High-Intensity Interlocal Collaboration in Three Iowa Cities

• Published in: Public administration review 2006-12, Vol.66 (s1), p.144-146
• Main Author: Thurmaier, Kurt
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Business management; Cities; City councils; City halls; City politics; Collaboration; Communication; Community Relations; Emergency services; Governance; Indexing in process; Learning Activities; Letters from the Field: Case Studies of Exemplary Collaborative Managers; Local government; Medical Services; Public administration; Public safety; Strategic management; Suburbs; Success; Water
• ISSN: 0033-3352; 1540-6210
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00676.x

Three cities in central Iowa are hotbeds of interlocal agreements and other collaborative activities. Clive, Urbandale, and West Des Moines are currently working with a consultant to study how to collaborate further and how to improve fire and emergency medical service (EMS) operations, which tends to be tricky both politically and managerially. Yet city managers are confident in a successful outcome. They have a solid track record of collaboration successes that have built a high degree of interpersonal and interorganizational trust among actors at multiple levels in all three organizations. The most evident success is the Westcom Dispatch Center, a consolidated public safety dispatch facility that receives public safety-related calls and dispatches police, fire, and EMS for the cities of Clive, Urbandale, and West Des Moines. Before January 2001, each of the three cities had separate and independent public safety dispatch centers staffed around the clock, seven days a week. The consolidation of these centers greatly improved communication among all of the public safety agencies by placing the three cities on one trunked 800 MHz radio system.