For All Town Leaders
Suggestions For Handling The Current Crisis
Having watched and continuing to assist several municipalities in Hancock County, MS, hurricane Katrina, I have been able to assess both successes and missteps by their leadership during their recovery process. I would like to apply what I've seen to our situation in hopes of avoiding the same mistakes as well as enhancing the recovery to reduce its time table. For this reason, I want to suggest the successes and hopefully help you avoid the missteps.
The following are working on the supposition that any relief money will not be available for at least 10 months. While close to $3 billion has been earmarked for MS, the first $10 million has only been released this WEEK, a full 11 months following the disaster. Victims and municipalities in MD have yet to see their money from hurricanes in '04.
#1 - Implement a hiring and promotion freeze for 12-24 months. Any positions that are not filled now do not get filled until after the crisis is over. Any position that becomes vacant during the next 12-24 months remains open for the duration of this time period. Also freeze wages. By doing so, it will very likely SAVE the jobs that are filled right now and will allow you to use your money for the recovery effort.
#2 - Repair your infrastructure first. Do not put money into repairing town buildings or parks until after the roads, water and sewer are running near capacity. You can work out of the library or your home if need be. But if the infrastructure doesn't exist, people will leave. Towns in the Gulf Region are seeing this now. Without potable water, without sewer capabilities, tax paying citizens can't begin to recover and keep the government operational.
#3 - Join other municipalities for basic supply purchases. Do not sign contracts for these services and shop quarterly for the least expensive. You can save thousands by banding together and shopping for frequent contracts. There are additional man hours searching for the deal, but these are offset by the savings several times over. This includes fuel.
#4 - Reduce as many of your bills as possible. Reduce the use of all vehicles as much as possible. Place a moratorium on all fire vehicles to be used only during an emergency for a period of no more than 6 months. Do similarly for all vehicles - combine all trips in order to reduce the fuel consumption of the town for 6 months and reevaluate at that time. Reduce utilities by using motion sensor light switches, compact fluorescent light bulbs in all incandescent lights, programmable thermostats in all buildings to reduce usage during off hours. Ban all portable heaters (but do allow radiant foot mats). Reduce use of street lights by 30%-50%. Most streets are overlighted anyway, and by reducing the use of street lights, you will reduce several bills at one time.
#5 - Money will not be coming from disaster relief assistance any time soon. Help your citizens by forgiving their water bill for 1 billing period. Any small businesses that have been directly affected by the flooding will also need assistance. When tax bills are due, give them the option to pay their taxes over a 6 months period. While it is a book keeping nightmare, it is better to get the payments late rather than not at all. This will help their cash flow issues and give them a far better chance of surviving this disaster than needing to be foreclosed. Consider forgiving a portion of the taxes outright.
#6 - Strongly urge all businesses and companies in your town/village/city to see their wares at cost to those directly affected by the flooding. Establish a list of locales that were affected, disseminate to the businesses and then require customers to show proof of residence in order to get the discounted materials. Labor needs to stay the same price in order for businesses to remain open. As businesses agree to do this, be sure to publish this information so their goodwill be known throughout the area. This includes your website.
#7 - Create a lengthy needs list for your municipalities. This includes all office supplies, printed materials, businesses you have accounts with, and fuel/parts cards and volunteers to do parks work. Post this list on your website, including your contact information. Make sure your webmaster has submitted your site to search engines as well as changing the key words (meta tags) to include the flood of '06. While money is the more desirable donation, people will send items far more quickly than money or gift cards. And it is better to waste a bit on postage than get nothing at all.
#8 - Pursue a National Sister City partnership. It can be completely unknown to you, of similar demographics, or similar name. The key is, to have support from other areas of the nation. And since the chances of them needing assistance in the next decade is very great, you will be able to return the favor. The same can be done at the county level as well.
#9 - Create a "Walk of Gratitude". Whether you use the now fashionable bricks, or placards placed within a park, or a single monument to those who have assisted the citizens of your town above and beyond the call, it is important to recognize as many of those who have helped as possible. It allows the citizens to see the efforts of those who have helped, as well as giving public recognition of local or not so local volunteers.
#10 - Post frequent updates on your website and in the local papers. It will help the citizens to know what is being done as well as what still needs doing. If you wish to do this on the website, you may choose a blog. Most blog hosts will allow you to connect it to your website so it appears as just another page of your site, rather than ".blogspot.com" or something similar. This allows as frequent an update as you wish without knowing how to do web programming.
#11 - Create a Grant Writer. There is money out there to be had for disaster assistance that will pay sooner than FEMA. You will need to search for these grants often in order to maintain your current level of services to your citizens. There is no other way around it.
#12 - Remain in constant communication with each other. Hancock County, MS, is due to go bankrupt by October of '06 for no funds. They are relying on less damaged counties and richer counties to assist in infrastructure rebuilding as well as basic services such as pot hole filling and sign raising. Lands have been annexed by the larger towns in Hancock County due to the dissolution of smaller towns from lack of funds. Most of the towns will not combine any services in order to survive, even on a temporary basis. Do not make this mistake. Combine as much as possible on a limited basis, to be reviewed at the end of each period in order to get the entire region rebuilt as quickly as possible.
These are in no true order. Just remember to:
Save as much money as possible in all areas possible for at least 1 calendar year.
Repair/restore your infrastructure as quickly as possible.
Give as many financial breaks to your affected citizens and small businesses as possible.
Look for any and all grants possible to assist in maintaining your governmental services as possible.
Help each other.
If you would like to review articles on Hancock County and MS, please vist two of my other blogs -
www.KatrinaNetworking.blogspot.com
www.HancockCountyRelief.blogspot.com
Having watched and continuing to assist several municipalities in Hancock County, MS, hurricane Katrina, I have been able to assess both successes and missteps by their leadership during their recovery process. I would like to apply what I've seen to our situation in hopes of avoiding the same mistakes as well as enhancing the recovery to reduce its time table. For this reason, I want to suggest the successes and hopefully help you avoid the missteps.
The following are working on the supposition that any relief money will not be available for at least 10 months. While close to $3 billion has been earmarked for MS, the first $10 million has only been released this WEEK, a full 11 months following the disaster. Victims and municipalities in MD have yet to see their money from hurricanes in '04.
#1 - Implement a hiring and promotion freeze for 12-24 months. Any positions that are not filled now do not get filled until after the crisis is over. Any position that becomes vacant during the next 12-24 months remains open for the duration of this time period. Also freeze wages. By doing so, it will very likely SAVE the jobs that are filled right now and will allow you to use your money for the recovery effort.
#2 - Repair your infrastructure first. Do not put money into repairing town buildings or parks until after the roads, water and sewer are running near capacity. You can work out of the library or your home if need be. But if the infrastructure doesn't exist, people will leave. Towns in the Gulf Region are seeing this now. Without potable water, without sewer capabilities, tax paying citizens can't begin to recover and keep the government operational.
#3 - Join other municipalities for basic supply purchases. Do not sign contracts for these services and shop quarterly for the least expensive. You can save thousands by banding together and shopping for frequent contracts. There are additional man hours searching for the deal, but these are offset by the savings several times over. This includes fuel.
#4 - Reduce as many of your bills as possible. Reduce the use of all vehicles as much as possible. Place a moratorium on all fire vehicles to be used only during an emergency for a period of no more than 6 months. Do similarly for all vehicles - combine all trips in order to reduce the fuel consumption of the town for 6 months and reevaluate at that time. Reduce utilities by using motion sensor light switches, compact fluorescent light bulbs in all incandescent lights, programmable thermostats in all buildings to reduce usage during off hours. Ban all portable heaters (but do allow radiant foot mats). Reduce use of street lights by 30%-50%. Most streets are overlighted anyway, and by reducing the use of street lights, you will reduce several bills at one time.
#5 - Money will not be coming from disaster relief assistance any time soon. Help your citizens by forgiving their water bill for 1 billing period. Any small businesses that have been directly affected by the flooding will also need assistance. When tax bills are due, give them the option to pay their taxes over a 6 months period. While it is a book keeping nightmare, it is better to get the payments late rather than not at all. This will help their cash flow issues and give them a far better chance of surviving this disaster than needing to be foreclosed. Consider forgiving a portion of the taxes outright.
#6 - Strongly urge all businesses and companies in your town/village/city to see their wares at cost to those directly affected by the flooding. Establish a list of locales that were affected, disseminate to the businesses and then require customers to show proof of residence in order to get the discounted materials. Labor needs to stay the same price in order for businesses to remain open. As businesses agree to do this, be sure to publish this information so their goodwill be known throughout the area. This includes your website.
#7 - Create a lengthy needs list for your municipalities. This includes all office supplies, printed materials, businesses you have accounts with, and fuel/parts cards and volunteers to do parks work. Post this list on your website, including your contact information. Make sure your webmaster has submitted your site to search engines as well as changing the key words (meta tags) to include the flood of '06. While money is the more desirable donation, people will send items far more quickly than money or gift cards. And it is better to waste a bit on postage than get nothing at all.
#8 - Pursue a National Sister City partnership. It can be completely unknown to you, of similar demographics, or similar name. The key is, to have support from other areas of the nation. And since the chances of them needing assistance in the next decade is very great, you will be able to return the favor. The same can be done at the county level as well.
#9 - Create a "Walk of Gratitude". Whether you use the now fashionable bricks, or placards placed within a park, or a single monument to those who have assisted the citizens of your town above and beyond the call, it is important to recognize as many of those who have helped as possible. It allows the citizens to see the efforts of those who have helped, as well as giving public recognition of local or not so local volunteers.
#10 - Post frequent updates on your website and in the local papers. It will help the citizens to know what is being done as well as what still needs doing. If you wish to do this on the website, you may choose a blog. Most blog hosts will allow you to connect it to your website so it appears as just another page of your site, rather than ".blogspot.com" or something similar. This allows as frequent an update as you wish without knowing how to do web programming.
#11 - Create a Grant Writer. There is money out there to be had for disaster assistance that will pay sooner than FEMA. You will need to search for these grants often in order to maintain your current level of services to your citizens. There is no other way around it.
#12 - Remain in constant communication with each other. Hancock County, MS, is due to go bankrupt by October of '06 for no funds. They are relying on less damaged counties and richer counties to assist in infrastructure rebuilding as well as basic services such as pot hole filling and sign raising. Lands have been annexed by the larger towns in Hancock County due to the dissolution of smaller towns from lack of funds. Most of the towns will not combine any services in order to survive, even on a temporary basis. Do not make this mistake. Combine as much as possible on a limited basis, to be reviewed at the end of each period in order to get the entire region rebuilt as quickly as possible.
These are in no true order. Just remember to:
Save as much money as possible in all areas possible for at least 1 calendar year.
Repair/restore your infrastructure as quickly as possible.
Give as many financial breaks to your affected citizens and small businesses as possible.
Look for any and all grants possible to assist in maintaining your governmental services as possible.
Help each other.
If you would like to review articles on Hancock County and MS, please vist two of my other blogs -
www.KatrinaNetworking.blogspot.com
www.HancockCountyRelief.blogspot.com
posted by Leslie at 7/24/2006 07:38:00 AM
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