Continuing Education for City Managers

Continuing Education for City ManagersAuthor(s): William V. DonaldsonSource: Public Administration Review, Vol. 33, No. 6 (Nov. - Dec., 1973), pp. 504-508Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Society for Public AdministrationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/974561 .

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PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW

C ONTINUING EDUCATION FOR CITY MANAGERS

William V. Donaldson, City Manager, Tacoma, Washington

My purpose is to suggest a continuing education program for city managers that will be useful and relevant to their jobs. I will argue that most of the present continuing educational opportunities for managers are based on the erroneous

understanding of the city manager's job and are at best a waste of time. I will try to develop a more accurate description of the manager and his job which will provide a framework for a suggested training program that may be more useful to all of us as managers. The best way I can do this is to describe my experience as a manager and the

understanding of the job I have developed. It became apparent to me when I started my

first job as a city manager that I was entering a distinguished profession and making a tremendous contribution to my fellow man. Before I was actually sure of the location of city hall, I

prepared my first speech about city government for the third grade class at Monte Vista Elemen- tary School. I felt this was a good jumping off

place and an opportunity to talk to someone who would at least listen without laughing.

With my theological background firmly in mind, I prepared a sermon on the city manager profession and arbitrarily decided that this ap- proach had more value than "laying on" them the real problems the city was then facing. The speech, if I do say so myself, was an outstanding sermon on city virtues. I got so that I could deliver it almost without losing my place.

About the fifth time I gave it, I began to realize, as I looked up from my script, that no one was listening. I then began to throw in a few extra things like changes in the police department, the latest zoning row, and tax increases, and you would be amazed how the attention span length- ened in what I had to say. In order to maintain my ICMA card, I also slipped in a few shots about the "profession."

As I became more firmly entrenched in the profession, and with more research, experience, and advice, I changed my "speech" to fit different cities and conditions. In effect, I developed a raised pedestal upon which the professional city manager stands, sits, or squats depending on the manager. It was not too surprising to find that this

pedestal concept was shared publicly by most of my colleagues in the National Municipal League. This splendid creature, radiating civic virtue, creat- ed out of civic idealism and trained as a non-

political administrator, mounted his charger daily to improve local government by efficiently and fairly carrying out the policies of the elected officials. He was a resplendent figure, combining the best parts of Saint George, Woodrow Wilson, and Mr. Chips, as he stood (if I may be free with metaphors) with his foot planted firmly on the back of civic slough and his hand tightly throttling the throat of political corruption and bossism. I

got so good at presenting this picture that you could almost hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing "Onward Christian Soldiers" in the background. There was even a strong move in one city to make me an honorary member of the League of Women Voters. Before you make up your mind that this article is irrelevant, I hope you will indulge me by thinking about what effect that which we managers think and say we are has on the training we receive and seek.

The Non-Specialist Leader

An examination of the graduate program in public administration at most universities, a review of the schedule of last year's ICMA Conference, or a look at the subjects covered by advanced management courses designed for city management demonstrates how the manager's view of his job influences the contents of these programs. The would-be manager is trained as a managerial generalist, uncontaminated by any taint of political craft or knowledge of how a fire truck works, by cloistered academicians who rank below philos- ophy professors but above engineeirng professors in the academic pecking order. The practicing manager is nurtured by conference programs re- minding him of his role as a non-political, non- specialist leader. The manager who feels the need for advanced training can choose from a panoply of training courses where he can learn the latest techniques of general non-political management.

The molding and polishing of the city manager is designed to produce a figure that is a reasonable

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facsimile of the statue I envisaged. If this view of the manager and his job is accurate, we are on the

right track with our training programs. If we have

developed a false or incomplete picture of the

manager and his job, pre-entry and advanced

training programs will, if they are at all effective, decrease our ability to manage cities. They will be

training us for a role that exists only in the wishful

thinking of the municipal reformers. I am sure if any of you have read this far, you

can point out that I have over-simplifed the

complex relationship of our jobs as city managers, our image of that job, and the training that has been designed to prepare us for it. I plead guilty! I have exaggerated for effect and over-simplified to make my point and lay the groundwork for what I

hope will be some helpful ideas about improving the training designed to prepare and improve us as

managers. To get to these suggestions in such a way that

the reader will even consider them, I had better make a confession: I don't fit the image. The statue is of someone else. As far as it concerned me or my job, the "speech" was a fraud. When this truth first crossed my mind I tried to suppress it, but it kept coming back and the only rationaliza- tion I had for going on with the "speech" was - even if I didn't fit, other managers did.

I managed to comfort myself with this thought for some time because, for one reason or another, I was afraid to leave town. Thus, I did not go to

very many managers' meetings, and missed the true confessions that follow an evening of no-host

fellowship after a day of pondering the future of the "profession" in a series of seemingly endless

panel discussions and business meetings. When I found out that leaving town was not necessarily fatal, and started to go to an occasional managers' meeting, I discovered (if barroom confessions count) other managers shared my doubts about the accuracy of the professional image of the

manager. It was almost like the first time one of

my friends concurred in my suspicion that there

really was no Santa Claus. But I continued to make the "speech" before

innumerable civic classes, service clubs, and women's clubs with little change in its portrayal of the "profession," even though I began to realize that some of my listeners shared my doubts about its truth. I continued to whistle in the dark, but the truth seems to haunt me and I am afraid it will out. This, with a push from Tom Fletcher, might be the time for it to happen. The city manager

"profession" does not now fit, nor has it ever

fitted, the image and it would be a disaster if it did.

Management as a Craft

What, then, is the manager's job? Can we

develop an image of the "profession" that is closer to reality and suggest a training program that will

help the manager fit the image? In discussing this

problem, I would like to drop the identification

"profession" and substitute craft. I debated using art instead of craft and it would probably sound

classier, but I didn't think it expressed the idea I wanted to convey as well as craft. Craft implies a certain discipline coupled with creativity, pride in

workmanship developed in apprenticeship training, tempered with the desire to remain anonymous.

There are times when the craftsman breaks

through the disciplines of his craft and by his

creativity enters the ranks of the artist. This is also true of the practitioner of city management, but it occurs so rarely that we can discount this leap from craft to art and examine the city manager's job in the context of craft with the hope it may offer some suggestions in developing a useful

training program. I apologize to those of my colleagues who are

offended by my suggestion that we stop thinking of our jobs as a profession. I am sure when they reflect on some of the other groups who call themselves professionals (whores, undertakers, newspaper reporters, etc.), this sense of loss will

disappear and when they consider the idea of craft

they may come to like it. If we eventually adopt the idea of a city management craft, rather than

profession, the only people who would have severe

problems with the loss of status would be the

professors of public administration (they could continue to teach professional management and

policy science to mid-grade federal civil servants, which would keep both groups occupied to the benefit of society).

I don't think that too many managers would

really maintain, under sodium pentothal, that they are free of any politcal craft. Managers live their lives in the world of politics, and their success as managers is based on their ability to deal with this world. If managers fail to understand the political realities that confront their masters on the city council, they cannot serve them either effectively or honestly. To pretend that managers are above the political activity that determines the attitudes


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and develops the power of the councils they work for is really a repudiation of the whole democratic

system. The issues we bring to the council, the information we present to support our recommen- dations, and the directions we give our employees in carrying out the council's policy all demand an

insight into the political nature of our communi- ties.

I remember trying to convince a mayor, who was smarter than I, that I would make the administrative decisions and he and the council would make the political decisions. This was a

classy way, I thought, of telling him not to bug around with administration and to confine himself to the dirty area of politics. I never tried this

argument again, when he said, "Oh! you mean you will handle the easy problems and the council and I will solve the hard ones." We may wear a

non-political mask when we face the public, but we and the councils we work for realize it is a mask that hides one of the best politicians in town even if he is an anonymous one.

While it is easy to demolish the myth that

managers are non-political, because managers have never really tried to be non-political (even if they are often inept at being political), it is harder to demonstrate that managers are and should be

specialists in the many skills our cities and their citizens demand. This is for two reasons: the first is emotional-it is nice to see ourselves as

knight-errants, leading the technicians in a grand crusade for the good and the true (it is easy to leave the details of the battle to someone else; unfortunately, it often leads to defeat).

The second reason is more preactical- we often don't know very much about what our

employees are doing and are afraid we will lose face if we admit it. I remember well the cold panic that seized me during my first year as manager when the public works director presented me with a set of specifications for a street sweeper and asked for my opinion. All I knew about street

sweepers was they were big, cost a lot of money, and went chug! chug! I really hadn't figured out that they didn't work, or that they are the kind of machine a company would give you if you would

agree to buy parts from the company.

Understanding the Problems Involved

I found that I entered the job as manager with a general concept of budgeting, personnel administration, and general city finances, but I didn't

really know very much about what most of the

employees were doing or about the technical

problems they faced in carrying out their jobs. It is

really not too surprising that we continue to use fire fighting technology that is 50 years out of date, when managers confine their knowledge of the fire department to how many hours the firemen watch television and how much per capita the fire service costs.

To expect any substantial change from any of the people who are charged with delivering city service certainly demands that we provide for them new ideas and leadership as well as criticism and restraints.

The fact that many managers do not even want to understand the technical and human implica- tions and opportunities of the various activities entrusted to their supervision produces a sense of frustration both on their part and on the part of the people they supervise. It is a demonstration of human perverstiy, the way in which all the parties to this process rationalize this frustration as a series of "barriers" that require change on the part of others.

Thus, the director of one of our generally useful organizations, in recent testimony before the Congress, identified a series of barriers to

explain why there has been so little transfer of

technology between industry and the cities. The barriers he identified included such things as limited planning horizons, fear of the conse- quences of failure, lack of market aggregation, etc. But he never mentioned that possibly one of the most important reasons for failure is that the local officials charged with supervising the fire service do not know enough about the fire service to provide creative leadership to the fire department.

The implication that the recital of barriers seems to have is that experts know what to do to improve government performance, but the per- formers in government are so frightened of change and so dumb that they won't accept the experts' ideas. It is not surprising that this prophecy comes true. Both the technologist and the practitioner become increasingly frustrated with each other and with their efforts to provide services for the citizens of our cities.

My own experience suggests that these barriers to improvement are illusions. They are designed to protect us from examining our own attitudes with a view to change, and to explain our failure to use new techniques. I have come to this conclusion after finding my ability to work with my muni-


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cipal associates in making improvements in our

ability to deliver services increased with my understanding of the technical and human resources available. The reserve of skill, knowledge, and will that is available for constructive change in

municipal government can easily be released when a manager is willing to understand the problems involved and provides the spark of incentive that breaches the dam of fear and frustration that

imprisons all of us. It is unrealistic to expect much in the way of

municipal management improvement from a series of workshops using sensitivity training when the

problem was not lack of sensitivity, but lack of

knowledge about the job and the availability of resources to improve performance. (Sensitivity training is a grand process - the sensitive become more sensitive and the insensitive become more insensitive at great cost in time, money, and good will.)

While you may still have a number of reserva- tions about my description of the manager and his

job, hopefully you are at least interested enough to think about a continuing training program that uses that description as a model. The suggestions that I will make are only a beginning. You can build on them and experiment with them and

hopefully come up with some ideas that are better than mine.

Putting Theory into Practice

The first problem is tackling the job of making the manager a better politician. Politics is like love

making in that you have to do it to improve. No amount of study of the Kama Sutra will be of much value to your love life unless you have someone to practice with. The same thing is true of the political process. The handbooks about how to run a political campaign really won't help you unless you can put the theory into practice.

The best suggestion I can make in this area is to take part in a political campaign outside your area of responsibility. School board elections, state

legislative battles, and special district elections all offer possibilities if you use discretion and com- mon sense. It is important you not only help someone else get elected, but that you see from his point of view problems he faces once elected.

The problems of dealing with the bureaucracy and constituents will seem quite different when you see them from this point of view, and that insight will improve your ability to respond

intelligently to the demands of your own elected masters. There may even be some value in getting elected to some allegedly non-political office

yourself. This can happen in a church or other

organization. While it is not quite the same thing as "real" politics, it does have some value in the

attempt to transform your grandstand political seat into a real understanding of how the game is

played. This sort of political training could be supple-

mented by inviting elected officials to our man-

agers' meetings to talk to us about the art of

politics and the problem of effectively using the resources available to municipal government. I am not sure this will be too helpful, since most elected officials have the sense to be fairly evasive when

talking to those that they see as part of the

bureaucracy, but we may find exceptions. The ways open to us to find out more about

the technical and human problems and resources available to improve government are more varied and easier to use, because it is something we are

expected to do and there is no shortage of police chiefs, fire chiefs, and public works directors

willing to help us. The first step is to do some of the jobs yourself.

No one who has operated one can fail to understand the nature of street sweepers; nor can one not know the shortcomings of a fireman's breathing apparatus after wearing one in a smoke-filled

building. The attitudes, problems, and equipment needs of the police force are better understood when you have participated in a policeman's job for a few shifts. You can begin to see the treatment plant operator's frustration with his

equipment when you yourself have had to solve the problem of a rapid increase in the rate of flow and a clogged bar screen. Not only will you learn

something about the job your employees are

performing, but your honest desire to know how the job is performed will change your employees' attitudes toward you and their relationships with you. I am constantly surprised how many ideas for constructive change come out of this sort of

exchange, and how much better I am able to

anticipate problems and make use of new resources as a result of it.

The annual managers' meeting can be used to further our efforts to understand the human and technical resources that are available to us. The opportunity is almost unlimited to demonstrate the latest technology at managers' meetings, rather than listen to the manager of Podunk Falls explain


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PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW

how he won the coveted organic gardening award for a city seal prominently displaying an artichoke rampant. Imagine how much more fun it would be to try out a new fire nozzle than it is to attend the annual business meeting. The demonstration of new products and an interchange of ideas between managers, manufacturers, inventors, and scientists would open up new fields of creativity to all parties involved.

It is to our shame that the organizations composed of fire chiefs, police chiefs, public works directors, and the rest have, in an effort to

appear professional like the managers, allowed their annual gatherings to be as dull and as general as ours. Not only have we deprived ourselves of useful information, but we have led our friends down the primrose path to professional respectabi- lity.

It would be exciting to watch the change in cities if next year's ICMA meeting were a "field day" where ideas sent in by cities' personnel were tested and evaluated by managers and their municipal associates. The creative energies that could be released by doing away with the endless commit- tee meetings, the craft and intrigue that would be

how he won the coveted organic gardening award for a city seal prominently displaying an artichoke rampant. Imagine how much more fun it would be to try out a new fire nozzle than it is to attend the annual business meeting. The demonstration of new products and an interchange of ideas between managers, manufacturers, inventors, and scientists would open up new fields of creativity to all parties involved.

It is to our shame that the organizations composed of fire chiefs, police chiefs, public works directors, and the rest have, in an effort to

appear professional like the managers, allowed their annual gatherings to be as dull and as general as ours. Not only have we deprived ourselves of useful information, but we have led our friends down the primrose path to professional respectabi- lity.

It would be exciting to watch the change in cities if next year's ICMA meeting were a "field day" where ideas sent in by cities' personnel were tested and evaluated by managers and their municipal associates. The creative energies that could be released by doing away with the endless commit- tee meetings, the craft and intrigue that would be

available for productive use if we stopped worry- ing about who would be on the board next year, and the time made free for useful work if we worried less about the status of our profession could well push city management into a position of real leadership and help for our cities.

I am always surprised at how much we talk about team work to our employees and how fast we retreat to our own exclusive club to talk about "big issues" that affect cities. A willingness to treat our municipal associates as valued partners in

improving municipal performance, rather than telling other managers about the Police Chiefs Association's latest raid on the pension fund, or the director of library's end run to the Ladies Aid on his budget allowance, could produce the kind of respect that is the start of the productive cooperation we need so badly.

Would a continuing education program based on such ideas help us provide the kind of leadership our cities need? I think it is well worth trying. It may be that facing the true role of the

manager and his craft in our continuing education programs would result in replacing the sword in Saint George's hand with a wrench.

available for productive use if we stopped worry- ing about who would be on the board next year, and the time made free for useful work if we worried less about the status of our profession could well push city management into a position of real leadership and help for our cities.

I am always surprised at how much we talk about team work to our employees and how fast we retreat to our own exclusive club to talk about "big issues" that affect cities. A willingness to treat our municipal associates as valued partners in

improving municipal performance, rather than telling other managers about the Police Chiefs Association's latest raid on the pension fund, or the director of library's end run to the Ladies Aid on his budget allowance, could produce the kind of respect that is the start of the productive cooperation we need so badly.

Would a continuing education program based on such ideas help us provide the kind of leadership our cities need? I think it is well worth trying. It may be that facing the true role of the

manager and his craft in our continuing education programs would result in replacing the sword in Saint George's hand with a wrench.

TRAINING AND EDUCATION:

TRENDS, DIFFERENCES, AND ISSUES

Richard C. Collins, Federal Executive Institute

TRAINING AND EDUCATION:

TRENDS, DIFFERENCES, AND ISSUES

Richard C. Collins, Federal Executive Institute

The last five years have been marked by three

developments which may fundamentally alter the sources of institutional and intellectual leadership for public administration as a field of study. These developments are: the tremendous growth in government efforts to increase managerial and executive effectiveness through training; the move- ment away from political science and towards social psychology and psychology as the dominant

disciplines in the field; and the increasing interest throughout government and the universities in public administration as source of "continuing" in addition to "pre-entry" education.

Governments obviously are coming to believe that the reasons their policies are ineffective is at

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the Federal Executive Institute or the U.S. Civil Service Commission.

The last five years have been marked by three

developments which may fundamentally alter the sources of institutional and intellectual leadership for public administration as a field of study. These developments are: the tremendous growth in government efforts to increase managerial and executive effectiveness through training; the move- ment away from political science and towards social psychology and psychology as the dominant

disciplines in the field; and the increasing interest throughout government and the universities in public administration as source of "continuing" in addition to "pre-entry" education.

Governments obviously are coming to believe that the reasons their policies are ineffective is at

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the Federal Executive Institute or the U.S. Civil Service Commission.

least in part due to management shortcomings. That is a debatable presumption in some quarters, but let us assume that programs can be made more effective by the availability of more able managers and executives. Is it then possible to assume that this simply can be increased through training and education?

James Q. Wilson, for one, is willing to concede the first point, perhaps, but not the second:

Some things literally cannot be done - or cannot be done well - because there is no one available to do them who knows how. The supply of able, experienced executives is not increasing nearly as fast as the number of problems being addressed by public policy. All the fellowships, internships, and "mid-career" training programs in the world aren't likely to increase that supply very much, simply because the essential qualities for an executive, judgment about men and events, a facility for

least in part due to management shortcomings. That is a debatable presumption in some quarters, but let us assume that programs can be made more effective by the availability of more able managers and executives. Is it then possible to assume that this simply can be increased through training and education?

James Q. Wilson, for one, is willing to concede the first point, perhaps, but not the second:

Some things literally cannot be done - or cannot be done well - because there is no one available to do them who knows how. The supply of able, experienced executives is not increasing nearly as fast as the number of problems being addressed by public policy. All the fellowships, internships, and "mid-career" training programs in the world aren't likely to increase that supply very much, simply because the essential qualities for an executive, judgment about men and events, a facility for

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1973 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1973

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Documents

Continuing Education for City Managers