Leadership to Inspire.

• Position: 2020 VIRTUAL CONFERENCE: 2020 HERO AWARDS

We're proud to announce the winners of GFOA's second annual Hero Awards--finance officers who have demonstrated extraordinary actions during a time of financial, natural, or human-made crisis. Our heroes--Dayton, Ohio's LaShea Lofton and John Troyer of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina--were selected by the GFOA Executive Board Hero Award Committee for spectacular feats of leadership over the past year.

GFOA recognized its Hero Award recipients during its 2020 Virtual Conference.

LaShea Lofton

Finance Director, City of Dayton, Ohio

LaShea Lofton had a lot to deal within 2019.

There are water main breaks, and then there are water main breaks. The one Dayton experienced on February 13 was extraordinary. A 36-inch transmission pipe in the middle of the Great Miami River broke, ultimately spilling 150 million gallons of drinking water. Not only was the break hard to find and get to, but the river was at flood stage, meaning it was murky and moving fast. The city had to find and fix the leak, creating an emergency operations center with department heads and city leaders. Citizens were left without water service for several days, and the emergency ultimately affected more than 400,000 people. The broken line was fully repaired several months later, costing the city more than $860,000.

Then in May, the Ku Klux Klan held a rally in downtown Dayton. Administrators spent months preparing a coordinated public safety response that cost the city more than $650,000. More than 350 police officers were assembled to keep the peace, at a cost of roughly $250,00, and another $400,000 was needed for materials. Ultimately, the nine Klan members showed up for the rally were massively outnumbered by 600 or so peaceful protesters, and there were no arrests, citations, or use of force--an ideal outcome, even though some thought it meant the response had been overkill. But if the rally had turned violent and the city hadn't prepared, the outcome could have been tragic.

This highlights the impossible position many municipalities find themselves in. They can't deny groups the right to peaceably assemble in public spaces, even the KKK. But if a gathering is likely to turn violent, governments have to take every precaution and spend whatever is necessary. And there's no real way to recoup the costs. [State Senator Cecil Thomas, a former Cincinnati councilman and executive director of the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission, offered a partial solution, according to...