Curtis Wood

Interlocal Agreements as Overlapping Social Networks: Picket–Fence Regionalism in Metropolitan Kansas City

Public policies addressing complex issues require transjurisdictional solutions, challenging hierarchical modes of public–service delivery. Interlocal agreements (ILAs) are long–established service–delivery instruments for local governments, and research suggests they are plentiful, with a majority of cities and counties involved in at least one ILA. Although ILAs are an established feature of local government operations, previous research is atheoretical, largely descriptive, and unsystematic. This article explores ILAs as social network phenomena, identifying the rationales and underlying values for various ILAs, central and peripheral actors, and brokering roles. In particular, we explore the utility of incorporating network exchange theory into public management network models to identify the relative power of actors in network exchange relationships. We find that a “norm of reciprocity” culture predominates an economizing value as the rationale for an abundance of service–oriented policy networks that produce a picket–fence regionalism of ILA participation in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Scope and Patterns of Metropolitan Governance in Urban America: Probing the Complexities in the Kansas City Region

The author explores the scope and patterns of metropolitan governance in the Kansas City region by examining how 46 cities deliver 28 different public services. The hypotheses that intergovernmental service-delivery arrangements will be more common than in-house delivery and contracting with the nongovernmental sector, that intergovernmental service-delivery arrangements will be more common for system maintenance services than for lifestyle services, and that central cities and at-risk suburbs will be more likely to enter into intergovernmental service-delivery arrangements than are bedroom developing and affluent job centers are examined and tested. The findings support the first hypothesis but not the last two hypotheses.

Measuring the Financial Position of Municipalities: Numbers Do Not Speak for Themselves

There are several challenges facing someone who wants to know if a citys revenue structure is fair and reasonable. There are few generally accepted standards to use as benchmarks of financial condition, and there is no generally accepted methodology to assess relative financial position. This article reviews literature on financial position and condition, and then develops a methodological approach that creates a cohort of similar cities for benchmarking financial position, and then forming a basis for assessing financial condition. Based on a study of the financial position of a medium-sized city, the article offers lessons for practitioners and scholars.

The Nature of Metropolitan Governance in Urban America: A Study of Cooperation and Conflict in the Kansas City Region

The evidence in this study demonstrates that the dominant pattern of metropolitan governance in the Kansas City metro area across 46 cities and 28 public services is one of intergovernmental cooperation, punctuated by conflict. Contrary to what would be predicted by theories of cooperation, the scope of cooperation is negatively related to the number and percent of joint intergovernmental service arrangements and that the scope of cooperation increases when a municipality transfers a service to another public entity or a municipality specializes in a regional service.

Municipal Reform in Mayor-Council Cities: A Well-Kept Secret

THE ERA OF American municipal reform that began just before the beginning of the 20th century is thought to have reached its apotheosis midcentury. Since then, patronage has been largely stamped out. Kickbacks on contracts, once commonplace, are now unusual. Boss-mayors with long-term tenures and precinct-based party support are now rare. The councilmanager form of city government, sometimes regarded as the ultimate expression of municipal reform, is now common. Unlike turn-ofthe-century political and intellectual leaders such as Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Luther Gulick, contemporary leaders seldom talk or write about municipal reform. These days, issues of municipal reform appear to be of interest mostly to city managers and those who study and teach city management. For these and other reasons, it is assumed that the era of municipal reform is over. In fact, municipal reform is all around us, manifest in modern reforms that deal with new and different problems. Modern reforms take essentially two forms. The first, and the most well known (Frederickson 1995), is the reform of cities with council-manager legal or charter platforms—a much-studied favorite of research scholars (Svara 1999; Protasel 1995; Newland 1995). These reforms have mostly Municipal Reform in Mayor-Council Cities: A Well-Kept Secret

A Century of Municipal Reform in the United States A Legacy of Success, Adaptation, and the Impulse to Improve

In this article, we examine the legacy of four progressive reforms intended to secure “good” government—the model city charter, the council-manager plan, city management professionalism, and bureaucratic service delivery. Our analysis integrates research by historians, political scientists, sociologists, and public administration scholars, and provides a unique multidisciplinary perspective on the legacy of success and adaptation of the municipal reform movement. We use Hofstadter’s concept of a reform “impulse” in American political culture to frame our analysis. We conclude with four observations on the future of municipal reform, ultimately arguing that the impulse to “reform” continues to be a dominant driver across both local government management and institutions.

The Performance of the Adapted City from the Perspective of Citizens

The authors study 74 cities in 30 states to determine whether citizens in adapted cities are more likely to rate the quality of city services in the top category than are citizens in nonadapted cities. Contrary to the proposed hypothesis, the authors find statistical support that citizens in the 16 administrative cities are more likely to rate the quality of city services in the top category than are citizens in the 52 adapted cities, controlling for important socioeconomic variables. This finding provides preliminary evidence that introducing political institutions and values or constraining the policy-making/executive role of the city manager in traditional council—manager cities can adversely impact service quality—at least from the perspective of citizens.

Exploring the Determinants of the Empowered U.S. Municipality

This exploratory study of 142 U.S. municipalities identifies the factors that determine the scope of municipal discretion. The author finds total municipal discretion is positively correlated with the quality of the relationships between municipal and state officials, population, and education but negatively correlated with population growth. Municipalities located in the north and west have higher total municipal discretion scores than eastern municipalities. The author also finds that structural, functional, and fiscal discretion as well as municipal success/influence with state officials are individually or jointly associated with education level, population growth, population, form of government, region, political culture, local-state relational quality, and state fiscal peril.

Understanding the Consequences of Municipal Discretion

In this study of municipalities over 25,000 in population in 49 U.S. states, the author tests whether municipal discretion makes a difference in terms of municipal fiscal performance. The author finds that municipalities located in states that grant more municipal discretion levy less property tax per capita, receive less state aid per capita, and levy less total taxes per capita. However, there is not a statistical correlation between the scope of municipal discretion and total outstanding debt, expenditures per capita, and employees per 1,000 in population. The results demonstrate that public officials in empowered municipalities do not abuse their authority by imposing unwarranted property, sales, income, and business taxes, and calls into question the notion that municipal officials in empowered states are more likely to become spendthrifts than are municipal officials in less empowered states. The author posits that officials in empowered municipalities may experience the perfect storm unless they use their expanded powers to improve the financial health of the municipality; enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, and equity of municipal public services/programs; and partner with their cohorts across geo-political boundaries to ensure the well-being of all citizens.

INNOVATION MANAGEMENT IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF SUBURBAN MUNICIPALITIES

The authors surveyed city administrators in the six-county Chicago region to test an innovation management capacity process model. Innovation management capacity is conceptualized as the function of council-staff functionality, managerial leadership capacity, and staff team management. The empirical results from 220 city administrators in 53 cities support the hypothesis that the number of municipal innovations is positively correlated with innovation management capacity, controlling for structural, socioeconomic, and demographic variables. However, this study does not find a statistical relationship between innovation effectiveness and innovation management capacity. The authors posit two possible explanations for these results and propose an alternative innovation management capacity process model for testing in future research.