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- Title
Policy Development and Legislative Oversight in Council Manager Cities: An Information and Communication Analysis.
- Authors
Kochler, Cortus T.
- Abstract
The article presents information about the legislative oversight process in council manager cities. Under the council manager form of government, it was originally held by many of its supporters that the council members would make policy and the professional staff and city manager would implement that policy. However, the city council member finds himself in the situation of being a part-time layman legislator, who is faced with increasing professionalism and complexity in local government and thus he is thrust into a decision-making process where he is faced with the selecting of an "expert alternative" from among "expert alternatives" while acting as his constituents' representative. Furthermore, as scholar Amitai Etzioni points out, "decision makers are rarely, if ever, completely neutral." Likewise, it can be assumed that neither are those persons composing the professional staff of city hail completely neutral when proposing policy and program recommendations. Secondly, the technician or professional has something the "policy making" layman council member lacks that is technical or expert information and knowledge.
- Subjects
CALIFORNIA; SAN Gabriel River Valley (Calif.); UNITED States; LEGISLATIVE oversight; CITY council members; PROBLEM solving; LOCAL government; DECISION making; LEGISLATIVE power; THEORY of knowledge
- Publication
Public Administration Review, 1973, Vol 33, Issue 5, p433
- ISSN
0033-3352
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/974307