What are the typical career paths of city managers serving in the nation's largest cities? This article examines the career paths of 113 city managers in council‐manager cities with populations over 100,000. The authors identify four distinct career paths for city managers—long servers, lateral movers, ladder climbers, and‐single city careerists—and find that city managers in the largest council‐manager cities are commonly ladder climbers or single‐city careerists. This research shows the stereotypical description of the ladder climber as the only career path is incomplete. Many large cities are providing opportunities for career development, making it unnecessary for city councils to select outsiders to fill top positions. While other research has shown that nearly four‐fifths of city managers are hired from outside, only 54 percent of the city managers in the largest cities were outsiders at the time they were hired.
The literature on council–manager government often mentions the political difficulties that city managers face with their elected officials and constituent groups. In addition, the generally accepted route to success for city managers is to move to larger and better–paying cities. As a result of these push–and–pull factors, the average tenure of city managers is short. There are, however, a relatively small number of city managers who enjoy long tenure in single cities. The authors identified the 146 city managers who are serving and have served for at least 20 years the same city and sought to determine the factors leading to their long service. The survey indicates that long–serving city managers are more likely to be found in smaller cities that are homogeneous and politically stable. The majority of these city managers are white males with above–average educational levels, strong support from elected officials, and personal commitments to the cities they serve.
The authors identified 146 city managers who have served in the same city for the past 20 years and asked them to complete a survey to determine the factors leading to their long service. As a part of the survey, the city managers were invited to express, in their own words, the reasons they had stayed in the same city for such an extended time compared to the average tenure for city managers. In the article that follows, the authors quote from the academic literature statements pertaining to practical issues of concern to city managers and the elected officials for whom they work, giving credence to the applicability of the academic literature to today's city management profession. Following the quotations from the literature, the authors present the heartfelt reflections of these senior city managers on their long careers in public service.
Since 1934, the federal government has provided a process for municipalities to declare bankruptcy, and approximately 500 governments have done so. In recent years, an average of less than one city government declares bankruptcy each year. In this article, the authors identify five factors that contribute to financial distress for cities which, if left unattended, can lead to municipal bankruptcy. This discussion is followed by an examination of the events that led to the bankruptcy of the City of Prichard, Alabama, once a prosperous suburb of Mobile.
An annual citizen survey can be a valuable component of the municipal budgeting process for cities that elect to institutionalize the process as a way to translate citizen feedback into budgetary priorities. This article explores uses of citizen surveys in identifying latent needs of the community that may not be detected through public hearings or other citizen participation methods. The authors suggest that properly developed and conducted citizen surveys can provide decision-makers with research data that will lead to more responsive public spending and debt financing decisions. The article concludes with a case study of Auburn, Alabama, a city that has successfully used citizen surveys in its budgeting system for the past seventeen years.
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