Future Directions
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.
Crystal ball-gazing and making predictions in social science are very hazardous undertakings. However, it is necessary to assess the future of the council-manager plan and the city management profession. The manager's job of the 21st century should continue to be as rewarding and challenging an occupation as it has been in this century. But some change seems inevitable. As John Parr, executive director of the National Municipal League warns:
If the professional manager does not focus on developing a team that can work with different actors, developing his or her own skills of mediation and negotiation, and providing the necessary guidance and support to the elected officials, then THE PLAN [author's emphasis] can easily become the scapegoat for lack of solutions to community problems. If this happens, abandonment of the council-manager plan can easily be the result (Parr, 1987, p. 6).
Governments will have to do more with less and thereby develop new and different ways of conducting their affairs. Experimentation and frequent testing of concepts include: partnership arrangements among government, business and the nonprofits; new intergovernment agreements; alternative service delivery arrangements, including both contacts for volunteer and self-help; initiating new forums and other avenues for policy and problem-solving discussions; and working to increase joint leadership among elected officials and professional managers.
Dan Blubaugh, an experienced San Francisco area city manager, warns of the limits of the manager's authority and characterizes the manager today as more of a negotiator and facilitator of public interests rather than the "central problem solver, decision-maker and doer" (Blubaugh, 1987, p. 8). While small community managers may have more to do and less resource persons to delegate to, the complexities of urban areas demand this reassessment and experimentation.
The management profession needs to cope with change by exploring future trends and projections --demographic, economic, social and political -- and how these factors impact community affairs and governance. Moreover, in the past the council-manager plan itself has proved flexible enough to change and not remain carved in stone. Its evolution during the twentieth century in both theory and practice has been a major development of American governance.