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Next Offered: Spring 2009 POLS 641 Dr. Frank McKenna Jr. Mgmt. In Small Local Govt. Spring, 2008 Class: R 6:00pm OLSC 226 Office Hrs: T 1:00-5:00pm H: 352-2326 And By Appointment 118 Williams Hall This seminar will survey some management complexities, issues, and techniques confronting nonmetropolitan and/or small local governments. Since the traditional distinctions among the different types of local governments are vanishing, we will also cover topics dealing with regional, suburban, and metropolitan communities as well. Particular attention will be given to the topics of reinvention, effective government, and service delivery as they inform contemporary local government management. This does not mean that the more traditional topics of personnel, finance, public safety, etc., will be neglected. Instead, the instructor believes that the foregoing topics are of particular importance to nonmetropolitan and/or small units of government as they relate to a multidisciplinary/nonfragmented approach to management. Planning as a management function encompasses all aspects of local administration and some administrators and academicians have called such comprehensive efforts strategic. We will review this approach as well as the particular application of planning principles in small town government. We will also review the contemporary emphasis on various reinvented approaches to planning—beyond the mere bricks and mortar focus of the recent past—as integral parts of a strategic planning effort geared toward satisfying "customer" demands. Effective government and efficient service delivery are important to all levels and units of government; however, such approaches are particularly important to fiscally strapped rural or small local governments. We will review some of the challenges involved in satisfying the "citizen-customer" as well as some contemporary approaches to achieving effective administration. The course itself will cover the field of rural and small local government management by: (1) providing an overview of basic small local government characteristics, trends, innovations, and activities (in particular, various effective government issues will be highlighted); (2) surveying six administrative responsibilities—planning, economic development, financial management, personnel management, community development, and alternative service delivery (both individually and in a systemic fashion); and (3) covering briefly some of the main service delivery functions of local government: public safety, public works, and human and recreational services. From a pedagogical viewpoint, it should be stressed that this course will be conducted as a seminar; as such, the instructor will limit his remarks to include the major topical points thereby avoiding the often traditional lecture approach found in many three hour graduate courses. The purpose for doing so is to provide the student with the opportunity to complete various in-class assignments and case studies and to engage in general class discussions. In order to streamline the grading process and save a few trees, I will also be using the course shell for this class over on Blackboard (all students are automatically registered on that page when they enroll in this class). As such, my Dacor web page is just for "show" … at least in terms of this class. Everything associated with this class, including the on-line gradebook, will be on Blackboard. All your work must be submitted here as well.
COURSE MATERIAL :Banovetz, James N., ed. Managing Local Economic Development: Cases in Decision Making. Washington, DC: The International City/County Management Association, 2004.Christensen, Terry and Tom Hogen-Esch. Local Politics: A Practical Guide to Governing at the Grassroots. (2nd ed.) New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2006.Newell, Charldean ed. The Effective Local Government Manager (3rd ed.) Washington, DC: The International City/County Management Association, 2004.Stenberg, Carl W. and Susan Lipman Austin eds. Managing Local Government Services: A Practical Guide.) Washington, DC: The International City/County Management Association, 2007.Williamson, Thad, David Imbroscio, and Gar Alperovitz. Making a Place for Community: Local Democracy in a Global Era. New York: Routledge, 2003.KSG CASES :1. Susan Rosegrant. Reforming Prague City Hall: The Effects of Mayor Jan Kasi to Increase Transparency & Fight Corruption. July 22, 2005. 2. Jonathan Schlefor. Change in Chignahuapan: Reforming a Municipal Government in Mexico. June 9, 2006. 3. Chris Beck. Lyle Point, Washington: The Columbia River Gorge, Challenges Nonprofit Conservation Organizations Face in Protecting America’s Scenic Lands. April 3, 2007. 4. Pamela Varley. X-Treme Planning: Ohio Prepares for Pandemic Flu. June 26, 2007. 5. John Foote. Leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike. August 31, 2007. COURSE REQUIREMENTS :A few years ago we did nearly thirty in-class exercises and I found that the two take home case study exams were largely superfluous, especially in the light of how you will prepare the Banovetz case responses this year (with detailed citations). As a result, the class has been overhauled and streamlined. Instead, your final grade will be based on the following three components: (1) the successful completion of five KSG group assignments, (2) one opinion based but research driven paper, and (3) nine detailed and "linked" cases from the Banovetz Economic Development case book. Both the KSG assignments and the Banovetz cases will be completed on a group basis so unless you want to be in "Dutch" with your fellow classmates it is not a good idea to miss many classes, especially if you don’t keep your group members informed. As noted on the Announcement page for this class on Blackboard, the groups have already been set up and members assigned. I will let the groups govern themselves unless asked to intervene or discrepancies are readily apparent. If I do happen to intervene it will be with a meat clever and not a scalpel. In short, do your fair share of the work. All you really need to do is read the assigned material for a given week and come prepared to participate in some group work. The course paper is not a research paper but more or less an opinion driven piece in which you address to some extent a few very basic questions: What do you see as the basic problems and opportunities facing local government in the early 21st century? What kind of "received knowledge" can you draw upon to support your observations in a systematic fashion? And what policy recommendations do you suggest for overcoming the problems and taking advantage of the opportunities? In other words, it is a "futures" paper. You can focus on internal or external issues, you can take a comparative or regional approach, or you can even approach this topic from an intergovernmental or international perspective. Since this paper will constitute half of your final grade, about twenty type-written, double spaced pages, with full citations, should do it. Obviously, linkages to the course material (especially the Christensen & Hogan-Esch & Williamson books and additional weekly articles that I will post in the Course Documents section on Blackboard), are more or less required as well as any other outside sources. A Blackboard response box has been set up for the posting of this seminal effort. You will also be required to prepare a research proposal in the format specified. This proposal is worth seventy points.There is not much to be said about the five KSG assignments. They are only valued at ten points each. Simply respond to the few questions per assignment and post the responses to Blackboard. The nine Banovetz cases are a different matter. Since I’m setting aside twenty points per case, you can be sure that I’m expecting much more than a few perfunctory responses. I’d say two or three strong paragraphs per question would constitute par; birdies and eagles are reserved for those groups that put in additional outside time in formulating their responses. One thing is for sure, without adequate ‘linkages’ to the course material (specific quotes, citations, and references etc.), no points will be assigned per response. Both the main Stenberg and Austin text as well as the Newell book should serve quite well in such a reference capacity. Since you will need to provide citations that support your responses for both the KSG and Banovetz questions, keep in mind that case citations do not count for this purpose since you can’t readily utilize the material that you are in effect analyzing as support material; this doesn’t make sense. For your protection I strongly recommend that you prepare all your work in a word processing program and then copy and paste them into the appropriate response boxes. Do not work directly in the response boxes without adequate backup and save this backup or files until after you receive your final grade. Citations/references are required for your work; no citations = no points. Obviously I’m not that anal about citations even though it may appear so and I certainly do not short change substance; my point is quite simple: you must formally support your positions. To say the least, you would be foolish to overlook this requirement. You do not need to provide many, one or two will do per response but all must be correct in order to receive credit. In other words, it is an all or nothing grade when it comes to citations. There are three likely sources for your citations. One, the class books in which case cite either by the author or if it is an edited text the specific article authors (for example, [Berman (Stenberg & Austin) p. 180]). For this citation and the next do not cite more than two pages at a time. I want specific page numbers that I can look up not general references to a bunch of pages. If you don’t know the difference between references and citations simply ask. For the record, the citing of the actual cases from the Banovetz case book or the KSG cases do not count; this is already assumed (obviously). Two, traditional sources outside of this class; remember keep them two pages and just use a style guide for the posting of complete and formal citations. (I use Kate Turabian’s book … A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (6th or 7th edition) Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996 or so) but you are free to select your own). Keep in mind this is only for non-class material citations. For those, just use the author’s last name and page number for all quotes, idea references, or paraphrasing. Remember, I’m not looking for a "list of works consulted" type bibliography; I already assume that you will be consulting the main books. Instead, I want detailed citations that support your positions … just make such citations "formal" if you decide to use "other" non-class material. And finally, Three, internet sources; in this case I want you to embed in your essay the very specific page/URL that you consulted and not search engine indices. Given the rather open nature of the site and its code, Wikipedia citations are not valid. If you haven’t done this before consult tech support or follow my instructions. Go to the top of your browser and copy the specific URL by right clicking and selecting copy from the menu, paste that address into your essay and move your cursor to the last character of that address and tap your space bar. Your word processing program and Blackboard (you may need to repeat this last step once you post to Blackboard depending on your software) will automatically produce the link (it should turn blue and get underlined). This last method is actually a piece of cake once you do it a couple of times. Again, for web links to count, they must be formally embedded. In other words, if I can’t click on the link and be directly taken to the specific page that you consulted, they are not valid. In short, if your link turns blue and gets underlined after tapping the space bar, chances are you did it correctly from a technical viewpoint; substance is obviously a different matter!
GRADE RATIONALE :Here are the rough numbers for gauging grade status: 200 points for the "futures" paper, 70 points for the research proposal, 50 points for the KSG assignments, and 180 points for the Banovetz economic development case work. This all adds up to 500 points; that is 140 points more than you need for an "A" in this class. Since I use a 400 point grade scale where 360 points equals an "A" and 320 to 359 points equals a "B" (the only two valid grades for a graduate student), you will have what amounts to a substantial grade cushion. All deadlines for the submission of work is noted in the syllabus. I strongly suggest that you not even think about your "futures" paper (this is individual, not group work) until you digest a substantial portion of the course readings. Spring Break would be a good time to start and I require a proposal shortly after the break. I have noticed over the past few years that I’m not really doing the student a favor by granting an incomplete grade if you don’t get your work completed. It just leads to one vicious circle after another. As such, I have no intention of automatically assigning "Incomplete" grades at the end of the semester. "Incomplete" grades will only be assigned in response to unusual circumstances, and with short deadlines. Finally, in the rare event a student ends up in a borderline grade situation, I will use the presence or absence of significant class participation to make the final grading decision.
COURSE OUTLINE :I. Overview of Small Local Government A. Introduction January 10---Course Introduction January 17---Stenberg & Austin Chapter 1 Williamson et al., Chapter One Christensen & Hogan-Esch Chapter One Newell Chapter One Banovetz Case Seven Nowhere Fast! Video
B. Improving Effectiveness? January 24--- Stenberg & Austin Chapter 16 Williamson et al., Chapter Two Christensen & Hogan-Esch Chapter Nine Newell Chapter Eight KSG Case Two: Change in Chignahuapan Who Killed the Electric Car? Video
January 31--- Stenberg & Austin Chapter 3 Williamson et al., Chapter Three Christensen & Hogan-Esch Part Two Newell Chapter Six KSG Case Four: X-Treme Planning Mortgage Mess Video Banovetz Case Seven Due
February 7 --- Stenberg & Austin Chapter 2 Williamson et al, Chapter Eight Christensen & Hogan-Esch Chapter Eleven Newell Chapter Three Banovetz Case Six Small Communities & Brownfields Recovery Video KSG Case Two Due
II. Managing Small Local Government A. Planning February 14--- Stenberg & Austin Chapter 6 Williamson et al., Chapter Nine Christensen & Hogan-Esch Chapter Five Banovetz Case Two Wal Mart: The High Cost of Low Price Video KSG Case Four Due
B. Economic Development February 21--- Stenberg & Austin Chapter 7 Williamson et al., Chapter Ten Christensen & Hogan-Esch Chapter Six Banovetz Case One How Green? Video Banovetz Case Six Due
C. Financial Management February 28--- Stenberg & Austin Chapter 4Williamson et al., Chapter Eleven Christensen & Hogan-Esch Chapter Seven Banovetz Case Eight Harvest of Fear Video Banovetz Case Two DueMarch 6---No Class Spring Break
D. Personnel Management March 13--- Stenberg & Austin Chapter 5 Williamson et al., Chapter Four Christensen & Hogan-Esch Chapter Eight KSG Case Five: Leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike Lost Children of Rockdale County Video Banovetz Case One & Research Proposal Due
E. Community Development March 20--- Stenberg & Austin Chapter 8 Williamson et al., Chapter Five Christensen & Hogan-Esch Chapter Five Banovetz Case Nine Montana Meth Project Video Banovetz Case Eight Due
F. Alternative Service Delivery March 27--- Stenberg & Austin Chapter 15 Williamson et al., Chapter Six Christensen & Hogan-Esch Chapter Three KSG Case One: Reforming Prague City Hall Growing Local, Eating Local Video KSG Case Five Due
III. Small Local Government Services in a Changing Environment A. Public Safety April 3--- Stenberg & Austin Chapters 12-14 Christensen & Hogan-Esch Chapter Four Newell Chapter Seven Banovetz Case Four When Kids Get Life Video Banovetz Case Nine Due
B. Public Works April 10--- Stenberg & Austin Chapter 9 Williamson et al., Chapter Seven Christensen & Hogan-Esch Chapter Twelve Newell Chapter Five KSG Case Three: Lyle Point, Washington The Storm Video KSG Case One Due
C. Human and Recreational Services April 17--- Stenberg & Austin Chapter 11 Williamson et al., Chapter Twelve Christensen & Hogan-Esch Chapter Thirteen Newell Chapter Two Banovetz Case Five An Inconvenient Truth Video Banovetz Case Four Due
April 24--- Stenberg & Austin Chapters 10 Williamson et al., Chapter Thirteen Christensen & Hogan-Esch Chapter Fourteen Newell Chapter Four Banovetz Case Three The Undertaking Video KSG Case Three Due
May 1 --- Informal gathering at SamBs
May 2---All remaining course work (Banovetz Cases Five and Three & Futures Paper) must be posted to Blackboard by 5:00pm
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