News & Events

November 2005

I had a short tête-à-tête on Tuesday with Kurt Thurmaier, director of Iowa State University's Public Policy and Administration Program. It was the close of the Creating Collaborative Communities conference, and after two intense days, our spirits were still high.

"This will go down as a seminal moment in interlocal collaboration," Thurmaier told me. "Ten years from now we'll look back at Wayne State and know that something important started here."

It took me a few moments to digest, but I believe he's right. By matching up cutting edge research and the practical expertise of municipal leaders, we are putting new tools into the hands of the leaders who need them - and, more importantly, will use them.

The conference was the brainchild of Wayne State University Professor Jered Carr and designed as a celebration of their Master's in Public Administration program's 70th anniversary. At his invitation, the Suburbs Alliance staff integrated the conference into our Resource Sharing project and merged our interest in nuts and bolts with the WSU expertise in research. The resulting two days were both educational and inspirational.

Communications was a consistent theme from both academics and practitioners. Evidence from around the country suggests that successful collaborations depend highly on regular and frequent communications - monthly at worst. The jury's out on whether communications leads to or supports cooperative efforts, but it is clear that talking with our neighbors needs to be a high priority.

Far away the favorite session of the second day, "No Place for Race" challenged attendees to aggressively address segregation and discrimination. The NAACP's Heaster Wheeler and ACCESS's Ishmael Ahmed led a dynamic discussion about how race and regionalism interact - and who has to lead the way to a more just society. A typical comment: "Motivating, enlightening, honest."

The conference message with the highest promise underscored the most common motivation our public servants have for seeking opportunities for collaboration. It is not, as many presume, the chance to save a dollar, nor the opportunity to extend power or alleviate stress.

It is to do the job better than we did it yesterday.

That's a refreshing piece of research. Not only does it give us hope that our progress on regionalism will continue even as the economy improves, it reaffirms the nobility of our purpose every day.