Conclusions
This document is reprinted with permission from "The Manager Plan in Maine" published by the Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy. Copies of the complete book may be obtained by calling the Center at (207) 581-1646.
Early manager plan charters were framed, drafted and adopted because of dissatisfaction with existing governmental structure and administration. Auburn and Portland formed citizen charter study committees and adopted the council-manager form of government upon their recommendations. The committees apparently found actual or perceived problems related to: the large number of elected councilors, partisan elections, appointments to office based upon the spoils system and lack of any single officer responsible for the conduct of all municipal activities. These were symptoms not unlike those found by municipal reformers in other contemporary communities.
The charter committees blended prominent municipal reform ideas with the needs of their communities. Hence, the Auburn charter combined nonpartisanship, the short ballot and the professional manager with the ward system, a separately elected (non-administrative) mayor and council appointment of numerous officers supposedly responsible to the manager. Likewise, the Portland charter provided for a small council elected by proportional representation on a non-partisan basis, the initiative, referendum and recall, and a manager in charge of an administrative organization "disturbed...to the smallest extent possible."
The lack of administrative integration was prevalent in the early council-manager charters. Most evident was the failure to vest managers with broad power to appoint and remove subordinates. One can speculate that this was a manifestation of the first and experimental uses of the manager concept in an environment in which authority was not traditionally centralized.
The early town charters were largely a result of the inability of the town meeting-selectmen form of government to meet the growing needs of towns. While modifications of the town meeting-selectmen form were not unusual, the adaptation of the manager concept to town government represented a departure from the traditional emphasis upon part-time citizen volunteer service and its responsibilities. Selectmen retained certain administrative functions such as that of overseers of the poor and assessors, and also could dictate the administrative role of the manager. Typically, the treasurer, clerk, and other officers continued to be elected. As in the case of the cities, the manager was given meager independent authority to appoint and remove subordinate officers.
Houlton was the first town to adopt a charter vesting the municipality's ordinance powers in the council. The administrative organization and powers vested in the manager were similar to that of other early town meeting-selectmen-manager charters.
Various factors which contributed to the growth and development of the manager plan have been discussed. These helped to create an environment receptive to the manager plan.
It is likely that the 1939 enabling act did the most to stimulate the development of the manager plan. It made the manager plan available to all towns and plantations by simple town meeting action. It provided a general, but extremely flexible, framework so that the manager plan could be shaped to the particular needs of each municipality.
It is important to note that the manager plan developed in most of its early stages with only nominal opposition. One might, for example, expect a stronger resistance to the plan as a threat to the "traditional way of doing things." Dr. Hormell explained this lack of strong opposition by contending that the town's viability was being threatened because of the increased demands on its government. In order to survive, certain ''modifications of the old order" were needed. Hormell believed that the towns were simply trying to ensure their existence as separate, viable units.
While the manager plan was promoted by many dedicated individuals, the operating success of the plan was usually its greatest selling point. The manager plan might be said to have developed in Maine because it was available and better than what previously existed.