MAINE'S
TOWN MANAGER PLAN STRUCTURE
Chapter II
The Model
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.
Since 1915, the National Municipal League's Model City Charter has embodied the ideal structural characteristics of council-manager government. Orin F. Nolting cites the three major features basic to the council-manager plan as contained in the Model City Charter:
1) non-partisan, at-large election of policy-making officials on a short ballot,
2) unification of powers in the council, and
3) concentration of administrative authority (Nolting, 1969, p. 25).
The desire to exclude partisan politics from municipal government and reduce the number of elected officials to those on a small council were early 20th century municipal reform ideas. These ideas were merged with the council-manager concept in the 1915 Model City Charter. At-large election provisions were not incorporated in the Model until 1933, after experience with the previously recommended proportional representation scheme proved unsatisfactory. Under the unification of powers concept the council is vested with ultimate control over both administration and policy determination. Administrative control is exercised through the council's power to hire and fire the manager at its discretion. Finally, concentration of administrative authority is accomplished by giving the manager authority to appoint and supervise department heads and to prepare and administer the budget. Dr. Nolting observes that the Model "does not constitute the basis for all council-manager charters." It is "...a guide, a reference, and an educational tool...." (1969, p. 25).
There is much diversity in the application of the major features of the Model to council-manager government throughout the United States. Council-manager municipalities often have elected officials other than the council. District and partisan elections are not infrequent. The council may directly appoint certain administrative officials and requirements for council confirmation of managerial appointments may otherwise circumvent concentration of authority in the manager.
Of the three features of the council-manager plan, Nolting emphasizes the concentration of administrative authority as the most crucial.
The criteria generally used in determining whether a municipality has the council-manager plan rest on two elements of the authority of the individual designated as the city manager: (1) the appointment of department heads and (2) the preparation of the budget. If he has these duties, the individual can manage; without them he is a figurehead. He does not need to be called a city manager, but can have the title of chief administrative officer, city superintendent, or general manager (1969, p. 32).
The Maine manager plan and the general council-manager plan are not synonymous. Rather, the Maine manager plan represents the application of various manager plan concepts to the particular needs of Maine municipal government. The following pages describe and classify the variations of the Maine manager plan. Here we seek to point out the characteristics of the manager plan in Maine and how it differs from the classical council-manager model.