Local leaders, like many of their residents, have had to adapt to a new normal in the wake of COVID-19. From stay-at-home orders to transitioning to virtual meetings, municipalities across the country are adjusting to ensure they stay connected to their residents.
The result, in the age of social distancing, is that municipal leaders are finding their residents more engaged. Cities, towns and villages are seeing all types of engagement, including higher turnout for live-streamed meetings and increased questions from constituents. In some cities, this is making history.
Mayor Nan Whaley of Dayton, Ohio shares how her city made history during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Mayor Greg Fischer of Louisville, Kentucky shares how he continued to keep his community well-informed and engaged.
For Mayor Greg Fischer of Louisville, Kentucky, it was a priority to keep the community engaged with decisions. Technology has been a central part of that effort. In his own words, Mayor Fischer explains how his city has responded to the novel Coronavirus pandemic in his community.
Q: What personal barriers have you faced in responding to COVID-19 in your community and how have you overcome?
A: My wife had a very challenging COVID-19 positive health episode. Caring for her while running the city kept me very busy 🙂
Q: What role has technology played in keeping your city up and running – give an example, if possible?
A: Our Incident Management Team’s COVID-19 dashboard is the nerve center for our decision making.
Q: How are you, as a mayor, rethinking public-private partnerships to change policy around serving the needs of your residents? (i.e. Gov. Cuomo on 3.30.2020 gathered public and private hospital systems and arrived at a policy to serve the full state’s health needs which had not ever been achieved.)
A: This emergency has radically decreased the cycle time to make decisions with our community partners. As one example, our One Louisville COVID-19 Relief Fund scaled up our emergency food, rent, and utility assistance by 24x and reduced cycle times by 75%.
About the Author: Melissa Williams is a communications and marketing manager at NLC. She supports NLC’s membership and partnership teams.
About Our Partner: IGNITE is a global consulting practice designed to develop, engage and ignite relationships with Mayors, CIOs and global technology firms. The objective is to architect a connected city by placing people at the center of our purpose. IGNITE has refocused the connected city space and developed a smart framework that can scale, replicate and become profitable. The result creates a visible impact that is measured by PEOPLE through citizen engagement, transformed infrastructure and improved city services.