City Management: Keys to Success

© 2002 by Orville W. Powell. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4033-2303-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4033-2302-6 (e)

1stBooks - rev. 08/11/20

Contents

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter 1: History Of The Council-Manager Form Of Government

Chapter 2: How Do I Become A City Manager?

Chapter 3: Getting That First City Manager’s Job

Chapter 4: The New City Manager’s Position

Chapter 5: A Long And Successful Career

Chapter 6: Dealing With Hate Groups

Chapter 7: Managing During A Major Emergency

Chapter 8: The News Media: Ally Or Adversary?

Chapter 9: Taking Care Of Council

Chapter 10: Recognizing When You Are In Trouble

Chapter 11: Losing The Job.

Chapter 12: Random Thoughts

Chapter 13: Retirement

Acknowledgments

This book did not require a great deal of research. The material came from personal experiences, interesting stories read mostly in newspapers, from notes I took of conversations with colleagues and speeches from scholars and practitioners at various conferences I have attended over my 33 years in the profession. The notes were made to help me in my position of city manager. It never occurred to me that they would ever end up in a book.

This is not meant to be a great scholarly piece of work. If nothing else, it accomplishes this goal. It is meant to be a practical guide for dealing with professional and personal issues likely to be encountered as one seeks a long and successful career in city management.

No one works in a vacuum. The experiences and knowledge learned over my career were greatly influenced by those I worked with. At the risk of leaving some important people out, I want to acknowledge and express my appreciation to those whose names appear below. The men and women listed here represent some of the finest people in their chosen fields. They include professors, city employees, elected officials, members of the news media, and leaders of non-profit organizations. Each of these people touched my life in a positive way and through their support, encouragement, and teachings helped me become a better person and manager.

TO MY PROFESSORS:

Without the passage of your knowledge I would never have been in a position to become a city manager. You trained me well. Dr. Joseph Hoskins, Dr. John Ferguson, Dr. Warren Jake Wicker and Dr. Donald Hayman

TO THE EMPLOYEES

A very special thank you goes to the employees I had the good fortune of working with. There is no greater professional satisfaction than to be the head of an organization made up of talented and dedicated men and women. Each employee appearing below played an important role in whatever success I obtained as a city manager. They were certainly the reason I enjoyed my career as much as I did. There are many employees who were not named due to space limitations, only members of my immediate staff and department/ division heads were identified. They are: John P. Bond III, Richard Knight, Carolyn Carter, Michael Casey, Allen Joines, Tom Fredericks, Margaret Meadows, Sam Owen, Martin Mackie, Peggy Price, Jackie King, Billie Carlton, Ila Newton, Glenda Keels, Jeanne Hellman, Betty Ivie, Jackie Carpenter, Sylvia Taylor, Betty White, Bambi Wilson, Gary Brown, John Pederson, Cecil Brown, Roger Neve, Pat Gentry, Evelyn Tice, Lewis Cutwright. Pat Pfaff, Jack Rupplin, Jerry Rothrock, Joe Berrier, Pat Swann, Ken Wright, Harold Bolick, Glenn Kilday, Robert Conroy, Frederick Ravin, Donnie Robinson, Justice Tucker, Tom Surratt, James Waller, Aikens Warren, Trevor Hampton, Kent Fletcher, Worth Hill, Eddie Sarvis, John Knight, George Hare, Glenda Beard, William Thornton, Henry Blinder, Marie Matthews, Dorothy Ann Gray, Paul Crimm, Arnold Bullard, Lester Ervin, Jerry Jones, Joe Bason, Nick Jamison, James Dalrymple, Alexander Gilleskie, Carl Washington, Paul Norby, Elizabeth Rooks, Joe Collette, Loris Colclough, Paul Ballard, Harry Burns, Mary Hough, Terry Rolan, and Kendall Abernathy

TO THE ELECTED OFFICIALS

I am in awe of your unselfish dedication and your untold hours of labor in serving your community. Those appearing below were an inspiration to me. As long as we have city councils, county commissions and general assemblies made up of men and women such as these this country will be in good hands. They include: M.C.Red Benton, Franklin Shirley, Wayne Corpening, Charles Markham, Wilbur Wib Gulley, Sylvia Kerckhoff, Harry Rodenhizer, Charley Ross, Richard Davis, George Chandler, Ernestine Wilson, Eugene Gross, Aaron Green, W.E. Mac McEachen, Sandy Ogburn, Charles Grubb, Howard Clement, Diane Wright, Betsy Robb, Kim Griffin, Sr., Kim Griffin, Jr., Ralph Hunt, Tom Campbell, Virginia Engelhard, Erick Larson, William Skip London, John Lloyd, Lorisa Seibel, William Bell, Mary Ann Black, Fred Hauser, Bobbie Lisle and Jane Davis

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE NEWS MEDIA

This will probably come as a great surprise, perhaps even a shock, but let me publicly state that I admired your high standards, fair reporting, and professionalism. Your profession has every right to be proud of you. I only hope my compliments will not cause you a problem. My praise and admiration goes to: Stephen Hoar, Susan Ballard, John Adams, Richard Kaspar, Joe Goodmon, Rebecca Moore, and William Smith

TO NON-PROFIT AGENCY DIRECTORS

Each of you helped me see and appreciate problems and opportunities from a different viewpoint. My job was both easier and more rewarding thanks to: Shannon St. John, Mike Marsicano, Louise Wilson, William H. Hansel, Mark E. Keane, David Reynolds, Mike Quinn, Tom White, Costis Toregas, Steward Ellis Hankins, and Susan Benton.

TO MY FELLOW CITY & COUNTY MANAGERS

A profession is only as good as the men and women who make up its membership. The reader will not find a more dedicated group of city/county managers than the ones appearing below. I am so proud to have counted these managers as friends and colleagues. They have set a high standard of professionalism for all those who follow. If there was a City/County Managers’ Hall of Fame these managers would surely be inducted in: John P. Bond III, John Gold, Tom Osborne, Robert House, Peter Jenkins, David Burkhalter, David Thompson, Richard Stevens, Dempsey Benton, David Taylor, Richard Knight, Bryce Bill Stuart, Pamela Syfert, William Coleman, Jr., James Westbrook, Mary Gornto, John Link, Jr., Calvin Horton, Robert Morgan, Heidi Voorhees, Dee Freeman, Douglas Bean, Robert Peck, O. Wendell White, John Witherspoon, Bruce Boyette, Numa Baker, L.P. Zack Zachary, Robert O’Neill, Jr., Lewis Price, Tim Honey, James Doug Mackintosh, Thomas Lundy, William Carstarphen, Cyrus Brooks, Peter Bine, O.B.Stokes, Peter Lydens, Edward Wyatt, James Cadwell, I. Harding Hughes, Jr., Michael Casey, Gary Brown and Phin Horton III.

TO MY STUDENTS

I want to thank my former students for all the truly enjoyable moments we have spent together in the classroom and on field trips. I am so proud of each of you and want now to introduce the country to the next generation of great city managers. They include: Marcia Margotta, Jason Behrman, Melissa Taylor, Morgan Jencius, Theodore Robert, Luis Heredia, Gavin Morgan, Antoinette Brown, Bryan Pennington, Phillip Reiger, Susan Locking, Ayanna Wilks, Kelly Witka, Eliza Topalski, Brent Richardson, Scott Nass, Deanna Jeffrion, Courtney Alexander, Aude de Clercq, Sherry Early-Aden, Benny Estorga, Sandrine Gaillot, Christal Kliewer, Margaret Main, Nune Mkrtchyan, Maria-Alicia Newsome, Michel Sejean, Zaruhi Tokhmakhyan, Lori Hallal and Julie Lamy.

TO MY FAMILY

The most special thanks of all goes to my lovely wife, Dianne, our two children Sandra and David, and our two grandchildren Christine and Mason for their encouragement and understanding as I struggled to write this book. Mason never met Jack Bond; the rest of us loved him. He was like a member of the family. It meant a lot to each one of us that this book be completed and dedicated in his honor. Rest in peace my friend!

[Some of the people mentioned above have passed away. They are gone, but not forgotten]

Dedication

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED IN MEMORY OF

JOHN P. BOND III

WHO SERVED HIS COUNTRY WITH DIGNITY AND HONOR

BEING AWARDED THE BRONZE STAR MEDAL FOR

MERITORIOUS SERVICE IN VIETNAM AND LATER BY

DISTINGUISHING HIMSELF

AS BOTH A CITY AND A COUNTY MANAGER

INTRODUCTION

This book was inspired by the life and death of my good friend, John P. (Jack) Bond III. Jack was dying of cancer when he and I started talking about sharing our experiences in city management with others. The talks seemed to give Jack hope that he could still contribute to a profession he and I both loved. Jack was a contributor all his life- whether as a young army captain in Vietnam where he was awarded a Bronze Star or as an African-American breaking new ground in positions of leadership. In many ways our hospital talks reminded me of the wonderful story of Morrie Schwartz and Mitch Albom as described in the book tuesdays with Morrie.

Jack is gone. What we were going to do together I will now attempt to complete in his memory. This will be a difficult task for it was Jack who was the scholar, the writer and the driving force behind this effort.

City management is a great profession. It can be a very rewarding and a very frustrating profession. An article in the March, 1999 issue of ICMA’s Public Management, titled This Job Can Be a Nightmare gives five excellent examples of the frustrations. While I share with the reader some of my worst moments in city management, I choose to remember the rewards.

Jack and I loved being city managers! I was in the profession for 33 years and was a city manager for 26 of those years. Jack held many positions including Assistant City Manager, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Assistant City Manger Miami, Florida; Assistant County Manager, Hillsborough County, Florida; City Manager of Petersburg, Virginia; County Manager of Durham County, North Carolina and Chief Administrative Officer of Washington, D.C.

We loved the excitement, the working with dedicated and talented people and belonging to a great profession and an outstanding professional organization (International City/County Management Association). We enjoyed being in the eye of the hurricane, and having people look to us to navigate them out of troubled waters. Most of all, we liked making a positive difference in people’s lives.

City managers are in a position to make a difference in people’s lives. We are in a position to help shape the community’s history, goals and values. It may be in just a small corner of this country of ours, but within that small area (city/county) we can make a difference - a positive difference in people’s lives. Not too many professions can make that claim.

To say that I miss being a city manager would be an understatement of great proportion.

Thus, let the reader be aware that city management is so deeply entwined with so many of the good things that have occurred in my life that it is impossible to be objective about the profession. I will not even try.

By not writing this book sooner we lost Jack Bond’s experiences. This is a huge loss for Jack had many encounters as a black administrator that I did not have to deal with as a white administrator. Jack was also the most honorable and ethical person I have ever met. He had so much to share. While I know of many of the ups and downs in Jack’s long career, I do not feel that I can do justice to these events and will not try to write for Jack. I hope, however, my experiences and lessons learned over the years can help ease the way for those young men and women who choose city management as a career. If it does, my friend Jack Bond would be proud.

CHAPTER 1:

HISTORY OF THE COUNCIL-MANAGER FORM

OF GOVERNMENT

People, who are serious about their profession, will study its history. Appearing below is a short history of the city management profession.

The Council-Manager form of government is a direct result of the reform movement that started in the mid-1800’s to rid the country of political bosses and the corruption normally found within their administrations.

With the coming of the Industrial Revolution at the beginning of the 19th Century, local governments had to start addressing the conditions being created by millions of new immigrants flooding into the country. Until then, local governments did little more than keep the peace, put out fires and light the street lamps. Many of these services were performed by volunteers or citizens drafted to serve in lieu of paying taxes.

As the immigrants poured into our cities, they brought with them the need for urban services. Cities experienced high crime rates, terrible health conditions caused by crowded living conditions, lack of public water supplies and no wastewater treatment facilities. Dust, mud, horse droppings and garbage littered the streets. Water supplies came mostly from backyard wells and waste disposal was through outdoor privies. As a result, yellow fever, typhoid, and cholera epidemics frequently ran rampant in the cities.

Into this scene stepped politicians who saw a way to gain power by helping the new immigrants in return for their votes. The male immigrants, who could vote as soon as they became citizens, were more than delighted to give their votes to people who helped them find housing, get jobs and provide financial assistance when they were in need.

Political machines and the political bosses grew on the backs of the new immigrants. The political machines actually did a lot of good things. They were able to provide jobs as a result of the expanding governmental services and lend a helping hand to those in need. Since there were no social services agencies at the time, this was a tremendous benefit for many of the immigrants.

The political machines stayed in power by continuing to provide jobs and good personalized services to the citizens. As a city manager, I tried to deliver city services much in the manner of the political bosses without the politics or the corruption. Any student of government should study how the political machines organized and delivered services. The machines believed in providing good customer service personalized to the needs of the community or the individual.

The political machines, by centralizing power in one person, were able to get the job done. It wasn’t cost-effective, because of the corruption, but it was efficient and predictable. Businessmen who wanted to bring a major development project to the city had only to get the approval of the political boss to carry out their projects without any major disruptions from city regulations or inspections. This kind of one stop permitting required a payment over and above the normal city permit fees, but the business community would gladly pay it so their project could be built on time and without regulation headaches. To them it was just a cost of doing business.

The new immigrants and minorities often supported the political machines because they helped them assimilate into American society and provided upward mobility opportunities in the form of jobs. It has been claimed that Chicago’s Mayor Daley had some 30,000 jobs to hand out to his machine’s supporters.

With the immigrants, minorities and business community supporting the machines, what caused their demise?

Beginning in the early 1900’s, a number of events started to unfold that eventually toppled the political machines in this country. These included:

A slow realization that the widespread corruption canceled out the benefits of getting the job done and delivering good municipal services. The print news media’s technology had advanced to the point that major newspapers and news magazines were distributed nationwide and stories started appearing documenting the corruption that was taking place. The muckrakers, the name given to reporters who wrote these stories, brought to light the public monies that were being stolen and the high cost of services such as electrical power, telephone, etc., being provided by private companies who got their exclusive franchises from the political machines.

Immigration laws were toughened in the 1920’s which substantially reduced the flow of immigrants into the country, thus cutting off the life blood of the machines.

The programs enacted during the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt reduced the need to look to the political machines for assistance during times of need.

As many of the immigrants moved up the economic ladder, they moved to the suburbs, thus eroding the machines’ voting base within the city.

The machines got caught up in the civil rights movement and the class tensions that developed often split their voting blocks into different camps.

The machines did not suddenly disappear like pre-historic dinosaurs. It happened slowly, over a period of 75-plus years.The last true political boss was Mayor Richard Daley who served the City of Chicago from 1955 to 1976.

As early as the late1890’s people were becoming concerned with the state of local government and they started meeting in small groups across the country to devise a strategy for reform. Their goal was to rid the country of political machines and to replace them with professionally run governments at the local level.

Out of this movement came the creation of the National Municipal League. The NML created a Model City Charter which, if adopted, would change the very institutional structure under which local governments operated. The proposed Charter would bring to the community a more professionally run local government that would be more efficient, more economical and more open in the way the public business was handled.

To control election fraud, the new charter would:

Setup a strong system of voter registration.

Require the Australian Ballot (secret ballot) be use in local elections.

Incorporate an initiative and/or referendum provision so that citizens could introduce legislation when the elected officials refused to do so.

Incorporate a recall provision for the citizens to remove elected officials from office.

To control patronage, a civil service system would be set up to award governmental jobs based on merit rather than political affiliation. Police chiefs would be provided tenure much as university professors are today.

To bring more openness to the way the public business was being conducted, the Charter called for governments to adopt a business model of operating. This business model called for:

Adhering to strict accounting standards.

Adopting an open budgeting process.

Instituting strong internal and external auditing controls.

Requiring major purchases to be made by open competition.

In order for local governments to operate more professionally, the Charter called for the hiring of professional administrators to run the city. Under the plan, the administration would be separated from the politics.

The National Municipal League’s reforms were a hard sell. People were becoming concerned with the political boss system but they didn’t stampede to embrace a new form of government that promised to be more open, efficient and economical. The importance of the League’s Model Charter, however, cannot be downplayed. It was there, ready with a new way of doing business, if the citizens wanted to change their local government.

The first reform government did not come about because the citizens decided to throw out their local governmental officials and adopt the National Municipal League’s Model Charter. No, the first reform government was created to deal with a natural disaster that struck Galveston, Texas. In 1900, a rare category five hurricane hit Galveston. At that time, the hurricane warning system we have today was not available and, as a result, the hurricane was devastating. Nearly half the property in Galveston was destroyed, and 6,000 of the 36,000 citizens were killed.

To deal with the destruction and to get Galveston back on its feet as soon as possible, the governor appointed a group of businessmen to take over the operation of the local government.

The new structure, known as a commission, was successful beyond all expectations. The damage was repaired, the citizens’ needs were addressed, and city services were restored in short order.

Because of the success of this Commission form of government, the Texas Legislature established it as the permanent form of government for Galveston in 1903. The word spread through Texas, and by 1907 several major cities had adopted this new form of government including Dallas, Houston, and Fort Worth.

In 1908, Des Moines, Iowa modified the Galveston Plan and adopted what became the model for the Commission form of government. It called for:

Five commissioners elected at large in non-partisan elections.

Each commissioner would be a member of the policy making city commission and a director of a major service delivery operation such as fire or police.

Employees to be hired under a civil service merit based system.

The citizens to have initiative, referendum and recall powers.

The city to be operated as a business model as proposed in the Model Charter.

This became a very popular plan, and nearly 500 cities adopted the Commission form of government over the next 15-20 years. The Des Moines Plan, as it became known, promised a more efficient and less costly government, lower taxes, a more business like approach to running city government, and a better class of men standing for election.

After about 15 years operating under the Commission form of government, defects started coming to light. The plan had flaws that were going to be hard to overcome. These included:

The plan did not represent how businesses were run at all. Administration by committee left a lot to be desired. No successful business operated this way; all had someone to head the entire operation and to provide leadership for the organization.

Because all commissioners were equals, it created fragmented leadership.

Because each commissioner directed an operating department, each had a separate agenda that often caused a lack of cooperation