Page 163 - CPAAC_Fall2015

expectations for mayors. In contrast, the second set of trends increasingly emphasizes technical
specialization, expertise, and the norms and discipline-based language of the professions.

These three challenges—which parallel remarkably closely some enduring questions about the
relationship between democratic and bureaucratic perspectives—provide the backdrop for our
further discussion.

Responsibilities, Roles, and Values of the Local Government
Professional

The primary responsibilities of management professionals are 1) to assist the governing body and
to mobilize the administrative apparatus of local government toward building and maintaining a
sense of community—in many instances also acknowledging a regional community; 2) to
modernize the organization and deliver services efficiently, openly, and equitably; and 3) to
bridge the gaps implied in the challenges: those between community and institutions; hierarchy
and teams; and citizens (politics) and experts (professionalism).

The primary role is facilitative and collaborative, with the intent of increasing mutual
understanding and building consensus. It includes helping to develop and nurture: collaborative
partnerships, policy-making processes, communication among the professionals in government
and citizens and their elected representatives, and communication within the organization
between diverse professionals and technical specialists.

In part, this primary role involves working to identify and remove barriers so others can get their
work done and find meaning in that work. Perhaps most important, the role is one of representing
political and community perspectives when necessary and professional and administrative
perspectives when that is necessary. All this must be done while still maintaining the manager’s
own personal integrity.

While building community, modernizing the organization, and translating perspectives, the local
government professional confronts conflicting expectations rooted in value differences. On the
one hand, community building is based fundamentally on an understanding that values like
representation, equity, and rights are necessary, even if not sufficient, to build a social contract
that obligates citizens to the collective good. On the other hand, efficiency—along with
effectiveness—is the fundamental value that drives modernizing the organization and marshals
resources toward targeted ends.

The responsibility of community building requires working through conflicts among these four
values—representation, social equity, individual rights, and efficiency—a time-consuming and
unavoidable process that defies the expectations for faster, more responsive, and less costly
government.

These values are more than a means to an end. In democratic government, they are ends in
themselves. They are fundamental to democracy, and in that sense alone they provide a
foundation for any public service profession. As author Donald Schon asserted years ago, in an