German Official Feels Slighted and Neglected by U.S. Sister City in Michigan
Bay City, Michigan, is on the Saginaw River. Shutterstock
Among the apparent transgressions: Bay City 'just didn't get around to' sending Ansbach a Christmas card.
Attention local officials whose municipalities have international sister-city relationships: Are you doing enough to maintain good relations?
Take a lesson from Bay City, Michigan, which has found itself in a position of trying to smooth over some rocky sister-city relations with Ansbach, Germany, after a culture and tourism secretary there told a local newspaper last month that their American partners have been “quiet.”
"I find it personally sad that we have no contact," the official, Ute Schlieker said, according to The Bay City Times. "I have also put it forth for discussion that we end the partnership when nothing is happening."
That would leave Bay City with Goderich, a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, as its only sister city.
Ooof! What a mess for Bay City, a municipality with around 35,000 residents located near the mouth of the Saginaw River, about 110 miles northwest of Detroit.
As The Bay City Times noted, Bay City officials apparently forgot to send a Christmas card last year. "I hate making excuses, but it was something that we just didn't get around to," Mayor Kathleen Newsham said.
What are the local government take-aways here?
First and foremost, official correspondence is important—including, in the case of Ansbach, Christmas cards.
Second, sister-city relationships can’t be a one-way street. They take effort by both cities to foster ongoing good relations in order to benefit from mutual cross-cultural goodwill.
Making matters worse for the current situation, there's some sister-cities finger-pointing playing out in The Bay City Times, which is certainly unfortunate.
While Schleiker said Bay City didn’t do anything to honor the 50th anniversary of the sister-city relationship, former Bay City Mayor Christopher Shannon contends that the Bay City Commission did recognize the anniversary.
Also, in 2013, a Bay City resident traveled to Ansbach on an unofficial sister-city mission to Germany and presented Mayor Karda Seidel with a gift—a piece of old roofing material from City Hall.
When a piece of roofing is being used to justify enduring sister city goodwill, it’s probably time to do something more.
In the wake of the publication of the German news article that’s rocked Bay City Hall, officials are trying to do more and on Aug. 1, members of the Bay City Commission held a moment of silence to stand in solidarity with Ansbach, the scene of a suicide bombing in July which injured 15 people.
That’s a good start to re-establish goodwill.
And it’s good to keep in mind that the current acrimony isn’t necessarily a low point in world of sister-city relationships.
In August 2013, officials in Lansing, Michigan, voted for a resolution to sever its sister-city ties with St. Petersburg, Russia, over the country’s anti-LGBT policies.
In October 2014, officials in Laguna Niguel, California, voted to sever its sister-city ties with Qaim, Iraq, after the city was captured by forces affiliated with the Islamic State.
“We’d like to support the people of Qaim, but we don’t want to indicate that we’re supporting a terrorist regime,” one Laguna Niguel councilmember said, the Orange County Register reported at the time.
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive's Route Fifty and is based in Seattle.
NEXT STORY: Virginia Mayor Busted By Cops in Undercover Meth-for-Sex Sting