The State of Local Government Management: Analysis of Legal Frameworks for the City Administrator Form

• In Event: The Nexus between Public Policy and Public Administration

Abstract

Pursuant to the constructs of Dillon’s Rule, the structural designations for local government management remain subject to state law. In professional forms, a chief administrative officer, or CAO, is appointed by elected officials to manage municipal operations. City manager CAOs operate within a clearly defined council-manager charter provided in state statutes. Alternatively, a popular option in most mayor-council cities is the city administrator, where powers and responsibilities are outlined by local ordinance, contributing to vast variations across the U.S. states. Although nearly thirty percent of U.S. municipalities utilize the city administrator position, less than half of states identify this structure by law. Moreover, other legal factors within each state, including home rule, institutional directives, and holdings by state courts, may influence the propensity for city administrator government. The purpose of this study is to examine the legal frameworks of U.S. states that may impact the orientation and implementation of the city administrator configuration in municipal management. The findings suggest that the presence of statutory guidelines for model ordinances may play a role in the use of the city administrator structure, while state judicial interpretations offer limited consistency in application toward a uniform policy. The results signal important implications for state-local relations in governmental design and management and offer a typological categorization of state legal contexts for the city administrator form.

Author

• Christian Janousek, Creighton University