CITY MANAGER PLAN

CITY MANAGER PLAN, a scheme of government that assigns responsibility for municipal administration to a nonpartisan manager chosen by the city council because of his or her administrative expertise. In 1908, Staunton, Virginia, appointed the first city manager. The figure most responsible for the early promotion of the plan, however, was a wealthy young progressive reformer from New York City, Richard Childs. In 1910, he drafted a model manager charter for Lockport, New York, and embarked on a crusade to spread the gospel of manager rule.

With its emphasis on efficiency and expertise, the plan won an enthusiastic following among Progressive Era Americans. Proponents argued that cities, like business corporations, should be run by professional managers. Like corporate boards of directors, city councils should fix basic policy and hire the manager, but an expert needed to be in charge of the actual operation of the city. In 1913, Dayton, Ohio, became the first major city to adopt the scheme, and the following year, eight managers gathered in Springfield, Ohio, to form the City Managers' Association. In 1915, the National Municipal League incorporated the manager plan in its Model Charter, and, henceforth, good-government reformers and academics acclaimed it the preferred form of municipal rule. By 1923, 251 cities had adopted the plan, and fifteen years later the figure was up to 451.

The American City Bureau of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce joined the National Municipal League and Richard Childs in the promotion of manager rule. Because of the bureau's backing and the plan's supposed resemblance to the operation of a business corporation, manager rule especially appealed to business interests, who in one city after another boosted the reform. Although the nation's largest cities did not embrace the plan, such major municipalities as Cincinnati, Ohio; Kansas City, Missouri; Toledo, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; and San Diego, California, did hire city managers.

The reality of manager government, however, did not always conform to the plan's ideal. Many of the early managers were engineers with expertise in the planning and administration of public works, but others were local political figures. For example, the first city manager of Kansas City was a member of Boss Tom Pendergast's corrupt political organization. Moreover, in some cities clashes with council members produced a high turnover rate among managers. According to proponents of the plan, the manager was supposed to administer, and the council was supposed to make policy. But this sharp distinction between administration and policymaking was unrealistic. Managers both formulated and implemented policies, and conflicts with council members resulted. Although the manager was expected to be above the political fray, this often proved impossible.

The plan, however, remained popular, and council members learned to defer to the manager's judgment. During the second half of the twentieth century, hundreds of additional municipalities adopted the manager plan, and by the close of the century, council-manager government had surpassed mayor-council rule as the most common form of municipal organization in the United States.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Stillman, Richard J., II. The Rise of the City Manager: A Public Professional in Local Government. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1974.

Stone, Harold A., Don K. Price, and Kathryn H. Stone. City Manager Government in the United States: A Review after Twenty-five Years. Chicago: Public Administration Service, 1940.