Honoring the Public Trust through Ethical Conduct
City and town managers or administrators who are members of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) agree to abide by a strict Code of Ethics. The ICMA Code of Ethics specifies 12 ethical principles of personal and professional conduct, including complete dedication to democracy and the fair and equitable delivery of services to all residents. These standards go well beyond those required by law and include the provision that members shall refrain from participating in the election of the members of the employing legislative body as well as refraining from all political activities which undermine public confidence in professional administrators. The professional administrator must demonstrate ethical and legal awareness in personal and professional relationships and be dedicated to the highest principals of honesty, integrity, and excellence in management.
Link at: http://icma.org/main/bc.asp?bcid=61&hsid=1&ssid1=2510&ssid2=2517
Born out of the turn-of-the-century progressive reform movement, the council-manager system of local government is one of the few original American contributions to political theory. In 1908, Staunton, Virginia, instituted the first position legally defining, by ordinance, the broad authority and responsibility associated with today’s professional local government manager. Sumter, South Carolina, was the first city to adopt a charter incorporating the basic principles of council-manager government in 1912. Westmount, Quebec, introduced the form to Canada in 1913. The first large city to adopt the plan was Dayton, Ohio, in 1914. The first counties to adopt it in the l930s were Arlington County, Virginia, and Durham County and Robeson County, North Carolina. Since its establishment, the council-manager form has become the most popular form of government in the United States in communities with populations of 5,000 or greater. The form also is popular in Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Honduras, Chile, and Brazil. For more than 85 years, council-manager government has responded to the changing needs of citizens and their communities.
The council and mayor together hire the city manager to serve the council and the community. The applicant has managed cities and staff of comparable size, has strong business training in all areas of management, including ethics, human resources, finance and marketing. The candidate also must know how to integrate value such as representation, social equity and individual rights into his or her management style.
A manager or professional CAO brings to the local government the benefits of training and experience in administering local government projects and programs on behalf of the governing body. The manager prepares a budget for the council’s consideration; recruits, hires, and supervises the government’s staff; serves as the council’s chief adviser; and carries out the council’s policies. Council members and citizens count on the manager to provide complete and objective information, pros and cons of alternatives, and long-term consequences.
More detailed info at the following ICMA link:
http://icma.org/main/bc.asp?bcid=61&hsid=1&ssid1=2510&ssid2=2517
New Orleans has over 75 different neighborhood organizations, many have become more active since Katrina. These organizations motivate their members to participate in a wide variety of civic events and policy decisions that affect their immediate neighborhood. In addition New Orleans neighborhood organizations keep their members informed on topics that impact the city as a whole.
Neighborhood groups serve as the backbone to a strong council manager system. Council members can easily contact neighborhood groups to guage impact on a particular policy matter. If a resident chooses to involve him or herself in local politics he or she has ready access to a neighborhood group. In addition some parts of the city sub neighborhood groups have formed to serve a smaller geographic area withing a larger organization.
Many New Orleanians have re-built their homes and lives without much support from government, be it local, state or federal. Therefore many are no longer passive about how their local government is run. A concil manager style affords citizens greater input to their eleted officials and thus to the city manager who is implementing policies.
Every year since 2005, Money magazine has joined with CNN to develop a list of “Best Places to Live.” The list includes what the magazine refers to as “America’s best small cities” and evaluates communities based on job availability, schools, amount of affordable housing stock, overall quality of life, and other factors. ICMA reviewed the list of 2008 communities and found that 66% of the top 100 operate under the council-manager form of government, strongly suggesting that professional local government management plays a key role in the success of small communities throughout the U.S. That percentage compares with other forms of government as follows:
Council Manager 67%
Mayor Council 20%
Commission 1%
Unknown 12% (includes combined communities, metro districts, and other entities that do not list a specific form of government.)
A press release on the 2008 top 100 communities and a list of the top 100 cities with their form of government is available at http://icma.org/main/ld.asp?ldid=21184&hsid=10&tpid=20.
To review the entire CNN/Money report visit http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2008
