Reel talk
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Before the water crisis was when focus on infrastructure could have occurred. Someone who can get contracts in the future from Debra is not a good validator.
The buck has to stop somewhere but there is nowhere in Asheville. No accountability at all.
The artist/author of this cartoon is a very insightful citizen.
The Independent Review Team that the city “leaders” put together to assuage the public over the water outage disaster last Christmas 2022 did in fact, let City Manager Campbell off the hook for her “in the shadows role” during the event. Per the emergency plan protocol, an independent emergency response leader should have been in charge but was nowhere to be found. Instead, Manheimer took charge which was even more out of line.
It is going to be shown soon that the Independent Review Team was anything BUT independent. Like city “leaders”, they covered up critical aspects/facts on the water outage. This is the portion of the IRT that dealt with the actual event. That part was authored by the head of the McGill Associates of Asheville office; an oufit that does mllions of dollars of work for the water department.
Mike McGill who is picteured in the cartoon, is an independent consultant dealing with, of all things, how water departments/utilities and cities can best deal with crises and events that effect the public and from a communications/PR standpoint. He is not associated with McGill Associates though they share the same name.
Mr. Rains,
I used to have some measure of sympathy for you. After all, you clearly wanted to be a part of the Independent Review Committee and were rejected. That had to have chafed.
We were independent in every sense of the word. There has been no “cover up.” You have lost sight of the fact that a large number of us serving on the Committee live here and are residential users of Asheville’s water. We literally had NO reason to cover anything up and every incentive to prevent this from occurring again.
You have made a lot of allegations with no basis in fact. You have never had the access we had to people, documents, facilities, and raw data. You were not privy to the committee’s hours of internal questions and debates. You were not present for Hazen’s hydraulic modeling runs.
It was an honor to serve our community on the Independent Review Committee. I’m amazed by the dedication everyone brought to this important research. We were all volunteers who gave freely of our time and expertise. We stand behind every sentence of our report, and we support every member of our group.
For anyone who would like to see the fruits of our labors, here is the link to our final report. I encourage people to read it. Our work speaks for itself. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hocA1cmhxG2pTwEHTDLWO-4JXbmeM2Yb/view
Mr. Rains,
I understand you tried to be put on the committee and were denied that opportunity, so I understand where some of your frustration might be coming from. I’m NIMS/ICS trained and led the COMMS during dozens of water-related crises during my 16 years in public water. I’m curious about your level of training because your comment shows a basic lack of knowledge of the City (or County) Manager’s role in a crisis response. The CM does not serve as an Incident Commander nor does he/she serve in a public information role. It is the CM’s job to serve as a facilitator for everyone leading the overall response. Their main role is to make sure those leading the operational response have everything they need to carry out their work.
My subcommittee and I conducted more than 50 hours of interviews with John Boyle and members of the press, elected officials, community leaders, business leaders, staff, and customers. Those who had knowledge of Ms. Campbell’s work during the response relayed to myself and others on my subcommittee what she did, and we found it to be EXACTLY what she should’ve been doing from the earliest moments of the crisis through to the end.
The City’s outdated plan actually states the Mayor can serve in a leadership role. I can’t see how you missed it but we state on several occasions – and in our recommendations – that such an opportunity for the Mayor to serve in an Incident Command role should not occur. It’s one of many other changes we suggested be made to the City’s emergency response and emergency COMMS plans.
I can understand why your assessment is misinformed; you didn’t have access to any of our 50 hours of interviews, the $80k+ of computer modeling we ordered, or the results of the more than 90 requests for information we submitted to staff, not to mention the hours of debates we had over how to maximize the impact of our recommendations.
We stand by every word of our report.
As for our not being independent, your saying that we weren’t independent doesn’t make it true. The committee itself took great pains to come to an internal consensus before anyone saw a word of our report. We were asked to provide briefings to Council before the final presentation was made and we refused. We felt they should see our report when everyone else did, and that is what happened.
I’ve lead or participated in several after-action reviews of this scale, including one for Austin (TX) Water after the Texas Freeze of 2021. This committee looked at everything with open minds. We allowed the facts to lead us to our conclusions, and we didn’t seek to unfairly scapegoat people just because that’s what was reported before our work started.
If you’re upset about our taking such a thoughtful approach, there’s nothing I can – or want to – do about that.
Mike McGill
Mr. Rains,
Mike McGill here. I’ve been informed you asked to be put on the committee and were denied that opportunity, so I understand where some of your frustration might be coming from.
However, I’m NIMS/ICS trained and have led crisis COMMS during dozens of water-related emergencies during my 16 years in public water. I’m curious about your level of training because your comment about the City Manager (as well as the cartoon) shows a basic lack of knowledge of the City (or County) Manager’s role during a crisis response.
The CM does not serve as an Incident Commander, nor does he/she serve in a public information role. It is the CM’s job to serve as a facilitator for everyone leading the overall response. Their main role is to make sure those leading the operational response have everything they need to carry out their work.
My subcommittee and I conducted more than 50 hours of interviews with John Boyle and members of the press, elected officials, community leaders, business leaders, staff, and customers. Those who had knowledge of Ms. Campbell’s work during the response relayed to me and others on my subcommittee what she did, and we found it to be EXACTLY what she should’ve been doing from the earliest moments of the crisis through to the end.
The City’s outdated emergency response plan actually states the Mayor can serve in a leadership role, even though – as John Boyle pointed out to me – the City’s Charter doesn’t allow her to order staff around. I can’t see how you missed it, but we state on several occasions – and in our recommendations – that the Mayor should not serve in an Incident Command role. It’s one of many changes we suggested be made to the City’s emergency response and emergency COMMS plans.
I can understand why your assessment is misinformed; you didn’t have access to any of our interviews, the briefings we received about the computer modeling we ordered, or the results of the more than 90 requests for information we submitted to staff. You also weren’t part of the hours of internal debates the committee had over our recommendations.
I know I can speak for everyone on the committee when I say we stand behind every word of our report.
As for our not being independent, your saying that we weren’t independent doesn’t make it true.
The committee itself took great pains to come to an internal consensus before anyone saw a word of our report. We were asked to provide briefings to Council before the final presentation was made and we refused. We felt they should see our report when everyone else did, and that is what happened.
I’ve led or participated in several after-action reviews of this scale, including one for Austin (TX) Water after the Texas Freeze of 2021. This committee came to the table with our individual expertise and initial opinions, then reviewed the information we gathered with open minds. We allowed the facts to lead us to our conclusions, and we didn’t seek to unfairly scapegoat people just because that’s what was reported in the press before our work started.
I was asked several times if we would call for people’s heads. I told everyone who asked me that question that it simply wasn’t our job to do so. And it wasn’t.
If you’re upset about our taking a thoughtful approach rooted in facts that focused on solutions, there’s nothing I can do – or want to do – about that.
As for the cartoon, the person who drew it is also uninformed about the role of the City Manager during a crisis response. I’m guessing this person isn’t NIMS/ICS trained either.
I do thank the cartoonist for reminding me that I need to eat a few more salads.
Mike McGill
Mike McGill here. I’m NIMS/ICS trained and have led crisis COMMS during dozens of water-related emergencies during my 16 years in public water. I’m curious about the level of training of the cartoonist since his drawing shows a basic lack of knowledge of the City (or County) Manager’s role during a crisis response.
The CM does not serve as an Incident Commander, nor does he/she serve in a public information role. It is the CM’s job to serve as a facilitator for everyone leading the overall response. Their main role is to make sure those leading the operational response have everything they need to carry out their work.
My subcommittee and I conducted more than 50 hours of interviews with members of the press, elected officials, community leaders, business leaders, staff, and customers. Those who had knowledge of Ms. Campbell’s work during the response relayed to me and others on my subcommittee what she did, and we found it to be EXACTLY what she should’ve been doing from the earliest moments of the crisis through to the end.
The City’s outdated emergency response plan actually states the Mayor can serve in a leadership role, even though – as John Boyle pointed out to me when I spoke with him – the City’s Charter doesn’t allow her to order staff around. I can’t see how you missed it, but we state on several occasions – and in our recommendations – that the Mayor should not serve in an Incident Command role. It’s one of many changes we suggested be made to the City’s emergency response and emergency COMMS plans.
I can understand why this assessment is misinformed; the cartoonist didn’t have access to any of our interviews, the briefings we received about the computer modeling we ordered, or the results of the more than 90 requests for information we submitted to staff. The artist also wasn’t part of the hours of internal debates the committee had over our recommendations.
I know I can speak for everyone on the committee when I say we stand behind every word of our report.
As for claims that we were not independent, simply saying that we weren’t independent doesn’t make it true.
The committee itself took great pains to come to an internal consensus before anyone saw a word of our report. We were asked to provide briefings to Council before the final presentation was made and we refused. We felt they should see our report when everyone else did, and that is what happened.
I’ve led or participated in several after-action reviews of this scale, including one for Austin (TX) Water after the Texas Freeze of 2021. This committee came to the table with our individual expertise and initial opinions, then reviewed the information we gathered with open minds. We allowed the facts to lead us to our conclusions, and we didn’t seek to unfairly scapegoat people just because that’s what was reported in the press before our work started.
I was asked several times if we would call for people’s heads. I told everyone who asked me that question that it simply wasn’t our job to do so. And it wasn’t.
If people commenting here are upset about our taking a thoughtful approach rooted in facts that focused on solutions, there’s nothing I can do – or want to do – about that.
I do thank the cartoonist for reminding me that I need to eat a few more salads.
Sorry, everyone, for the multiple entries. This site is a bit clunky and my posts didn’t appear days after they were submitted, so I submitted them again.
Since there are so many conflicting reports and theories, I suppose we citizens will just have to see what happens the next time it gets really cold here. My prediction is that that will happen sometime between December and February. So, to all you water folks and so-called ‘leaders’ and Debra: please stop wasting time and get our Infrastructure in order. We the people be watching!