2003-01-22 CC Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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~ CITY/COUNTY MANAGEMENT 'May I speak with the manager ?' Councils, commissions, citizens and neighboring communities place diverse demands on city and county managers, redefining the administrator's role. By Beth Wade, Managing Editor r.,' n 1908, Staunton, Va., became tbe first u.s. city to institute the City . Manager position. By ordinance, the manager was charged with over- seeing the day-to-day business of the city, preparing and administering the budget, and managing personnel. In those respects, the job remains the same; today's city and county lnanagers are their communities' chief executives, they are responsible for local budgets, and they retain the power to hire and fire personnel. However, 90 years of change have redefined the manager's role in ways that many had not envisioned 10 or 20 years ago. "In the past, local government was in the business of building infrastruc- ture to serve a booming industrialized country, and managers were chief administrative officers who ensured that the job was completed," states a 1995 report from the International City/County Management Associa- tion, Washington, D.C. "There were more resources and fewer demands; ... there were fewer federal and state mandates sapping local resources. Roles were more sharply defined throughout society, and, in local gov- ernment, the council and the manager 'knew their places.'" Today, local govemment managers retain their administrative duties, but their jobs have moved beyond that "traditional" role. Populations are changing, economic bases are shifting, infrastructure is aging, and there is a modern emphasis on environment and quality oflife. hl an effort to keep up with and stay ahead of the changes, city and county managers not only are administering policy and budgets, they are expanding their roles in policy-making and reshaping internal and external relationships. EXTERNAL EXPERTISE City and county managers increas- ingly are asked to cross boundaries that once separated them from coun- cils, commissions and neighboring communities. "Managers are becom- ing more involved in policy develop- ment than they were in earlier years," says Bruce Romer, chief administra- Originally published in American City & County, October 1998. Reprinted with permission of American City & County publishers.