what it takes to lead a city government.

The culminating event in my tenure as a base commander—that ultimately propelled my move toward local government—was my role in the creation and signing of a land use memorandum of understanding with the city of Chesapeake. Three years later, I began my current position as deputy city manager of the city of Chesapeake and was blessed to be working for my mentor, Jim Baker.

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made the transition successfully must share our experiences, both positive and negative, to those considering local government management.

I consider it an honor and a privilege to help others make the transition to local government, while growing the ranks with younger and more diverse leaders.

Bring your “A game” to local government and you will be rewarded with a challenging, frustrating, and extremely satisfying second career. Every day I can make a difference in someone’s life, and the impact we have in local government on the community is the most direct form of government Americans have. I think serving in local government is an extremely rewarding career.

Doug Beaver Chief Resilience Officer | Norfolk, Virginia

The installation that I lead during my time in service was celebrating its centennial anniversary, and we partnered closely with the city throughout the year to highlight the close-knit bond between the military and surrounding community. Spending time with the mayor and key city staff during the planning process afforded me an opportunity to learn more about local government.

Throughout the process, it became clear that many of the same skills I was using as base commander were the same needed in local government.

Continuing to serve the greater good is high on the list of why local government is a natural fit for those who have served in the military. I was drawn to the mantra of Team Norfolk and their mission to provide services to a community where almost 1 in 5 citizens live at, or below, the poverty line. At the same time, many transitioning service members have an unrealistic expectation of the starting salary they believe they will earn in their first job outside of the military. It’s important to remember that like the military, compensation in local government will come in the form of successfully completing meaningful work with a talented team, while making a tangible difference for the community.

My transition planning started relatively late in my retirement timing, approximately six months before my last day. While this put me at a disadvantage, the strong network that I had established while serving as a base commander living in the community for most of my career, allowed me to identify my interests with relative ease. I had established relationships with key community stakeholders who were able to provide advice that was invaluable in the job search process.

Mentoring helped me manage my outlook on what to expect working in local government. It quickly became evident that the soft-skills I learned in the military were far more important than the technical knowledge or experience I had gained. Having completed a nine-month local civic leadership program where I established relationships with executives and thought leaders in the community, I was being mentored without even realizing it at the time.

I was fortunate in that I did not experience any veterans bias, as veterans in the military-friendly community in which I reside are respected and treated well. One challenge I did experience in the career transition process was talking about my military experience during interviews. It was critical to equate my military experience, in leadership and managerial positions, to the skillset the hiring organization was looking for. As a result of going through the hiring process, I learned that properly articulating the value you will bring to the organization you are looking to join is something that takes time and practice.

If you bring the same passion and drive that propelled your military career to your transition to local government, or any job for that matter, you will inevitably be successful. While it doesn’t get any easier in the public/private sector, focusing on the core attributes of being a leader and stepping outside your comfort zone to learn new skills can be rewarding. Lastly, continue to grow your network of professional and personal relationships.

The knowledge you gain, and share, will allow you to seek opportunities and accomplish goals you couldn’t foresee during your transition from the military.

ROB CARTY is director, career and equity advancement, ICMA, Washington, DC (rcarty@icma.org).

LOWELL CROW, ICMA-CM, is city manager, Freeport, Illinois (lcrow@cityoffreeport.org).

JAKE JOHANSSON is city manager, Port Orange, Florida (mjohansson@port-orange.org).

BOB GEIS is deputy city manager, Chesapeake, Virginia (rgeis@cityofchesapeake.net).

DOUG BEAVER is chief resilience officer, Norfolk, Virginia (douglas.beaver@norfolk.gov).

Read our Top Ten Tips for Military Personnel Applying for Local Government Positions at PM magazine online at www.icma.org/pm.

NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 41

CAREER TRACK

Every Employee Is a Chief Experience Officer Create a quality consumer experience brand Great service and creating memorable

experiences should not require heroic efforts by you, your employees, or the customer. Service design and delivery should be efficient; effective; and, if not error-proof, error-resistant. Employees should not have to be superheroes, twist the rules, or take shortcuts to give customers the quality experience you promise. It should be easy, accessible, and reliable for a consumer to interact with and do business with your organization at every stage.

The idea and practice of customer service has been circulating through local government since the early 1990’s and I’m seasoned enough (i.e., old) to remember before residents were referred to as customers. In the last few decades, a number of local governments have developed a customer service policy and then provided “smile training” to their employees. Such an approach is well intentioned, but generally an insufficient response to the growing trend that ours has become an “experience economy” in which people have shifted from functionality and utility as the primary drivers toward value and quality of the experience. I contend that government is not in the business of customer service but is the protagonist for a better quality of life, and in that pursuit, it creates a multitude of experiences.

Going Beyond Gimmicks

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

In my work as a consultant, I often come across employees who are weary of another “flavor of the month” approach to customer service: a gimmick to emphasize its importance that has limited influence. In fact, most office break rooms are filled with mugs that feature a cute tagline about customer service.

Principles. My observation is first, customer service isn’t about a program, it’s about principles.

Programs come and go, whereas principles are timeless. Principles are liberating, whereas policies are constraining. Principles are guardrails that can help your employees make decisions in all kinds of situations. Policies, on the other hand, restrict, constrain, and reduce the human element all in the name of predictable outcomes.

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BY PATRICK IBARRA

Ongoing efforts. Second, when the mug lands in the break-room cabinet, the energy behind it fades. Successful organizations don’t so much make a commitment to an improvement “program” per se as they build improvement into the way they operate on an ongoing basis, every day.

Service evaluation. One of the maxims in the public sector is that “perceptions are reality.” Services and programs are experiences, and the only quality measure that matters is subjective: how the customer perceives the experience. Service quality is the difference between the purpose (i.e., what consumers expect) and your performance (i.e., what they get). And, here’s the thing, experiences come in all shapes and sizes. Review the following list and consider how well your agency is doing in fostering a strong brand by creating a pleasurable and memorable experience and thus, fortifying your role as a credible community builder: • The cleanliness of restrooms in public facilities and condition of parks, playgrounds, and offices.

• Conducting business on your website—accessing a public record, registering for a program, making payments, submitting building plans, and applying for a job.

• Your official refund policy for dissatisfied customers using parks and recreation services and programs.

• The reflectivity of street signs and condition of your road, bridges, and sidewalks.

• The appearance of your cars, trucks, and other equipment. FYI: Elected officials often interpret dirty cars and trucks not as they’re being used, but more as neglect.

This list of “moments of truth” goes on and on and my point here is that an experience with your agency is not solely from a customer speaking with your employees in person or on the phone, but in those seemingly passive ways that shape the opinions about your brand as a credible community builder. Your brand is your reputation and is not easily refreshed because you adopt a new logo.

Employee empowerment. For your employees to be effective, they need to understand the organization’s

purpose/mission. But even if employees do, they can only respond effectively if they have the freedom to do so. In other words, people need to be trusted so they can be empowered to make decisions.

Most governments don’t give their employees the discretion and autonomy to act decisively and proactively to meet customer’s needs. Government tends to value conformity instead of creativity, so empowerment can be tricky. If in doubt, most employees will rely on past practices to ensure they “don’t get into trouble.” Comfort (i.e., “We’ve always done it this way”) can breed complacency and that’s the greatest impediment to promoting creativity and innovation in improving service outcomes. What is crucial is a shift in mindset to realizing that employees need freedom within a framework.

The right mindset. Providing a pleasant and enjoyable customer experience has less to do with the size of budgets and more to with the attitudes of elected officials, managers, and the workforce. The thinking should be this: It’s not good enough to just meet the minimum threshold of satisfying the utility or functionality in the delivery of services and programs; the goal should be to enrich the emotional connection customers have with the program or service.

By the way, which employees have responsibility to deliver high-quality customer experiences every day? Can we agree that it is everyone’s role? Yet those responsibilities are often absent in job descriptions, performance appraisals, and the hiring process except for select persons/jobs.

The not-so-hidden message here is that creating a quality customer experience is an afterthought.

Nine Key Dimensions

Many organizations suffer from an “imagination gap” not realizing that the only way to change the way you do things is to change the way you think about them. Here are nine dimensions that characterize successful service organizations:

1. Align promise (what you say you will do), purpose (what customers/consumers expect), and performance (what they get) as closely as possible.

2. Design the systems with the customer in mind first.

In other words, they have customer-friendly service systems. Amazon founder Bezos explained that, “You start with the customer and work backwards.” Consider that West Virginia was the first state to allow overseas voters to vote absentee via blockchain.

3. Operate with a customer service strategy that is clearly developed and clearly communicated. People wearing government uniforms are often viewed as having all the answers so every one of your employees should carry business cards and know what to do when asked a question by a visitor, business owner, or residents as these are your customers.

4. “Talk” service regularly. As I like to say, “What gets talked about, gets done.”

5. Foster a workplace culture that is customer- centric and not task- or activity-centric.

6. Recruit, hire, train, and promote for service. This means not only people with technical skills, but also those who understand customer experience and the practices needed to deliver it. Training isn’t about learning how to smile while saying sorry but is about equipping employees with the skills to deliver an exceptional and memorable experience every time.

7. Reward and recognize employees who provide exemplary service.

8. Market services to your customers. Yes, marketing of your services is mission-critical because there is nothing automatic in your community, and often, your own residents aren’t aware of the value proposition of living in your community. Visit Yelp.com and TripAdvisor.com after you finish reading this article and read the reviews of your parks and recreation programming.

9. Know what customers care about and build capabilities and strategies that reinforce the organization’s advantages over time, continually looking for ways to improve services.

Granted, your local government won’t go out of business if it doesn’t exceed consumer expectations or provide quality experiences, but your credibility as a community builder will be negatively impacted.

Residents volunteer to live in your community. Business owners volunteer to operate their enterprises in your community. You and your employees volunteer to work for your organization. Your governing body members volunteer to serve.

When we realize people volunteer to do these things, we recognize that choices do exist. The question for you is: How is your organization creating memorable experiences and adding value to reinforce those choices?

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LEADERSHIP

Want to Change a Culture?

Ride a Road Grader

BY NINA VETTER

Improving morale might not

be quite as easy as jumping on a road grader, but for me it was the right start.

A few weeks into serving as the Pueblo West Metropolitan District Manager, one thing became very clear: Morale across the organization was low. Knowing our board had lofty and exciting goals, I knew we would go nowhere fast if we didn’t work hard at addressing morale first.

We’ve made a lot of progress and here’s how we did it.

Evaluate the Organizational Culture

NINA VETTER is district manager/ chief administrative officer, Pueblo West Metropolitan District, Pueblo West, Colorado (nvetter@pwmd-co.us).

It’s tempting to jump in and try to “fix” the organizational culture problem you’re facing. Telling people straight away (especially as a newbie) that you appreciate them, or that you embrace innovation and encourage employees to identify new or improved ways of doing work are valiant efforts. However, until you truly know why things are the way they are, these words might not do much good, and even worse, could feel like a false, halfhearted attempt at improving things. So do a bit more digging, literally…get dirty!

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Get Involved

I’ve spent hours with line-level employees mowing parks, boring a water line, driving a road grader, sealing cracks in roads, and operating a vac truck. Why? I learned more about what my employees do, but more importantly, I heard directly from them about their concerns, fears, constraints, and their personal goals and aspirations. I discovered the many reasons our morale was low. Some advice: Don’t make false promises. Employees will have concerns that may not be easily addressed. For example, I’ve heard about compensation repeatedly on my trips. I’m careful to never make promises, but to always say that I understand and that it's a priority for the next budget cycle (which is all 100-percent true).

These hours with employees have taught me more about our culture than a survey ever could. An unanticipated outcome? These employees tell me, their managers, and their directors how much they appreciate me taking the time to do this. It has built trust—the foundation for any good relationship.

“The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate.”

—Gruenert and Whitaker

Gruenert and Whitaker, “The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate.”

I had an employee tell me that the behavior of one of his employees was “never going to change, it just wasn’t possible.” And my response was, “We will do our best to coach, train, and provide feedback to this individual, but if the behavior does not improve over time, this person may not be the right fit for our organization.”

If you are trying to move the needle on changing your organization’s culture, whether you are the leader of the organization or not, you can do it.

Literally get dirty, get to know the employees in their space, and hold people accountable. And don’t forget to have some fun along the way!

Toe the Line

Be ready to hold people accountable.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Six months into the job, HR and I started receiving complaints and concerns from employees. My HR manager said, “I’m worried we’re going backwards on morale—we’re getting all these complaints.” I said, “I think we’re moving forward as an organization because people are reporting issues that have been going on for years. They trust us now to do something about it.”

When employees report things that have been happening for years and they go to you or HR, you have the opportunity and the responsibility to act. These become the crucial moments. You are trusted, and now you must address the issues. I’m not sure our organization has ever completed so many disciplinary letters than it has in the last three months, but if something negative and destructive is happening in your organization, you need to hold people accountable, even if it’s tough and uncomfortable. To quote NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 45

ICMA AWARD SPOTLIGHT

Securing the Future of the

American Museum of Science and Energy Oak Ridge, Tennessee — 2019 Recipient, Program Excellence Award, Community Partnership (10,000 to 49,999 Population) The American Museum of Science and Energy, operated by the U.S. Department of Energy

(DOE), was initially designed to teach children and adults about energy. However, in 2016, the museum was confronted with numerous challenges. The building where the museum operated was oversized, energy inefficient, and located on 18 acres of tax-exempt land in the heart of the town. Utility costs rose to $12,000 per month during the winter, and some exhibits were outdated. There was significant concern regarding the museums ability to remain open. It could have been forced to close its doors forever if upgrades weren’t made to the facility and operations couldn’t be sustained.

The museum had once attracted more than 65,000 visitors annually. It served as the launching site for a popular bus tour and helped tell the story of Oak Ridge, a city built by the government as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. 46 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | NOVEMBER 2019

But several years ago, the museum’s long-term viability was threatened, city staff engaged DOE’s federal management team, museum leadership, elected officials, and other stakeholders to find a resolution. The result was a unique intergovernmental and private business agreement.

The decision was made to relocate the museum to the Oak Ridge city center. A private developer would remodel an existing facility, and the city would offer it rent-free to DOE. In turn, DOE would transfer the current museum building and its 18 acres to the city at no cost. The city would then release the property for mixed-use redevelopment that would generate tax revenue for city services, including the educational system. Sited in a community with the first all-grade STEM-certified school system in Tennessee (the second in the world), the new museum would provide an opportunity to expose students to STEMfocused activities in a stimulating, state-of-the-art environment.

The museum successfully transitioned into the new space in July 2018, with fresh exhibits spotlighting history, environmental We’ll be spotlighting an management, nuclear processes, neutron science, advanced ICMA award recipient manufacturing, and supercomputing. The museum boasts hands-on every month in this displays, exhibits, camps, and special events that allow science and history to truly come alive. new department. Learn In its new location inside a bustling commercial section of Main more about the ICMA Street, the museum has seen a significant increase in attendance and Awards Program at guest satisfaction, as well as a decrease in maintenance responsibilities. icma.org/icma-awards.

Ultimately, the project was a “win–win” by redeveloping underutilized property and closing an inefficient facility that drained limited public resources: The DOE’s land transfer to the city is stimulating businesses and generating new property and sales taxes, and the museum now serves as a hub for heritage and science tourism.

The creative solution, developed by local and federal government officials with a private-sector partner, demonstrates the effectiveness of professional public managers working toward a common community goal. The venture illustrates how a solid intergovernmental partnership can produce transformational results in a community seeking to preserve its history while enhancing economic opportunity.

NOVEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 47

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