Mayors at the IOP debate a city's proper response to September 11.

Friction and miscommunication between federal agencies and city authorities makes it more difficult for local governments to respond to potential terrorist threats, a panel of mayors told a standing-room only audience last night at the ARCO forum.

“Lines of communication are very one-sided,” Tulsa Mayor M. Susan Savage said.

The panelists said they were particularly frustrated with vague alerts of potential terrorist activity issued by the federal government. A recent false alarm predicting terrorist activity in Boston “froze the city” for several days, Menino said.

The panel, made up of Savage and three other mayors and attended by mayors-elect from around the country, was moderated by Kennedy School Professor David Gergen.

Panelists said mayors have a special responsibility to keep people calm in the wake of the attacks.

“You are the closest to the folks in your city,” Menino said, stressing the importance of communication with the public in a time of crisis.

The Sept. 11 attacks have made an already difficult job even tougher, the panelists said. “Get the best pair of shoulder pads...get a baseball bat and boxer gloves. You’re in for a ride,” said New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, who is also president of the U.S. conference of mayors.

Morial stressed the importance of maintaining public works, which he said were visible signs of success and failure. He also suggested that to maintain public confidence in times of crisis, new mayors should “get people who are not afraid to disagree with you in private, but always agree with you in public.”

After the discussion, the panelists took questions from the audience. One Kennedy School student asked what advice the mayors had for students, as opposed to just new mayors. Savage stressed the importance of “self-starting” and said “don’t consider any opportunity too menial.”

Response from the audience to the panelists and their attempts to counsel new mayors was generally positive. “The panelists have faced crises over the past years and imparting some of their knowledgewill help the new mayors make calm, rational decisions,” Adam Weiner ’04 said.

Other said the panel wouldn’t be particularly helpful for new mayor-elects.

“I thought that the panelists said lots of interesting things, but that it was more a night of personal reflection than of solid, concrete advice,” Jody Kelman ’05 said.

The other panelist was Wellington Webb of Denver.