# Presentation: 303031

## Floodplain ManagementSESSION 24

**Rivers as a Legal Battleground **
**Local Politics **
**Prepared by Elliot Mittler, PhD**

**Notes:**
Title Page for Session 2

## Local Politics

**Objectives:**
- 24.1 Identify the major players in determining water policy.
- 24.2 Explain what characterizes a successful local water policy.
- 24.3 Explain how local governments implement mandates.
- 24.4 Explain how citizen participation affects local programs
- .
- 24.5 Discuss local politics within the context case study 	floodplains

## Characterizing Local Politics

- “All Politics is Local” - Tip O’Neill
- “All politics are based on the indifference of the majority” - “Scotty” Reston
- The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry - Robert Burns

## Forms of Local Municipal Government

- Weak Mayor - Strong Council
- Strong Mayor - Weak Council
- Council - Manager

## City Departments - Regularly Deal with Floodplain Management  

- City Planning
- Public Works
- Parks and Recreation
- Risk Management

## Stakeholders - Floodplain Management

- Federal agencies
- State agencies
- Chambers of Commerce
- Local businesses
- Building contractors
- Real estate agents
- Local environmental groups
- Neighborhood associations
- Land owners
- Informed citizens

## 5th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution 

- No person shall be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation”.

## Taking

- An action by a government depriving a person of private property without the payment of just compensation:
- physically occupying it and preventing others to enter upon it;
- exercising the power of eminent domain; and
- regulating its use to such a degree that it no longer has any economically viable use (a regulatory taking).

## National Floodplain Management Strategic Goals

- Reduce the vulnerability of the nation from the dangers and damages that result from flood, and
- Preserve and enhance the natural resources and functions of floodplains.

## Community Floodplain Management Goals

- Move those currently at risk from the floodplain,
- Avoid new development when risk reduction is not appropriate,
- Strive to eliminate threats to life, property, and the environment, and to the mental health and well being of floodplain occupants,
- Ensure the viability of critical infrastructure and the regional economy,
- Treat the floodplain as part of a physical and biological system that includes the floodplain within the larger context of its watershed,
- Seek to identify and enhance the cultural, historic, and aesthetic values of floodplains,
- Where appropriate, restore and enhance bottomland and related upland habitat and flood storage,
- Acquire environmental interest in these lands from willing sellers, and
- Ensure the consideration of social and environmental factors in all actions relating to the floodplain.

## Benefits of Mandates

- They set community goals that promote healthy floodplains and reduce vulnerability from floods.
- The staffs of the new programs often become champions of future related programs.
- They increase the capacity of communities to deal proactively with floodplain issues.
- Successful programs reinforce principles of appropriate floodplain management.
- They speed up the diffusion of floodplain management programs in the country.

## Policy Adoption Theory -Kingdom 

- Three Pre-existing conditions:
- Problem exists
- Potential solution is politically viable
- Potential solution is worthy of a local government
- Window of Opportunity
- Policy entrepreneur - person who pushes a  program but is willing to negotiate and compromise to achieve success

## Council Actions to Sustain a Local Policy or Program

- Establish commissions and review panels made up of local officials and community members to keep the issues in front of the public,
- Place programs as line items on the annual budget, essentially making them visible and acceptable,
- Introduce long-term elements in the community capital budget or in propositions voted on by the community to establish a long-term commitment,
- Co-locate community departments that need to work together to accomplish policies or program goals and avoid turf wars.

## Discussion 

- Teams to discuss local politics within the context case study floodplains Requirements
- Students should base their discussion on the case studies of Tulsa, Oklahoma and Boise, Idaho.