Eric S. Zeemering

What Does Sustainability Mean to City Officials

Sustainability has become a popular concept influencing the work of community and economic development officials in city governments. However, the term sustainability lacks conceptual clarity, and a variety of programs could advance sustainability goals. Given this problem, this study asks, What does sustainability mean to city economic development officials? Q-methodology is used to identify which aspects of sustainability are most important to a sample of city officials in the San Francisco Bay Area. Three patterns of importance were identified, exhibiting emphases on urban design, traditional economic development, and civic engagement. Understanding the multiple meanings of sustainability for local government officials will be critical as city officials seek to advance this new priority for local governments and as scholars evaluate the implementation of urban sustainability programs.

Information, Activation, and Electoral Competition in the 2002 Congressional Elections

Although uncompetitive races for the House of Representatives produce formidable challenges to long-held democratic ideals regarding popular control and meaningful citizen involvement, little is known regarding the significance of variance in district-level competitiveness for the perceptions and behaviors of voters. Do citizens know that the outcomes of most U.S. House elections are foregone conclusions? Does the actual political climate of the district influence citizen perceptions regarding electoral competitiveness, and, ultimately, the decision to vote? Does campaign activity influence citizen perceptions? Do these various perceptions and behaviors hinge in part on the citizens level of political knowledge? These questions are addressed through analysis of data from a study that oversamples citizens located in competitive House districts during the 2002 midterm election.

The Problem of Democratic Anchorage for Interlocal Agreements

More attention must be given to the performance of interlocal agreements (ILAs) as they continue to grow in popularity as a mode of service provision in U.S. cities. This study scrutinizes the democratic performance of ILAs, drawing theoretical insights from the literature on network governance. Because ILAs shift service responsibility from individual cities to multijurisdictional arrangements, these tools may lead to complaints about the responsiveness of the service to the public in the individual units served by the multijurisdictional arrangement. Thus, democratic anchorage is central to assessments of ILA performance. This study evaluates democratic anchorage by identifying concerns with ILAs in interviews with a sample of local elected officials in Michigan. The concerns then are discussed in the context of the institutional collective action framework, a theoretical foundation that has become popular for explaining the emergence of ILAs and regional cooperation.

California County Administrators as Sellers and Brokers of Interlocal Cooperation

County administrators occupy a unique position from which to practice the concept of admin istrative conjunction. This article reports data on interlocal service agreements by cit ies and counties in California and evaluates the extent to which county administrators support two conjunctive roles: selling ser vices to local governments through interlo cal agreements and brokering agreements among other local governments. County administrators support for administrative conjunction may be limited by their atti tudes toward intergovernmental relations, tenure in office, existing contracting pat terns, and other features of the local mar ket for public goods. This study finds that levels of support for broker and seller roles are distinct, highlighting the need for more detailed measures of administrative support for interlocal cooperation. The intergovernmental activities of local government administrators have gained new attention in discussions about local govern ment service organization. Local governments in U.S. metropolitan areas are often depicted as competitors for economic development, tax base expansion, and mobile citizen consumers (Schneider 1989; Sokolow 1993; Park 1997; Lewis and Barbour 1999). They are also partners who are tied together in cooperative arrangements to share or jointly produce local government services (Oakerson 1999; Feiock 2004). Prompted by the desire to improve efficiency or effectiveness, local officials forge interlocal agreements in order to provide services ranging from policing to parks (Thurmaier and Wood 2004; Chen and Thurmaier 2009). City managers have been identified as key actors in negotiating these agreements. Frederickson (1999) has advanced a theory of administrative conjunction to explain the importance of the local administrator in met ropolitan cooperation. He defines administra tive conjunction as the array and character of horizontal formal and informal association

Negotiation and Noncooperation: Debating Michigan's Conditional Land Transfer Agreement

Local governments in Michigan have at their disposal a mechanism for cooperation on land transfer. Through the Conditional Land Transfer Act (P.A. 42 5 of 1984), local governments negotiate shared jurisdiction for a piece of property for a set period of time for the purpose of econom ic development (Taylor, Harvey, and Shields 2004; Bassett 2006; Harvey and Qui?ones 1996). Like annexation, conditional land trans fer agreements, popularly known as P.A. 425 agreements, can be used to permanently transfer land from one jurisdiction to another. Unlike in annexation, jurisdictions negotiate conditions for sharing the property, includ ing property tax sharing and negotiated provi sion of urban services. Michigan has a strong tradition of township government (Browne and VerBurg 1995, 300; Stephens 1989), and township officials often resist annexation ef forts. Townships are frequently cast as the losers in annexation battles while cities gain territory, expand their tax bases, and impose their land-use preferences. Conditional land transfer agreements provide an opportunity for cities and townships to negotiate these tensions. Understanding the negotiation of conditional land transfers is important because the use of these agreements has increased over time (Taylor, Harvey, and Shields 2004). This study asks two questions about the negotia tion process: Do existing intergovernmental connections in other policy areas foster the development of conditional land transfers, and is land use identified as a critical point of discussion in successful and unsuccessful

Sustainability management, strategy and reform in local government

ABSTRACT As discussions about sustainability management in local government evolve, public managers lack clear frameworks prescribing how sustainability should be integrated into the practice of management. Studies in public administration tend to emphasize the policy tools managers use for sustainable outcomes, rather than the management processes that can enhance sustainability through organizational change. Drawing on Laszlo and Zhexembayeva’s definition of ‘embedded sustainability,’ this essay suggests local government managers should focus on integrating sustainability into strategic planning processes in order to advance sustainability as a reform in local government. Public management scholars and local government professionals are urged to develop partnerships to support evidence-based decision-making in local government in order to investigate propositions about sustainability management.

Assessing local elected officials’ concerns about interlocal agreements

At times, local politicians are described as barriers to interlocal cooperation; however, recent studies show elected officials are active in interlocal networks and harbour diverse motivations for their involvement in interlocal politics. This research introduces institutional role theory to the study of interlocal politics. Using a survey of elected officials in the San Francisco Bay Area, support for various roles in interlocal politics are assessed in relation to the scope of elected officials’ concerns about the use of interlocal agreements, as well as variables related to institutional context. Exploring elected officials’ concerns about interlocal agreements and the roles they undertake in interlocal politics sheds light on the democratic underpinning of metropolitan civil society and highlights new research opportunities at the intersection of public administration, political science and urban studies.

Why Terminate? Exploring the End of Interlocal Contracts for Police Service in California Cities

With the recent growth in interlocal contracts for municipal service delivery, insufficient attention has been given to city governments that choose to terminate interlocal contracts. The termination of interlocal contracts deserves scrutiny because theory points to multiple possible explanations for service change. This research examines the termination of interlocal contracts for police service delivery by California cities between 2001 and 2010. Public documents from the nine cities that terminated interlocal contracts are analyzed to assess rationale for termination. The stated reasons for termination include problems related to community responsiveness, the contract relationship, local control, service cost, service levels, and staffing. Grounded theory is advanced through analysis of the nine cities. The research refines our understanding of how cities weigh the costs and benefits of in-house production versus production through interlocal contract. While contract failure is evident in some cities, termination may also be explained as a process of vertical integration and service expansion. The research refines theories about local government service delivery and informs the practice of interlocal contract management.

Comparing Governance and Local Engagement in the St. Marys River Area of Concern

ABSTRACT Under the 1987 revisions to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between Canada and the United States, Areas of Concern (AOC) were designated around the Great Lakes to target the remediation of environmental impairments. Local governments have the potential to play an important role in Great Lakes restoration and protection efforts in AOCs, though the scope of their engagement in remediation efforts is not fully understood. This case study investigates the St. Marys River AOC, which spans the border between Canada and the United States. Through the theoretical lens of the ecology of games, the case study explores the strategic choices of local governments to engage in environmental policy networks in Canada and the United States. The case illustrates the importance of intergovernmental aid and collaborative institutions for ongoing environmental remediation efforts and cross-border coordination.

An Agenda for Comparing Local Governance and Institutional Collective Action in Canada and the United States

As neighboring federal systems, Canada and the United States provide an opportunity to compare institutional collective action (ICA) by proximate local governments. After explaining the importance of understanding local governance in Canada and the United States in comparative context, the ICA framework is used to highlight propositions along two paths of inquiry. First, the ICA framework can be used to compare responses to ICA dilemmas in two distinct systems of local governance, focusing on the comparative instance of use and performance of ICA mechanisms. Second, the ICA framework can be used to analyze collaboration and paradiplomacy across the international border. Deploying the ICA framework for comparative research can improve our understanding of local governance and local government reform in both countries.