Greensburg, Kansas: Decision

Making

It's almost impossible to assign credit or blame to any

one person for Greensburg's decision to rebuild the

small Kansas town as a model green community after

a tornado decimated 95 percent of its buildings. Many

folks in Greensburg would assert that whoever made

the decision, made a good one. Other residents make

a different case. It's complicated.

Former mayor Lonnie McCollum expressed interest

in exploring the possibilities of running Greensburg's

municipal buildings on solar and wind power

well before the EF5 tornado hit in May 2004. After

the storm, he saw the tragedy as an opportunity to

reinvent the dying town and put it back on the map.

But McCollum was not the sole decision maker. He

was the leader of a small community facing endless

uncertainties. He wanted to give people a sense of

direction; something to live for. He made a decision

to lead and assert his ideas. Ultimately, the Greensburg

City Council would have to vote on this

matter.

Some questioned whether McCollum had spent

any time coalition building. However, Greensburg

was in crisis after the storm, and the timing wasn't

right for coalition building. McCollum had not

engaged in rational forms of the decision-making

process regarding the benefi ts of turning his town

green. Before the tornado, he may have thoughtfully

weighed the pros and cons, but in the end, this wasn't

a programmed decision. McCollum wasn't operating

from a logical place after the tornado hit. He was

using his intuitionhis gut; he was passionate about

his vision for Greensburg.

While McCollum may not have built a coalition,

he had cultivated a fi erce ally in Steve Hewitt,

Greensburg's city administrator. Hewitt took McCollum's

vision and expanded it. Like McCollum, Hewitt

believed, without a doubt, that Greensburg had an

opportunity, with green as its theme, to become a

thriving town again. The real work was convincing

Greensburg's residents and council members to

implement the proposed plan.

After multiple rounds of community meetings

in which residents engaged in rigorous debate,

Greensburg's City Council voted in favor of rebuilding

the town using green methods and materials. And

when the council members voted on the specifi cs of

implementation, they decided to build all municipal

buildings to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental

Design (LEED) Platinum standard, which

is the highest nationally accepted benchmark for

the design, construction, and operation of highperformance

green buildings.

Greensburg resident Janice Haney didn't think

the community meetings allowed enough space for

true debate. Instead, she was convinced the meetings

were token gestures toward community involvement.

Questions were raised asking if Haney was playing

devil's advocate after the fact or if there was an atmosphere

of conformity cultivated so residents were

afraid to voice their true opinions. Some residents

questioned whether Hewitt and the City Council saw

what they wanted to see and heard what they wanted

to hear. Were some residents infl uenced by their initial

impressions that McCollum made a passionate, solo

decision?

Considering this decision involved an entire town,

residents clearly had very different propensities for

risk. Many people were probably more risk averse

than usual because they had just lost their homes

and businesses. And while there's plenty of rational

information regarding the benefi ts of green building,

the decision still involves a degree of uncertainty and

ambiguity. No one can predict the exact costs of fossil

fuels in the future, nor can they calculate precisely

how much Greensburg will save through its use of

solar and wind power. Whether or not Greensburg

will be able to raise all the funds needed to rebuild

according to LEED-Platinum standards is also

uncertain.

There is no way to convince every Greensburg

resident that going green was a good decision. Perhaps

all Hewitt and the City Council can hope for is

support from a majority of residents. In their minds,

what were the alternatives? The town was dying.

Today, Greensburg is rebuilding thanks to generous

corporate sponsorships and government grants. The

town also stars in a TV show on Planet Green. The TV

show is aptly named "Greensburg."

1. What ideas support the argument that McCollum, Hewitt, and the City Council made good decisions?

2. What insights might come out of analyzing Greensburg's decision-making process after the fact?

3. Were Hewitt and McCollum overconfi dent in offering their solution for the town? Explain.