Facilitating Community, Enabling Democracy: New Roles for Local Government Managers

Abstract

Dennis Hays, administrator of Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, found himself in an unfamiliar role. In presence of governor, mayor, and other dignitaries, Hays was asked to take lead in a press conference announcing that International Speedway Corporation had begun negotiating with Unified Government as a partner in construction of a NASCAR racetrack. His highly visible role in project was being recognized and future expectations were being cast. Kansas City, Kansas, once a manufacturing stronghold in northeast Kansas, is a city searching for lost pride. Hays, analytical and compassionate, and educated to believe that role of manager is to work backstage, found himself leading a project that would have significant effect on sense of community in this city and on his own definition of professionalism. This research, based on data gathered from open-ended survey questions, correspondence, and in-depth panel discussions, also utilizes earlier findings for a then and now examination of contemporary roles, responsibilities, and values of city managers. City managers are seen as community builders and enablers of democracy. With those goals, they have become skilled at facilitative leadership and at building partnerships and consensus. Also, they have become more aware that legitimacy of city manager role demands more than a legal foundation in council-manager government, manager's adherence to value of efficiency, and making recommendations based on the greatest good for greatest number over long run. In today's political environment of diverse and conflicting interests, managers must anticipate and attend to claims for equity, representation, and individual rights if they are to succeed as partner to elected officials and citizens they serve and as leader of professional staff they supervise. The Past In my earlier review of in local government I concluded that city management had transformed itself over several decades in three fundamental ways. It had moved from an orthodox view of a dichotomy between politics and administration to sharing of functions between elected and appointed officials; from political neutrality and formal accountability to political sensitivity and responsiveness to community values themselves; and from efficiency as core value to efficiency, representation, individual rights, and social equity as a complex array of values anchoring professionalism (Nalbandian, 1991, 103). The first change represented an evolution of roles, second a broader statement of professional responsibility, and third set out to capture contemporary value base of city management. Those familiar with in local government will see that to a large extent many recent changes have reinforced these transformations. During ten years, following changes stand out: * Community building has become part of city management professional's responsibility. * Managers are expected to facilitate participation and representation and to develop partnerships. * There is less adherence to council manager government as one best form. * The manager's internal administrative role has become more process oriented. What's New Community Building Historical reviews of city management reveal a continuing search for meaning of (Stillman, 1974). As social, economic, political, and technological trends create new contexts, roles, responsibilities, and values of practicing professionals change. In my earlier project, I tried to define in local government as grounded in a broader array of community values than had been posited traditionally. But what I failed to articulate was search for a sense of community as a way to conceptualize a context for contemporary professional work. …