Public administrators, especially city managers, are facing immense challenges. Most local governments face increased demands for services and reduced local revenues. In addition, local governments are receiving less intergovernmental revenues from the federal and state governments. Federal and state governments, however, are demanding more of local governments in the form of unfunded mandates. Also, citizens want increased participation and to be more involved in government decisions.

You are assigned to develop a plan to change the job of a city manager in a medium-sized city with a population of 50,000 citizens.

How would you structure the job of a city or county manager to permit him or her to perform the other tasks related to management, budgeting, personnel administration, perform in an ethical manner and other work and, at the same time, perform the very time consuming task of promoting public involvement?

In answering this question, draw upon what you have learned in this course to suggest possible organizational changes, different communication techniques, different skills and other approaches or tools that city and county managers will need in the future. For example, should city and county managers have different types of skills to be effective leaders, to better manage personnel or prepare budgets? How could managers make more effective use of electronic forms of communication and management?

Specifics:

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The paper should be between 6-9 pages of text long (not including figures, tables, and references).
Do not use appendices.
The paper should be double spaced, one-inch margins, 12 point font.
Use the APA reference style.
Include 5 or more references (not the Denhardt text).
Use four sections in the paper (details on each section below)
Introduction 1-1.5 pages
Background 1-2 pages
Details of specific changes 3-4 pages
Conclusion 1-1.5 pages