The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-05-03
The CITY MANAGER Plan.

Review of Reviews: The city O
Sumter, S. c., is a community of TO-.
600 Inhabitants in which the power:
Of local government are all vested ir
a board of three citizens, elected a
large and subject to recall. One O.
these is entitled mayor, but it without
powers beyond those Of a presiding Of
tcer and ceremonial head of the city
10 this extent the plan of organization
follows the commission type, but with
these vital differences:
The three elected officers are nc
supervisors Of departments; they draw
but nominal salaries; they are not ex-
pected to give any considerable time
to public duties; they are frankly not
po1tlcal experts. The commissioners
simply represent the interests of the
city as a board Of directors, and dele
gate the responsibility for details to a
competent executive, known as the
city manager, who is their servant and
subject to remov by them at their
pleasure. To him they entrust the
appointment, subject to civil service
rules of all the other city officers and
employees; to him they look for re-
ports Of the city's needs and the
formulation Of the budget.
And so, in Sumter, the elected gov
erning board m~onopolizes the politics
Of the town, which is construed in a
high sense, as the making of public
policies. The appointed executive, free
from political influence, is able to con-
quot his office according to profession
al standards.
In January the commissioners Sc
lected the first city manager. At no
did they look upon the office
as a plum to De shaken down for a
politician who had been active in Sc
curing their election, or for a local
taVorlte. They acted in a way which
was at once revolutionary and char
acteristically American. They adver-
tised The best position in the CITY
went to a young engineer from outside
the city, who had no other claim upon
1t than his ability to perform its du-
ties.
The Sumter advertisement. which
was confined to a few Of engineering
journals because it was thought that
engineer could make himself es-
peclally useful in the city, brought
over $50 applications, from every quar-
ter Of the country. The idea Of put
lng a city on a genuine business basis
nae attracted a remarkable number of
candidates.; fully two-thirds
or them had had experience in munich
pal engineering and many were hold
ing positions as city engineers. Among
the number were several graduates Of
West Point and the Massachusetts In
stltute of Technology, and one vas d
commissioner of public works, an cleo
tive officer in one of the commission
governed cities in the middle west.
The Sumter experiment, were it but
q local phenomenon, would lack sig
.n1hcance. But for four years the city
of S%taunton, Va, has been under a
plan as nearly similar as the laws of
he state will allow; the city
plan was adopted in March by Hickory
and Morganton, N. c.. and is a feature
Of the proposed charter Of Whittier,
Cal, it has ben endorsed by official
in ST. Petersburg, Fla:
Bisbee, Ariz.; OwOsso. Mich; it is
in statewide permissive
bills in New York, Minnesota, Ohio.
md New Jersey; it has the sanction
IF the board of trade in Lockport, N.
Y, and all the leading civic bodies in
Dayton, o.; it has been seriously dis
in Dover, N. H, and Honolulu.
Il. T.; it is the central feature in a
plan Of city and county federation sup |
by a strong group of civic and
organizations in Alameda
county, California, a community Of
100000 people, which includes the
cities of Oakland and Berkeley.