Evaluating South Texas Local Government Responses and Managerial Roles During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

On April 4, 2023, the U.S. federal government ended its emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Four years into the pandemic, what experiences do local governments in South Texas have? What lessons have they learned? Through an inductive inquiry of local governments in South Texas and leveraging public values governance theory, this study utilized a qualitative approach to analyze interview data gathered from local government leaders in South Texas. We present a retrospective analysis to capture the policy experiences and extract lessons learned from the responses of these localities. Findings show that, in this crisis, these localities adopted participatory and collaborative governance, enabling them to share knowledge and optimize the use of scarce resources. We found that, to take effective and legitimate action, managers adopted pragmatic approaches that helped them address problems and learn from their experiences. The implications of the findings for theory, research, and practice are discussed.