Long–Serving City Managers: Why Do They Stay?

Abstract

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.

Does Political Change Affect Senior Management Turnover? An Empirical Analysis of Top-Tier Local Authorities in England

“…The literatures on the relationship between elected and unelected officials in the public sector and on the control of senior management teams in private firms are rich and varied. So far, however, there have been few studies that address these hypotheses, either in national or local governments, although some studies have been published on the tenure of city managers in US local governments (Whitaker and DeHoog 1991; Feiock and Stream 1998; Watson and Hassett 2003; Hanbury et al 2004; McCabe et al 2008). The relevance of evidence from this latter context to our hypotheses is limited for several reasons.…”

Turnover among City Managers: The Role of Political and Economic Change

“…Managers of larger cities (those with populations of 100,000 or more) frequently follow a somewhat diff erent career path in that a substantial minority (about 45 percent) of these managers spend their careers working in the city in which they eventually serve as managers. Many larger cities, it appears, "grow their own" managers through career paths available within the city (Watson and Hassett 2004). Turnover remains a key issue, however, whether a change in the manager's position comes from within the city's ranks or from another city.…”

“…Administrators serving in more affl uent and racially homogenous communities may experience less confl ict, resulting in lower turnover rates. For example, Watson and Hassett (2003) relied on the 2000 national survey data from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) to identify "long-serving" city managers (those who retained their positions for 20 or more years). Less than 5 percent of the survey respondents had served such terms, and most of the cities in which these managers served were relatively homogenous, politically stable cities with populations under 30,000 ( Watson and Hassett 2003 ).…”

Career Paths of City Managers in America's Largest Council‐Manager Cities

“…This is especially true if there is a shift in the majority on the city council (Svara 1990, 53). Svara describes two patterns of interaction in cities-one based on conflict and one on cooperation (1990, 27;Watson and Hassett 2002). In cities that base their political way of life on the conflictual model, it is difficult to have consensus about community goals because "the prevailing motto is 'do it to them before they can do it to you'" (1990,53).…”