Zoning may be one of the least understood and most under-appreciated aspects of local government. But my guests today see zoning through the lens of community health and want you to come along with them to better understand how zoning and planning impact our lives.

Ben Estell is manager of Dormont Borough outside of Pittsburgh in Allegheny County Pennsylvania and R.J. Susko is Planning and Development Director in the Town of McCandless in Allegheny County.

In this episode, RJ and Ben discuss the crucial role zoning and community planning play in enhancing community health.

RJ and Ben highlight the paths to their current roles and emphasize the human impact of zoning decisions. They explore topics such as transparency, public engagement, and the challenges of implementing zoning changes that balance community needs and environmental considerations. The conversation underscores the importance of proactive planning and the iterative nature of zoning regulations to foster resilient and thriving communities.

If you like your comprehensive planning to be entertaining and even a little sexy, you have come to the right place.

This episode is part of our 2024 APMM series. APMM is dedicated to the promotion of professional and effective local government management in Pennsylvania.

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RJ Susko serves as the Planning and Development Director for the Town of McCandless, Allegheny County, PA. Ms. Susko holds a Master of Public Administration Urban Affairs and Planning concentration, from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), and a B.S. in Public Health from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. A lifelong asker of “how does that work?”, Ms. Susko has been active in the municipal management world for several years, focusing on process improvement, change management, and right-sizing regulations to empower communities to reach their full potential.

Most recently in her current role as Planning and Development Director at the Town of McCandless, RJ has overseen the Town’s first wholesale zoning update in the last 50 years, involving a complete re-write and restructuring of the McCandless land use and development codes.

Benjamin Ryan Estell serves as Manager for the Borough of Dormont in Allegheny County, PA. Ben holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.A. in French language and Culture from The Ohio State University. He received his ICMA certification in 2015.

Has led numerous impactful projects, such as the Potomac Avenue Design and Reconstruction, an award-winning storm water management project, and a 5-Year Strategic Planning Process, which has involved significant public input and research. Most recently led a comprehensive zoning rewrite that brought Form-Based Code and Transit Oriented Development into the Pittsburgh suburbs and created the transformational catalyst for a truly welcoming community.

[00:00 - 05:07]: Introduction and RJ's background in community development.

[05:08 - 10:18]: Ben's childhood experience with a hazardous waste incinerator and its influence on his career.

[10:19 - 15:00]: Discussion on transparency in zoning and...

In times of crisis, we often see leaders emerge from the frontline. My guest today, Professor Paresh Wankhade has published extensive research on emergency services and offers us examples of how emergent leadership shows up in times of crisis.

In this episode we talk about how the leadership framework is changing within emergency services. Some of the topics we cover include pressure on ambulance crews to meet performance targets, and how this impacts their ability to provide care, cultural challenges inside fire services, and lessons on leadership from crisis situations.

This episode is part of the Across the Pond Series that we began in 2023 with Professor John Diamond. We have so much to learn with our colleagues across the pond and they in turn have an interest in learning with us.

Paresh Wankhade FAcSS, FRSA, FCMI is a Professor of Leadership and Management at Edge Hill University Business School, UK. He is the Editor-In-Chief of International Journal of Emergency Services. His research and publications focus on analyses of strategic leadership, organisational culture, organisational change and interoperability within the public services with a focus on emergency services. Paresh has published in major journals including Work, Employment and Society, International Journal of Management Reviews, Public Management Review, Regional Studies, Public Money and Management and International Journal of Public Sector Management along with several monographs on the leadership and governance aspects in the emergency services.

MOST RECENT BOOK: Emergency Services Management: A Research Overview

Profile with List of Research

LinkedIn Profile

[05:00] Emergent Leadership in Crisis Situations

Paresh explains how leadership can emerge from unexpected situations, using examples like the Chilean miners and the Thai cave rescue. He emphasizes the importance of team-based leadership and bottom-up approaches in emergency services.

[10:00] Performance Targets in Ambulance Services

Paresh critiques the performance management approach in ambulance services, particularly the focus on response time targets. He argues that this approach pressures ambulance crews and impacts the quality of patient care, as the eight-minute response target often prioritizes speed over effective medical intervention.

[15:00] Cultural Challenges in Fire Services

Paresh highlights the cultural issues within fire services, particularly the lack of diversity and gender balance. He mentions recent reviews highlighting problems related to the treatment of women and ethnic minorities in the fire services and the need for cultural change to address these issues.

[20:00] Professionalization and Its Impact

Paresh talks about the professionalization of emergency services and how it affects motivation and job satisfaction. He discusses the clash between efficiency-focused management models and the mission-driven nature of emergency services work.

[25:00] Crisis Leadership and Shared Leadership

Paresh discusses the need for a shift in leadership models from heroic, top-down approaches to more collaborative, team-based structures. He provides examples of effective shared leadership during crises, such as the Chilean miners' ordeal.

[30:00] Lessons from Grenfell Tower Fire

Paresh...

Jerry Ozog, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Fire & Emergency Services Institute, is here today to talk about challenges in the leadership of emergency services. We cover topics such as everyday leadership vs crisis leadership, community expectations, funding and transparency, organizational models, recruitment, including diversity and inclusion, and the particular challenge small communities face.

This episode is part of our APMM series. APMM is dedicated to the promotion of professional and effective local government management of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Fire & Emergency Services Institute

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[00:00] Facilitator Leadership

[03:53] Effective Relationships Seminar

[09:03] Building Trust and Transparency

[13:12] Different Cultures in Emergency Services

[15:56] Collaborative Leadership and Flexibility

[21:41] Preserving Collaborative Cultures

[25:54] Community-Based Strategic Planning

[31:42] Inclusion and Diversity

[40:54] Solutions Through Collaboration

On Collaborative Leadership:

• "In these environments, the day-to-day leadership in today's environment you need more of a facilitator that can bring people to the table and be able to... accept ideas from other people. I want to work with other people."

Balancing Command and Control with Collaboration:

• "Sometimes that leader gets into a position. They are a command and control folk. And there's a lot of problems within the organization where the employees or the volunteers feel that I never get a voice. I never get to say anything."

Building Trust Through Collaboration:

• "I tell municipal officials you don't go immediately and demand records from the fire company. You gotta approach it where let's sit down and have coffee together. Let's talk. Let's identify the fire company leadership. Let's develop that relationship to start to build a little bit of trust and ease our way into helping the fire company and the municipality learn about each other."

Importance of Frontline Input in Strategic Planning:

• "There's something that is called a community-based strategic plan for fire and EMS where a stakeholder group of citizens are brought together... and you use that session as an initial SWOT analysis for defining what their expectations are."

Collaborative Decision-Making in Volunteer Organizations:

• "When you assess and let's say you're working to get a fire tax implemented and doing those things, you definitely want to focus on keeping a few of the traditional events... there has to be a connection and feedback where I see places that are challenged or they're internally making their own decisions based on no feedback."