Eight professionals from China, New Zealand, and Thailand were in Washington, D.C., April 15-18 on the first leg of a four-week exploration of the legislative process and citizen engagement in the United States, arranged by ICMA.

During the D.C. visit, they toured the Capitol and met with staff in the office of Senator Ron Wyden (Oregon) to learn about the legislative process in the United States and the ways the Senator engages his constituents on key issues. They also heard presentations by staff from nearby Alexandria and Arlington County, Virginia, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The visitors are participating in the Professional Fellows Program, funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.  Among their responsibilities at home are general city administration, planning, sanitation, medical services, and law enforcement.

A highlight of the Fellows' visit was a tour of the Capitol.

The next step for each Fellow is a two-week visit in a U.S. host city to observe citizen engagement in action on the local level. Each host city has designated a staff member who will participate as a Fellow in a reciprocal exchange to the Asian/Pacific country later this summer.

U.S. host cities are Albany, Oregon (Wes Hare, city manager), Basalt, Colorado (Mike Scanlon, town manager), Tulsa, Oklahoma (Jim Twombly, city manager), and University Park, Texas (Bob Livingston, city manager). In each case, city staff and department heads will participate in briefings and other activities for the Fellows. Basalt’s selection for the exchange was covered in the Aspen, Colorado, media.

In advance of the U.S. visits, each Asian/Pacific participant prepared a “Community Challenge” case study, including a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis for presentation and discussion as part of the agenda. The challenges included sustainable solid waste management in a growth environment, developing sustainable eco-tourism for a jungle and a Buddhist park, ensuring transparency and citizen trust in government processes while redesigning operations to achieve budgetary savings, and harnessing regional assets to bolster local growth and revitalization.

In all cases, the Asian/Pacific Fellows hope to take home ideas garnered from their host cities. For example, one New Zealand participant is wrestling with issues of citizen trust over the transparency of council decisions related to a new sports stadium. She hopes to gain insights from experience with the Dallas Cowboys Stadium while visiting University Park.

On their visit to Arlington County, the Fellows heard from Chris Somers, Community Energy Specialist , who explained how the county engages citizens in its Community Energy Plan (part of the Arlington Initiative to Rethink Energy, or AIRE) and from Walter Tejada, chairman of the Arlington County Board, and County Board member Mary Hynes, who provided insight on county priorities and explained how the county uses online engagement efforts with PLACE - Participation Leadership and Civic Engagement. In Alexandria, they toured the historic district and heard from the city’s emergency management coordinator, Mark Penn, who described how the city has educated and engaged citizens before, during, and after disasters—including Potomac River flooding. Pamela Williams from FEMA explained how local, state, and federal governments work together to prepare and protect citizens during disasters. ICMA member and City Manager Rashad Young also shared his vision for creating a “pure” process in the city to ensure transparency and inclusion for employees and citizens.

The State Department’s selection of ICMA to manage the program was based in part on our successful implementation of an earlier exchange program focused on climate change and sustainability. The lasting impact of that exchange was demonstrated in a letter from Matthew Naud, environmental coordinator in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The city hosted three Fellows from Indonesia, and Matthew made a reciprocal visit: “It was a fantastic opportunity to continue our discussions [from the visits to Ann Arbor by Indonesian Fellows] and see firsthand the government, political, and social context in which our new colleagues work. We  . . . learned a lot about the tight community and very local forms of community engagement that we would like to develop in our city.”

For the 2013-14 exchange, ICMA partnered with the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers (SOLGM), Local Government Managers Australia (LGMA), and the China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) to select the Asian/Pacific participants and identify host country communities. SOLGM and LGMA are ICMA International Affiliate organizations, and CUPL is ICMA’s partner in the ICMA China Center.

In this round of exchanges, the Professional Fellows Program is bringing 220 emerging leaders from 44 countries and territories to the United States for intensive fellowships designed to broaden their professional expertise in the fields of legislative process and governance, media, and economic empowerment.

To learn more about ICMA’s international programs, visit the International Development topic  or e-mail international@icma.org.