In many places in the “Good Book” we are encouraged to be our brother’s keeper and to love thy neighbor as ourselves. In the Public Works arena this is sometimes accomplished by intergovernmental relationships as we attempt to achieve maximum benefit or obtain more value for our money. In the APWA, our mantra is “First to Respond, Last to Leave”. This excellent concept of operations spills over to our daily lives as we plan for resources needed for each of the multiple customer service requests or a major emergency. In the normal course of operation, a Public Works department can draw resources from in-house staff and equipment, contractor or vendor supplies operations, other governmental agencies, or local day laborer providers. The local day labor method is the least desirable in terms of productivity, costs and the need for continual supervision.

The theory that the use of other governmental agencies can be obtained by developing partnerships through Mutual Aid Agreements, Inter-Local Municipal Agreements, or Friendship Pacts with neighboring municipalities has been predominant for several years. The main commonalities of the methods described above are the need for pre-planning, identifying anticipated needs and available resources, and the complex administrative endeavors needed to satisfy the legal requirements. The main difference between these methods is the geographical distances between the agency providing the assistance and the city receiving the assistance. For example, after an emergency event such as a hurricane, all the surrounding municipalities are suffering from the same malaise so needed additional resources are most likely to be requested from a municipality or other governmental agency outside the impact zone. The instrument for that is the Mutual Aid agreement. If there is a local emergency such as a fire, a terrorist event, or even a non-emergency event impacting only one city, the additional resources may be obtained from other Public Works departments in the area. The instruments for that support are the Inter-Local Agreement or the less formal “Friendship Pact” with a partnering city.

The main caveat in any of these agreements is the term, “if available”. Barring a declaration from city management staff or a city commission that their specific municipality will provide aid to a neighbor, the term “if available” is difficult to overcome. I remember post-Hurricane Andrew when some municipalities suspended part of their daily Public Works operation and sent equipment, materials and manpower to Florida City because the entire surrounding area was devastated. However, that was a rare situation. If there have been other instances when one Public Works department helped out another, it has not been well publicized.

To prepare an agreement of mutual support, the typical questions to be answered include what type of assistance is anticipated and what are the common available resources of most Public Works departments? For the purposes of this article, those resources are identified as personnel for manual labor or for the operation of specialized equipment and vehicles. Specialized personnel, such as water plant operators, may also be needed for another water plant in the impacted municipality.

The equipment typically is various sized dump trucks, front-end loaders, backhoes, road graders and chain saws. The Public Works world would be one happy place if there were a central repository each city could tap into when they need temporary assistance for their short term or long-term operations. However, that is not likely.

One of the common issues discussed throughout APWA is managing the Public Works operations in an environment of constantly declining resources. At some point in time, it is anticipated there will be a straw that breaks the camels back. While the theory of the above listed agreements is well intended, the reality of the situation is like something my father preached to me for many years; that is, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. In the age of declining revenues, there is not a single Public Works department that has gone on record stating they have additional or abundant resources to loan out or provide others. This is true even if the receiving municipality is willing to compensate the providing municipality and provide a small revenue stream. As the resources decrease, for example, due to a hiring freeze or a budget reduction, it is imperative that each Public Works department circle their respective wagons and try to achieve that balance of providing service to their customers efficiently and at the lowest cost.

As the city revenues continue to decrease, the promise to aid other municipalities becomes even a lower priority to the extent that potentially giving mutual assistance is no longer considered. To couch this in other terms, if the city management staff continues to target their respective Public Works department for budget cuts, which seems to happen to all the Public Works departments simultaneously, the option of obtaining assistance from other Public Works organizations is no longer a viable one. That option is at the bottom of the heap or at the end of the alphabet. As a result, the city will spend more in the long run because the Public Works departments will have to delay needed services and use other costly alternatives such as contracting for vendor services. Managers are encouraged to think about the long-term harm that may result by continually targeting Public Works for budget reductions.