Leadership Challenge 1: Roles & Responsibilities
Create and reinforce roles and responsibilities below the position of city/county manager or chief administrative officer
that bridge the gap while avoiding political alignment or administrative compromise.
Stakeholder(s):
- City Government Staff
- County Government Staff
- City Managers: City and county managers and some mayors are familiar with "working the gap" between administrative sustainability and political
acceptability (Nalbandian 2001; Nalbandian and Nalbandian 2002, 2003; Svara 2009), and much has been written about the importance
of council-staff effectiveness since initiation of the council-manager form in the early twentieth century (Nalbandian and
Portillo 2006). Today, most managers recognize this as part of their role.
- County Managers
- Jim Ley: For example, in an e-mail correspondence (March 2, 2012), Jim Ley, former county manager of Sarasota County, Florida, asked
philosophically, "Is it not our responsibility [city and county managers] to be the stewards of the system we manage, to teach
where teaching is absent, to demand accountability to our fundamental values of governance ... Are we courageous enough to
manage the narrative of the public good that is based in assuming such a role?"
- Sarasota County, Florida
- Ken Hampian: More directly, Ken Hampian, former city manager of San Luis Obispo, California, suggested that bridging the gap is a core
requirement for many positions and that city (and county) managers must be the role models for department heads in this regard.
Further, he suggested that some city (and county) managers "just don't get the more textured nature of the job and public
and organizational leadership skills/attitudes needed today. They tend to work within a paradigm that is black and white (where
staff, of course, is wearing the white hat and is protector of all that is good, just and honorable)" (e-mail correspondence,
February 19, 2012).
- San Luis Obispo, California
- Governing Bodies: As the gap increases -- to a significant degree, attributable locally to the tensions between administrative modernization
and the politics of identity -- the city and county manager's role as a "bridge builder" is accentuated, and he or she is
likely to spend more time with the governing body and community members than in the past. This leaves less time for managers
to translate political thinking into administrative problems to be solved for the benefit of staff.
- Community Members
- Department Heads: One important consequence is that department heads -- who formerly earned respect for running their departments efficiently
and effectively and producing policy-related information and recommendations -- are now expected to move into the gap and
to understand, respect, and contribute to the concept of "political acceptability." According to O'Neill (2012), once in the
gap, they are expected to broaden their mental maps to focus on common public problems such as economic development, safety
and security, health care, education, and the environment, requiring an interdisciplinary, interdepartmental approach that
may extend beyond the organization itself. As the gap increases -- to a significant degree, attributable locally to the tensions
between administrative modernization and the politics of identity -- the city and county manager's role as a "bridge builder"
is accentuated, and he or she is likely to spend more time with the governing body and community members than in the past.
- Debra Figone: Debra Figone, city manager of San Jose, California, added, "Department heads are agents of the city manager, not free agents;
working in the gap to meet my expectations is imbedded in this principle" (e-mail correspondence, February 20, 2012).
- Olathe Leadership Team: This effect was confirmed in our discussions with the Olathe leadership team and in the responses from the national respondents.
Those department heads who today add value are not the ones who simply accept "politics" or who in the past have worked the
gap to their own department's advantage. Instead, they understand the values trade-offs that are taking place, and they increasingly
find themselves involved in the world of politics—which the manager can no longer shield them from—becoming sensitized to
political dynamics, it is hoped, without being captured by them (Nalbandian 2001).
- Katy Simon: Katy Simon, county manager of Washoe County, Nevada, made this point succinctly: "I believe considerable training and mentoring
is needed to help department leaders successfully navigate the political landscape. Another angle on this issue is the perilous
tendency of some department heads to coalesce with a single elected leader or a faction that expresses particular interest
in their department ... this can result in numerous meetings without the manager, information exchanges that do not include
the manager or assistant manager, and the risk of engendering ill will with the other electeds" (e-mail correspondence, February
17, 2012).
- Washoe County, Nevada
- Michael Wilkes: However, as Michael Wilkes, city manager of Olathe, Kansas, pointed out, because of the complex environment that administrative
staff find themselves in (described in Leadership Challenge 2), the city or county manager must trust that department heads
will act in concert with team goals and culture. This puts put the manager in a vulnerable position, risking that department
heads will use their discretion in working the gap to increase their own power base and credibility, possibly at the manager's
expense (e-mail correspondence, March 23, 2012). Simon alluded to this earlier.
- Department Heads: While political capture or alliance requires caution as department heads move into the gap, the department head faces another
challenge: appearing to his or her staff as abandoning administrative and professional integrity, as well as standing up for
his or her department employees.
- Public Safety Department Chiefs: Figone reinforced this point when she observed that in San Jose, where there is acute fiscal stress, attention has shifted
to pension obligations. She noted that the chiefs of the public safety departments are put in a particularly difficult position,
as they must weigh their obligations as agents of the city manager with obligations to their staff. Likewise, Wilkes indicated
that although ideological politics are filtering down to the local level with more evidence of uncompromising positions, it
is not unusual for the city or county manager to be challenged by an administrative cadre that (1) has become more specialized
and discipline oriented and (2) at times is not ready to accept that a "reset" in local government is occurring (interview,
September 7, 2011). In a subsequent correspondence, Wilkes continued to discuss this challenge: "The manager may intuitively
know that a staff initiative is politically unacceptable at the same time that staff feels it is not only administratively
sustainable, but an administrative imperative. These moments challenge the manager's ability to lead the organization, raising
questions in staff's eyes regarding the manager's commitment to the organization and professionalism" (March 23, 2012).
Objective(s):
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