Final Thoughts on Slovakia

As I sit home in Santa Paula having returned from Europe last night, I can't help but be so proud of the accomplishments of our meetings in Bratislava. It has been among the goals of the International Committee to increase involvement at our Spring meeting and with having representatives from twelve countries, we accomplished that. The dialogue among these representatives showed that ICMA is making substantial progress to partner with our international affiliates in a variety of areas rather than talk at them. With the new energy of UDiTE, ICMA has an opportunity to be stronger partner than ever in Europe.

This meeting will also be known for moving forward the international work of ICMA as the committee has charted a course in its new 2009/10 workplan for better integration of our affiliates working through the goals identified in the ICMA Strategic Plan. ICMA's international work can't be just through USAID contracts in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, but has to be global working on good governance issues throughout the world.

In talking with the managers present, it is almost spooky how similar our work lives can be throughout the world. We face so many similar challenges with budget, providing municipal services and working with elected officials. It was great to see the Slovaks in particular have a mature city manager's association working on these issues together with managers throughout the Slovak Republic.

The bottom line to all this is that ICMA can be, should be and will be the facilitator of knowledge base exchange among local government managers throughout the world. Good ideas and real best practices culled from the work of talented managers around the world being used to help their colleagues from Bratislava to Santa Paula.

The Incredible Peter Agh

Our host for our stay in Nové Zámky was City Manager Peter Agh. Peter is seen here on the right standing in the Town Square with ICMA Executive Director Bob O'Neill.

Peter was an outstanding host putting together all the logistics on behalf of the Slovak City Manager's Association. Peter lived for a time in Washington State and speaks English better than I do. He is a creative, energetic City Manager who is doing a lot to move his community forward. He is also the Slovak version of an "upwardly mobile urban professional" with connections throughout the Slovak Republic. He is certainly one of his country's up and coming leaders.

Farewell Lunch

We ended our stay in Nové Zámky with an outstanding farewell luncheon complete with a five member band playing all sorts of gypsy melodies.

Visit to Nové Zámky

Our final day in Slovakia was spent in the City of Nové Zámky. The City is located about halfway between Bratislava and Budapest. There is a large number of Hungarians in the city. We were briefed by our host City Manager Peter Agh and his Mayor Gejza Pischinger.

One of the first things that is striking about the city is that it was almost completely destroyed during World War II. Just two churches remain. The City has been completely built again since the war. Nové Zámky is an extremely entrepreneurial city with a variety of business joint ventures. The City recently was given responsibility for the school system from the national government. Mayor Pischinger spoke to us for over half an hour (Peter warned us ahead of time that he just had five minutes). The Mayor spoke about his own history. He told a story how his father gave him two words of advice...never become a teacher or bureaucrat. The Mayor spent his adult life as a science teacher and middle school administrator before becoming Mayor.

Evening Cruise Down the Danube River

We ended our day of our meetings with a cruise down the Danube River from Bratislava toward the point where the River meets Austria and the Czech Republic. This is the view from the river in Bratislava.

Tuesday Seminar - Sustainability Issues

On Tuesday afternoon, the group discussed sustainability issues from the perspective of three countries. Mike Garvey (ICMA Senior Advisor - San Carlos, California) moderated the presentations on issues in The Netherlands (Frans Mencke-General Secretary, Hoorn); Australia (John Ravlic, CEO, Local Government Managers Australia) and Canada (Simon Farbrother, City Manager, Waterloo, Ontario). The presentations were summarized by rapporteur, Patrice Frey, Director of Sustainability Research for the US National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Lots of interesting ideas, which are contained in copies of Powerpoint presentations presented (PDF).

WorldExecs.net

Alan Jones, Chief Executive of Somerset County Council, UK, shared with the group a new website he has created WorldExecs.net to allow for the exchange of information among Chief Executives (City Managers) around the world. It allows for exchange of documents, wikis and discussion groups. ICMA will be working with Alan to incorporate this site into other Internet collabortive projects being worked on to better connect City Managers around the world.

Tuesday Seminar - Global Fiscal Crisis

Tuesday was seminar day, where participants heard from panelists on two separate topics. In the morning, Wes Hare (City Manager - Albany, Oregon) moderating a session on how local governments are managing the global fiscal crisis. The presenters discussed this topic from four national perspectives: Slovakia (Peter Agh- City Manager, Nove Zamky); USA (Bob O'Neill- Executive Director, ICMA); United Kingdom (Alan Jones, Chief Executive, Somerset County Council); and Poland (Marian Buras, Mayor, Morawica and Pawel Brola, from City of Checiny). After the presentations, Gary O'Connell (City Manager - Charlottesville, Virgina) served as rapporteur to summarize the discussions.

A copy of the four Powerpoint presentations (PDF) gives the best summary of what was discussed. The specific impacts in Slovakia January 1, 2009 on the economic crisis here is especially interesting as is the opportunities for innovation in the presentations from the USA and UK.

Reception at the US Ambassador's Residence

The committee was hosted at reception held in our honor at the residence of the United States Ambassador to the Slovak Republic. There is not currently an Ambassador here (nor in any European Union country), so we were hosted by the Chargé d’Affaires ad interim Keith Eddins. The Chargé d’Affaires (with the added "ad interim") is the chief US diplomat in Slovakia in the absence of an Ambassador.

Mr. Eddins was a very gracious host, the food was very un-Slovakian (the guacamole was a big hit) and everyone had a good time. It was interesting to talk with Eddins and learn a little bit about his work. He really is a diplomatic jack of all trades representing all interests of the United States. The house was up in the hills overlooking the City. Great views.

New Affiliate Agreement with Slovak City Managers Association

ICMA Executive Director Bob O'Neill (right) signs updated affiliate agreement with President and Executive Director of the Slovak City Managers Association.

Our Own UN

Countries represented at this meeting: Australia, Austria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Development of 2009/10 Committee Workplan

The committee has struggled in recent years on how best to move forward the goals of ICMA internationally separate and apart from the very successful contract work that the association does in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Today the committee took the bold step of changing the framework of its discussions on these issues and recrafted its workplan (pending approval from the ICMA Executive Board) to focus around six major topics. The first four: leadership, professional development and knowledge sharing come directly from the newly adopted ICMA Strategic Plan. The final two help to operationalize the other four: partnerships and communications and marketing.

This newly crafted workplan was informed significantly by the participation of our international partners at the meeting, who couldn't understand why we were so focused on process and not more focused on results. The new draft workplan is focused more than ever on results. See the draft workplan here (PDF).

Meetings Begin - ICMA International Report

The International Committee held its business meeting Monday. The meeting started with a report from ICMA staff member Diane Crosby on the current status on ICMA's contract international work. While ICMA has staff and contractors all over the world working on various good government initiatives, the bulk of its international work is now in Iraq and Afghanistan. International work at ICMA is expected to bring in $19 million in FY 2009 and projected $23.6 million in FY 2010.

Diane ended her report with more good news. It seems that the US Federal Government is beginning to rethink its international aid efforts in places other than the Middle East and that there will be additional opportunities for grant funding again for projects in other parts of the world.

Diane's excellent report can be found here (PDF).

Opening Night Reception

Everyone gathered in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza Hotel Sunday evening for a welcome reception. Items overheard:

* Jet Lag: Some arrived from the US early Sunday morning and by 6 PM Sunday were beginning to get a little tired. Those of us that arrived in Europe a few days earlier shared stories of fitful nights of trying to get adjusted. I personally have never had a rougher trip than this one to get adjusted to the nine hour time difference between Santa Paula and Bratislava.

* Travel: Many discussed discomfort of their flights here. We have someone here from Australia that wins the prize for longest distance traveled.

* Sightseeing: Many spent Sunday exploring old Bratislava. Alas, Patrice and I went the wrong way when we left the hotel for a quick walk and ended up exploring new Bratislava which was largely closed on a Sunday afternoon. Others spoke of their time touring before arriving here, many in Vienna.

We all then broke up into groups for dinner. Needless to say is that there is plenty of meat and gravy in the traditional foods of Slovakia. Very tasty....

Closer Relations with Europe

Prior to the official start of our meetings Monday, several representatives from ICMA met Sunday afternoon with representatives of the European Federation of Local Government Chief Executives which goes by the acronym of its name in French UDiTE (pronounced "U-de-Tay").

The current President of UDiTE, Byron Davies (Chief Executive of Cardiff City Council in Wales) is keen on a closer partnership between UDiTE and ICMA. We spoke for over an hour on what might be done. First and foremost is the idea of knowledge exchange. How can "best practices" be exchanged between managers in Europe and around the world through ICMA. Language was a key issue discussed. UDiTE has a challenge to get information out in all the languages used today in Europe. No longer can English and French be enough. ICMA has a great wealth of information to be shared on many, many topics but it is almost all in English only. We agreed to work on initiatives to identify publications of ICMA that could be published and distributed in languages other than English.

We also discussed how to better involve the national local government management associations that are members of UDiTE and affiliates of ICMA (some are with both organizations, others just one of the organizations) in training and knowledge base exchange. UDiTE is also eager to expand its role outside of Europe and is looking for support for their bid to host the 2011 Commonweath Local Government Forum's conference in Cardiff.

UDiTE has become a revitalized group over the last few years and ICMA is eager to work with UDiTE to strengthen our partnership to support European local government managers. At the end of the meeting, we agreed on developing a workplan of specific items to address over the next twelve months with a check-in meeting again at the ICMA Annual Conference in Montreal in September.

"Ironman" City Manager

Patrice and I traveled to Bratislava Sunday through Vienna. While waiting for our flight from Heathrow Airport, we met up with Michael Willis who was also on his way to the meeting. Michael is the Chief Executive of the Surrey Heath Borough Council, which is located about 30 miles outside of London.

An interesting fact about Michael is that he has been a city manager (chief executive) in three different countries: UK, Australia and New Zealand. There is no one else in the world that I know of that can claim this fact. His current council did a write up about him (PDF) when he was hired that talks about his distinguished career (including a term as ICMA President). Michael's service brings many things to mind, but probably most important is that good local government management knows no national boundaries.

Must Be Time to Head to Bratislava

Patrice and I went to a little, somewhat out of the way, Italian restaurant in the Notting Hill section of London tonight for dinner called The Ark. I found the restaurant on Zagat.com and thought it sounded great. To our great surprise, it was located right next door to the Slovak Republic's Embassy to the United Kingdom.

Economic Stimulus

We saw this parking meter covered this morning in London. The writing on the bag says free parking every Saturday in April "Drumming Up Business." Good simple idea to help make parking easier in business areas on the weekends.

Local Government Use of Surveillance Technology Limited

A local government story appears on the front page of the Times of London today where the national government is limiting the use of surveillance cameras and other technologies for the gathering of information not related to public safety. The use of surveillance cameras around the UK for public safety purposes has been common place for many years. The Times article talks of changes in the law in 2002 which broadened the authority of local cities to use these cameras for other purposes. Apparently there has been extensive misuse of these cameras by city staff members. Now under the proposed changes the local chief executive (city manager) would have to specifically authorize the use of these cameras for these other purposes.

It is hard to imagine having these kind of cameras and other surveillance technology so extensively deployed in the USA for public safety let alone use to monitor private citizens' comings and goings.

En Route - A Visit to London

En route to the meeting in Bratisalva, my fiancee Patrice and I have stopped in London. On Thursday we had lunch with Kathryn Rossiter and Jon Benfield from the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers (SOLACE), the British City Manager association.

Kathryn is SOLACE's Director of Development and Operations and the long time contact for international affairs. I have gotten to know Kathryn over the last three years while I have served as the main ICMA member contact with SOLACE. I visited with her here in London two years ago and she came to the ICMA conference in Richmond last Fall. Jo joined SOLACE about that time to work on international issues for SOLACE.

"International" for SOLACE means a great focus on larger European local government issues. There is a European local government managers group that I will be writing more about from Bratislava. The centerpiece of SOLACE's international work recently has been their study of the impacts on local governments of human trafficking. SOLACE sponsored a study tour of their members to cities around Europe to identify best practices and then prepared a very complete report with recommendations (PDF).

SOLACE domestically has been helping their members respond to questions about the need for city managers and their high rates of pay (CMs are known here as Chief Executives). I brought along materials from ICMA to give some best practices that ICMA has developed to support the council-mamager plan in the US, including the work of the ICMA Fund for Professional Management.

SOLACE is one of the largest national city manager associations in the world with over 2,000 members. Their 2008 Annual Report is an excellent example of the depth of their work (PDF). While ICMA/SOLACE relations are strong today, I am still a big believer that more could be done to share training and best practices between the associations. Hopefully once the economy improves worldwide, there may be more partnership opportunities between the two associations.

ICMA's Work in Slovakia

ICMA has a great story in the current issue of its e-newsletter "Local Government Matters" about the work of ICMA in Slovakia and specifically the efforts of Fred Fisher, who led ICMA's efforts in Slovakia in the late 1990s.

What is the International Committee?

The ICMA International Committee is one of five member committees or task forces which studies issues of interest and importance to the organization or to local government in general. The committee is appointed by the ICMA President for fixed terms which vary from one to three years. As Chair, I serve at the pleasure of the current ICMA President, David Limardi, City Manager of Highland Park, Illinois.

The committee is charged with responsibilities each year by the ICMA Executive Board. More information about the committee can be found here.

Meeting Agenda and Schedule

The International Committee will be in Bratislava for two days of meetings and will then travel to the City of Nové Zámky for a day of visiting with officials there.

The schedule of events for the meetings can be found here. The agenda for the Monday business meeting of the committee can be found here and the schedule for our Tuesday seminar on the worldwide financial crisis and sustainability issues here. All of these documents are PDF.

Getting Ready for Slovakia

The ICMA International Committee is getting ready to head to Bratislava for its Spring meeting. Check out the blog from our last meeting in Bangalore, India in February, 2008.