USA TODAY: Facing death threats and no pay, mayors are the front-line commanders of the coronavirus pandemic

MAUREEN GROPPE, USA TODAY

Mayor Nan Whaley has faced her share of emergencies in Dayton, Ohio.

A rapid-fire line of tornadoes tore through her city a year ago. In August, a mass shooting left nine victims dead and 17 wounded. Whaley now spearheads her city's response to the coronavirus pandemic, aware that the challenges of this crisis will last longer than anything she's dealt with before.

“You quickly realize it’s a marathon and not a sprint to the other side,” she said. “You have to kind of hold your energy in for the long haul.”

Unlike last year, when she faced the tornadoes and the shootings on her own, mayors across the country are dealing with the same problems.

“We’re figuring it out together,” she said. “I’ve never felt closer to my fellow mayors than I feel right now.”

Mayors didn’t come up with the "locally executed, state managed and federally supported” approach that President Donald Trump has adopted for combating the coronavirus. But they’re the front-line commanders.

While governors have been in the spotlight, mayors have been seeing up close, every day, how much longer a neighborhood bar and grill can go without customers before it must permanently shutter, how many masks the senior center has left, how long the food bank lines are and how many of their own employees might soon be out of a job.

Some have faced death threats and racist attacks for their stay-at-home orders, making life and death decisions that might go against actions taken by their governors or state supreme courts.

At least one is forgoing her salary as she, like most mayors around the country, struggle with unprecedented budget holes.

Others repurpose city workers, turning librarians into government aid researchers and parking enforcers into park rangers.

As mayors stay in constant contact with each other, swapping ideas and sharing best practices, they figure out ways to help businesses reopen and reward those that do it safely. They’re thinking ahead to what they want their communities to look like when the pandemic is over, hoping to use the forced disruption as a chance to innovate and solve long-standing problems.

Mayors face some of the same struggles as their constituents – a spouse sick with COVID-19 or children learning from home – as they tackle what some say is one of their most important jobs: helping their community cope mentally with the incredible uncertainty and projecting confidence they’ll get through it.

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