Managing Local Government For Improved Performance: A Practical Approach

by Brian W. Rapp

Overview

After working for nearly three years to improve the performance of the government of Flint, Michigan—and discovering that there was no comprehensive work on the subject of local-government management to refer to—Brian Rapp and Frank M. Patitucci felt a personal as well as a professional need to write a book that would help them understand their successes and failures, and that would help others do a better job in similar situations. The result, this book, is unique both in its approach and in its presentation. The authors, establishing a conceptual framework within which to understand their subject, use Flint as a case city to examine the practical impact of factors affecting city government, and they indicate the major standards and criteria that should be applied in evaluating that impact. Although they recognize that within each city there are unique conditions that make a blanket prescription impossible, the authors are nevertheless convinced that many individuals both in and out of government can do something to improve the performance of their city government, and they have set out to help these individuals understand, in the most concrete terms possible, how they might go about it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780429726248
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/04/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	444
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Rapp, Brian W.

Table of Contents

Foreword -- Preface -- Introduction -- A framework for understanding managing for performance -- Improving Local-Government Performance -- Managing Local Government as a Public Business -- Analyzing the Performance of a Local Government -- Applying the framework -- The Case City: Flint, Michigan -- Political Leaders -- Municipal Managers -- Municipal Employees and Employee Unions -- Management Tools -- Financing and Financial Practices -- Internal Government Structure -- Intergovernmental Relationships -- Citizen Involvement -- The News Media -- Private-interest Groups -- The Judiciary -- Getting from here to there -- Deciding What To Do and How To Do It -- Guidelines for Achieving Desired Results -- Development of Modern Management Tools: A Case Study -- Development of an Urban University: A Case Study -- A Concluding Note -- Appendixes -- A Profile of Conditions in Flint -- Evaluation Criteria for Identifying Opportunities To Improve Performance