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People to People Connections

By Arnold Weinfeld

Collaboration. What does it mean to policymakers? For some, it means local governments need to share more services to save taxpayer dollars. Over the last several years, what with continuing state budget deficits and reductions in revenue sharing, state legislators, in particular, have wrapped themselves in the flag of local government service sharing and collaboration. They talk about wanting local governments to consolidate, collaborate, and cooperate, only to find out that many local units already do share services-quite a lot, in fact. The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) actually keeps a pretty good catalog of such ventures not only in southeast Michigan but across the state on their website.

On the other hand, only a few brave souls have opened their eyes to addressing the real barricades to achieving the biggest bang for the buck when it comes to service sharing... amending certain state regulatory laws such as Public Act 312 or various cooperation acts that would allow locals to better control costs when they seek to combine public safety services. Until then, I guess we’ll continue to nibble around the edges.
Regional Excellence

One of those edges has been the Centers for Regional Excellence (CRE) program. This program, funded primarily through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, recently awarded nine communities grants of up to $25,000 over the next two years for collaborative projects between local governments that make their communities better places to live, work, and play. The projects range from public safety to tourism to community business development. This is the second round of grants awarded through the CRE program.

But instead of waiting on policymakers to change laws or the state or federal government to hand out money, there are collaborative strategies communities can adopt that will allow them to grow and prosper without a handout from big brother or the accompanying eyes looking over their shoulder.

Pin Pricks in Tampa Bay

Creative Tampa is an organization with no offices, no budget, and no employees. It is a strategic network that connects the connectors. Peter Kageyama, founder of Creative Tampa Bay, used a process called “civic acupuncture” to move community groups and city government institutions toward collaboration. Civic acupuncture refers to utilizing small projects to institute large change.

Here in Michigan we would think that a community like Tampa Bay would have no problem attracting and retaining business or a young talented workforce. But perception is not reality, as Peter Kageyama witnessed when he sought to build a more exciting and creative community, geared toward attracting millennials and jobs for the 21st century. Through a series of projects, Peter worked to establish a network that included municipal functions as well as the business community, the cultural community, and the philanthropic community. By bringing these various disparate parts of his community together, he discovered that it was the smaller things, the pin pricks (civic acupuncture) that were beginning to making a difference.

Social Connections in Allentown

Or perhaps we can learn something from Allentown, Pennsylvania, which like many Michigan communities once thrived as a manufacturing center but then suffered a catastrophic demise of its economy when steel crashed. Sean Safford, assistant professor of organizations and strategy at the University of Chicago, brought forth the perspective of a researcher as he told Allentown’s story. Allentown found the importance of civic and social connections in supporting the traditional business economic networks in leading the way to its economic turnaround. It reemerged, and today boasts many “sunrise” industries that promise a thriving economy in the knowledge-based world.

Why? According to Sean, in Allentown the “community” got the right people together quickly and acted decisively to shift their economic path. This feat was made possible in part due to the strong civic/social connections within the community. Unlikely venues like the Boy Scouts board, college/university groups, and other arts and cultural organizations provided Allentown the bridges it desperately needed to connect people during the economic crisis. In Allentown, their strong civic/social networks allowed them to recreate those connections; this network served as the “back-up” plan when economic connections were decimated. In Allentown, the present-day economic leaders are actively involved in civic networks.
What Does This Mean for Michigan?

What do these stories hold for our communities as we seek to find ways to move our economy forward? I think it again shows that local officials hold the keys to building success. No matter how big or how small the community you come from, you know people and you know people who know people. These connections can pave the way to establishing new partnerships. Think of the anchor institutions within your community right now…school; bank; hospital; foundation; museum…I’m sure there are more that I’m not mentioning. Each and every one of these provides opportunity for local officials to establish positive collaborative relationships, relationships that are needed in both good times and bad.

The League’s public policy initiatives strongly support collaboration not only between local units, but just as importantly, between locals and those entities that make up the entire community from the for-profit sector to foundations to community organizations. Together, we can build communities that will lead Michigan for years to come.

 

Arnold Weinfeld is director of public policy & federal affairs for the Michigan Municipal League. You may contact him at 517-908-0304 or aweinfeld@mml.org.