The Role of IGR and Communication in Public Administration - Essay Example

? The Role of IGR and Communication in Public Administration Wichita Confronts Contamination case study Intergovernmental relations are an important aspect to any government that seeks to achieve development. Intergovernmental relations foster development and better understanding between governmental institutions. When a governmental agency forges a relationship with another, it stands a better chance of developing and is in a position to handle any looming conflicts. Intergovernmental relations foster interdependency, complexity and bargaining among partners. These factors influence public administration in several ways. One such way is through shaping the work of governmental institutions. One situation that helps to illustrate this is the “Wichita Confronts Contamination” case study. In 1990, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) in partnership with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave a disturbing report concerning Wichita, Kansas (Stillman, 2009). According to the report, Wichita sat on a large polluted underground lake. The causes of the all the pollution involved different commercial and industrial chemicals. The contamination spread at a faster rate coupled with fears that it could cause serious health complications such as cancer. The polluted aquifer lay directly below the city’s central business district. Banks, residential homes and industries lay within the six-square mile area. The reaction of the local communities involved persistent calls on the government to respond and do something serious to relieve the situation. In addition to that, the banking sector also stopped giving loans to residents and business owners within Gilbert-Mosley area. The banks became more careful demanding certain requirements before giving out loans. To this effect, banks required inspection of sites and analysis of water and soil samples from a prospective businessperson before granting loan to individuals. The 1990 Listing Site Investigation was the first comprehensive report on the adverse contamination of Wichita. The City Manager’s office estimated that it would cost $20 million to clean the aquifer. The negative thing about the entire process was that it would take as many as 20 years. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) report recommended only two options to remedy the situation. These were either for the companies responsible for the contamination to undertake joint cleaning of the area or for the state to push the inclusion of the contaminated area in the National Priority Listing. This problem had serious effects for the city. The potential economic impact would drain the city of its economic achievements. About 508 businesses got identification as Potential Responsible Parties as determined by the Superfund Law. The city’s tax base faced risk from liability and bank-imposed real estate freeze. Cherches, who was at the time the city manager, had the responsibility to map a way forward in solving the problem. He took into account the two recommendations given by KDHE. The most important things to the city were to clean the aquifer and maintain the values of properties. They could only achieve this if the banks agreed to continue giving loans. Finally, the city manager decided to throw out the two options suggested by KDHE and came with a third option. The city was to take full responsibility for the cleanup. This presented the question of how to raise funds to finance for the cleanup. The dilemma presented a number of intergovernmental relations (IGR) actors. These included the business owners, KDHE, EPA, the city manager’s office, Wichita City Council, the school board, lenders and the state legislature. Each of these actors had a role to play in ensuring proper representation of interests. KDHE, for instance, had a reputation to uphold. The Wichita School Board and Sedgwick County Council’s tax base faced destabilization. Banks had a role to pay in ensuring that Wichita’s economy does not dwindle. Hence, Cherches urged them to continue lending to businesses. Through lending, the businesses could invest more which in turn would contribute to the city’s economy. However, to secure themselves, banks sort to get legal protection from cleanup liability. In analyzing the situation, EPA saw that it stood to benefit a lot. First, if the cleanup succeeded, it would create a good reputation for the agency. Secondly, they would incur minimal expense since the city was ready to take full responsibility for the cleanup. Another complexity that was bound to arise was in relation to politics. Politically, the city leaders wanted to see that Coleman and his group of business owners take full responsibility for the contamination. It would not be fair that the whole city suffers for the mistakes of one group. In order for the cleanup to succeed, the constituents would have to dig deeper into their pockets to contribute to tax even though they did not cause the contamination. Thus, the parties reached into a bargain where Coleman and his business counterparts would contribute a larger portion of the finances. 2. Columbine shootings One of the saddest school shootings that have ever taken place in the history of America was the Columbine Massacre. It took place in April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School in Columbine. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebod who were senior students killed 12 students and one teacher. The massacre left another 21 students directly injured while another three were injured while trying to escape. Reports indicated that the two boys planned the massacre months before they actually executed their plan. Edward Harris had his blog where he showed his resentment for society. At one time, he gave a list of the people he intended to kill. His mother reported him several times to the Sheriff County for his violent tendencies describing him as a dangerous person. In addition, within his blog, he discussed ways of designing bombs. On that fateful day, Harris and Klebod walked into the cafeteria carrying gym bags containing bombs. Seeing that their plan did not fall through since the bombs did not detonate, they went back to their cars, took out 9mm rifles and started shooting. They fired at students in the cafeteria, moving to the school hallways and library. After an hour of shooting, Harris and Klebod committed suicide in the library. In trying to make sense of the massacre, it became apparent that Harris and Klebod were victims of bullying for many years. Some psychiatrists attributed the students’ behavior to psychopath and depression. Others argued that video games were of great influence to Harris and Klebod’s behavior. They immersed themselves in playing games such as Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. Most of these games portrayed anger, which the students unleashed, into the real world. Another example from my experience is the problems that Saudi government faced during the Pilgrimage time. Each year during the pilgrimage season in Makkah, millions of pilgrims are crowd and troop on the day11 of Pilgrimage. After the decline of the sun, throw pebbles at the three Jamrats is the ascetic, starting from the smaller one, the furthest one from Makkah, the medium one and the biggest alternatively. All of pilgrims must meet to throw pebbles to the three basins that has the statue of the devil which made by Prophet Ibrahim. To complete this ascetic, pilgrim must throw pebble into the basins so that the pilgrimage can get closer to the basin to ensure hitting the statue of the devil. One of the problems associated with the ascetic, some pilgrims returning from the place where they entered from, which caused throngs and accidents. At the same time, the Saudi authorities cannot control more than two million pilgrims from different races, languages ??and cultures. In 2004, King Abdulla approved the idea proposed by one of the citizens to resolve this problem. After examine and inspect this notion by authorities and professionals, several agencies contribute to implement his proposed in 2005 in different stages. The idea centers on building five floors with each having a specific entrance and exit. These entrances allow pilgrims to pass by all three Jamrats, and they can throw the pebbles, which falls down to the main basins without need to be close. At the same time, this design leads the pilgrims to exit from one point. The bridge has a capacity of 100,000 pilgrims with the incidence and mortality because of overcrowding in the time before construction of the project. This project completed in 2009, and the capacity of five floors has increased to 300,000pilgrimsper hour without the case of deaths or injuries. Poor communication is in fact one of the main contributions to such forms of violence. Ineffective communication from all circles of a person’s life can lead them to take drastic measures. This is evident especially in children who do not get the attention that they need. Failure to receive attention has many implications on a child. One of these implications is that the child fails to learn ways of articulating their needs and desires. Once people are unable to find ways of expressing themselves, they tend remain enclosed with a lot of secretes. They develop an inferior attitude and end up passive. As a result, when they encounter bullies, they are unable to stand up for themselves yet they are suffering. This leads to other complications such as depression. Such a person keeps their anger to themselves. They turn to other things for consolation. In the case of Harris and Klebod, they turned to blogging violent utterances and watching violent based video games. When the opportunity arises, such a person may result to drastic measures to release the anger and resentment within. Garnett stresses that internal and external communications have great influence on a person, in this case public administrators. These set the agenda for the topic of discussion. External communicators such as the media contribute to setting the tone for addressing a particular issue. They shape public opinion over a matter. In relation to the Columbine Massacre, some of the factors that contributed to the event could attribute to external communication. The media, which include radio, television and newspaper coverage, were sources of information for the culprits. Harris and Klebod could easily access information about how to make bombs from the comfort of their desks using the computer. If there could be some degree of limitation to information released to the duo, they would not have ideas about how to create bombs and how to execute their plans. One of the actionable solutions is to determine the kind of information released for public knowledge. Information that has the potential to spur violence ought to remain secret from the public. Moreover, there needs to be some levels of restrictions on who can access such information. The government and other agencies that deal with information should create a system that determines who can access particular information. For instance, sites on the internet that deal with information relating to bomb creation could require signing in before accessing the information. The information that requires one to sign in should demand that a person gives their official names and identity numbers, which the systems can cross-reference with government records to determine whether the information provided, is true. In other words, there is need to establish systems that can govern the volume and content that for release to the public. References Stillman, R.J., (2009). Public Administration- Concepts and Cases, ninth edition, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. Read More