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22/11/2010

Guest blog by Helen Burkhalter, LG Challenge Contest 2010, Portfolio Officer - Climate Change, Denbighshire County Council 

“An email worth opening….”- the subject of an email that pops into my account at half four on a Friday at the start of September. And indeed it was. I had been selected to join the WebsEdge Government team to help cover the International City and County Managers (ICMA) Annual Conference in San Jose, California. Luckily my office was empty aside from one colleague who looked on in bemusement as I bounced around my desk!

ICMA is the equivalent to SOLACE in the UK. I’ve been to a couple of SOLACE conferences but I knew that ICMA was going to be a whole new kettle of fish. And working with a media company added to the uniqueness! Stepping onto the plane at Heathrow I didn’t really know what to expect. But I was sure as hell going to make the most of every bit this amazing experience had to offer!

So what did I learn? Aside from the realisation that the British accent is the best networking asset a girl can have whilst in the states (!), I was opened up to a whole new world of film production and presenting. Whilst perhaps British Local Government is venturing tentatively into visual media, America’s city and county managers embrace the film cameras with open arms. Even giving a rendition of Dionne Warwick’s “do you know the way to San Jose…” when given the words and a bit of encouragement!  So that’s the first thing I learnt: we need to be savvier with how we engage in new media as Local Government leaders. Instead of seeing risk and lack of control, we need to take the plunge and integrate new communication technologies into how we do business in engaging with our public.

In between checking volume levels of the multiple ICMA screens around the conference, conducting surveys on how we can improve communication and of course doing the ‘lunch run’, I was able to attend the key note plenary each day and some of the fringe sessions. What came across in all the sessions was this constant ‘can do’ attitude, the belief in the ability to ‘innovate out’ of difficult problems, and the avowed optimism that American local government  will not be the victim of, but the pioneer through the financial cuts.

The city and town managers I met seemed to exude business acumen. The foundations of which seems to lay in Local Government’s ability to raise their own revenue though local business taxes; essentially keeping any VAT that is raised in their locality. This gives added drive to local authorities to really engage in the economic development of their areas, as attracting big business will have a direct positive impact on the Council’s bottom line. Thinking back to the UK, this reaffirmed for me the need for not only the ‘letting go’ of power from Whitehall, which the forthcoming Localism Bill promises, but crucially also finance and the power to raise revenue. Whether from central government to local or local government to community, one can not sincerely come without the other.

Although structures might be different to the UK and the language of government in the US dissimilar to our own, the people who devote their careers to it are fundamentally the same. I had the pleasure to be introduced to a whole variety of people whilst at the conference. From graduates on the equivalent fast track scheme to the UK’s ngdp programme, through to city managers, and onto the new president of the ICMA, David Childs. We all share the same altruistic motivations, all the same fears, all the same pressures as we navigate through this crazy world we call government. What I have taken away from my trip across the pond above all is the affirmation that even in the tough times we now find ourselves the task is to never let go of that childhood optimism we all hold deep down, never suppress that cat like curiosity, never fall back to the default counterproductive stance however comforting, and always always remember that the compass on the map of local government, wherever you are based, points to the public we are all here to serve.

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Nahid  12:48 on 24 November 2010

This makes a good reading Helen, thanks for sending it through. I am glad this was a good experience for you. Nahid Alaei

 

 

 

David Brown  16:46 on 24 November 2010

Great article, Helen. Does the British accent work just as well for men?