2c-management - Manny Teodoro

First, do no harm 💻

Administratively costly assistance programs can hurt more than they help perpetually stylish. timelessly true. Water and sewer affordability is a complicated challenge that demands a multifaceted solution; to meet that challenge, I’ve developed five

The Profits of Distrust 📖

Citizen-Consumers, Drinking Water, and the Crisis of Confidence in American Government Cambridge University Press, 2022 The choices people make about drinking water reveal deeper lessons about trust in government and civic life. The burgeoning

Defensive Spending 💻

The first pillar of affordability is Quality Gotta count the bottles and the bills So long as water and sewer services operate on a fee-for-service basis, ensuring that these critical services are affordable will

The Revolution Will Not be Legislated 💻

Notes on the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Part III Water professionals of America, unite! Late last year Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, authorizing

The Sweet Spot 💻

How much consolidation is enough? June 2026 Update: For more recent, more detailed, more rigorous analysis of scale and water system performance, see "Right-sized: How Much Consolidation is Enough?" in Safe Drinking Water Act: The Next

SNAP H2O 💻

Better federal water bill assistance with this one weird trick Click here to read my op-ed on this topic in Newsweek. When Congress created a new $638 million federal Low Income Household Water Assistance

Environmental Federalism in Indian Country 🎓

Sovereignty, primacy & environmental protection Policy Studies Journal, May 2020 Mellie Haider, Manuel P. Teodoro The landmark American environmental laws of the 1970s originally made no mention of American Indian tribal lands, and subsequent

Batting .400 💻

On the limits of means-tested assistance programs for water & sewer Red Sox legend Ted Williams was the last player to bat over .400... in 1941 **Warning: sports metaphor ahead** Like hitting a baseball,

Ready, Fire, Aim 💻

Managing the $638 million low-income water & sewer assistance in the federal COVID relief package Now what? As frequent readers of this page likely know, the COVID relief bill that Congress passed in December

Graphic Realism 💻

Organization of U.S. drinking water utilities in a few simple figures Here are some graphs that convey a few key things about the organization of drinking water utilities in the United States.* Sources: Energy

Prevent Defense 💻

Playing to win not to lose in water utility management Nature's Prevent Defense Warning: strained sports metaphor coming. It’s late January, and the National Football League season soon reaches its climax with the Super

The Plan 💻

A five-point proposal to transform the U.S. water sector As daunting as the challenges in the U.S. water sector are, solutions are possible and within our grasp. Thanks to legions of smart, creative scientists

Water Color 💻

Water Sector Reform #5: Environmental Justice Photo: EJCW.org With a major federal investment in water infrastructure possibly on the horizon, the United States has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to leverage that money into a structural transformation

Smart People 💻

Water Sector Reform #4: Human Capital People + Pipes With a major federal investment in water infrastructure possibly on the horizon, the United States has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to leverage that money into a

Time Warp 💻

Water Sector Reform #3: Smart Systems Sewer inspectors: Old School & New School With a major federal investment in water infrastructure possibly on the horizon, the United States has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to leverage

Race, Ethnicity, and Water Service Experiences 💻

Black, White, and Hispanic Americans experience water utility service differently What discontents lurk behind those enigmatic eyes? Over the past couple of years there’s been a growing recognition that drinking water policy is an

Paper Pushing 💻

Devils (and angels) in the details, Part 4 Nobody wants to talk about this part In early January the California Water Board published its long-anticipated draft proposal for a statewide low-income water bill assistance program.

New Jersey’s Water Quality [Achievement] Act 💻

Former Mayor Lester Taylor, talking about East Orange's reinvestment in its water system The Garden State has quietly enacted a law that could transform water infrastructure in America. Signed during Governor Christie’s waning days

Income and Water Service Experiences 💻

Another way in which it’s tough to be poor Better with more money Drinking water utilities are great, but they aren’t perfect. Sometimes there are problems. Do those problems occur randomly? Or are there

Inoculation & Therapy 💻

Why rate structures, not assistance programs, offer the most promising path to water affordability yeah this stinks kid, but it beats smallpox When discussions of water and sewer affordability turn to policy solutions, they

Why now | Why us | Why it matters 💻

Remarks from the opening plenary session of the AWWA/WEF Transformative Issues Symposium Earlier this week the American Water Works Association and Water Environment Federation hosted their first-ever Transformative Issues Symposium, a two-day meeting focused on

Answering the Bell 💻

Social science and defying the choice between clean and affordable water Warning: sports cliché coming. Boxing is more popular as a literary metaphor than as a spectator sport these days. Still, I’m a

Hyperopia at the tap 💻

hyperopia (hīˌpə-rōˈpē-ə). n. A condition in which visual images come to a focus behind the retina of the eye and vision is better for distant than for near objects Last week I had the pleasure of

Conference Room 💻

On the proliferation of water conferences I like conferences. That’s a good thing, because academics attend a lot of conferences. The conference circuit is especially busy for those of us who do significant interdisciplinary

Human Capital as Infrastructure 💻

This is the fourth in my series of posts on the recently released White House infrastructure plan. Release of the White House infrastructure plan triggered a flurry of news about the nation’s ports, dams,

Private dollars for public works 💻

This is the second in my series of posts on the recently released White House infrastructure plan. We’re at a strange point in America’s fiscal history. Cash on corporate ledgers is high, bond rates

Drinking from the Talent Pool 🎓

A Resource Endowment Theory of Human Capital and Agency Performance PAR: Public Administration Review Manuel P. Teodoro & David Switzer This article advances a resource endowment theory of human capital and performance in government

When Professionals Lead: Executive Management, Normative Isomorphism, and Policy Implementation🎓

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2014 If professionalism shapes executive behavior significantly, then agencies whose executives belong to a particular profession ought to manage differently from similarly situated executives who do not,

Water Utility Executive Leadership for the 21st Century 📜

Water Research Foundation Manuel Teodoro & Linda Reekie This study developed a summary of the drinking water community executive ranks, including their demographics, educational qualifications, professional backgrounds, skills, career paths, and personalities. This information