Key Responsibilities of a City Manager - Navigating Local Governance with Kenneth Haskin

 

Key Responsibilities of a City Manager - Navigating Local Governance with Kenneth Haskin

City Managers are charged with carrying out policies and directives set by elected officials, requiring leadership and public administration expertise.

1. Overseeing the Budget

A city manager oversees and executes administrative policies set by their council and oversees city operations, such as budgetary decisions or other directives from said council.

Kenneth Haskin emphasizes preparing and analyzing operating and capital budget requests and generating written variance reports between budgeted and actual expenditures.

City managers also create council and board meeting agendas, which requires being detail-oriented while working closely with various types of people. For instance, citizens, city employees, community organizations, and government agencies are among them.

2. Developing and Implementing Policies

City managers play an essential role in crafting policies and recommending allocating funds to council members. Furthermore, they must be able to offer impartial opinions regarding the long-term effects of proposed policies.

Work closely with the Mayor, council members, and staff to develop goals and policies; provide general supervision of professional, clerical, and technical staff; establish goals and policies.

Represent themselves with tact and diplomacy when engaging with members of the public, communicate effectively both verbally and in writing, build and maintain effective working relationships with all those contacted during work, establish effective working relationships among contacts in work-related relationships, and occasionally require travel.

3. Managing the City's Personnel

Kenneth Haskin points out that a city manager coordinates and supervises staff across different municipal departments while helping prepare council or board meeting agendas.

They serve as an intermediary in any political disputes and officer conflicts, representing the city at community events and providing progress updates and trend analysis to keep the mayor and board informed of any developments or trends that arise.

Many city managers come into their roles after having amassed extensive managerial experience elsewhere - perhaps beginning as finance directors or police chiefs.

4. Managing City Operations

Kenneth Haskin suggests that city managers play an essential role in overseeing city operations and ensuring effective operation across city departments.

City managers' duties include developing programs, policies, and methods to efficiently administer city resources, including implementing council-established policies and directives by state laws and ordinances and budgeted limits.

City managers must also meet regularly with citizens and attend public meetings to provide inclusive leadership to better understand citizens' pain points and needs.

5. Developing and Implementing Strategic Plans

City managers are responsible for carrying out the policies set by their mayor and council, much like CEOs in business environments. Evaluation is carried out annually at closed-door council meetings.

These individuals must be capable of devising and executing long-term strategies and overseeing departments like police, finances, infrastructure, and public services. Furthermore, they should possess social sensitivity to respond quickly to emergencies while building community members' trust. In addition, they are charged with finding funding opportunities to support projects and programs.

6. Developing and Implementing Programs

Kenneth Haskin highlights that, as is common among senior executives in government or industry, city managers typically put in longer hours than frontline employees. Furthermore, they travel frequently to professional conferences to exchange ideas with fellow city managers and stay abreast of new trends in local governance.

Some cities employ the council-manager system, in which voters elect a council and select an appointed city manager to administer municipal affairs. Under this structure, the city manager primarily oversees daily operations and budgeting while the council provides legislative direction by devising programs tailored to meeting community needs.

7. Developing and Implementing Grants

City managers are responsible for finding funding opportunities for the cities they manage. They identify grant applications that align with local initiatives while complying with government regulations.

They are responsible for planning and implementing various programs within their city to ensure there are enough resources to meet current demands and prepare for anticipated growth.

City managers tend to play less of a public profile yet perform many of the same duties. They must feel comfortable dealing with members of the community and developing partnerships.

8. Developing and Implementing Community Engagement Programs

Empowering communities requires acknowledging existing assets, structures, and networks. Community engagement strategies must be tailored to local participants' needs and preferences, considering language, cultural norms, and communication styles.

Influential local leaders must be able to rally their communities during challenging situations such as natural disasters. They should be capable of making tough decisions, implementing laws, communicating policies, and securing grant funding for projects that benefit citizens by applying to federal, state, and private foundations.

9. Developing and Implementing Regulatory Programs

The City Manager is accountable for carrying out laws and regulations set by the mayor and council, such as creating capital improvement plans or making recommendations on municipal business during council meetings.

According to Kenneth Haskin, professional city managers require many skills and competencies to be effective. While often working behind the scenes, they should feel at ease speaking to service clubs or community organizations when necessary. Furthermore, nonpartisanship should be observed - they should never endorse political candidates or display political yard signs - this is part of the code of ethics established by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), meaning they should remain neutral during all public actions taken against them.

10. Developing and Implementing Economic Development Programs

City managers are essential in encouraging economic development by developing and implementing programs, events, and initiatives that foster it. This may involve devising and executing strategies to draw in new businesses while encouraging existing ones to stay in their communities.

Professional local government managers are nonpartisan and nonpolitical professionals who collaborate with elected officials such as mayors and city, town, or county councils to ensure the smooth operations of a municipality. They set high service delivery and accountability standards as part of providing excellence in municipal governance - either as mayor-council or council-manager types of local governments.