To begin with, local officials can direct more public resources into issues that affect mental health, such as enhancing public safety, narrowing health disparities and reducing poverty. Regardless of who is in charge of the federal government or at the state level, local officials working with each other across jurisdictional lines can have a positive impact on how constituents feel about themselves and their governments.
As major local employers, governments also can ensure that their administrations and workforce reflect the diversity of their communities, and particularly that female public employees feel safe, heard and respected. I hear too often, for example, about the problems of “mansplaining,” a bad habit of some men who cut women off when they attempt to answer questions or who dismiss their perspectives. All public workers should feel that they are valued and that their leaders have their backs.
Another way public officials can help anxious residents feel better psychologically is to provide them with information and assurances about how they will deal with harmful policies coming down from higher levels of government. For example, if local leaders believe that the federal government under a new administration is going to begin rounding up and deporting undocumented residents, they need to know and plan in advance for what they can and should do. Among other things, they should be considering whether to mount legal challenges and direct law enforcement agencies not to cooperate with immigration enforcement officers — or do nothing and suffer the consequences of letting families be torn apart. Clear and upfront communication with constituents always works best.
In the past, minority citizens couldn’t really rely on government at any level to protect their interests, civil rights or lives. It took leadership from the clergy, entertainers and young people from organizations like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to force the courts, and later the federal government, to extend civil rights to minority citizens. We find ourselves in similar times today, when public officials and community leaders will have to band together and fight to protect hard-won freedoms. Public officials have powerful bully pulpits that residents are waiting for them to use. A good and righteous fight does wonders for improving one’s psychological outlook and mitigating feelings of hopelessness.
Public officials also should be mentally prepared — and prepare their constituents — to experience other types of fallout from shifting federal priorities that have direct impact on our communities’ quality of life and psychological well-being. Let’s take the climate crisis as an example: Under the Biden-Harris administration, local governments have received substantially larger grants to mitigate climate woes and make improvements to their infrastructures and stormwater systems. Just this week, for example, public officials in Atlanta announced that the city has been awarded more than $528,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program to make the city more climate-resilient. Given the climate-change skepticism of some of President-elect Donald Trump’s announced cabinet nominees, funding like what Atlanta has received, coupled with positive relationships with federal officials, might be a thing of the past.
Local government officials in blue and purple parts of our nation must get ready for these shifts and the impact they will have on residents and public employees alike. As the new administration begins to take shape in Washington and rolls out new policies, local officials should keep a keen eye on those that likely would have a negative impact on their communities. They need a plan that will help them beat back obviously bad policies and to set aside funding to mount robust legal challenges when necessary. Key to all of this is to make sure we all maintain the clarity of mind and thought needed to push through the storm in hopes of better days ahead.
Governing’s opinion columns reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily those of Governing’s editors or management.
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