By Waukesha (WI) Mayor Larry Nelson
May 25, 2009

When Good Morning America broadcast live on April 29 from Waukesha, WI, you may have wondered how that impacted local government and how we handled our more than 15 minutes of fame. It started eight days before the broadcast when my city administrator Lori Luther, said she urgently needed to see me and instead of the usual weekly crisis, she exclaimed, “You’re going to love me even more!”

She had just got off the phone with an ABC producer who said we were one of a number of communities being considered for the Good Morning America “At Your House” promotion because of a letter Mike and Kelly Schmitt had written about how proud they were of Waukesha and their neighborhood. As mayor, I’ve heard too many great ideas not becoming reality to get too excited right away, but two days later when five GMA staff came to the Clarke Hotel in Waukehsa for a secret meeting, I knew something special was about to happen.

Our Public Works, Police, and Parks, Recreation and Forestry departments had to guarantee that we could close down the street where the Schmitts live for 24 hours, provide for public safety during the broadcast and BBQ picnic the night before, prepare the park for 1,200 visitors and most importantly, keep it top secret for five days. We had to create fliers for the neighborhood notifying residents about the street closings and the picnic at our local park (which was said to be happening in the five final communities but actually was only being held in Waukesha). It was not until 3:10 p.m. the night before the broadcast after Diane Sawyer, Robin Roberts, Chris Cuomo, and Sam Champion knocked on the Schmitt’s door and truly surprised them, that we could officially tell the media, our Common Council, and other people to show up at 6:00 a.m. for the live broadcast.

We pitched the producers a lot of story ideas about why Waukesha is a great city and who are some of the special people living here. We really didn’t know what segments were picked and what was in the broadcast until after the show aired. A perfect example is two days before the broadcast, I was asked if I had time for a short interview that, since the broadcast would be on President Obama’s 100th day in office, would focus on how the recovery bill affected us.

I thought here was a wonderful opportunity to highlight the role of The U.S. Conference of Mayors in developing the new Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program that will allow Waukesha to convert many of our streetlights to energy saving lightbulbs saving taxpayers significant money in the long run and making a positive impact in our community this year. As my short interview stretched into two hours and I tried to speak in shorter sound bites, I was not really surprised when the first swine flu fatality changed the news focus of the live show and my interview. Like other possible segments, didn’t make the final cut.

The inside scoop is that the cast and crew (over 150 people and rumors that Diane Sawyer was a terrific house guest, staying on the Schmitt’s couch and feeding their cat) were incredibly nice and generous as they interacted with our citizens and staff. The immediate positive impact on our city was congratulatory e-mails and calls to both the Schmitt family and my office from all over the country.

What I didn’t realize is that Good Morning America is actually seen worldwide. The Schmitts, my wife and I were recently together at an Art Crawl in our historic downtown. I saw a former council member whose daughter is living in Kenya. She saw the show, as well as my neighbors who were thrilled to see the show while on vacation in the Dominican Republic.

The lesson we learned is that if you have the chance to be on national television, figure out how to overcome the roadblocks, seize the opportunity, and make it happen, just like most of us do every day in local government.