These include Austin, Long Beach, Virginia Beach, Phoenix, and Minneapolis. In financial management, cost accounting and contract management pose the two major problem areas for cities. Virtually all of the cities surveyed acknowledged the tremendous difficulties posed for both management and performance evaluation by the burgeoning area of contracting out. For capital management, the over-riding issue is the mismatch between maintenance needs and the funds available for maintenance. Even in strong economic times, years of deferring expenses continues to take their toll.
City governments are home to some of the most dramatic changes and efforts to change in government.
They are also governments that do well in the face of enormous challenges. New York, Washington, and Detroit are leading examples. Washington and Detroit were both well behind the good management curve in the mid-1990s. Efforts to create and implement new systems essentially across the board are now in the early stages, but show good potential. Phoenix is a veritable innovation machine.