Professor, thanks very much for being here.
You bet. Thank you for having me.
So how increasingly common and widespread is the kind of situation that we saw in Douglas County
with too few people running for local office?
Well, I think what we've seen over the last few years is that there's just been sort of a declining interest in participating in politics more broadly.
But when we start talking about rural areas,
we have a situation where the population is declining in a lot of those areas.
It's getting older and there has been some significant concern from those who are currently in office that once they retire or move on from public service,
that there really isn't going to be the next sort of cohort and individuals to take their place,
that the next generation, the next group doesn't really have an interest in taking on that role.
Why doesn't the next generation want to step up in that way?
Well, I think there are a number of reasons.
And from some of the research that I've produced in the state of Wisconsin,
it's, you know, one in that these goals take up a lot of time.
There's a big time of commitments, particularly in the evenings for evening meetings.
And there really isn't much pay.
Most of these positions that pay as limited or it is entirely voluntary.
And so to take up time and to not be compensated for it, that can be difficult, particularly if you have a family.
And there's also a little concern about just sort of the overall role in the fact that it takes a lot of time.
It can take a lot of effort.
And the only time that it really gets attention is when something goes wrong.
I mean, people are beginning to critique what's happening.
And that can lead to not a lot of incentive for people to want to take on those positions.
Yeah, for sure. So what are the implications for areas where there is a waning interest in helping run the place?
Well, I think, you know, as we've talked about, you know,
all the way back to you, bowling alone and putting on them.
And there is this, this need for social connection for social capital to have people involved to,
you know, feel like they're a part of the community and feel comfortable taking on those leadership roles within that community.
And when that sense of community goes away, particularly in rural areas where there isn't a huge population anyway.
And sort of that sense of community may not be there or may not.
It may have declined over the years.
That makes the situation even more challenging.
I think where you're sort of trying to build up that sense of community and, you know, we are this community,
but if people don't want to be a part of that, that's part.
And meanwhile, many of these communities face rather daunting problems for which they need this kind of leadership.
What are those kinds of particular issues related to rural local government that they're having to deal with?
So in some of the research I've worked on, I was really interested in some of the challenges that rural governments are facing
with the expectation that some of those concerns, some of those challenges may be more urban than these communities are typically used to.
And what I was able to find is that a lot of the challenges that have been plaguing rural local governments for a long time continue to exist.
So limited resources, lack of capacity, challenges with delivering good quality services.
But then there are some more recent challenges like affordable housing.
There was a lot of concern about just good quality affordable housing in their community.
Access to high speed internet substance abuse, those types of issues.
And it is, I think, a challenge for some communities because there isn't necessarily that capacity there to address them or the expertise to address them.
Where for larger communities that have been dealing with some of these problems for some time, that there is infrastructure in place to address it, but that may not be the case in smaller communities.
So what are the ideas about how to address this?
There are a few ways, I think, along is that there was a lot of concern about the resources that the state was providing.
So revenue limitations and just a lack of shared revenue in general.
Now some movement was made in the most recent budget to address that, but it isn't necessarily going to be a silver bullet for all of these communities.
So getting, I think, more state support would help address the one of the biggest concerns.
I think 98% of communities said that they could use more resources.
Not surprising, right?
But at the same time, there may be opportunities to partner with other local governments, counties, counties in Wisconsin typically provide a lot of services anyway.
So that's a possibility.
And if they're available, non-profit organizations in the region to perhaps provide or help provide some services as well.
But again, in rural communities, that may not necessarily be the case.
And other governments may be the best routes in terms of cooperation and collaboration.
So is there movement toward that?
I feel like there is these kinds of cross-governmental partnerships or collaborations.
I think there is this growing recognition that in order to solve a lot of the problems, big societal problems, we have regardless of if you're in an urban area or a rural area that some of that cross sector collaboration is needed that you need to bring in multiple different levels of government.
Non-profit organizations, private businesses to really sort of move ahead with.
Social welfare issues, infrastructure issues.
It is valuable to have those types of programs.
All right. We leave it there. Professor David Helpath. Thanks very much.
Yeah, you bet. Thank you for having me.
Where are you going to present your research? I forgot.
Many apples to a conference. Too bad. It's not like, I don't know, San Juan or something.
It kind of all over. It depends upon the year and this one just happened to me in Minneapolis.
I guess it's a little bit shorter and a little bit cheaper.
True. True enough. All right. Well, thank you so much. Really interesting stuff.
Yeah, you bet. If you need anything else or I can help it anyway, please let me know.
I appreciate it. Okay. Have a good trip.
Thanks.