The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1915-05-21
THE CITY MANAGERS TROUBLES


to be that the townspeople-or many
of them--do not fancy the idea. They
are used to the snowy and superficial
performances of the professional poll
tician, and the more sober but more
solid achievements of the engineer
manager do not impress them. They
regard the city administration as a
kind of show, and they demand plenty
of music and dancing, without sound
logic and philosophy. At least this is
what we gather from a resume of the
papers read at the first convention of
lily managers at Springfield, Ohio,
published in Engineering and Con-
tracing (ChiCago). The commission
manager form of government has now
been in effect in several cities long
enough to bring to light some of the
obstacles to it's complete success. The
first step in overcoming obstacles is
to recognize them, and the papers al
luded to above serve to bring out some
of the initial difficulties encountered
both by the form of government and
by the city manager as its most i'm
portant official. OF these we read:
The greatest difficulty seems to
arise from the Impotence of the pub
lie with reform administrations unless
more or less spectacular reforms are
quickly brought about. The tendency
of the people to revert to conserVa-
tism after short season of the ex-
IRENE radicalism is a phenomenon
often witnessed both in national and
local politics. When the average man
goes in for reform of any kind he ex-
poets almost immediate results. I'M
mediate results can seldom be shown
for time is consumed in the learning
of duties pertaining to positions and
in the perfecting of plans and legisla-
ton.
THE best way to quiet the impa-
tient critic is to let him know what is
going on. He will seldom remain I'M
reasonable longer than he remains
uniformed. The cooperation of cit
liens must be secured, and this can be
effected only by carefully planned
publicity scheme. The good will of
newspapers must be sought in all le-
Ultimate ways, and matter for publica-
ton in them should be prepared by a
properly qualified representative of
the administration. Talks before To-
cal societies and clubs are also eff
fective measures to be employed in
this connection.
Another and very serious difficulty
arises from the pernicious activities
of the politicians who were relegated
to private life by the establishing of
the new form of government. These
men are hard and efficient workers in
their own behalf, and their interests are
of the commission-manager admins
tration. They make it their business
to misrepresent things and in every
way possible seek to reflect discredit
on the administration. The activities
of this element must be equaled by
that of the officials, who, if competent
to perform their duties and diligent in
their publicity measures, can offset
untruth with truth.
Another obstacle is the traditional
belief that in working for city the
employee is justified in rendering in
efficient service. This obstacle is
quickly surmounted by a firm but jul
dicious exercise of the right to dis
charge the incompetent"
Turning directly to the city mana
ger as virtually the chief Official of
his town, the writer finds that his lot
is a hard one, particularly in the
early months, and the smaller his city
the harder his job, for his problems
are as difficult to solve, and he has
less competent help. Great sums of
money are usually more easily secured
in a large city than are the much
smaller sums expended by the small
cities. improvements costing hun
dreds of thousands of dollars seldom
present more engineering difficulties
than works constructed on smaller
scale. The reviewer goes on to say:
I'm the small city the manager must
train his assistants. He can not get
them in any other way, on account OF
the necessity of keeping down salar-
les. The number of assistants he can
employ must necessarily be small, and
the result is that he must personally
give his attention to many matters
of detail. Many of the latter are eX-
ceedingly trivial, but they must be at
tended to or the manager will be criti-
Cised for lack of attention to his du-
ties. One such manager says that
while studying a vexing problem of
reinforcement an urgent call for