Don McCabe's jocular post (quoted at bottom) aside, a Town Manager is an administrator.
From our 2001 report recommending adoption of a town manager structure:
The towns we surveyed that ran best—and in which satisfaction with the structure seemed to be highest—all had the same characteristic: Selectboard members were content to leave day-to-day administrative decision-making to the administrator or manager. This is not an easy state of affairs to maintain, and it may be especially difficult in Norwich, given the board’s tradition of hands-on authority. A town managed by a chief administrative officer who lacks Selectboard support, is constantly second-guessed by individual Selectboard members, or whose authority is undermined by Selectboard interference may well be worse off than one with no professional administrator at all.
As we talked with other towns about how they do things, we were struck by the fact that some are quite happy with their structure, while others have switched from one form to another—and, in a few cases, back again—as they search for the perfect governing blueprint. This suggests to us that there is no perfect blueprint; any structure might work, given the right alignment of personalities, politics and needs.
We are quite aware, then, that what has worked in other towns will not necessarily work for Norwich. One thing we can say for certain, though, is that no change will work unless it clarifies lines of authority within town government. Even then, it will take more than a statutorily defined job description to do so. Switching to a town manager will require the Selectboard to change its style of operation dramatically, and the townspeople of Norwich to respect the new structure. As a committee, we have become convinced that town government can improve under a better administrative structure. But we are equally convinced that end-runs around the manager by townspeople and political power plays by elected officials can sabotage even the best-designed structure. Whatever option we adopt, we hope the people of Norwich will give those charged with making it work all the support and encouragement they need to be successful.
Rereading this a decade (and several TM's) later, I think we understood the difficulty our political figures would have restraining their own authority, but I think we overlooked two crucial ingredients.
First, a town manager must also show real constraint. They need to clearly identify -- for themselves and the selectboard on every issue -- where they see the boundary between their own authority and that of the selectboard. Both parties need to openly revisit their understanding of those boundaries whenever controversies occur. Without that open, on-going, dialogue the parties and townspeople inevitably jump to conclusions about who does what and how. There is no perfect blueprint, so honest, public, discussion is our best alternative.
I believe the unfortunate unravelling of Neil's predecessor's tenure might have been avoided if he had done a better job articulating his own understanding of his authority and if the selectboard had tried to address these disagreements in public session. Given the vociferous conduct of a group of citizens during this period, rational discourse in public session may have seemed too far-fetched, but frank recognition of the inevitable tensions between town managers and selectboards would have been better than another round of factional finger-pointing.
Neil Fulton is uniquely suited to recognize the inevitable tensions and work through those tensions constructively. As a selectboard member, Neil drafted the committee charge for our "Town Administrative Needs" review and was Chair of the selectboard at the time we completed our report. Neil has put in decades of service to the town -- largely in an administrative capacity -- often concerning regulatory minutiae that most of us never notice, but need doing nonetheless. Neil's been on both sides of the selectboard table and, appears to me, to possess the humility and wisdom of experience to continue to learn in the job, so I'm optimistic.
That said, the other crucial ingredient to a successful town manager I believe we overlooked is this: A town manager must raise above -- and remain beneath -- town politics.
As an administrator, the town manager is unelected meaning the typical pressure release mechanisms for disgruntled citizens -- "vote the bums out" -- are not available. Where controversy looms, the town manager should defer to the political process for sorting out controversy before acting. Otherwise, the town manager becomes the campaign issue. While this may slow the administrative process at times, a strong administrator does not operate on an annual election cycle so should appreciate the importance of developing consensus over expediency. A successful town manager will see significant selectboard membership turnover during their tenure, underscoring the risk in aligning oneself too closely with any given selectboard member or majority.
- 15 ---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2012 20:50:01 -0400
From: don mccabe
Subject: [Norwich] HAIL TO OUR TOWN MANAGER, BUT...
Congratulations to Neil Fulton on becoming our permanent town manager.
Neil has worked tirelessly for Norwich over the years, his experience
is welcome and his skills are many. But he is not Norwich's Messiah.
The are challenges ahead and putting our faith in one leader to answer
all our needs would be a serious mistake.
Respectfully,
Don McCabe
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