Former Mercer Island Mayor Jim Pearman was given the FEMA Administrator’s Award for “exemplary use of alternative dispute resolution to enhance community recovery and build resilience” on March 29 in Washington D.C.

Pearman served on the Mercer Island City Council from 2001 to 2012, before accepting a position to work as a mediator for the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA).

Since then, Pearman has been working in rural Alaska and in South Dakota, continuing his public service in a different capacity.

During recovery efforts in Galena, Alaska, Pearman built strong relationships with the community and tribal leadership, developing a community engagement process that resulted in a highly successful series of community meetings. Preparation for the meetings required several months of work with the federal, state and local recovery leadership.

Pearman was approached directly to facilitate a series of meetings between city departments in Galena to resolve internal issues that were stalling the completion of the public assistance reimbursement process.

His involvement resulted in the identification of 200 recovery projects for the city.

Those were refined by community participants to about 30 projects, which are currently in various stages of planning, funding, assessment, study or implementation.

“Jim’s ability to break down barriers and help build teams by focusing on common goals was critical to the success of Galena’s recovery planning process,” according to the award ceremony program.