A Sad Truth About Local Elections: Low Voter Turnout Isn't Going Anywhere Without A Lot of Work

Courtesy of the LA Daily News.

This coming Tuesday is Wisconsin's spring election day, which typically covers local offices and issues, and 2014 is already looking to be another lackluster year for voter turnout. True to the election form, mayoral candidate signs began sprouting up around town like spring flowers about two weeks at major intersections and in seemingly random front yards. They were quickly followed by signs for aldermen and county supervisor signs, rarer breeds which cluster near the mayoral flora like a complimentary species. The local news station focused on some races in Milwaukee County (our nearest metro area) over the last few days, and the local papers gave some obligatory mentions about specific races and dutifully printed the names of the candidates in each race. Tomorrow, there will be at least one editorial on why local elections matter. Tuesday - Election Day - our local field reporter will be at some suburban polling place stating that the polls are open and that there are no lines. After playing some of the winners' speeches on Wednesday morning, a few local media folks will likely elude to disappointing voter turnout (typically, always much less than the most recent presidential election) and lament this fact. By Thursday, it will be life as normal again.

I don't need to tell anyone that reads this blog that local elections do matter, and local government is probably the most influential on the everyday quality of life for residents. Knowing that, the issue of low voter turnout in local elections is all the more devastating. But, we must as ourselves, why is the average voter so disinclined to participate? The underlying issue to me is a combination of four things which are individually somewhat well-documented and discussed but not necessarily connected: (i) the simple daily bombardment of information we each experience, (ii) a lack of engagement with political institutions, (iii) the complicated calendar of elections and (iv) a general apathy arising out of a combination of factors potentially all related to the first three items listed.

It would take a novel-length piece to adequately do justice to each of the items noted above (indeed, each has essentially had a number of books, journal articles and studies). The question though is what can we do to help turn around low voter turnout in our local elections. Some thoughts from various sources for your consideration are below:

1. FairVote, a non-partisan organization focused on structural barriers to voting, offers the following proposals for increasing turnout.
2. A bit more unorthodox treatment of the issue from The Week's Keith Wagstaff.
3. Some rapid fire thoughts from political consultant Anthony Morse.

Personally, I think Morse's point on civic education is a particularly important one - how many people out there don't vote either because they don't know the issues or feel that their vote doesn't matter? That's where we, as public administrators, can make a dramatic difference. Everyday local issues are not necessarily sexy, but they are important and the easier we can make that information to find and understand, the better the level of participation we will receive.

What does everyone else think out there about the empty polls you'll see? 

7 Days, 7 Topics: A Round-Up of Topics from this Past Week

Florence's new brand.

To say it was a busy week would be something of an understatement. The Crimean and general Ukrainian situation escalated. The hunt for an airplane lost in a Bermuda Triangle-style continued in the south Indian Ocean. Duke lost to Mercer. Not exactly light stuff for anybody, unless you're a Mercer fan. Anyway, this whole volley of events prompted a number of articles and opinions worth bringing forward and discussing in the context of public administration. Below are seven articles from this past worth passing around and discussing:

1. Sunday: Too Soon for Answers in Harlem (by Nicole Gelinas for City Journal): An overview of things that could have caused this month's explosion in Harlem, which killed eight people, injured several more and leveled a few buildings. Gelinas points out that it may not have been Con Edison's (the transmission utility) fault due to any number of other problems. Fair enough, but her argument is then expanded to say that the failure of a gas main cannot be compared to the general infrastructure problem facing America as Con Ed is a private utility with underground infrastructure. That argument misses the fact that private regulated utilities function almost identically to public utilities (indeed, under an enterprise fund, it's not as if funding can legally be diverted from water mains to teacher salaries as Gelinas mentions) and the 127-year-old cast iron main located near the explosion is far beyond its service life. America has a real infrastructure problem regardless of who is tasked with maintaining any given piece of infrastructure and casting doubts on it does no one any favors.

2. Monday: Determining the Markup on Municipal Bonds (by the New York Times' Carl Richards): A brief overview of a side of the market we (at least I) rarely think about - those folks who are buying municipal bonds and the power of brokers in those sales. If you've got a few in your portfolio, it may also save you future problems with markups.

3. Tuesday: Walmart Goes Urban and Smaller in Washington DC (by Edward McMahon for Urban Land Magazine): Walmart's finally found its way into major cities - in this case, Washington DC - and its taking on the look of the landscape by compressing its space and adopting urban facades. It's an interesting change of heart for the retail giant, but really, it also proves the adage "Necessity is the mother of invention." Strong demand for lower cost merchandise coupled with high population density probably softened Walmart's strategy in approaching the question of its urban locations with favorable results for those communities. Sadly, I don't expect to see this in the suburbs.

4. Wednesday: How the Crimean Conflict Could Impact Your Finances (by Richard Barrington for Forbes): Russia's invasion and subsequent annexation of Crimea is the kind of event which foreign policy experts could write a new War & Peace about, but aside from some general basic humanitarian concerns, there is little other immediate impact at the local level - unless you think about how global trade issues trickle down. Barrington illustrates the possible impacts of this whole situation on your wallet simply and efficiently. Of course, tax revenue is yet another step removed from the level Barrington is at, but the correlation between general economic conditions (and, in particular, individual consumer sentiment on the economy) and tax revenue is clear and obvious. If this situation simmers at its current level or escalates, we may begin seeing the consequences anywhere from three months to a year down the road in tax receipts.

5. Thursday: The Great Debate: City Manager vs. Assistant City Manager (by Julie Underwood, writing on the ELGL Website): A nice overview for emerging professionals on the merits of both seeking the City Manager role and the benefits of being a career Assistant or Department Head. This was not something they openly discussed in my grad school (though subject specialist adjunct professors would sometimes touch upon it), but the longer I've been a professional, the more I recognize the merit of staying an Assistant. Grad students and recent new professionals should definitely give this food for thought a read.

6. Friday: What is CNN Going To Do If We Never Find This Plane? (by Esquire's Ben Collins): An absolute great look at how the media's need for ratings (and sales by extension) promotes sensationalized news without substance. What's that got to do with us in public administration? Well, first and foremost, it creates problems with our relationship with the media. Investigative or sensational coverage is nothing new, but as it grows, it'll make those reporters we were once comfortable with become our enemies and that defeats the whole purpose of media relations. Second, it creates problems with the public. While the traditional media is not the mainstay it once was, it still holds more sway than most of our public information efforts, and negative coverage hurts both the public's generalized view of government and their specific view of our individual organizations. This is something we should be concerned about and asking ourselves what are we going to do in light of the fact that the media may give us prolonged negative attention that we are not necessarily prepared to manage.

7. Saturday: Florence's New Logo: Crowdsourced Design That's Bad for Design (by Steven Heller for The Atlantic Cities): City branding has been hot recently - it seems like everybody is jumping into it. In this case, Florence opted for a riskier albeit cheaper route to creating a brand: crowdsourcing it. Heller argues that the ultimate logo Florence chose is unsatisfactory and partially because the crowdsourcing option cheapens the whole process. I'm not in love with the logo myself, and I agree that crowdsourcing feels like a weak alternative to the careful study and thought being placed on the community, its unique attributes and its dynamics that a designer can bring.

Thoughts? Any other good stories I missed? Share them below.

It's Been More Than Just a Long December: Being Prepared in the Face of Increasing Uncertainty

"A long December and there's reason to believe 
Maybe this year will be better than the last." - Counting Crows, "A Long December"

If you're living anywhere north of the 30th parallel, you most likely know exactly what I'm talking about - it's been far more than a long December for all of us. This winter beat the stuffing out of everybody with the exceptions of Boston and Alaska (lucky!), and it is still barely holding on in my neck of the woods (only flurries today though). The Peach City essentially came to an icy halt altogether at least once. St. Louis residents and businesses alike were in an uproar over the city's snow plow plan, which traditionally left side streets untouched.  Dangerously low cold and wind chills impacted most everybody in the Midwest and Northeast, shutting down schools as far south as Austin. The Great Lakes had near record ice cover. Only Florida managed to escape it, being the only US state to not have measurable snowfall. In short, if you managed to stay above freezing all winter and see less than a dusting, you are one of the very fortunate and few.

An unusually cold and snowy winter is perhaps nothing to worry about in particular. After all, the prior two winters to this one were more or less mild in most parts of the nation, and, once the snow melts off, public attention will go elsewhere. However, this is seems to be part of a wider set of unusual events that are pushing the limits of public services. For example, consider these events:

• Extreme Drought in the Southwest and Midwest in 2012 and 2013: A situation which not only increased wild fire potential in the West but stressed water reserves and agriculture.
• The 2012 Derecho in Chicagoland and the 2013 One in the Baltimore-Washington Metro Area: Major, powerful and fast-moving storms that knocked out power in for thousands in both Metro Areas - for days in many cases. Both stretched the capabilities of emergency responders and public works/utility crews.
• Sandy: The largest weather event of 2012, which effectively shut down the nation's largest metro area and impacted up to 24 states.
• The On-Going Troubles with Lake Mead: Las Vegas' water supply is drying up - quickly - and that has negative implications for most everything in that area.
• The Fall 2013 "Unusual" Winter Events in the Upper Midwest: Blizzards, tornadoes and all manner of hell hit the Dakotas and Nebraska just as the federal shutdown struck, compounding response problems.

Now, some may want to turn this into a debate about whether or not these events are related and the nature and origin of climate change. My argument to you is that for those of us on the local level, that's simply a moot point.  Severe events are occurring, and we, as public administrators, have an increasingly important but daunting task: responding and always being prepared for an above-average event in a time of lean spending and high uncertainty.

Short of an oracle or a time machine, we can't predict the future. However, as always, we can and must continue pursuing avenues which decrease our immediate exposure. Below are some thoughts on ways in which we can begin tackling tomorrow today:

1. Mutual Aid Agreements: I believe these have been common in most emergency responder agencies for years, if not outright mandatory. However, how will you provide public works and utility services or performance emergency building inspections? Thinking broadly about mutual-aid now may pay dividends later.
2. Resource Sharing and Bulk Purchasing: Some mutual-aid agreements intrinsically cover these issues but think broadly about issues like bulk commodity purchases (such as rock salt). If you run out, how will you secure commodities or find extra vehicles? Can a supply or group be pooled and shared? Some forethought and planning here may save costs and time in the not-so-distant future.
3. Regularly Analyze Your Needs and Assess Your Risks: Odds are you have already taken on some kind of survey of your needs and emergency risks at some point as part of an emergency management planning process. But is someone reviewing these plans annually and adjusting or updating them as necessary? A five-year-old plan will not serve you as well as a one-year-old one and could bog you down as you make adjustments.
4. Develop The Relationships Necessary To Manage An Area: Relationships matter, especially when you need your neighbor or one of your vendors. Get out and meet your neighbors, fellow local governments and specialized vendors now so that you aren't searching for them in your time of need.
5. Build Your Communications Network and Resources Now: Every minor crisis is a test of how well you communicate with your residents and businesses. If you didn't perform so well on your last one, take the time to think through the problems and design improvements today. While a minor emergency can be weathered today, an uninformed and confused public could be a huge hazard tomorrow.
6. Learn: The aftermath of Sandy produced a flurry of studies and white papers on a variety of emergency management topics. Some of them are quite good (I blogged about one on social media last year) and worth a read. Remember: Planning now helps promote preparedness later.
7. Encourage Preparedness: I joined several other area PIOs earlier this month in recognizing National Severe Weather Preparedness Week and promoting preparedness resources. Ready.gov has a ton of resources you can share with your residents for all types of events. However, you should always remind residents wherever possible about simple things like how to shut off their water valve at their meter in case of more minor emergencies and the need for having canned food and bottled water on hand.

Remember, it's been more than just a long December and this year may be no better than the last. Think ahead now and promote initiatives to prepare to minimize impacts in the future.