Photo Courtesy Vernon Batty: Pima Town Manager Vernon Batty went on a whirlwind trip to Washington D.C. as part of a yearlong rural leadership building class.
Pima Town Manager receives valuable leadership training
“Things I say, and things I do here actually resonate in Washington because I have a connection, and for me, that’s huge for the town of Pima.”
Pima Town Manager Vernon Batty
By Jon Johnson
PIMA – In the 1939 film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” starring James Stewart and directed by Frank Capra, a naive youth leader is appointed to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate and learns of corruption and fraud.
Recently, Pima Town Manager Vernon Batty traveled to Washington D.C. for leadership training and received a crash course in playing the Washington game.
The trip was the culmination of The Center for Rural Leadership’s Project CENTRL. According to the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Project CENTRL is an intensive one-year educational program that gives selected individuals an exceptional personal and professional leadership development experience that strengthens and expands personal leadership skills, accelerates lifelong learning and abilities to problem-solve complex contemporary issues, and creates a statewide network with more than 500 alumni in communities throughout rural Arizona. The class has visited several previous sites throughout Arizona prior to the Washington seminar. The program is intended to assist rural leaders get more experience.
Previous graduates include Arizona State Senator David Gowan, Representative Gail Griffin, Drew John, Danny Smith, Keith Bryce, and Graham County Supervisor Paul David.
“It’s a good program that has seen a lot of success,” Batty said.
The program will graduate Class 32 (Batty’s class) in Flagstaff on May 30, and 31 and will introduce Class 33 at the same seminar. Pima Town Council Member Teresa Bailey will be part of that class.
The trip to Washington D.C. included a couple of other stops along the way, including Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Mount Vernon, Virginia.
Gettysburg
The first stop of the trip was historic Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War in which the Union defeated Confederate General Robert E. Lee and stopped his northern advance. Gettysburg is known as the Civil War’s bloodiest battle and inspired President Abraham Lincoln’s famous “Gettysburg Address.”
Attendees spent two days in Gettysburg, touring the site using the history as a leadership lesson. Four groups of four role-played as different generals and leaders and were tasked with how they would handle various battlefield situations.
Batty said being on the battlefield provided a real scope to the size of the battle and how important each ridge and valley were. Now a memorial, the area is lush and green and visitors remark the veneration of the area.
“It was almost overwhelmingly peaceful,” Batty said. “To be somewhere so peaceful and to imagine that so much slaughter happened there just gives it a whole other dynamic. There is definitely a reverence there.”
Washington D.C.
The next stop was Washington D.C. where the group stayed near the Capitol Mall. There the group role-played again but this time as freshman congress members tasked with coming up with answers to various questions within five minutes. The software of the game then analyzed all the answers and the results showed if the congress member gets re-elected or not.
“The whole thing felt so frantic,” Batty said. “My group did end up getting re-elected.”
After the game, as class chair Batty introduced guest speaker former congressman Glenn Nye of Virginia (U.S. House of Representatives 2009 – 2011), who spoke about what it was like being a congressman. Batty said Nye described being in the House of Representatives as just how it was represented in the game and how important having a good staff is since House members have to fundraise so much being on a two-year election cycle. Batty said the knowledge he gained and being able to understand the life of a congressman helped his efforts to further the interests of the town of Pima on a state and national level.
“We make a lot of demands of these people and they get constant criticism but to understand what they’re life is like for me was very valuable,” Batty said.
One congress member Batty has certainly connected with is our district’s Rep. Juan Ciscomani, who welcomed Batty on his Washington visit with open arms while wearing a town of Pima baseball cap. In March, the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee passed a package that includes $26 million in projects for Southern Arizona. Out of those 13 projects pressed by Ciscomani and approved by the Committee, $2 million will go toward a new Pima Fire Station, and $1.3 million will go toward the Graham County Gila River Linear Park and Trail Project.
While Ciscomani was welcoming, the timing of the visit coincided with the beginning of the Israel/Palestine conflict, and previously scheduled time with congress members was canceled as they were on the House floor in discussion.
However, Batty managed to excuse himself during a Capitol tour and he and two another attendees utilized the underground tunnels to scurry over to Ciscomani’s office for a previously unscheduled visit.
“Juan Ciscomani comes out wearing his town of Pima hat I had given him at the fire station and he gives me a big hug,” Batty said. “All the pomp and circumstance was gone. He sat and talked to us for 20 minutes . . . That was really fun for me. Now I feel like Vernon Batty from town of Pima, things I say, and things I do here actually resonate in Washington because I have a connection, and for me, that’s huge for the town of Pima. We can continue to build those relationships and make sure we don’t go unseen.”
During the congressional visit, Batty’s group also met with Senator Mark Kelly.
Monument Tour – River Trip – Mount Vernon
After the heavy politics, the group took a tour of the monuments and also toured the Canadian Embassy where Batty learned of the extensive trade Arizona has with Canada, especially through the vegetables from the Yuma area.
The group also toured Ford’s Theatre and Batty observed that Abraham Lincoln must have been already pretty uncomfortable wedged in the tiny seats prior to his assassination by the actor, John Wilkes Booth.
On the last day, the group went on a river trip down the Potomac and went in the backdoor dock at Mount Vernon for a tour of where George Washington retired after his presidential service.
