No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

How can local officials select benchmarking partners whose best practices have the most potential for applicability and success in improving service performance? This study suggests the process for selecting the most appropriate benchmarking partners and for making fair performance comparisons will be advanced if local officials initially address the issue of what level of input service quality level is desired or can be provided. Using data collected from a national survey, the study presents a framework for measuring service quality for municipal solid waste recycling programs. It examines the connection between input service quality and service outcomes and describes the results of analyses of the contextual factors and best practices that distinguish the top recycling performers and potential benchmarking partners in each service-quality class. The study suggests a model for how local officials can use this type of information to select an appropriate benchmarking partner. The study shows that a quality-of-service framework for municipal services can advance local decision making about what citizens and stakeholders expect and will support in terms of input service quality. It also can help local officials identify benchmarking partners that provide a service at the desired level of quality.

No abstract

No abstract

This study examines how chief executives in small U.S. cities allocate their time, view their involvement in decisions related to the dimensions of the governmental process, who they consult in making decisions about local services, and the extent to which they perceive that their decisions are influenced by community interest groups. The study confirms that several differences exist among the different types of executives with respect to time allocation and role emphases. City managers spent more time on and perceived themselves to be more extensively involved in decisions related to local mission, policy, administration, and management compared with mayors. Mayors and city managers exhibited different patterns of consultation with key stakeholders inmaking decisions about local services. City managers were more likely than mayors to engage in activities related to the city’s mission and policy, but they tempered that involvement with a more inclusive pattern of consultation.

Based on a national survey of small U.S. cities between 5,000 and 25,000 in size, this study classifies the level of municipal services provided by small communities and examines the community and governmental features that are related to those cities that provide higher levels of urban services. The study finds that after controlling for differences in population size, wealth, education, and metro status, those small cities that have a professional city manager and an adaptive or administrative type of local government structure are somewhat more likely to provide qualitatively higher levels of municipal services, suggesting that professional managers play an important role in advancing the level of service provided in the communities they serve.