Leadership

A commissioner’s duties include protecting children, serving families, securing justice, safeguarding elections, and managing emergencies.

One of the most important duties of a commissioner during an emergency is to provide leadership to keep people calm during times of crisis. To that end, commissioner Jo Ellen Litz speaks about talents that each of us have. For most people, it’s art, music, woodworking…, but for Litz, it’s responding to people’s needs during times of crisis to bring people together to be part of a solution rather than part of a problem. During her tenure, examples include:
• Working with 81 seamstresses to come together to provide free PPE Personal Protective Equipment for first responders during the Coronavirus Pandemic (2020) when no PPE was available;
• Arming Deputy Spotted Lanternfly Killers with fly swatters (2019) to tackle education and eradication of the invasive crop-eating pests;
• Recruiting and Coordinating 75 Points of Light along Route 422 to mourn with Sandy Hook (2012) at the loss of children;
• Providing Facebook posts to help individuals in crisis, like a widow, to get through the 2018 flood when she was trapped in her driveway when her house and roads were flooded; and
• Creating a Community Emergency Response booklet where Litz shared how to talk to children with nightmares after the Campbelltown Tornado (2004);
• Preparing for Y2K, when no one knew if the electric grid would fail due to programing error. Turns out, it was a non-event, but preparation and planning took place in case redlights failed, prison doors unlocked….

She makes the point that during emergencies, Lebanon County is at it’s finest when people respond physically, by making donations, or praying.

People Above Politics