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CIVIL DISABILITYImprovINGpolling place accessibility in jurisdictions across the country
SMART CELLS, SMART POLLSFarmers Branch, Texas, is investing in smart solutions that will deliver for generations
PERIODICAL
May 2018
Serving government leaders since 1909
GPN: Industry Insights | 24GPN: Industry Insights
4 6
When The
LEVEEBREAKSWe’re reaching the point of no return with global climate change, and without immediate intervention, irrevocable damage may be done| 16
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ISSUES & TRENDS 4 Civil Disability
As midterm elections approach, the U.S. Department
of Justice is enforcing improved polling place
accessibility in jurisdictions across the country
SMART CITIES 8 A Smart Cell in a Smart Poll in Pursuit of a
Smarter CityFarmers Branch, Texas, is investing in smart
solutions that will deliver for generations
COMMENTARY 14 When Budget Surveys Fall Short
GOVERNMENT PRODUCT NEWS 24 Industry Insights
May 2018 volume 133, number 5
In this issue
ISSN: 0149-337X
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FEATURE
16 When the Levee BreaksWe’re reaching the point of no return with
global climate change, and without immediate
intervention, irrevocable damage may be done
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INSIGHT INTO THE LATEST SOCIAL, FINANCIAL AND POLITICAL MOVEMENTS SHAPING AMERICA’S COMMUNITIES
As midterm elections approach, the U.S. Department of Justice is enforcing improved polling place accessibility in jurisdictions across the country
By Jason Axelrod
CivilDisability
americancityandcounty.com | May 2018 5
On November 18, American citizens nationwide will fock to their local polling places to vote in the U.S. midterm elections. However, many citizens
will encounter obstacles in doing so. Some may even leave those places without being able to exercise their voting rights.
Although the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed 28 years ago, citizens with disabilities still face many difculties with voting in-person. During the 2016 general election, 60 percent of a sample of 178 polling places were found to have at least one feature that could impede people with disabilities from voting, a U.S. Government Accountability Ofce (GAO) study shows. Tat’s an improvement from the fndings of past GAO studies during the 2000 and 2008 elections, too.
“I don’t think there’s a deliberate campaign to deny people with disabilities access to voting,” says Lisa Schur, an associate professor at the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations who specializes in disability research. “I think that [the reason is] ignorance, negligence, it’s not on the radar.”
An ongoing U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) initiative is helping to enforce better polling place accessibility across the country. Launched in 2015, the ADA Voting Initiative is carried out in collaboration with U.S. attorneys’ ofces nationwide to guarantee that people with disabilities have an equal opportunity to vote as those without disabilities do.
As part of the initiative, U.S. attorneys’ ofces survey a portion of a county or city’s polling places during elections to determine compliance with federal accessibility guidelines. If a local government’s polling places do not meet federal accessibility standards, the U.S. attorney’s ofce typically brokers a settlement with local administrators to ensure that local polling places are brought up to federal accessibility standards by a given date, according to DOJ documents.
“We’re working collaboratively with the counties,” says Michael Butler, an assistant U.S. attorney and the civil rights coordinator
for the U.S. Attorney’s Ofce for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. “When I frst go to the county to tell them about it, I tell them that, ‘we’re not here to ‘get you,’ we’re not here to make your lives miserable. We’re just here to help those with disabilities and help you come into compliance.’”
Butler’s ofce has settled with three Pennsylvania counties over the past two years: Dauphin, Cumberland and Luzerne. Investigated jurisdictions are chosen at the discretion of U.S. attorneys’ ofces; Butler chose the three counties after viewing a documentary that identifed them as having accessibility issues for voters with disabilities.
Te U.S. Attorney’s Ofce for the Middle District of Pennsylvania surveyed 52 of Luzerne County, Pa.’s 180 polling places during the Nov. 3, 2015 general election and found many to have accessibility barriers for those with disabilities, DOJ documents show. Te comprehensive ADA polling place checklist that U.S. attorneys use when surveying polling places is readily available on the ADA’s website.
Butler subsequently met with county ofcials to present the survey’s fndings and detail the settlement agreement into which his ofce wanted the county to enter, according to Mike Butera, a private attorney who works part-time as an assistant county attorney for Luzerne County.
Butera recalls few complaints about Luzerne County’s polling place accessibility over the preceding several years, and he says that county ofcials rectifed the issues whenever a complaint materialized.
“I’ve been an assistant county attorney for [many] years, and it was never the intention of Luzerne County to ever not be ADA compliant with any polling place. We’ve always tried to be compliant,” he says. “We naturally told [Butler’s ofce] that we would cooperate 100 percent.”
Te settlement was made efective on Jan. 12, 2017. Under its terms, Luzerne County was to survey the rest of its polling places using current federal guidelines and correct any accessibility problems found in their survey as well as the DOJ’s survey.
Luzerne County completed its survey by September 2017 with the
6 May 2018 | americancityandcounty.com
issues trends
help of a private company called Inclusion Solutions. Accordingly, more accessibility issues were discovered.
Polling places’ accessibility-related issues can be as varied as the counties and cities that administer them. But in Butler’s surveying experience, many polling place issues tend to occur outside the voting areas themselves.
“Once you got in the door, the polling places were fairly open. Some of them had some problems, but not many,” he says. “But it was the actual getting to the polling place that was the problem.”
Some common external polling place accessibility issues include inadequate parking, ramps and signage, a DOJ document notes. Te polling places of Luzerne County and Richland County, S.C. — which entered into a similar settlement as part of the ADA Voting Initiative in May 2017 — shared these issues.
Many polling places can be brought up to federal accessibility compliance just through temporary modifcations. In lieu of adding permanent ramps, Luzerne County purchased temporary, ADA-compliant ramps that ofcials install on election days. Richland County bought cones and signs and used them to create temporary new handicap parking spaces near curb cutouts or closer to voting area entrances in larger buildings, says Rokey Suleman, director of voter registration and elections at Richland County.
Richland County also created temporary spaces to designate curbside voting, or voting outside the polling place that can also take place in cars. Curbside voting’s usage difers across locales — it’s popular in Richland County, but scarcely used in Luzerne County. DOJ documents state that curbside voting can’t replace in-person voting under the ADA, but it should be provided when a precinct’s only polling place would be inaccessible to all voters.
In a few instances, neither county could physically modify buildings in which certain polling places were housed, so ofcials had to relocate the polling places to other buildings.
Both Suleman and Butera agree that fnding new polling places can be laborious.
Why is voter turnout lower among people with disabilities?
In the U.S., people with disabilities tend to vote less
than the rest of the populace, according to a 2017
presentation that Lisa Schur gave to the National
Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
In 2016, there was a 6.3 percent voter turnout gap
between people without disabilities (62.2 percent)
than people with disabilities (55.9 percent).
This turnout gap between those with disabilities and
those without disabilities persisted between 2008 and
2016 without signifcant change. It represents a sizable
number of people, too — people with disabilities
make up about 17 percent of voters in the U.S.
Voting by mail can ofer a more accessible voting
experience for people with certain disabilities. However,
a 2012 national survey by Rutgers University reports that
58 percent of respondents with disabilities said they
would prefer to vote in-person in the next election.
The turnout gap also exists for mail-in voters.
In research from 2013, Schur suggests multiple
potential reasons for this discrepancy. People with
disabilities can be more socially isolated and tend to
have less education and income than people without
disabilities, which are all linked to lower voter turnout.
She notes in an interview that people with disabilities
also tend to possess lower levels of external political
efcacy, or one’s belief that their government can
respond to their needs. External political efcacy levels
have also been linked to levels of voter turnout.
Polling place accessibility could be a contributing
factor to this lower external political efcacy. In the 2012 Rutgers survey, 30 percent of voters with disabilities reported difculty in voting at a polling place, versus 8 percent of voters without disabilities reporting such difculty.
“Having an inaccessible polling place, not being able to participate like every other citizen, certainly sends a message that ‘we don’t really care whether you are part of the system or not,’” Schur says.
americancityandcounty.com | May 2018 7
Te issue proves especially difcult in minute municipalities. Because a small borough in Luzerne County doesn’t even have any near-ADA-compliant buildings, Butera predicts that county ofcials may have to spend “a lot of money” into outftting a borough garage to bring it up to federal accessibility standards.
For Luzerne County, relocating polling places is proving to be an ongoing process, especially in preparation for their May 15 general election. In two municipalities, county ofcials consolidated two wards’ polling places into one building in April alone, county records show.
Both counties have changed their polling place worker trainings to refect the new practices and modifcations they’ve implemented. Te two added a new component to workers’ training that focuses on ADA awareness, while targeting training at modifed polling places to ensure that poll workers understand their roles there, according to Butera and Suleman.
By November, Luzerne County aims to have all of the polling place issues found in the federal and initial county surveys remedied. “Hopefully, we’ll have all problems mitigated by then,” Butera adds. Richland County had rectifed all polling place accessibility issues found in its survey and the federal survey by July 2017, according to Suleman.
Richland County is but one of 46 counties in South Carolina. While its polling places may now comply with federal accessibility standards, the accessibility of nearby counties’ polling places could vary widely. Schur cites this fragmentation of the U.S. voting system as a major issue in ensuring polling place accessibility.
“Part of the problem is just the way the system has been set up as so fragmented,” she says. “And I think having more communication and
more collaboration would be really valuable.”A DOJ news release shows that as
of May 7, 2018, the DOJ has surveyed over 1,500 polling places across the U.S. and has increased polling place accessibility in over 35 jurisdictions as part of the ADA Voting Initiative.
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Robert C. Dye, mayor of Farmers Branch, Texas, recently spoke with David Reuter of nepsa solutions LLC, about his vision for a smart city and how collaboration is the only way to achieve real results.
“We began with the idea of exploring 5G and how it might improve our business community’s Internet connectivity,” Dye says. “We have a lot of dark spots and for a town with such a high concentration of commercial businesses, we must do a better job of making sure we can support their growing needs, with diverse solutions ranging from fber connections to improved quality of life in terms of trafc congestion and public safety.”
“We’re a small city of around 28,600 and while we have diferent challenges than our much larger neighbor, Dallas, we’re still part of the greater Dallas Fort Worth community. Technology solutions that work in large cities should be scalable to meet the needs of every community.”
“Our ideas and wishes came together after attending a smart cities conference in Austin, Texas,” says Dye, “when we saw what smart poles can accomplish with small cell and smart technology.”
“Combined with the need to address Texas legislation SB-1004, regarding small cell nodes, the design of the smart pole from nepsa solutions got us thinking
A Small Cell in a Smart Pole in Pursuit of a Smarter CityIn the shadow of nearby Dallas, Farmers Branch, Texas is staking a claim for progressive, forward-thinking solutions that will deliver for its citizens now and for generations to come
By David Reuter
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about possibilities well beyond mobile connectivity.”SMALL CELLS ARE COMING
TO YOUR COMMUNITY.
Small cells are low-powered cellular radio access nodes that work in conjunction with larger macro towers, to increase voice and data capacity in places where large groups of people gather, such as stadiums, universities and parks.
Te City of Farmers Branch, Texas is known as a “City in a Park” for its 28 parks in only 12 square miles, enjoyed by scores of citizens daily (each surely with their mobile devices in hand).
Small cell growth is being driven by the rapidly expanding digital economy. From self-driving cars, smart phone video streaming and the Internet of Tings to robots, drones and smart LED lights, data usage is expanding at astronomical rates.
Mobile video data will be the fastest-growing segment of trafc, expected to increase 870% from 2016 to 2021. Tis accelerated growth will be encouraged by wide usage of live video, augmented and virtual reality apps.
Across the USA mobile network operators, like AT&T, are rapidly working to install small cell technology. According to a recent TrendForce report, small cell deployment will reach 2,838,000 in 2018 with 4,329,000 units deployed in 2019, an annual growth rate of 52.5 percent.
NOT EVERY SMALL CELL IS
SMALL – OR SMART.
Tis rapid growth in demand for data has its downsides as well. Too often the push to ‘build now’ outruns the need for thoughtful and deliberate planning.
Municipal leaders are challenged with providing citizens expanded connectivity, for the good of the community, while balancing the needs of public agencies and private landowners.
Small cell installations are expanding, in some cases with little regard to site selection or aesthetics. A small cell can take many forms, including radios and antennas simply ‘stuck’ on utility poles in the public’s right of way.
Wires, boxes, cables and antennas of all shapes and sizes can create a community eyesore, leading to not-in-my-rront-yard (NIMBY) ordinances and litigation, conjuring up the NIMBY fghts that took place over the larger macro cell towers in the 1990s.
MAKING CITIES SMARTER – THROUGH
EDUCATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
With millions of small cell nodes projected, community acceptance of small cell
infrastructure is key. Without acceptance, delays and costs mount for all parties involved.
“With the introduction of Texas SB-1004, which seeks to limit a city’s ability to efectively manage the small cell process, including how nodes look and where they would be placed,” says Mayor Dye; “we contacted nepsa, makers of a smart pole, to help us create design standards that put Farmers Branch frst.”
“What started out as a discussion about aesthetics – since nepsa’s smart pole hides all the wiring, radios and antennas, entirely inside the pole – became an exciting conversation about smart city technology.”
“Te nepsa team not only provided the small cell infrastructure, but they brought in an entire ecosystem of partners and stakeholders to help us create a pilot program, toward achieving our larger smart city vision.”
SMALL CELLS IN SMART POLES:
THE FARMERS BRANCH PILOT
“I’ve learned so much about the possibilities open to communities of all sizes. I recently attended a conference where I met with more than 40 potential smart city partners. We can pick and choose the technology that matters most to our community.”
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“I really got excited about the trafc management tech,” says Dye, “since our Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) station is the next big development for us. It’s so critical to understand how to manage an asset like this, in a city where residents enjoy a high standard of living with easy transport to nearby Dallas and surrounding communities.”
“With some of the tech we’re testing, we can receive near real-time video and data on parking, trafc and congestion. It’s just the beginning of where we can grow.”
TESTING OVER THE SUMMER OF 2018
Starting in late May, in conjunction with Farmers Branch, team members from nepsa solutions, AT&T, Ericsson and Current, powered by GE are piloting nepsa’s smart pole, the KitstiK™, with two installations in city parks.
AT&T Smart Cities Digital Infrastructure with Current, powered by GE’s CityIQ™ provides energy and data solutions that can make a city a more vibrant place to work, live and play. Tis Pilot program includes:
• Small cell technology for AT&T
featuring Ericsson radios• Smart, more efcient LED lighting from GE• Live video feed for safety and trafc analysis• Measurement of near real-time speed, count, direction of travel, number of lanes provided• Parking view API in connection with live video
LOOKING FOR RESULTS IN
THE VERY NEAR TERM
“With energy saving LED lights as just one part of the ecosystem,” says Mayor Dye, “we’re hoping to generate enough savings to help support and pay for other initiatives.”
“We’re looking to the CityIQ™ node to help us to gather and mine our data to create more efciencies, helping us to attract more restaurants, retail and amenities that our residents are wanting, as we grow and rebrand our city.”
“With this pilot, the nepsa team will help Farmers Branch become one of the frst cities in north Texas to make a giant leap toward our becoming a progressive, forward-thinking city of the future.”
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When Budget Surveys Fall ShortBy Chris Adams
The most common, method used by local governments to get a snapshot of public opinion are surveys. For some issues this works well; however, when it comes to something as dynamic and complex as a budget, the evidence is growing
that online budget simulations are especially useful.As University of Connecticut local government
researchers Mark Robbins and Bill Simonsen observe about budget surveys, “Without being faced with the real budget constraints and service needs facing decision-makers, or the cost of their choices, citizens appear to fnd acceptable any government services that don’t ofend them. Little is learned from such eforts.”
But what is the alternative? New research combined with new technology, ofers the promise of something better.
In April, an international research team presented a paper titled, “A Holistic Approach to Studying Budget Preferences: Using Interactive Budget Tools for Social Science Research.” Te authors make a convincing case that online budget simulations are useful tools for understanding residents’ budget preferences.
“At its core,” they say, “an interactive budget tool is an online simulation designed to give a holistic perspective of a budget and allow respondents to adjust items within the budget while providing real-time feedback for how their choices afect the overall budget.”
For decades, local government researchers have espoused the benefts of simulations as the best way to ofer a meaningful role to residents in the budget process. However, until recently, such simulations were paper-based, required a great deal of staf time and could only involve about 30 people at a time. With advances in internet technology, they can now be quickly and inexpensively created and include thousands of people. Some can even be created with a simple import from a spreadsheet.
Te key features that make a budget tool better than a survey, according to the researchers, are that they give residents a view into the real-world tradeofs between taxing and spending, rather than simply focusing on one or the other.
Tey also show the connection between choices on individual issues and the rest of the budget. Surveys tend to isolate specifc issues, which can be useful to understand preferences on a particular
item, but they don’t show their efect on the rest of the budget. Simulations immediately show efects.
Simulations also embed context so that relevant information is available prior to making a decision. Graphs, pictures, videos and other explanatory links are just a click away.
Additionally, budget tools can also require residents to observe the same constraints that public ofcials must. Tese range from the obvious--such as not spending more than projected revenue--to the locally relevant, such as observing requirements for voter approval or restrictions on how funds can be used.
For example, a simulation of Greensboro, N.C.’s general fund asked residents to learn about and share their view on how to pay for a new parking garage. Rather than simply responding to a multiple choice question with their answer, users are presented with three scenarios ofering a brief rationale for each option, the cost and, when selected, instant feedback on the impact on the entire budget.
Online public budget tools like this were originally created primarily for public engagement purposes and secondarily as a research tool. However, with a few modifcations, such as randomizing categories and inexpensively recruiting a representative sample of respondents, research need be secondary no longer. “Perhaps the greatest beneft,” they say, “of using interactive budget tools for social science research is the rich, fne-grained data collected.”
When it comes to budget research for local governments, local government leaders, with validation from recent research, are at a similar moment for understanding resident views on the budget.
Chris Adams has
worked in public policy
and facilitation for over
25 years. He focuses
primarily on health
and health care. Prior
to founding Engaged
Public, Adams was
Director and Associate
Director of Te Center
for Ethics and Social
Policy in Berkeley, Calif.
commentary
16 May 2018 | americancityandcounty.com
When The
LEVEEBREAKS
americancityandcounty.com | May 2018 17
We’re reaching the point of no return with global climate change, and without immediate intervention, irrevocable damage may be done.
By Derek Prall
Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are higher than they’ve been in almost a million years.
Tis is according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which has been recording levels of
CO2 in the atmosphere for over 60 years. Te frst measurements, taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, was 315 ppm. Tis past April, the institution recorded 410.31 ppm. Tis represents a 30 percent increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide since the Keeling Curve – a well-respected and scientifcally proven data set – began in 1958.
“Prior to the onset of the Industrial Revolution, CO2 levels had fuctuated over the millennia but had never exceeded 300 ppm at any point in the last 800,000 years,” according to institution materials. “Te April monthly average exceeds 410 parts per million for the frst time in recorded history.”
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), “97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree: climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities. In addition, most of the leading scientifc organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position.”
Te planet’s average surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century, according to NASA materials. Tis change is driven largely by an increase in human-made emissions. Most of the warming has occurred in the past 35 years, with 16 of the 17 hottest years on record occurring since 2001.
Tis warming has consequences. NASA says the oceans have warmed by 0.3 degrees since 1969, ice sheets have shrunk noticeably, and glaciers and snow
18 May 2018 | americancityandcounty.com
cover have retreated dramatically across the globe. Sea levels are increasing, and weather events like hurricanes Sandy and Harvey are becoming more frequent and more severe. Despite political posturing on the issue, the science is clear – our atmosphere is rapidly becoming unstable, the planet is warming as a result, and it is imperative that mankind’s leadership respond to this existential threat.
Don Hall, a co-executive director at Transition U.S., a non-proft organization working to build community resilience in the face of environmental and economic crisis, says our nation as a whole is poorly prepared to deal with the impacts of climate change.
“Tis is a much bigger issue than most people realize,” he says. “It’s unfolding a lot faster than most people recognize. If we really listen to the scientists and take the broad consensus of the scientifc community seriously, we know that we have to limit global warming to around 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid runaway climate change and destructive positive feedback loops. We’re already at 1 degree or warmer.”
Hall says dramatic action needs to be made now to respond in order to prevent a global crisis. Unfortunately, he doesn’t see federal leadership rising to the challenge. Now, Hall says, it’s going to be up to cities and counties to lead the charge.
If extreme action is not taken, Hall worries humanity will reap dire consequences. “We’ll lose our coastal cities to sea level rise, increased temperatures will lead to deadly heat waves, diseases that were understood
We’ll lose our coastal cities to sea level rise, increased temperatures will lead to deadly heat waves, diseases that were understood to be tropical will spread to places they’ve never been, storms will be stronger and more deadly – overall climate chaos.
20 May 2018 | americancityandcounty.com
to be tropical will spread to places they’ve never been, storms will be stronger and more deadly – overall climate chaos,” he says. “When you throw a system out of its equilibrium, you tend to have wild swings.”
Despite these risks, leadership has been slow to respond. Hall thinks there are myriad reasons for this inaction, but admitting there is a problem and attempting to respond to it goes against the entire trajectory of human civilization.
“Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, society has been based on growth, expansion, using our natural resources to the fullest extent,” he says. “We have an economy that requires continual growth just to maintain itself, and we have a political system that is geared toward maintaining that growth… we’ve locked ourselves in unstainable development patterns.”
While we all enjoy the benefits of this particular type of society, there are consequences of unmitigated expansion. “Climate change is a wake up call that is saying we can’t continue to chew up and spit out the world as quickly as we’ve been doing,” Hall says, “We need to create sustainable systems. We need to create a steady state – one that is more localized. The pendulum has swung much too far.”
One of the main problems, Hall believes, is that our power structures are much too short-sighted. “Governments, businesses and individuals often times don’t want to think about the future,” he says. “Things are going okay right now, so we heavily discount the future in the appreciation of the present. That’s very dangerous.”
Another issue, according to Hall, is that climate change is an unprecedented problem. Never before in the history of our species have we had to deal with a threat such as this. We don’t have lessons from history to learn from, and there’s no model of response to work with. This problem is unique and will require new ways of thinking to solve.
Complicating the problem, Hall says, is the concerted effort to diminish the problem and confuse the issue. “While the arguments for climate change denial are unconvincing, all you need to do is sew a small seed of doubt,” he says. “Maybe this isn’t that big of a problem, maybe I can just keep doing what I’m doing. That’s often enough to keep people from taking action.”
However, there are many communities across the country that are taking action. Imogen Ainsworth, the sustainability coordinator for Durango, Colo.,
americancityandcounty.com | May 2018 21
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says her community is committed to creating a more sustainable and resilient way of life through a multi-pronged effort including water conservation initiatives, energy-use reduction and a focus on facilitating the use of renewable energy sources.
She says being a leader in this regard is important to the city. Leadership has incorporated up-to-date climate change research into planning efforts, and their actions are informed by scientific consensus in this regard.
“Sustainability has been a top priority for our city council for several years,” Ainsworth says. “Recognizing and trying to mitigate the impact we have on the environment is important.”
Durango is Silver Certified though SolSmart, an effort to provide no-cost technical assistance to help communities in order to make it faster, easier and more affordable to utilize solar energy. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office and led by The Solar Foundation and the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), SolSmart launched two years ago and has since certified communities in 35 states, representing over 59 million Americans, according to program materials. Programs such as SolSmart are prioritizing
sustainability efforts and working to mitigate environmental impacts. Understanding that local leaders must spearhead these efforts, grassroots effots such as these are empowering communities to make a significant change.
“Local governments are on the front lines of our national clean energy transformation, taking bold action to cut costs and expand solar energy use,” Andrea Luecke, president and executive director of The Solar Foundation says. “SolSmart has helped 200 local governments and counting reduce administrative hurdles to solar, making them more resilient, more competitive, and well-positioned to attract new jobs and economic growth.”
Through this program, Durango conducted a review of their solar energy processes and as a direct result developed a new simplified permitting application. Because of this, the city is deliberately shifting away from non-renewable energy and prioritizing sustainability and reliance.
Ainsworth says it’s the responsibility of communities to understand their role in the global climate system and take steps lessen their impacts. “Cities need to recognize the impact their operations have on the environment,” Ainsworth says. “Both in the [regional] area and also as a member of a global community.”
Local leadership, she says, plays a major role in gaining this global perspective. “The goals and priorities leaders set shape budget processes and
22 May 2018 | americancityandcounty.com
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the programs city staf focus on,” she says “Because our [leadership] has for a number of years focused on climate change and sustainability as one of their top fve priorities, it’s really helped guide the direction of the entire city towards these goals.”
Tere are many things local governments can do to accomplish this work, Hall says. “I would say the frst step is to sit down with environmental leaders in your community and hear from them what they think the priorities are,” he says. “You often have people who have been working on this for decades, and you have a lot of great ideas and networks of support who are ready to get to work, but they don’t have the recourses to make these things happen.”
However, a major stumbling block to these eforts is the idea that a single individual in a single community is too small to impact such a massive problem. Tis attitude, Ainsworth says, is far from the truth.
She encourages local leaders to not think about their impact in the short term, but rather in the context of a lasting legacy. No one individual is going to solve the problem of climate change, but through the incremental eforts of leaders to create more sustainable futures for their communities and the world at large.
“I think this is something that a lot of people struggle with,” she says. “But we have to make sure we’re building communities that are sustainable in the long term. It’s
not just the impact of your actions now, but through climate-conscious planning or having over-arching sustainability goals, you can build a more resilient community – not only one that is mitigating climate change but also one that’s prepared for its impacts.”
It’s important for local leadership to understand their role in mitigating climate change, she says. In the current political climate, any signifcant action to mitigate climate change will fall on city and county shoulders. Te current administration has been dismissive of global eforts to mitigate climate change, demonstrated by President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement last year, and additionally, Scott Pruitt – Trump’s appointee to head the Environmental Protection Agency – has gone on record saying he believes man-made CO2 emissions are not a primary contributor to global climate change, a view diametrically opposed to scientifc consensus. Te problem is daunting, but Hall says we can no longer continue to turn a blind eye to it. In his opinion, something must be done, and this problem commands the focus of worldwide leadership – from the smallest neighborhoods to the largest countries.
“We can’t fx this problem after work or on the weekends,” Hall says. “We can’t do this as an afterthought. Tis has to be a lifestyle shift. We have to prioritize this as the great work of our time.”
24 May | americancityandcounty.com
Government Product News: Industry Insights
Dave George - Chief Engineer & President of Pryme Radio Products
Q:How has your industry’s involvement with the public sector evolved over the past few years?
A: Where the public sector was once reluctant to change or resistant to
adopting new technologies, it has now become open to new, innovative products and is defnitely a growing category.
Q: What are some new innovations that have been integrated into
your industry’s products recently?
A: Cellular growth has created a huge demand for wireless accessories for push-to-talk
(PTT) over cellular (PoC), such as headsets, earpieces and PTT buttons, that access PTT applications for messaging and managing specifc operations. Other recent innovations that appeal to government users include softer, more fexible braided fber cables and quick to change earpieces for easy cleaning, replacement or sharing.
Q: What is the biggest misunderstanding/myth that you think public sector professionals
may believe about doing business with your industry or using your industry’s products?
A: Tere was once the perception among public sector professionals that wireless was not a
secure network and that it could be unreliable. Te majority of that myth seems to have been dispelled as government users realize there are more pros than cons with wireless as compared to other networks like land mobile radio. Wireless can be just as secure as LMR, yet is more reliable in terms of network coverage, connection and clarity.
Q: What should local government professionals consider most when buying and/or
using products within your industry?
A: Te temptation to focus only on the biggest brands doesn’t always mean government
entities are getting the top technologies, nor do they typically provide the best service or even the most efcient pricing. Government technology is usually better served by smaller, more nimble manufacturers who have the ability to engineer and deliver customized, afordable solutions in a timely manner.
Dave George, Chief Engineer and President
of Pryme Radio, holds 29 patents and is the
inventor of multiple award-winning products.
An RF engineer for over 40 years, George is a
key infuencer in the public sector’s transition
from radio to broadband. He is considered an
industry thought leader whose keen insight is
renowned in the communications technology
feld. Aside from running a communications
accessory company, George also coaches a
Southern California high school robotics team.
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