July 29-30, 2020

Due to COVID-19, Michigan Municipal Executives held its first-ever virtual Summer Workshop. If you weren’t able to attend, or would like to review the sessions, check out the presentations below.

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July 29

Vision 2020: MME Strategic Plan Working Session
Speakers:
Heather Carmona, The Nonprofit Spot
Alan Levy, The Nonprofit Spot

Moderator: Ben Swayze, Cascade Township Manager

 

What is the future of EMS?
Speakers:
Matt Zavadsky, President, National EMT Association
Thomas Wieczorek, Director, Center for Public Safety Management LLC

Moderator: Vester Davis, Stanton City Manager

 

Work Situations – Laws Enforced by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Speaker: Alexa Moore, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Investigator, Detroit Field Office

Moderator: Aaron Desentz, Eaton Rapids City Manager

 

Dealing with Systematic Racism Both Within a Department as well as into the Community
Speakers:
Kevin E. Johnson, Jr., Executive Office of the Chief of Police, Metropolitan Police Department (D.C.)
Brett A. Parson, Retired Lieutenant, Metropolitan Police Department (D.C.)

Moderator: Mike Burns, Lowell City Manager

 

 

July 30

Retiree Health Insurance after Kenzdziewski: It’s All or Nothing
Speakers:
Steven H. Schwartz, Labor Attorney
Patrick Sullivan, Northville City Manager

Moderator: Mark Wollenweber, Retired Municipal Manager

 

The Role of a DDA During the COVID-19 Outbreak
Speakers:
Dana Walker, Director, Michigan Downtown Association
Mark Miller, Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.

Moderator: Jonathan Seyferth, Coopersville City Manager

 

Mental Health and Suicide Prevention: Coming out of the Darkness
Speakers:
Helaine Zack, MME Manager in Transition Counselor
Thomas Wieczorek, Director, Center for Public Safety Management LLC

Moderator: Melissa Marsh, Madison Heights City Manager

 

Shifting the Value of Elections as an Essential Public Service
Speakers:
Jonathan Brater, Director, Michigan Bureau of Elections
Kristi Dougan, Senior Election Specialist, Michigan Bureau of Elections

Moderator: Julius Suchy, Sparta Village Manager

Speakers

Kevin E. Johnson, Jr.

Officer Kevin E. Johnson Jr. was born and raised in Washington, D.C. where he was primarily raised in the Petworth area.  Most of the residents of this area were of African or Caribbean descent.  Officer Johnson developed a great a sense of culture, music and history from this diverse community.

At the age of fifteen, Officer Johnson was enrolled in the Public Safety Program at McKinley Technology High School.  This program recruited students and developed their skills for entry into the Cadet Program of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia.  In 1990, his senior year of high school, Officer Johnson became a Police Cadet for the Metropolitan Police Department.  He graduated in 1991 from McKinley Technology High School.  In the same year, at the age nineteen, Officer Johnson entered the Metropolitan Police Department Academy as a Police Recruit. He graduated the from the Metropolitan Police Department Academy at the age twenty and was assigned to the Seventh District in 1992.  While at the Seventh District he worked various positions, such as a Patrol Officer, Undercover Operations, and Community Resource Officer and was also a School Resource Officer.

In 2003, he was granted a position in the Special Liaison Branch. During his time with this branch, Officer Johnson continues to work in the community in which he was raised while focusing on LGBT, Interfaith and African Liaisons.

 

Mark Miller

Mark Miller, AIA AICP is a is Managing Director of Planning and Design for Downtown Grand Rapids Inc (DGRI). As a licensed architect and a certified planner, Mr. Miller worked as a private-sector urban design consultant for over 20 years before joining DGRI in 2018. At DGRI Mark has worked on the redesign of Calder Plaza and the Van Andel Arena Plaza as well as co-authoring the Downtown Streetspace Guidelines which seek to rebalance the downtown streets and sidewalks into more people-scaled places.  Mark’s current work has been focused on post-Covid19 recovery efforts in Downtown Grand Rapids, including the expansion of restaurant seating into the city’s streets.

 

Brett Parson

With more than 25 years’ experience in local, state, and federal law enforcement, Brett Parson is an internationally recognized leader who has championed award-winning innovations in multiple areas, from programs to improve police service to underserved communities and protect victims of domestic violence, to ensuring essential services to the families of officers injured and killed in the line of duty.

During his time with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), in Washington DC, Brett helped create ground breaking programs that are recognized as models for other departments across the country and around the world.  Most notably, Brett led the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit (GLLU), which received the Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government Innovations in Government Award, along with a $100,000.00 grant to help replicate the program.   He then worked with department leadership to expand that approach to form the Special Liaison Branch (SLB), whose mission is to improve police service to a wide range of underserved communities:  African, Asian, deaf and hard of hearing, faith-based, Latino, and LGBTQ+.

Brett also helped develop and supervised a model program for helping the survivors of officers injured or killed in the line of duty that goes above and beyond prior such efforts.  MPD’s Family Support Team (FST) responds any time an active-duty or retired sworn or civilian member of the department becomes critically injured or ill, or dies (both line-of-duty and non-duty related).  After making a professional, respectful, and compassionate notification to the next-of-kin and other survivors (including co-workers), the FST is responsible for caring for the needs of the surviving family members for the rest of their lives.  It is MPD’s way of fulfilling the promise, “We will never forget.”

Parson’s leadership roles have taken him across almost all aspects of MPD, working in vice, narcotics, gun recovery, alcohol-related crimes, bias-related (hate) crimes, domestic violence, violent crimes (sexual abuse and homicides), and supervising the city’s elite Narcotics Strike Force.   Battling domestic/intimate partner violence, however, has become a specialty.  Brett has responded to and investigated all types of domestic violence, serving as an instructor for officers, investigators, and supervisors, as well as other criminal justice professionals.  More specifically, Brett developed protocols and curricula to teach law enforcement how to better respond to same-gender intimate partner violence, which is often mishandled.  He also specializes in determining “primary aggressor” and “instigator” roles during intimate-partner violence investigations, avoiding unnecessary and harmful arrests of victims and survivors.

Brett received his B.A. in Criminal Justice and Spanish from the University of Maryland at College Park, where he also pursued his M.A. in Criminal Justice and Counseling.

 

Steve Schwartz

Steve Schwartz, who is the principal attorney at Steven H. Schwartz and Associates, P.L.C.  His practice centers around representation of municipal and private sector clients in collective bargaining, employment litigation and avoidance of litigation.  He is also an arbitrator, serving on both the Labor and Employment panels of the American Arbitration Association.  Steve started his career as Assistant City Manager for the City of Birmingham and then served as Executive Director of the Intergovernmental Cable Communications Authority.  Steve graduated magna cum laude from Wayne State University Law School.  He has a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor’s degree in Government from Clark University.  He also served as an Oakland County Commissioner.

 

Pat Sullivan

Pat Sullivan has been a municipal manager in southeast Michigan since 1990 , including the last 14 years in the City of Northville.  Pat has served as a board member and past president of MME and is currently on the Board of Directors of the MML.  Pat has dealt directly with labor negotiations and H.R. issues throughout his 30 year career.

 

Dana Walker

Dana is the director of the Michigan Downtown Association, a position she has held since March 2019.  She became involved in the MDA while she was director of the Imlay City Downtown Development Authority, volunteering as a MDA Board member and chair of the Conference Committee.  Dana’s love for downtowns grew during her 8-year tenure in Imlay City as the director of the DDA and executive director of the Imlay City Area Chamber of Commerce. Prior to her time in Imlay City, Dana worked for the Farmington Downtown Development Authority assisting in promotions and sponsorship drives. Before working for municipalities, Dana owned her own gift shop in downtown Farmington and feels the experience was priceless as she can now easily relate to the needs of small business owners and downtown managers. Currently, she is Chair of the Imlay City Rotary Club and a Board of Director for the Lapeer County Community Foundation.

 

Thomas Wieczorek

Thomas Wieczorek is an expert in fire and emergency medical services operations. He has served as a police officer, fire chief, director of public safety and city manager (Ionia) and is former Executive Director of the Center for Public Safety Excellence (formerly the Commission on Fire Accreditation International, Inc.).

During his career, he taught several programs at Grand Valley State University, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), for the Department of Homeland Security, and Grand Rapids Community College.

He testified frequently for the Michigan Municipal League before the legislature and has been qualified by several courts as an expert in police and fire department management. He is the past-president of the Michigan Local Government Manager’s Association; served as the vice-chairperson of the Commission on Fire Officer Designation; and served as vice chairperson of the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. He was a former board member on the International Accreditation Service (IAS) Board of Directors, a wholly owned subsidy of the International Code Council.

He represents ICMA on the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) Board of Directors and worked with ICMA and the National League of Cities through the Department of Homeland Security to create and deliver a program on emergency management for local officials titled, “Crisis Leadership for Local Government Officials.” It was presented in 43 states and assigned a course number by the DHS.

He represents ICMA on the NFPA 1710 and 1730 Standards Committees and is a board member on the “Big 7” Governmental Policy Board, representing ICMA. He continues to serve on several teams within ICMA dealing with law enforcement, COVID-19 response, and dealing with systematic racism.

He received the Mark E. Keane “Award for Excellence” in 2000 from the ICMA, the Association’s highest award and was honored as City Manager of the Year (1999) and Person of the Year (2003) by the Rural Water Association of Michigan, and distinguished service by the Michigan Municipal League in 2005.

 

Helaine Zack
Helaine Zack is a licensed, Masters level Social Worker in the State of Michigan.  She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology and Masters in Social Work degree from University of Michigan.  Helaine practiced in the field of Employee Assistance Programs for over forty years, taking care of employees with personal problems and coaching organizations how to perform more effectively. She continues to conduct Critical Incident Stress Debriefing sessions for companies that have  unfortunate, traumatic events.  Previous client companies included many Cities, Schools, a Road Commission and other non-profit organizations.  In 2002, Helaine took her social work expertise and advocacy to a different area when she was elected to serve as a County Commissioner. Helaine is completing her 18th and final year as County Commissioner.  Helaine understands and values your roles serving the public and your communities. Also, for several years, Helaine has served as “The Counselor” for the Manager in Transition program.

 

Matt Zavadsky

Matt is the Chief Strategic Integration Officer at MedStar Mobile Healthcare, the Public Utility Model EMS agency that provides exclusive emergency and non-emergency EMS and Mobile Integrated Healthcare services for Fort Worth and 14 other cities in North Texas. MedStar provides advanced life support ambulance service to 436 square miles and more than 1.1 million residents and responds to over 155,000 calls a year with a fleet of 65 ambulances.

MedStar is a dual accredited, high performance, high value EMS system, providing advanced clinical care with high economic efficiency with no taxpayer subsidy and is one of the most recognized EMS agencies in America.

Coming to MedStar in 2008 as the Operations Director, Matt has helped guide the continued development and implementation of numerous innovative programs with healthcare partners that have transformed MedStar fully as a Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH) provider, including high utilizer, CHF readmission reduction, observational admission reduction, hospice revocation avoidance, 9-1-1 nurse triage programs and partnerships with home health agencies. He is also the co-author of the book “Mobile Integrated Healthcare – Approach to Implementation” published by Jones and Bartlett Publishing.

Matt has 41 years’ experience in EMS and holds a Master’s Degree in Health Service Administration with a Graduate Certificate in Health Care Data Management. He is a frequent speaker at national conferences and has done consulting in numerous EMS issues, specializing in mobile integrated healthcare, high performance EMS system operations, public/media relations, public policy, EMS economic models and EMS research.

Matt is also the President of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians, and chairs their EMS Transformation Committee. He is also Adjunct Faculty for the University of North Texas Health Science Center, Department of Health Management and Policy, as well as an appointed committee member to the Joint Commission’s Home Care Professional and Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) and the Lewin Group’s Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting (HOQR) Program Stroke and AMI Expert Work Group, developing metrics for use in value-based purchasing measures for emergency departments.