Insights from the NLC Workshop and Special Guest Teasers

Join co-hosts Rebecca Lambert and Amanda Campbell in this episode of Potholes and Politics as they discuss their recent trip to the National League of Cities (NLC) workshop in Minneapolis. Amanda shares key takeaways, including innovative advocacy strategies and the recurrent challenge of housing issues. The hosts also tease their upcoming episode featuring special guests. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and tune in for more local Maine insights!

Transcript

Welcome everyone to this episode of Potholes and Politics, Local Maine Issues from A to Z. I'm your co-host Rebecca Lambert, and with me as always is my amazing colleague, Amanda Campbell. Good morning, Amanda. 

Good morning, Rebecca. 

So last week we gave a sneak peek into the studies that were coming out of the first legislative session.

And, also coming out soon will be the Town and City magazine, which is going to feature all things legislative. It's our legislative takeover issue. Last week we also mentioned that Amanda and I were going to Minneapolis for an NLC workshop. So, we'll give a short update on what happened at the workshop.

And we also have a little teaser for the next episode of Potholes and Politics. So, stay tuned for that announcement. We'll talk about it more at the end of the episode, but we will have two special guests who are important individuals. 

That sounds exciting. [00:01:00] 

Yes, they're important individuals to MMA and to the State of Maine.

So, we'll talk about that at the end of the episode. 

On that note, so, you never miss an episode, consider liking and subscribing to our podcast on whatever platform you listen to. By doing that, you'll be notified when a new episode drops and we're trying to release one every two weeks, even if it isn't a long episode, so we can be more consistent to our valued listeners.

So, with no further ado, this week, Amanda, you were also at the Staff League workshop in Minneapolis. Do you have any takeaways that you'd like to share, Amanda?

Yeah. So, it was a good time. I've been to Minneapolis before. Have you ever been to Minneapolis before this? 

No, that was my first time. It was interesting. 

Yeah, it's a, it's a neat city, and I saw different things this time than the time I was there before. So, it was a, it was fun. And like you mentioned, we were there for the National League of Cities, NLC, which is a membership organization, a lot like MMA.

But, really more federal level and MMA [00:02:00] focuses on a partnership with NLC specifically for our federal advocacy. Since you and I don't do that kind of work, we only advocate here in the, in the State house. So, they are a great organization, and this trip was a gathering of the state municipal leagues.

There are associations like MMA across the country in every state. And this was a chance for us to visit with the colleagues from those other organizations. Most of them offer similar programs to MMA, but believe it or not, ours is one of the larger associations, which is kind of neat. And I think that's mostly due to our insurance products.

We have a lot of staff and, risk management and health trust that some of the smaller associations don't have. So, it is kind of neat to hear what the other organizations offer to their members compared to what we offer to ours.

And it's interesting to hear the issues that they are all talking about as well, which are all similar when you bring up a [00:03:00] topic like, for example, cannabis hospitality lounges. I was talking to someone about those and they were like, oh, that issue's finally got to you. So, it's kind of funny that they, you know, it all hits at different times. 

And, but they're all the same, and everybody's having to deal with the same issues. A lot of the sessions covered a variety of those topics that would help us, um, you know, our MMA staff best meet the needs of our members, which is of course the primary focus of our job.

So, and I did have a few key takeaways that I thought were really interesting that members might be interested in, that really have, are more specific to us as the advocates, but, the session on how we as advocates can use visuals to try and get our point across to legislators because, you know, they're reading pages and pages and pages of testimony from sometimes hundreds of testifiers.

And in order to get to your point across, sometimes something a little different is, um, is a better option. [00:04:00] And this was a trick that came from, the folks in Utah. Someone in their legislature was trying to propose a universal, narrowing of street widths and to illustrate how horrible of an idea that was one of their communications folks did a video of what it would look like to have a firetruck go down a street of a certain width that had cars parked on both sides. Their standard width, here's your firetruck, it moves right through, no problems, doors open, people walking, firetruck going through, and then they were able to simulate it by pretending the road was narrower by moving the cars in and having the firetruck go through again and emphasizing how pretty much horrible an idea… 

Right. 

…that narrow that narrowing of the road was. And so, you know, you can say that in words, but having that picture of the firetruck, barely making it through two parked cars on a much narrower [00:05:00] road, really drove that home and they were able to come to a consensus to narrow roads a tiny bit, but not as much as that legislator had proposed. 

So interesting takeaway for us on how we can, maybe tweak how we do our job when we get to the State House. 

Absolutely. And at first when I, they were talking about visuals, I kind of thought that they meant props and I didn't think that that would be, you know, allowed here in Maine, but it, it also works with maybe creating like a one pager for your legislators, that you can hand out on that third floor as they're walking into session on a, some bills that are, they're really good for, municipalities or really bad for municipalities. It was some great sessions on how to use visual aids and structure your materials in a way that is appealing so people will read it and remember it. 

Right in a, in a clear cut way to show your message as well. And maybe not one pagers just for your legislators, but also one pagers for our members.

Exactly. 

That can, that they can then also [00:06:00] use as talking points for conversations with their, with their local representatives and senators.

So, some good takeaways from that one. 

The second thing that really struck home for me while we were there was how every state, just like Maine is struggling, with the topic of housing and what is perceived to be the best way to get more housing in everybody's communities. And it was, as our local officials here have seen, this continued attempt to erode home rule authority, is not just a Maine problem right now. It's really sort of rearing its ugly head across the nation. 

Yes. 

And, and, local officials and the, the state league staff are struggling with how to explain to legislators that, the municipalities are not the bad guy. You know, we're not a special interest and how we're trying to, to, really secure that community planning aspect, and not prevent [00:07:00] housing, which is what the message has been, about local officials, falsely of course. 

So, right. 

Really in that same vein, they also talked about, at the workshop, rebranding local control instead of saying, you know, 'cause nobody wants to be controlled, so rebranding it to local authority or local decision making, as a more palatable way of saying that you have local control.

Right. Local optionality.

Local optionality.

That was a new word that, who was it? Someone from Georgia. 

I think it was Michigan. 

Michigan. 

Michigan. 

You're right. Michigan. Yeah. 

And, uh, it was, it was just interesting how she, she rebranded that on the fly in the middle of testimony in one of her committees, and all of a sudden then the folks coming up behind her twisted their testimony as well to, to reflect that message, which was, was really powerful. So that was a, that was also a good takeaway. 

Absolutely. Just reassuring to know that we're not alone in [00:08:00] this, in this mess. 

Absolutely. 

And I think, I think the last thing really that I wanted to just share was that, in the introduction to the entire thing after NLC gave their, their, messages of welcome. They, they brought up the executive director from the League of Minnesota Cities and his message was really uplifting and, you know, it was, it was of course the traditional welcome to Minnesota and lots of tidbits and, you know, trivia and those kinds of fun, fun things for a welcome.

But his final message really sort of stuck with me and was that he, he compared his league and of course all of the leagues across the country to a lighthouse and how it's our job as the league staff to stand tall like a lighthouse, and that during rough times, whatever they are, that it's our job to stand up and be that beacon to the boats in the water, who in this case are all of our members.

And so, it really just sort of drove home what our [00:09:00] job is and that even though we're all facing the same kind of hurdles and frustrations, it's, we do this because we love our jobs, but also because we're here just to, to help our members. And, it, it really just sort of drove that home that that's why we do what we do. And, so it was, it was a really great reminder. 

And for the record, Maine has better lighthouses. 

Way better than Minnesota. 

He was trying to claim that they were better, but I don't know.

At, at least he didn't try to claim that Minnesota is also the creator of Whoopie Pies. 

True. True. 

I mean, you know, so, yeah, it was, it was good. I'm glad we went. Had a good time. It was fun to take a little train ride to the Mall of America with you. 

Yes. That was, we saw the Mall of America, the largest mall in America. Had an amusement park in the inside. It was pretty cool. 

It was. It was a lot of fun. 

So yeah, one of the biggest Lego stores I've seen.

That was crazy. 

Yeah. And M&M [00:10:00] stores. Yum. 

Two stories! 

Yes. 

Yeah. That was crazy. So, yeah. 

So, you remember at the beginning of this episode when we said that the next one would feature two special guests. Wow. Drum roll please. Those guests will be Representative Mike Ray of Lincolnville and Representative Liz Caruso of Caratunk, and they will be joining us next week to talk about their first session as legislators.

Both of them have served on our Legislative Policy Committee, and it's gonna be great to hear their insights into how different or similar their experiences have been and how it compares to serving at the local level. We're gonna get their thoughts about what's passed this first session and any insights into the second session, lessons learned along the way, successes, failures, anything that they wanna share with us.

It's bound to be a great discussion. I hope you all tune in for that. 

Yeah, I'm, I'm looking forward to having them, on mic. I think it's gonna be a really great [00:11:00] conversation, about a very crazy, hectic, session. 

Yeah. 

And to get their, to get their take on that. 

So yeah, their perspective will be a great one to, to listen to.

Yeah. Agreed. 

Yeah. Well, there we are then. 

There we are then.

A quick, short and sweet episode for you all. 

Yes. Thank you for listening. 

Yes. And be sure to tune in for our special guests on August 4th. That episode will be dropping. It will be good times. Have a great week, everyone. 

You too. Thanks so much for listening.

Bye. 

Have a great day. 

Bye.