AAC
FEATURE
In 2017, President Donald Trump signed the Waters of the United States executive order. He was flanked at left by Bryan Desloge, then NACo’s president, and other county leaders.
— Photo by Associated Press
Trump’s counties The administration is focusing on a level
of government that past presidents have often neglected.
Story by Alan greenblatt Governing magazine
ing to show support for the president and present him with a hat. Tey didn’t make it past the gate, but President Trump got wind of the event — they were featured on Fox & Friends — and called up Griffin, who was already at the airport on his way home to New Mexico, to thank him. Griffin, who serves on the Otero County, New Mexico, com- mission, had the presence of mind not just to flatter Trump, but to bring up policy concerns. Griffin told the president that his county is home to Lincoln National Forest, which he said was mismanaged and presented a severe fire hazard that one day could wipe out the entire neighboring village of Cloud- croft. Trump promised to look into the matter. It wasn’t lip service. Griffin soon found himself on a conference call with USDA and Forest Service officials. “Commissioner Griffin, I want to start out by saying you definitely have the ear of the president of the United States on this,” said Jim Hubbard, the agriculture undersecretary who oversees the Forest Service. Not many county officials can bank on being able to draw the president’s attention to a parochial matter, but counties in gen-
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ouy Griffin came riding into town on a horse. Back in February, Griffin led a dozen “Cowboys for Trump” on a 170-mile ride from a farm in Cumberland, Md., to the White House, intend-
eral are finding greater success communicating their concerns to the White House than they have had for a long time, if ever. Top administration officials have consulted with counties about opioids and opportunity zones, disaster response and environ- mental management. “Tey’re not just talking to us — we’ve seen real action on things we’ve been pushing for for years,” says Christian Leinbach, who chairs the county commission in Berks County, Pennsylvnia. “We couldn’t even get our concerns heard through channels in the Obama administration.” Te White House has invited every county commissioner in the country to attend a series of 35 summits held at the Old Executive Office Building. All told, more than 2,000 have come. Each of the summits featured at least one cabinet secre- tary; half included Vice President Mike Pence. Trump himself spoke at the last one. Tese weren’t grip-and-grin occasions where county com- missioners took selfies or grabbed napkins embossed with the White House seal. At each event, the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs promised to guide them through the federal government as a whole, handing out names and contact information of individual officials who could help them out with problems or concerns, whether at EPA, HUD, the Army Corps of Engineers, or elsewhere. To many of these visiting politicians, it felt like concierge service. Handing out business cards may be no big deal, but county officials around the country say they consistently get quick responses — and
COUNTY LINES, SUMMER 2019
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