For the past 11 years, Jake Day knew this day was coming. He knew when he signed up for the Army National Guard that he would probably face deployment. That was in 2009, before he was elected to the Salisbury City Council, before he was elected mayor, before he was elected to a second term, before the city he leads on Maryland’s Eastern Shore faced a crisis that would make national headlines.
As the region continues to emerge from being one of the nation’s most concerning novel coronavirus hotspots, Day (D) is about to take a leave of absence from his day job. He deploys Thursday with the 110th Information Operations Battalion and will be stationed in Africa for much of the next year.
“It’s a strange time to leave the city,” Day said, “just a very difficult time to be away. So you better believe I’m conflicted.”
For the past 2½ months, his staff has worked remotely, and Day, 37, has been the only one going into the city’s office building each day. Lonely, he called it, but also incredibly busy. He has tried to quell the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic, address growing economic concerns from business leaders and relay information to a diverse constituency as coronavirus fears swept over the region. There was little time to catch his breath or worry about deployment orders.
“He’s wired differently than the rest of us,” said Mike Dunn, president of the Greater Salisbury Committee and a former City Council president. “When you run for mayor, you don’t think about a worldwide pandemic. But once there was one and all of a sudden we were a hot spot, he did what he normally does — he leads.”
In April, the region erupted into an outbreak when 262 poultry workers were infected. There are six poultry processors in the Delmarva area, and Perdue Farms, headquartered in Salisbury, is one of the biggest employers in Wicomico County. Day’s father, Randy, is the company’s chief executive.
With no blueprint for how to handle such a crisis, Day sprang into action. He worked on communication strategies that could be relayed in Creole and Spanish, and he worked with the City Council to make sure meals were available to Salisbury’s most vulnerable residents. He also crafted legislation to protect tenants. All the while, Day was in constant dialogue with state and federal officials, negotiating assistance on how to wrangle the virus, treat those who were infected and keep the meat-processing plants running.
“It has very much felt like a military operation,” Day said of the crisis, “but with profound emotional impacts.”
With a population of more than 30,000, Salisbury is one of only a handful of Maryland cities with a full-time mayor, and Day typically wears many hats. Managing the crisis often meant wearing several at the same time.
“Things were crazy here,” Day said. “We were very concerned. But they’ve calmed down quite a bit. I feel like we were successful in responding, but at the same time, I think the whole world has done a better job as we’ve learned more.”
With assists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local and state officials, the entire Perdue plant was tested. There was a positive test rate of about 5 percent and as of this week a total of 379 coronavirus cases among poultry workers. Overall, the county has experienced more than 931 cases and 30 deaths.
Throughout the crisis, it was important for Day to communicate and relay information. Each Monday, he has held Zoom meetings with elected officials across the Delmarva Peninsula. On Tuesdays, he met virtually with a task force of local business and community leaders. And every day at 5 p.m., for the past two-plus months, he has logged on to Facebook and streamed live video sessions for constituents, delivering coronavirus updates and answering questions. “Mayor TV,” the sprawling sessions came to be known.
“When people know what’s going on, it seems to calm things down,” said Jack Heath, the City Council president. “When there’s no information, that’s when people begin to worry and things can feel out of control.”
There have been signs of progress with the numbers falling and local businesses preparing to reopen as statewide restrictions have started to lift. Amid all the tumult, Day received his deployment orders last week. He had less than 1½ weeks before leaving behind his city, his work, his plans — not to mention his wife and two daughters, ages 3 and 4.
“I am excited about this,” he said, “but I do look at my kids and there is a fear, or a sadness, I guess, around the idea of being away and what that’s going to be like for them.”
As an information operations officer in the battalion, Day will undergo a week or two of specialized training before departing for the Horn of Africa, working in Djibouti and Somalia, among other countries.
Day wanted to prepare the city for his departure. He began telling community leaders and meeting with his staff. On Thursday, he logged on to Facebook and told everyone else on “Mayor TV.”
“Today marks a very challenging, exciting and emotional moment in my personal life,” he said, “and I’m confident little more than an interesting footnote in our city's history.”
The next day, Julia Glanz, the city administrator, joined him for the live stream and shared the latest coronavirus numbers. With Day taking a leave of absence, Glanz will step in and assume most of the mayoral duties in accordance with the city charter. Heath, as the city’s top elected official, will also have an increased presence, particularly at ceremonial functions and public events.
Day doesn’t expect to be back at his desk until next May and will still have two years remaining in his term. The city is only five years into his 20-year vision, and Day is eager to hit the ground running when he returns.
“He will be missed,” Dunn said. “Let’s be clear about that. He has a capable team in place, but you don’t lose a dynamic leader like that and expect things to feel normal.”
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