Dylan Mullenix, the executive director of the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, recently participated in a conversation with Ukrainian government and transportation officials to discuss rebuilding that country once the war with Russia is over.

Mullenix, who officially took over the helm of the MPO in February after serving as its interim executive director since May 2023, participated in the call on April 24. He and his Atlanta regional transportation counterpart were the only two regional transportation officials from the U.S. who were invited to participate in the call, arranged by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Momentum global engagement program.

The program works with other countries sharing U.S. expertise, best practices and experience.

“So [federal transportation officials] asked our MPO as well as the Atlanta regional commission, to speak to Ukrainian officials from the equivalent of their states and transit systems to help them better understand how regional planning works,” Mullenix said. “That’s a concept that they really don’t have. They work very federally down. It’s uncommon to have a community or regional government propose projects and spend funding. So as they rebuild and possibly institute an MPO-like program there, they wanted to learn more about it.”

Mullenix said it was an interesting conversation to participate in.

“It was interesting to speak with them because they’re in the middle of a war and they are thinking very short-term, in ways, and this is trying to get them to think after the war is done what are some of the things to think about,” he said.

Some of the questions he and his Atlanta counterpart received involved the role the military plays in the U.S.

“We don’t really deal with that, but it’s something they obviously will have to do,” Mullenix said.

Before the conversation, Ukrainian officials received an overview of the history of MPOs.

“And it really started with the interstate system, which was based on post-World War II defense, and how do we enable the ability to mobilize across the country,” Mullenix said. “And then it was how do we figure out how metro communities can work together to make some of those decisions? It was interesting in a lot of ways – we’re 60, 70 years ahead of them because we’ve already gone through some of that.”

Mullenix said other questions from Ukrainian officials involved prioritizing projects and what role politics play and how decisions are made in the U.S.

The nuances of decision-making may be a new concept that “they might need to begin wrapping their minds around a little bit,” he said.

For Mullenix, the conversation was also a chance to reset and think about “why we do what we do.”

“We could live in a very different place where everything is handed down to you and [you’re] told what to do rather than having the autonomy that we have as local communities and regional to carry out the functions we have,” he said. “It could be a very different place given different circumstances, and we should feel very fortunate that we have the system that we have. Let’s not take that for granted because you never know.”