Examining COVID-19 response among local governments through the political market framework.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought to the forefront the importance of a local government's role during public health emergencies. While cities around the world have led the pandemic response in their communities by extending public health services, providing socioeconomic assistance to constituents and aiding small businesses and jurisdictions in the United States have had varying degrees of success in managing the crisis. As such, this study employs the political market framework to explore the impact of supply-side determinants (form of government, preparedness capabilities, and federal aid) and demand-side determinants (population, socioeconomic factors, and political affiliation) on a local government's COVID-19 response. Given the lack of attention, the emergency management literature has paid on government form, exploring the impact of council-manager vs mayor-council systems on COVID-19 response has been this study's primary focus. Using a logistic regression and survey data across Florida and Pennsylvania local governments, this study finds government form significant for COVID-19 response. Following our findings, local governments with a council-manager form were more likely to adopt public health and socioeconomic strategies in response to the pandemic than were those with other forms. Furthermore, having emergency management plans, receiving public assistance from Federal Emergency Management Agency, community characteristics like the percent of teens and non-White residents, and political affiliation also had a significant impact on the likelihood of response strategies being adopted.

Patterns of communication during full-scale emergency/disaster drills.

The motivation for developing, administering, and participating in full-scale disaster drills is multifold. Emergency drills not only test the capacity of emergency systems but also allow organizations to learn as well as improve processes and communication structures before disasters strike. They have been used as a platform to develop and maintain collaborative networks. This article examines the extent to which organizations collaborate with others during emergency/disaster drills. A social network analysis is employed to determine the patterns of communication and interorganizational networks during the planning and implementation of a full-scale emergency exercise. Specifically, we seek to understand the communication lines that stakeholders used to receive updated information, who they reached out to when standard communication channels were down, and what backup systems were in place. The research was conducted in a municipality located in north central Texas. This study was based on field observations and involved 14 face-to-face interviews with experienced public officials and first responders involved in a municipal government emergency drill/exercise. The interviews were administered after the 2017 full-scale emergency drill. Three major findings can be emphasized from this study. First, two types of organizations, namely, city fire departments and a university partaking in the exercise, played central role as a "bridge" between various organizations during the emergency drill. Second, the types of information considered important during the exercise can be categorized as strategic, procedural, and technical information. Finally, several back-up systems including ham radio, cellphones, internet back-up, and satellite were used to maintain communication channels.

Ebola crisis response in the USA: Communication management and SOPs.

This research focuses on the 2014 Ebola crisis response by emergency managers in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Metropolitan region in the State of Texas, U.S.A. It examines the patterns of crisis communication and the use of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) during the first month of the crisis. Primary data collected from 24 face-to-face interviews and 12 online surveys are analyzed. The research identifies elements contributing to organizational failures, which by their very nature gain public and media attention, and also explicates the less mentioned successful decisions made by response agencies in the DFW region. It is important to investigate both failures and successes to help inform organizational learning for better preparedness to future health crises. Findings suggest that, although there was a breakdown in communication between small city governments/ municipalities and higher levels of government at the State and Federal levels, prior training and collaborative relationships helped in improvised decision-making. Takeaways for practitioners include reiterating the importance of establishing SOPs, merits of flexibility, and improvisational decisions for shared learning.