In 2003, with the economy lagging and municipal budgets tighter than ever, Bill Kappel did what so many city officials have had to do — he downsized. As the director of public works for Wauwatosa, Wis., just outside Milwaukee, Kappel oversees a team of about 100 people, including engineers, street sweepers, arborists, fleet managers and office workers. The department had barely adjusted to the elimination of two management positions when the unexpected happened. One of Kappel's two field supervisors, an Army reservist, was called up to support the war in Iraq.

Ever since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Department of Defense has markedly increased its dependence on the military reserves — which include the Army Reserve and Army National Guard, the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard, the Navy Reserve, the Marine Corps Reserve and the Coast Guard Reserve. In sum, the military reserves represent about 1.8 million people.

Most commonly, reservists train with their units for one weekend a month and two weeks each year. During the relative peace that followed the first Gulf War, most reservists could expect to spend between five and 20 days a year on active duty (above and beyond their normal training), according to a May 2005 report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in Washington. In 2002, the average number of annual active-duty days jumped to 45; a year later, it was more than 70. Tours longer than 300 days are now common.

Altogether, in the three years between September 2001 and November 2004, more than 410,000 reservists were called to support U.S. military operations. Last year, 187,000 reservists were serving in various functions, representing about 33 percent of all U.S. forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The increased demand for reservists has placed unexpected burdens on local governments in general, but especially on those departments that operate on the “front lines” of community service, such as public works.

Sacrifices all around

Both reservists and their employers make tremendous sacrifices during wars. Employers suffer financial and operational losses, while reservists sacrifice income and spend extended time away from work and family. One protection offered to reservists, however, is the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) of 1994. USERRA guarantees the rights of reservists to be reemployed by their civilian employers after completing active duty. Furthermore, it prohibits employers from discriminating against people who are in the reserves and mandates that employers continue at least some benefits while reservists are activated.

Because reservists are expected to return to their jobs eventually, employers are faced with the difficult question of how to fill a vacancy that they know is temporary. Typically, employers may hire temporary workers to fill in, ask another employee to work overtime to complete tasks, or keep the position open and allow some work to go undone.

Compounding the problem, employers often receive little notice before a reservist is called up. A 2003 Department of Defense survey noted that reservists were able to give employers an average of only 13 days' notice before mobilizing. Furthermore, mobilization and de-mobilization dates often change at the last minute, making planning difficult.

In 2004, according to the CBO report, federal, state and local governments employed 36 percent of reservists who worked in the civilian sector, with local governments comprising 9 percent of all reservists. (Private firms employed 52 percent of all reservists, and the remainder either were self-employed or worked for nonprofits.) In addition to calling up more reservists in general, the Department of Defense also is activating higher percentages of reservists who specialize in certain skills, such as law enforcement or motor vehicle operations. Although no organization has yet quantified the effects of reservists on specific local government departments, the increased dependence on technically skilled reservists may disproportionately affect public works personnel.

Taking the reins

In Wauwatosa, the Public Works Department's nearly 100 employees are divided into four divisions — engineering services, fleet and traffic maintenance, operations (including solid waste and recycling), and parks and forestry. Danny Hanson, a reservist who has served in the military since 1974, and Matt Groholski are both field supervisors who work closely together on construction, sewer and sanitation issues.

“I knew Danny was in the reserves,” Kappel recalls. “He came to me in 2003 and said there was a chance he might get called up, but he didn't know when. It was kind of a standing joke, and I would always ask him after his reserve weekends if he was getting called up.”

In February 2004, it was no longer a joke. Hanson announced that he had been mobilized for six months of active duty at Fort McCoy, located 175 miles away near LaCrosse, Wis. Kappel considered elevating another employee to fill in for Hanson, but Groholski asked to take both reins himself. Kappel agreed with the decision, concerned that temporarily promoting someone, only to send them back to their old job later, could affect employee morale.

“For that six months, Matt basically worked by himself, making all the assignments, and it worked out fine,” Kappel says. “But by the time the six months was over, he was exhausted physically and emotionally.” Kappel believes that if Hanson's tour had been extended, he might have had to hire some additional help. When Hanson returned, he was happy to fill in while Groholski took a much-needed vacation.

For his part, Hanson dealt with the myriad challenges of leaving his routine for six months. At Fort McCoy, Hanson's unit was charged with supervising a firing range and training soldiers who were headed for Iraq. “We tried to make the training as real here as what they would experience in Iraq,” Hanson says. “There was a mock Iraqi city that they would have to defend against insurgents. We had civilians who dressed up as Iraqi civilians. We use a combination of pop-up targets — some friendly, some foe — and they have live ammunition.”

Hanson adds that his supervisory experience at work helped him to be a good supervisor in the reserves. Kappel reports that Hanson's return was seamless, but that in the future, “I'd like to have three people ready to take over a position at any time.”

Trial and error

In lake-filled Loveland, Colo., just east of Rocky Mountain National Park, the 120-employee Public Works Department provides a host of community services, including solid waste and recycling, public transit, fleet maintenance, traffic control, community facilities and stormwater control. The city maintains a fleet of more than 700 vehicles, serviced by 11 mechanics. Soon after the war began, a vehicle mechanic in the Army National Guard was activated to fill motor-pool duties at Fort Carson, Colo., which had sent troops to Iraq.

Throughout his absence, which was unexpectedly extended from one year to 18 months, the department struggled to fill the vacancy. “During that time, we weren't able to hire anyone to backfill his duties on a temporary basis,” says Stephen Kibler, fleet manager for the city. “So we were essentially without his position for almost two years.”

The department hired a mechanic from a nearby city who wanted to work two jobs. However, his productivity dropped at his other post, and he was forced to quit the Loveland job after only three months. Finally, the city simply asked its other mechanics to pick up the slack, which led to the department exceeding its overtime budget two years in a row.

When the employee returned from active duty, Kibler says, he needed some additional training to get up to speed. That said, Kibler adds, “it was a fast transition, and an easy adjustment.”

Keith Reester, Loveland's director of public works, has dealt with the problem before. During the first Gulf War, Reester directed the Public Works Department for Binghamton, N.Y. — a shop that was twice the size of Loveland's and lost several reservists to active duty. “Back then, we had some semblance of knowing when the tours were ending,” Reester says. “The open-endedness of the deployments today has a greater impact.” In the future, Reester would like to work more closely with automotive training academies to bring on apprentices, who might be able to fill in if a more senior employee is activated.

Doing everything anyway

In McComb, Miss., a 60-person Public Works Department serves a community of about 15,000 people. Recently, a crew leader in the city's 17-person street division was mobilized and sent to Iraq. The employee's first tour lasted 10 months, and he returned to work. After only nine months back on the job, however, the employee was re-activated for another 12-month tour stateside, which was extended by an additional six months. “He had six or seven employees, and he was an outstanding employee,” says Ronnie Lindsey, McComb's public works director. “So when he was activated, we temporarily elevated someone to replace him, with the understanding that when our soldier returns, he may have to be placed back into that supervisory position, unless we can find an opening to accommodate both employees at the higher level. The fill-in has done an excellent job, and this has worked for us.”

Lindsey stays aware of possible burnout and pays overtime as needed. He adds that his team is used to dealing with unexpected demands. “Things come along all the time that create situations like that,” he says. “Every time we turn around, we're being asked to do something additional. Some days you may not get quite as much done as you want to. But it's always waiting on you the next day.”

The war also may hinder municipal governments' ability to acquire equipment. In St. Cloud, Minn., the war affected the availability of loader tires, extending the expected delivery time from about a month to about a year, says Gerald Kaeter, assistant director of operations. “We were fortunate that an order placed by someone else several months earlier was canceled and we got that order,” Kaeter says.

As the U.S. military continues to lean heavily on reservists, local governments would do well to prepare for a temporary vacancy and cross-train as many employees as possible. Fostering internships and apprentices may increase the depth and breadth of potential employees that can step up when a reservist is activated.

In the end, however, successfully dealing with reservists' absences may just boil down to hard work and creativity. “Public works departments are used to doing everything with nothing anyway,” says Ann Daniels, director of technical services for the American Public Works Association in Kansas City, Mo. “We just absorb whatever has to be done and do the best we can.”

Kim O'Connell is a freelance writer based in Arlington, Va.