Kellye Mazzoli (00:31)
Welcome back to Unmuted. Today we're gonna dive into what many of us in local government lovingly call silly season. But what we really mean is election season. It's a time when everything feels maybe just a little bit off. It's out of the norm. Campaigns are really heating up. Community members are getting energized and well, staff are left navigating an environment where the rules tighten. Maybe the work slows a little bit and sometimes things get a little weird.
Charisse Deschenes (00:58)
We're going to talk about what silly season means for staff, how to prepare your teams, how to onboard new councils, and why projects sometimes need to just pause. We'll also unpack the gap between what candidates promise and what staff can realistically deliver. So Kellye, how about we talk a little bit about silly season? When we say silly season, yeah.
Kellye Mazzoli (01:20)
Yeah, like, what do we mean by that?
Charisse Deschenes (01:23)
Exactly. What is it?
When we say silly season, we're talking about the months leading up to and immediately after the elections. It's when the public service work is carried out under a spotlight, right? Everything you can do could be interpreted through a political lens and people have their eyes on you more often in the community. So legally there's that bright line, staff can't use public resources for campaigns.
And that means no staff time, no government emails, no facilities used for partisan events unless they're rented under the same rules as everyone else. And neutrality isn't just a best practice, it's the law.
Kellye Mazzoli (02:04)
That's a good point. It is not just a best practice. Neutrality is the law. So I do want to touch on the silly part. And when that comes in, it's when ordinary work starts feeling a little unusual for staff. Reports get scrutinized a little more, maybe memos are delayed, and staff might find themselves second guessing themselves. Like projects that made sense about a month ago suddenly feel a little more risky.
And I think there's even another wrinkle, which is where candidates will often start making promises about engagement, transparency, or even faster response times. And those all sound really great, and they are great, but sometimes the actual resources needed to deliver are simply maybe not there.
Charisse Deschenes (02:52)
Right, right. so thinking about all of those things that are coming down right at that election season, we really need to focus on preparing staff as leaders.
One thing we need to do, Kellye, is prepare our staff, right? One of the best things that leaders can do is prepare them early. So before Silly Season really starts, we need to make sure everyone knows the rules and staff needs safe channels to ask things like, is this okay? They need the clear examples of what's allowed and what isn't. And because we're, when staff are put on the spot and say a candidate asks for
data or once city space or once something specific, they need to be confident in their response to, you know, when they're talking to the candidate in that moment.
Kellye Mazzoli (03:37)
I agree with you. I also want to add that I think leaders should acknowledge the human side. staff may worry about their jobs, their projects maybe, or even their reputations. So a reminder that their role is steady service to the community can really go a long way and help them ground during this season.
Another part of the preparation is helping staff think about the workload that might follow campaign promises. for example, I mean, if a candidate is pledging, say, 24-hour response to constituent concerns, staff do need to be ready to say, well, here's what that would take. Here are the systems that would need to be in place. Here's the staffing and the budget that is required.
Charisse Deschenes (04:24)
Yeah, yeah, this also this may not be needed, but you know, when there are insignificant changes in the governing body members, then, you know, things might be going status quo. But when you have a larger change and you can foresee that there's going to be quite a turnover in council, it might be wise to use different skills, you know, to like from strategic foresight and scenario planning and maybe reconnect with those
Futurists that you've met along the way in local government like Rebecca Ryan of Next Generation Consulting. She's amazing. And I recently met Haazen Li. He's with the Strategic Government Resources. And I think that some of the techniques and the tools that you can use from those futurists really would help. And as an example, I have a couple of them that I wanted to talk about today and then just leave it to...
Kellye Mazzoli (04:55)
yeah, she's amazing.
Charisse Deschenes (05:15)
listeners to maybe if they're interested in doing something like that, really dive in and look at Rebecca and Howson's processes that might be helpful. for instance, if you were using scenario planning, you would be mapping out several plausible futures of not what will happen, but what could happen. And so you use different tools to assess and use that foresight.
Kellye Mazzoli (05:39)
So how could that,
yeah, how could that work in an election?
Charisse Deschenes (05:45)
so one example is you take a look at it, and there are four different scenarios that I'm thinking when you're talking about that scenario planning. So one is continuity. And you're seeing mostly incumbents. As I mentioned, there's not a lot of change. And so you're looking at what that potential feature might look like, staying stable.
Kellye Mazzoli (06:02)
Mm-hmm.
Charisse Deschenes (06:07)
You have reelected, so there might be some priorities you just need to readdress and move forward on. But then you also have the scenarios when things like may shift. So shift is the second word that I'm going to mention here. And that's when one or two new members may be bringing new energy, some projects may need reshaping, that kind of thing. And then what you're looking at in that particular instance is so
Kellye Mazzoli (06:12)
Yeah, but...
Charisse Deschenes (06:34)
what does this look like in our future? If we can foresee that maybe these are the priorities that I counsel with the new members on it, they might be bringing their specific projects that they're going to want to look at. So how may that fit into your current situation? And then the same thing with like, if you have a complete overhaul, know, majority is turning over, you have new direction for policies and priorities.
you really are looking at, let's see what is complete. Exactly, exactly. being mindful of things can be very similar or we're gonna see a huge change that not only impacts like what you're going to be working on with those council members, but also like the staff and the current projects and what do you slow down? What do you speed up? know, how the pace of things are gonna go.
Kellye Mazzoli (07:04)
A complete, complete overhaul. Mm-hmm, potentially.
Charisse Deschenes (07:27)
So you might have to slow down quite a bit when you have a complete overhaul or even a wild card scenario where you get the surprise issue that comes into play. Maybe a sudden community crisis or you're reshaping your agendas regardless of who wins. These are some definite ways to prepare.
Kellye Mazzoli (07:27)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I really
I like that. So I want to hit on all four of those. So you said the first one was continuity. So this is when you're dealing with your incumbents, a lot of, you know, being reelected. Things are pretty stable. You're not expecting a lot of shifts because it's the same people, the same players. ⁓ But then you have, you know, so that's continuity. Then you have shift, though, which is whenever you're going to have like one or two, you're to have some new energy. You're going to have some new
Charisse Deschenes (07:53)
Yes.
Right. Yes.
Kellye Mazzoli (08:10)
projects maybe or projects need to change just a little bit. And then you go into overhaul, which is like a majority turnover. So that's much bigger sort of upset, I guess in a way for the organization, a little less stability. And then the wild card, which is just like a surprise. Like you just like, I love that. So those are really great, like four different ways to sort of think about possible futures and scenarios that you can run through. Okay. ⁓
Charisse Deschenes (08:14)
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
you
Right. Yeah.
Yeah.
run
through with your council. And then the benefits of all of that is it helps staff maybe not be caught off guard so much. ⁓ They can ask questions like, let's consider scenario C. What projects may need to pause and what staff duties might change or expand? I think that's just one way to look at that.
Kellye Mazzoli (08:45)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah.
And to
facilitate that conversation. It's a great way to facilitate that conversation with staff. That's good. Okay.
Charisse Deschenes (09:00)
Yeah, yeah. Especially if you have
that time to sit down and prep. Because you're putting some projects on hold, so maybe you have a little preparation time in that moment to really be ready for when your council is shifting and changing, and you need to take that pace up a bit whenever things done. Yeah. And then I just want to say one more. There are a number of different tools. again, look at.
Kellye Mazzoli (09:17)
Okay, that's helpful.
Charisse Deschenes (09:25)
look at look this up it's kind of one of those things it's fun to geek out on
Another tool we can look at too is the three horizons framework. And it's a way of looking at the present, which is horizon one. The horizon two is emerging changes and then long-term shifts as horizon three. And what that means as you're looking at current council priorities might fall into that category of horizon one. And then horizon two would be issues candidates are campaigning on that could disrupt the status quo.
Kellye Mazzoli (09:49)
Mm-hmm.
Charisse Deschenes (09:57)
⁓ And then looking at Horizon 3, you're looking at long-term transformations or so things like climate change or housing or those just really long, you know, things that you're working on or different projects that you're working on in the community that might outlast an election cycle. So taking a look at those individual things, staff can separate out what they must be delivering now and what's bubbling up and what's inevitable over the long-term and kind of
you know, just put that in their priority, not priority, but list, but just another way of looking at what you have on your plate as a staff. Potentially. Yeah, exactly.
Kellye Mazzoli (10:33)
Potentially, yeah, potentially, right? Yeah, sort of plugging in, like,
so you're really looking at your current council priorities, so you don't forget the present, you don't forget where you're at, but then you also go, okay, so what are these short-term horizon two, sort of the issues that are cropping up in the campaign trail that could be disruptive, and sort of playing those out a little bit closer to the present moment. And then horizon three, though, are like really long-term impact, going, these are things that could expand well beyond the election cycle.
Charisse Deschenes (10:42)
Right.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. So those are just a couple of tools. if people want to jump in and look at other tools that I was researching, cone of plausibility is one of them. they take a wide cone of possible futures and they expand them out from today to kind of see where you might be going. Another one is called the implications wheel.
Kellye Mazzoli (11:04)
Love it. Yeah.
Charisse Deschenes (11:28)
where you put one change in the center and map out first, second, and third order effects of that particular change. So they're really diving deep in that. Another is called wind tunneling, and it's when you test current strategies against different futures. And another one I saw was signals and drivers scanning, where you track weak signals or emerging ideas.
or demands and drivers, which are the forces shaping the future. So those are a few different ones that I was researching that I think, you know, give it a go, ⁓ but take a look at how you might be able to, you know, look at that strategy and really prepare for the future and prepare your staff so that you have a plan forward when you're in that moment. And again, these are probably not as important.
Kellye Mazzoli (12:04)
Yeah.
Charisse Deschenes (12:19)
for those times when you don't see a lot of shift or change but when you do see big shifts and changes it might be a way that you can strategize and put yourself in a place where you're ahead of the game when you move forward with that new council.
Kellye Mazzoli (12:32)
so there's no shortage of tools out there that we can use is what I gathered from this. And the point, I think, though, of any of these tools is to help you facilitate a conversation with your staff in order to better prepare them for the potential changes that might be coming up. So it's it's picking one and sort of just using it in order to have that conversation. And I think that's that's sort of the benefit versus like not having the conversation.
Charisse Deschenes (12:36)
No!
Yes.
Kellye Mazzoli (13:02)
So now I want to shift from preparing our staff to onboarding a new council. And I'm going to say, I don't think preparing a new council begins the night of the election. I think it really starts the months before when we're going through election season and that if you have a proactive but equal approach to sharing information with all the potential candidates, you're really starting out ahead.
And I want to be clear that I don't think this sharing of information with all potential candidates is to give any particular person a leg up. In fact, it's kind of the opposite, right? So you're you may have incumbents who have a lot of information about the organization and the priorities and the things that are going on and how the organization works. And then you'll have your new candidates that come in. I think it's really important to make sure that whenever you are dealing with an incumbent, that you are sharing information with them. But
but also with all potential candidates so that they're coming in on as equal footing as possible. I think candidates are out there sort of making promises, but they don't fully understand yet necessarily how local government functions or how your local government functions. So by sharing neutral information with everyone, I think that staff helps the candidates campaign with realistic expectations, if that's kind of possible.
Charisse Deschenes (14:25)
Yeah, yeah. Kellye, when I was in city management, I spent so many hours, and I know you probably did, to sending out the same packets of information to all those potential council members. I, you know, they were very similar, I'm sure, but you know, one of them is when I was working in a council manager form of government, so putting out information about how council manager form of governments work.
Kellye Mazzoli (14:37)
Yeah. Yeah, what did you put in your packets? I bet I bet they were the same.
Yes.
Charisse Deschenes (14:53)
⁓
You know, preparing what the current budget and staffing levels look like, just giving him a foresight into, or just some insight into what the organization looks like. Major projects that we were working on in those timelines, we'd share that information. You know, the rules that governing, govern the public meetings, public records, ethics, and even the basic structure of how information flows between council and staff.
just to prep them for what type of way we would be communicating or that they would communicate with us, just giving them some information upfront.
Kellye Mazzoli (15:29)
Mm Yeah, I think that's exactly what we had in ours. I don't really have anything to add to that list. Except for, maybe if it's not a council manager form of government, you're you're educating on the organizational structure of your particular form of government. So, you know, whenever we talk about this proactive approach, I just think that proactive really is more about.
Charisse Deschenes (15:41)
Yeah.
Kellye Mazzoli (15:51)
protecting sort of the stability of the organization. So if candidates can understand some of the mechanics before they are elected, I think what I have seen is that when we take that time to nurture all the candidates with this sort of information, it reduces the shock once they're sworn in. And I've also seen what happens when you don't. And there is more shock.
As you're sharing this information, what you might find is that it could keep campaign promises a little closer to what is actually deliverable, which is a nice side benefit. don't think that's your main or primary focus, but I do think that is a nice to have if it can happen. And then also once the election is over, you can shift from the pre-election outreach into a formal onboarding process.
a lot easier to do whenever you've already started sharing that information. that's where the city manager, you've got the city clerk or city secretary, the city attorney and the department heads, they all want to walk through what new council members, what their roles are, what their responsibilities are, what the ongoing priorities are in sort of the how to of governance. And I've been on
both sides of having a very developed onboarding process for new council members. And that has taken a day where we sit down with every single department. They get like a really good, you know, it's a pretty long process for a whole day, but they get to meet all the players. And then I've also had some that are a little less formalized and are really more focused on just sitting down with the city manager and the assistant city manager and just chatting through things and then pulling in directors where needed.
in certain areas that are priorities for that particularly newly elected council member.
Charisse Deschenes (17:38)
Yeah, and I would just say how important it is to prepare in advance those agendas, those playbooks, have your onboarding packets really ready before those counselors walk in the door. And I think everybody does that for the most part.
And as good measure, I would say that you take that time to evaluate the packets that you put together after you've gone through that process with those new counselors, because it's fresh in your head at that point. So you can evaluate, did that go well? Should we have added more of this? You know, I've been in that moment too, and I really find that refreshing and helpful to do it right after you've gone through the process instead of waiting again to election season and then.
Kellye Mazzoli (18:06)
hehe
Yeah.
Charisse Deschenes (18:17)
where's that packet? Did we add this? What's important to put it? You know, there are those moments where, maybe you're just rushing, but you don't get to do that. But if you have the time, it's nice to have. It's nice to have. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. So just thinking about maybe reflecting on that, what are some questions you might ask yourself when you're preparing these documents? Maybe what information do you wish every candidate had before they campaigned?
Kellye Mazzoli (18:28)
Absolutely.
Charisse Deschenes (18:44)
so that they have a clearer picture of what staff can actually can provide and what they cannot deliver once they're elected. I wouldn't that be great, right?
playbook,
whatever you want to call it. It's a nice thing to have in advance before you get there.
Kellye Mazzoli (18:58)
to tackle something now that I think is really important during this election season, which is talking about projects that we should slow or maybe put on hold. Because I hold the opinion that it is not wise to push forward every project during election season. There are some that are just maybe too big or too visible.
and have the potential to become very politically charged. And if it doesn't serve the community for it to become politically charged, then maybe that's not a project to throw out there during this particular season. And remembering that the season is limited to a couple, a couple months prior to election and maybe just following the election. So, you know, when I'm thinking of an example,
for our project, we had this idea to do a big public survey, but we actually delayed it just a little bit in order to get outside of the election season so that the results wouldn't become a campaign talking point. We wanted the results to be used in prioritizing and strategizing the work, but not necessarily to be part of the campaigning process.
Charisse Deschenes (19:51)
Mm-hmm.
Kellye Mazzoli (20:13)
And so there was a deliberate decision made to not push that forward. And it's not that the work wasn't important. It was very important work and we did use it and we did do it very soon after. We didn't push it too far out. But I just want to point out that I think that the timing really mattered and that timing should always be a consideration. There are good times to put things out there and there are maybe less good times to put things out there.
And you have to assess that. I think that comes with experience. So leaders, I guess what I'm saying is to assess, think about what is really essential and must continue right now. What's vulnerable and could wait? And then what risks? More harm if it moves forward now. Are you actually going to be getting the result that you're looking for, just like with that public survey?
having it be part of the campaign process was not going to be as beneficial as using it as something that could inform our future strategy and priorities, if that makes sense.
Charisse Deschenes (21:14)
Yeah.
that makes so much sense. I think that just reflecting on some of that time where you have the opportunity to meet up with your senior leadership team and maybe discuss some of those projects and go through them together and really go deep into maybe this one pulls off and here's why. Thinking that through together is so helpful if you have that opportunity, which I've been a part of that in the past, is quite helpful. And then it gives you more.
know, optics to a situation, especially if it's very political in your community. ⁓ Yeah, yeah. So, and don't forget, you know, some of those promises that are made on the campaign trail from, you know, the candidates. They may pledge something like real-time online updates for all permits. Now, that's certainly a great idea, but do you have the resources and your staff and staff training or even the data systems or
Kellye Mazzoli (21:45)
Mm-hmm.
You
Charisse Deschenes (22:08)
any of the software to do something like that. So just being mindful of that. And sometimes the best move is really to wait until after the election to set realistic timelines. So when you have that moment to sit down with the council members one-on-one or when you're meeting as a team and really reflecting together on here's what we can provide and here's why we can't do this, but we can do this, working together to help.
Kellye Mazzoli (22:10)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Charisse Deschenes (22:35)
them understand and set those expectations early. so important.
I'm going to give you one question to think about is if a new council came in tomorrow, of your projects would be most at risk of being paused for review right now when you're starting that movement into the election season?
another thing, Kellye, we've been thinking about and that does come up some is this use of public facilities and public resources during the election season. So one of the most common gray areas is that facility use. think people see they want to hold a campaign event in a government building. And on paper, it may sound simple, but it's public space.
Kellye Mazzoli (23:03)
Mmm.
hehe
Charisse Deschenes (23:20)
Right?
Kellye Mazzoli (23:21)
But the rules are strict. So I'd say
even if the facility is rentable, campaigns have to pay the same fees. They have to follow the same rules and they really cannot get any special treatment. And as you mentioned earlier, is that staff can't be using work time to support partisan efforts. So it's sort of that tricky moment when
elected officials maybe who are also candidates, right? Ones who are running for reelection, like start kind of blurring those lines. And anyway, I've heard it called a listening session, but really it's a speech, it's political speech. And that's when staff really need to have clear policy and they need to have leadership who's backing them up on this so that they know exactly what to do and what to say.
And I have definitely seen staff who have had to say, this isn't a city event, this is a private rental. And for them, when they know and have clear policy on this, they're able to say the uncomfortable thing, but it is very necessary to preserve credibility. I think it is a gray area for sure, it can get a little tricky and I think you have to address each one, but have a clear policy in place well before.
election season comes up and I think that it will help you and it will help empower your staff so that you can be as fair as possible and keep that credibility and trust, transparency with the community.
Charisse Deschenes (24:50)
Yeah, so you're really saying be prepared up front, get that policy in place that will really help you in the future when you're in that moment of, heated political potential battles in your community or whatever when they're coming at you. So I love that.
So Kellye, at the heart of election season, the question is, do you serve? And I think ICMA is really clear on this. We serve the whole community, not one campaign, not one group, not even just the current majority on council. Our professional responsibility is to serve the best interests of all people with.
equity, transparency, and integrity.
Kellye Mazzoli (25:28)
I could not agree more that framing is very, very powerful because I think it gives staff a compass. Like I was saying earlier, it's, you can have sort of a chaos during election season. And so when the noise gets really loud, your job always comes back to being about fairness. comes back to stewardship. comes back to service. And that is the heart of it. That is honestly the heart of it. We serve the whole community and I cannot say
loud enough that it's important to understand that a current majority on the council may not always be a majority. And I've seen it over the course of my career where that majority has become the minority and the minority becomes the majority. So it's very important that we treat everybody very neutral. And sometimes, guess, especially in the louder elections that we're having these days, it seems like.
Charisse Deschenes (26:23)
Mm-hmm,
Kellye Mazzoli (26:23)
And when we're talking
Charisse Deschenes (26:23)
yeah.
Kellye Mazzoli (26:24)
about building public trust, neutrality starts to sort of feel a little bit like invisibility. But in this context, as public servants, as staff, I think it's really more about credibility. So by staying above the political fray, staff are more safeguarded and the institution is more stable for the long haul.
Of course, when promises sort of outpace resources, staff can maintain trust by being really transparent about what's possible now and what may require more investment and what simply takes more time. And it's sort of packaging all of these things together in order to maintain that public trust and make sure that everybody knows who it is that you serve.
Charisse Deschenes (27:09)
And to wrap up our episode today, you know, we really wanted to do this episode to support you out there as you go through the political season. both Kellye and I have been through these moments and I know many of you have too, but hopefully this is a great refresher. And we have three takeaways for you today. So the first one is know the rules. Public resources cannot be used for politics. That separation is legal and ethical.
Kellye Mazzoli (27:37)
Yeah. Second, I would say expect those great areas. Like expect the unexpected is a good phrase. There's going to be facility requests. There's going to be public information requests. There's going to be public facing projects that are that all could become quite politicized. Expect it. Expect that. And just lean into consistency and documentation, because I think those really are your best tools whenever we're dealing with these great areas.
Charisse Deschenes (27:44)
Yeah, that's a good one.
Yeah. And third, know, protect your people. You're going through a lot. This is election season. It's really stressful for everyone. And having that clarity and steadiness gives staff that confidence to serve well.
Kellye Mazzoli (28:18)
elections will come and go, right? Councils will change, but at the heart of it all, the work of public service and the trust behind it really depends on staff staying really steady, neutral, and professional.
Charisse Deschenes (28:29)
Thanks for joining us for this episode of Unmuted. If you're in silly season today, which you probably are, remember you're not alone. The signs will come down, the dust will settle, and your work will still matter.
Kellye Mazzoli (28:42)
Yeah, no matter the season, no matter the challenge, remember, your voice matters. And even when you have to stay neutral, you can still stay unmuted.
