In an article for a special issue of the National Civic Review on the civics of sustainability a couple of years ago, Joel Mills, director of the Center for Communities by  Design, noted a correlation between civic capacity and environmental sustainability.

He later blogged on our All-America City Award site about Dubuque, Iowa, a city I’ve mentioned in a previous post for its success in engaging residents in large scale strategic planning sessions. As Joel noted, Dubuque’s efforts in the sustainability field were getting noticed. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named Dubuque as one of “three partner cities for its new Green Lab initiative to develop best practices in sustainability and preservation.”

Also, “the Obama administration included the city on its tour of America to highlight urban success stories. IBM recently announced that Dubuque will serve as its first Smart City partnership in the United States, with the hope that it can develop a model for other communities regarding energy efficiency.”

Lakewood, Colorado, an All-Amereica City in 2011 is another good example. Lakewood has done a lot to engage residents in budgeting and planning efforts. So with a hat tip to Joel, let me point out that Lakewood, an All-America City in 2011, is also green pioneer.

It all began a few years ago when the Learning Source, one of the country’s biggest adult literacy programs, realized its utility costs were higher than that of a 50-unit apartment building. Worried about the rising costs, the Lakewood-based nonprofit organization began looking for information about energy efficiency.

A conversation with members of the Alameda Community Gateway Association led to more conversations and, eventually, the founding of a “Greening Lakewood Business Partnership,” a public-private collaboration with a twofold mission: 1) to bring energy efficiency to the more than 1,500 existing office and commercial buildings in Lakewood; 2) to provide job training for local residents, including military veterans, particularly those returning from the current overseas conflicts.

First in line for an energy makeover was the Learning Source, which reduced its utility costs from $3,500 a month to $200. The renovations included exterior building insulation, a multistage boiler system, an efficient condensing unit and upgrades to the air handler. An energy management system, solar lighting and photovoltaic and thermal solar panels on two sections of new roof also were added.

City government takes the lead in facilitating relationships with the utility company, the banking community and the Governor’s Energy Office. The Better Business Bureau is providing marketing for the partnership. Other partners include Red Rocks Community College, the Alameda Gateway Community Association, Veterans Green Jobs, the Jefferson County Workforce Center and the Better Business Bureau, each agency has played a unique role in developing the program.

As Lakewood Mayor Bob Murphy sees it, the partnership is both a win-win and a “great catalyst” for the community. “It creates jobs, particularly for veterans, provides the training and encourages sustainability,” he says. “Most importantly, it helps our small businesses. Money saved on energy bills can be reinvested in inventories and new hiring.”

Red Rocks Community Colleges developed an energy-auditing, retrofitting and financing curriculum for students. Under the direction of experienced proctors, the students gain field experience needed to pass industry auditing certification tests by conducting the free audits for businesses. The Veterans for Green Jobs mobilize the military veterans to enter the Red Rocks program. The Jefferson County Workforce Center coordinates funds providing paid internships for the students.

Another local Greening effort is the Sustainable Neighborhoods Program for homeowners and apartment dwellers and owners. The program creates partnerships between the city and various neighborhoods to complete projects, host workshops or design other creative ways to engage in sustainable practices.

The city gives annual Sustainability Awards to inspire community members and hosts an annual Earth Week festival that includes an expo of displays, hands-on demonstrations, live music and information on sustainable practices, lectures, tours and cleanup and educational activities.

Two things Dubuque and Lakewood have in common is that both communities have long histories in engaging groups and individuals in creative partnerships. Both cities recognize that they can’t go it alone, and the ability to work across boundaries is essential in tackling difficult challenges such as environmental sustainability.

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Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.

In 2003, Gladstone, Missouri, faced some difficult challenges—an aging population, strict boundaries that prevented physical growth, declining revenues, a declining business environment and inadequate city services. There was only one ambulance and two paramedics to provide emergency services and no place to house the city’s recreational programs for youth.

With technical assistance from Derek Okubo, a former National Civic League vice president who now works as Director of Human Rights and Community Relations for the city of Denver, more than 150 citizens participated in the community effort known as “Gladstone on the Move…Citizens Making a Difference.”

The group identified six key performance areas or KPAs: Business/Economic Development, Neighborhoods, Community Center, City Services, Education, Identity/Regionalism. The group researched and discussed the issue and came up with a list of priorities.

Gladstone on the Move came up with a plan that could be used to guide the city over the next 20 years. Next step: create an implementation committee to figure out a timeline and an action plan for achieving the desired results.

The citizens themselves recommended Gladstone’s first ever property tax increase to the city council, also to extend a sales tax that was about to expire to pay for parks and recreation needs. The council put the tax increases on the ballot and Gladstone on the Move campaigned to get them passed.

The community now has a complete ambulance service that is fully staffed, not only basic life support for getting people to a hospital but advanced life support for people suffering heart attacks, strokes and other medical emergencies.

It also has a marketing program. It is building more sidewalks than ever before. It has a comprehensive street lighting program, three major economic development initiatives, several hundred square feet in retail and several thousand in housing units with an affordable housing philosophy.

With the parks and recreation sales tax, they invested $1.3 million in an existing outdoor pool to make it a family event center, the city constructed a $25 million community center in partnership with the nearby school districts, complete with indoor recreation pools and the fitness area and the conference rooms and all that. It also has a competitive swim arena used to host the high school swim competition.

The point here is not that taxes are good and every community should raise them. The point is, if you have these needs and desires: a recreation center, a better ambulance service, an economic development plan, more street lighting, you need to figure out how to pay for it, and it helps to have that conversation out in the open with members of the public taking the leading role.

There can be little doubt that these tax proposals could easily have failed without the Gladstone on the Move process.  As one local official put it, “When you involve people and you listen and you take action, positive outcomes result.”

Gladstone was an All-America City Award winner in 2008. The Gladstone on the Move process won a Program Excellence Award from the International City/County Management Association in the strategic planning category.

Use the box below to tell about people in your community who are rallying together to make improvements for your town possible.

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Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.

I’ve been working on revisions for a new version of the Civic Index, a tool created by the National Civic League to help communities assess their civic strengths and weaknesses. In the process, I’ve been looking back at some of the best examples I know of communities doing innovative things with civic engagement.

In general there are two approaches to local public engagement. One is to convene temporary deliberative processes to do strategic planning, issue-oriented dialogues, conflict resolution or problem solving initiatives. Another is to embed public participation processes in local government with permanent neighborhood councils or other structures.

In Sarasota County, Florida, local officials and philanthropic leaders found a third way. Concerned about the negative and unfocused nature of discussions over a controversial bridge project, they decided to form a nonprofit to handle the county’s public participation and dialogue strategies, SCOPE, Sarasota County Plans for Civic Excellence.

“Government tends to do certain things well,” noted Tim Dutton, SCOPE’s executive director, when I interviewed him in 2009. “Encouraging people to engage in rich dialogues has tended not to be one of those things. SCOPE can help out a little bit here because we’re not the government. We are being asked by government to convene around issues now, because we can create an invitation that has a different reaction than what happens when government makes the invitation.”

SCOPE has convened dialogues on such issues as traffic and congestion, aging, affordable housing, school dropout rates, mental health, family violence and community change. Last year, the group convened a summit on environmental action. Sometimes the organization produces short documentaries on topic areas as part of its “Stories Project.”

Interestingly, SCOPE studies and summits have led to the creation of nearly a dozen nonprofit spinoff groups to work in different issue areas, including a community housing trust to buy housing that can be preserved as affordable. A conversation/study on school attendance got the local school district to change the way its handles its dropout policies, and a group of mental health organizations launched a $9 million initiative focusing on children.

Additionally, the organization undertakes what it calls community report cards, looking at a number of indicators that reflect different facets of community life. In 2008, the report card led to the convening of a summit for Environmental Action.

SCOPE was one of the organizers of the Grassroots Leadership Initiative, an effort to identify and develop leaders from under-served communities. One graduate of the program joined the country housing authority board. Another became a PTO president. One became a program associate at a local foundation.

SCOPE has helped change the way citizens and activists think about community solutions, said Dutton. In the early years, recommendations from the conversations tended to produce documents that began with the words, “The County should do….” “We now talk in terms of what we have to do to grow active citizens,” he explained. “How can I have the capacity to make a difference in my own neighborhood? At best we are looking at government being an active partner.”

Today SCOPE receives funding from three area foundations, Sarasota County and (to a smaller extent) four municipalities, the United Way and various groups and individuals. It was one of the three projects the county listed when it was named a finalist in the 2008 All-America City Awards.

At the NCL, we think it is important for communities to convene citizens in large-scale efforts to do problem solving or planning, so people can be engaged in local issues year-round, not just on Election Day. Sometimes we help them do it themselves through our Community Success programs. Often we work with local government officials to kick start a project.

But these days city funds are tight and more and more communities may need to find new ways to finance and organize ambitious civic engagement projects. SCOPE could be an interesting model for other communities.

Counties, towns and cities throughout the United States are finding that more traditional ways of governing and garnering public participation are no longer as effective as they once were. We as an American public are growing more concerned — and, consequentially, more aware — about things going on in our communities. Therefore, there no longer resides an easy willingness to accept that which does not work anymore. That being the case, what are some of the ways your community is changing to make local government work for the good of the people. Use the box below to brag on your civic and civil growth.

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Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.

A high school teacher named Henry Littlefield once wrote an essay in the American Quarterly called “The Wizard of Oz: A Parable on Populism.” According Littlefield’s interpretation, L. Frank Baum’s immortal children’s book was full of thinly disguised allusions to the reform politics of the late nineteenth century. The Tin Man (whose joints needed constant oiling to function) represented the industrial worker. The intellectually insecure Scarecrow embodied the American farmer. The Cowardly Lion represented, the Populist-Democratic presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, an avowed pacifist. The yellow brick road symbolized the gold standard, and Dorothy’s magic shoes, which silver in the book, not ruby red as in the Hollywood film version, stood for the free coinage of silver, the main demand of the Populists. Others have added new interpretations over time. “Oz,” after all, was the abbreviation for ounces, the measure of silver and gold. Dorothy’s dog, Toto, represented the temperance movement, and so on.

Sadly, Littlefield’s theory has been thoroughly debunked by a succession of academic killjoys, professional historians who note that, among other things, author Baum was not in fact a Bryan Democrat, as Littlefield suggested, but rather a supporter of boring old William McKinley. One historian of consumer culture interpreted the Wizard of Oz, not as a critique of the Gilded Age but a celebration of consumer capitalism. Noting that Baum was a Theosophist who had once worked as window-dresser, this historian found the book to be an “optimistic, therapeutic text.” The Emerald City, in this interpretation did not represent Washington, but the 1894 Chicago World Exposition with its dazzling and Oz-like array of new products and inventions.

With its flying monkeys, witches and munchkins, the book and even more famous movie are clearly rich subjects for a variety of interpretations. Last summer, I witnessed an entirely new re-imagining of the Wizard of Oz, Dublin, California’s presentation at the All-America City Awards competition in Kansas City. (To be clear, it was KC, Missouri, not Kansas, but close enough). In this 10 minute tour of the city, Dorothy—who sang a mean version of Over the Rainbow, was taken on a tour of the Emerald City of Dublin. In this version, the Scarecrow represented the wisdom of city officials in implementing one of the most progressive and inclusionary housing policies in the state of California. Dublin being a mostly affluent Bay Area community, housing prices are intimidating to say the least.

Concerned that local teachers, firefighters, police and others wouldn’t be able to afford housing in the city where they worked, city council members enacted a comprehensive affordable housing policy. Over the last 10 years, the city’s programs have created nearly 1000 “below market” rental and owner occupied housing units, about seven percent of the city’s overall housing stock. Programs include Dublin’s Below Market Rate Home Program, which provides a supply of deed-restricted below market rate units, and a First Time Homebuyer Loan Program with down payment assistance and financial advice. Developers who cannot build the number of below market rate units required by ordinance can contribute to the Inclusionary In-Lieu Fee Fund, which the city uses to support non-profit developers in the construction of below market rate senior and multi-family rental developments.

Heart: The Tin Man represented the city’s heart in providing a home for the School of Imagination, an innovative and inclusive school readiness/early intervention program that partners typically developing kids with those afflicted with developmental disabilities. More than 300 children weekly participate in the programs they offer and they have served more than 3,000 children with speech delays, developmental delays and autism from throughout the region.

Courage:  The Cowardly Lion represented the city’s courage in making efforts to preserve its past and secure its future with environmental programs. The city formed a partnership to develop a historic park to be a living monument to the community’s agricultural past. To increase sustainability education, the city hosts a community volunteer event called Dublin Pride Week. As part of Dublin Pride Week, the city sponsors a Volunteer Day where residents engage the community in a variety of projects, including school beautification projects, clean water projects, and environmental program outreach.

In his essay, Henry Littlefield said he’d developed his Oz theory to make the forgotten world of the 1890s comprehensible to his students. “Consider the fun,” he wrote, “in picturing turn-of-the-century American, a difficult time at best, using ready-made symbols provided by Baum.” It furnished a teaching mechanism, he suggested, “guaranteed to reach any level of student.”

The same could be said of the Dublin presentation, which was corny, but also effective. Heart, head and courage—contemporary communities need of all those qualities they can get. It’s worth taking a look at thee archived video of Dublin’s Presentation. (link here.)

Granted, this unique approach might not work for all communities in addressing critical needs for its members, but it certainly accomplished its goal. There are a multitude of city, towns and parishes in need of bringing attention to an issue greatly affecting the community. Do you know of additional ways in which a community has brought awareness to a critical problem resulting in change? What was that change and how did it impact the community? We would love to know, so, please, fill the box below with your community’s story of success.

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Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.

State of the Re:Union contributor Mike McGrath of the National Civic League shares the encouraging news on how schools across the U.S. are vying to be a part of the All-American City Grade-Level Reading Award.

The response has been overwhelming. We’ve gotten more than 150 letters of intent to participate in the 2012 All-America City Grade-Level Reading Award.  The list includes cities large and small (L.A., NYC, Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta, San Francisco, Houston, Seattle, among others) and counties and multi-county areas from 36 states. Two U.S. Territories and D.C. are represented. You can read a press release from the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading here.

Our goal was to get 50 to 55 communities to sign up.  This level of interest has more than surpassed expectations, which suggests that grade-level reading may be an issue whose time has come.  We’ve been working with the National League of Cities and United Way Worldwide, among other groups, to generate interest in this award. This great show of interest is partly a testament to their work in ginning up interest in communities all over the country.

The awards will be given to communities (counties, regions, whatever) that develop the most comprehensive, realistic and sustainable plans for addressing three issues: school readiness, school attendance and summer learning.

The communities that sent letters of intent will join the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading’s network. Being part of the network allows them to seek assistance during the application process when they will be developing community-wide plans for improving reading achievement by the end of third grade.

Honestly, we didn’t know how this was going to turn out when NCL President Gloria Rubio-Cortés came up with this idea. Since 1949, NCL has offered this award for communities that show outstanding civic accomplishments, but in the past we have always let the communities themselves highlight the programs that think best illustrate the values of the award, innovation, inclusiveness, equity and the ability to show results.

So in any given year, we might find out about a successful homeless program, an original approach to economic development, an effort to address gang violence or provide dental care for low income kids. This time we are working with the campaign to help people develop their community-based projects on grade-level reading.

Another unusual element of the AAC grade-level reading is effort—in 2015 we are going to back the reading issue as a focus of the AAC program. Only in 2015, it will be about accomplishment—what these communities have actually accomplished with their plans.

This is really new for us. We want to be part of a coalition that focuses intently on one issue. We want to see if we can move the dime.

This year, AAC GLR awards will be held June 30-July 2 in Denver, Colorado, the time we hold the award program in our hometown. In the past, we have always held the event in a community that was a past winner. It helps for the people in the community where the event it held to get the award and what it stands for. Denver has never won the award, and in my memory, nor has it entered. This year the Mile High City is entering, one more indication that this GLR thing is an idea whose time has come.

Is there a school that you think should be recognized for an outstanding reading program or service? If you would like to find out more on how to enter your school into the 2012 All-American City Grade-Level Reading Award, click here.

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Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.

A few years ago, I had a little problem with the voting. I’d signed up for a mail-in ballot and as soon as I did, I knew it was a huge mistake. All my adult life, I’ve been going through the civic ritual of showing up at the neighborhood polling place, being greeted by the friendly neighborhood poll worker, going into the little booth and casting my vote. As Election Day neared and I had yet to receive my mail ballot, I began to worry. What if it doesn’t show up in time? Can I go to the polling place anyway? What should I do? So who did I call? 311. The friendly guy on the other end of the 311 line answered my question and eased my anxieties about the late mail-in ballot.

In the late 1990s, the Federal Communications Commission came out with ruling giving local government a new tool, the “311” designation for non-emergency calls. The original idea was to take the pressure off of 911 call-in centers, which often got non-emergency calls from confused citizens. Hampton, Virginia, became one of the first cities in the country to create a 24-hour, seven day a week, one stop customer call center using 311. The goal was to provide customer service as quickly and efficiently as possible, minimizing the number of times citizens would have to hold on the phone and or by told to call another city department.

The 311 systems vary in quality and extent from city to city, and these days cities are cutting back on hours and services because of the budget crisis. But Hampton’s call center’s knowledge base allowed customer advocates to answer more than 4000 different questions about local government and other nearby public agencies. The system is based on keywords, allowing customer services advocates to quickly input questions and get the answer. It also gave the capability to directly issue work orders to handle problems such as potholes or downed streetlights.

The system has helped alleviate one of the biggest challenges in local government performance, the ignorance of many citizens about who does what, and thereby, who to call. In many regions, government services are dispersed between villages, townships, cities, counties and a myriad of special districts. Simply calling city hall, in other words, may result in nothing more than a referral to another agency or department. Now the customers/citizens have an easy task. When in doubt, simply call 311.

Somerville, Massachusetts, a 2009 All-America, has a 24-hour 311 call center service allowing citizens to ask questions and make requests for service. Easy to answer questions are handled immediately. Others are answered in a timely manner through e-mail or a follow-up call, ensuring that citizens are not shunted from one department to another. Requests for service are entered into a database, given a tracking number so citizens can find out how things are proceeding.

In Somerville, the 311 system is a two-way street. The calls and work orders became an important source of data for the city’s data-driven performance management program, a system known as SomerStat, which was started by the city’s energetic mayor, Joseph Curtatone. The origins of SomerStat go back to 1994 and efforts by the New York City Police Department to link crime fighting efforts to timely, accurate data generated by police calls, computers and databases under the city’s CompStat program. Geographic information system software was used to pinpoint problem areas in the city and regular performance management meetings were held to ensure that resources were being deployed in the most efficient manner. The resulting drop in crime rates was dramatic, and other cities noticed. Baltimore created its CitiStats program using data to drive performance management in all city departments.

Somerville has added a new twist to the “stat” concept, combining it with good old fashion face to face meetings. Somerville began its ResiStat meetings in 2007 to complete the feedback loop between citizens and government. The comments and suggestions of residents are reported back to the SomerStat semiweekly data-driven performance evaluation meetings and compiled in an annual Resident Report that is published along with the official city budget.

As part of Somerville’s ResiStat” program, the mayor, the local alderman and other city officials meet with citizens in each of the city’s nine wards, which correspond roughly to neighborhoods, and five special interest groups (parents, young people and speakers of the city’s three main foreign languages—Spanish, Portuguese and Creole.) The goal of these public meetings is to present information generated through SomerStat, the city’s data-driven performance management system, and get feedback from citizens.

The 311 systems are great for answering questions quickly and easing the frustration of citizens who get tired of hearing, “sorry that’s not my department.” But at Somerville and other cities are proving, 311 can also help complete the information feedback loop between citizens and government, which is an important element of any thriving democracy.

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Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.