Consolidation of City and County Government

Consolidation of urban center and County G everywherenmentMost people lay down very busy lives, we own businesses, exact families, and jobs. Running for a governmental office takes a lot of metre and money and typic anyy moreover(prenominal) the rich or advantageously off have the disposable income, and m to run for a political office. Citizens do like to be elusive in presidential term to a certain extent, exactly typic in ally only when issues strikes home with them such(prenominal) as smoking in public places, knowledgeable predators in the neighborhoods, drug free school zones, etc.The fundamental expiration between a mayor and a metropolis manager is that mayors be elect officials and managers argon non.A City manager is typically appointed by mayors and city councils on the basis of the managers background, education and then(prenominal) experience. Elected officials often expect that a managers decisions and actions allow be guided by professionalism, ethi cal principles, and the will of the city council. A mayor is the front man on all local issues, they be expected to be aware of the issues facing them (city/county issues), and to be able to gage directly with these issues. For example, James Knowles is the Mayor of Ferguson, MO, Since the shooting death of Michael Brown the city of Ferguson has been subject to mass protests, hacking and looting. Knowles has pleaded with the looters to stop, has canceled protests, and told the media We want people to have faith in the process. Earlier he had defended the officers policing of the looting, saying The officers did their best. Theyre only human. (heavy.com, 2014). A city manager has a somewhat varying role in government today. Some city managers envision themselves as policy managers others see themselves as administrative managers, a prudent city manager should not bid to appear as a policymaker even if they are so accustomed to be. A city manager oftentimes must roll with numero us of the city councils ideas as they depend on them to keep them in their position. exclusively a few years ago in my town, Jim Bourey, a city manager re write due to may disagreements with the Greenville city council, Bourey said his resignations was forced. In this case, theres a comfort level that the manager needs to have and council needs to have with the manager, and that wasnt where they wanted to be. (foxcarolina.com, 2010).Mayors are free to engage in political activities, as it is postulate of them to represent their political affiliations Mayors are elected because of their politics, even if/when they mark off nonpartisan positions. Mayors are, in short, living examples of the local democracy at work. City managers are not free to be Republican or pop managers City managers are required to represent the bureaucracy, and the decisions made by the elected mayor of their legal power and city council. A City Manager that strays into the political arena lack the legitimac y endowed by an election, not to keep an eye on good survival instincts (weshare.cityofalbany.net, 2009) References Politics in states and communities (Rev 14) Pearson Education (10/15/2012) Dye, T. R., MacManus, S. A. heavy.com, www.heavy.com/ word/2014/08/ferguson-mayor-james-knowles-michael-brown- shooting/, Accessed 26 December 2014 foxcarolina.com, www.foxcarolina.com/story/14756034/greenville-city-manager-jim-bourey-resigns-4-19-2010ixzz3MzB9QJmX, accessed 26 December 2014 weshare.cityofalbany.net, www.weshare.cityofalbany.net/2009/10/09/the-difference-between-mayors-and-city-managers/, Accessed December 26, 2014After the end of the Second World War the get together States experienced unprecedented world growth that to this day has shaped the loving and political landscape of the country, and changed how and where many Americans live. Known as the baby boom, this population expansion took place between the years 1946 and 1964, with the peak occurring in 1957. The eminent birthrate, unparalleled in American history, added more than 50 million babies by the end of the 1950s. (countrystudies.us, 1998). And with this tremendous growth Americans developed their love affair with the automobile.Up until the Second World War many people had lived in cities with shadowy populations, after the war many wanted to have a gentleman of the American Dream and started moving in droves to what was once known as the countryside into what was becoming known as the suburb. Suburbs have grown incrementally since the end of the war, just the most significant works have been since the 1970s. The suburbanization of American was primarily drive by two things, one that I previously mentioned being the railroad car and the second being the development of interstate highways and expressways.On June 29, 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. The bill created a 41,000-mile National System of interstate and Defense Highways that would, according to Eisenhower, eliminate unsafe roads, inefficient routes, traffic jams and all of the other things that got in the way of speedy, safe transcontinental travel. At the same time, highway advocates argued, in case of atomic attack on our bring out cities, the road net would permit quick evacuation of target areas. For all of these reasons, the 1956 law declared that the construction of an elaborate expressway system was requisite to the national interest.(history.com, 2014)Some of the governing issues that arose from the urbanization of the countryside were very basic in nature, such as how to police such a large area, typically there is the town police force that dealt with issues in town and did not stray too far from their assigned areas, this developed two untested police force expansions one within the local sheriffs department, by giving them a broader scope within the county they served as well as the growth of the state police department which had far superior jurisdiction statewide. different issues of the suburban sprawl had to do with the provision of operate such as electricity, weewee and sewage, as well as garbage order of battle and fire and rescue departments expansion. (McManus, 2012, p421)In my humble smell it seems that the best way to govern metropolitan areas is through a integrating of the management system and function offered to the citizens of the city/county, as many of the services offered are fragmented at best, for example, in my hometown of Greenville, SC the city has a paid fire department and ambulance service that has 24/7 shifts and late on the news they stated that the typical wait time for a 911 call response for either of those services was about 9 minutes, the passing game side of this is that I live in the same county, but in the suburbs, there was an occurrence with one of my neighbors that required me to call for an ambulance, now we are a ways out of the city so we have a volunteer fire/rescue de partment, the response time for that call was over 20 minutes, granted it was a non-life threatening issue, but dummy up required transport to the hospital. Would a centralized service have narrowed that time down, I dont know, but I am undisputable that if the service were centralized then the time could possibly have been shortened.Other examples of services offered by the city but not by the county are water sewer services, the city has a water service, the county does not, so my water comes from a well, is the water better from a well, maybe, but I still have to pay for the well to be dug, the water softener chemicals and if it were to go prohibitionist I would be out another $2000 to have a well dug. In this case it would personify the city to extend the water services 10 miles out of town and to provide the infrastructure to support it (pumping stations, etc.) that cost would obviously be supported by an increase in taxation, or the cost amortized over X amount of months in billing cycles, but I would not have the overriding concerns of a well runnel dry.I would support a consolidation of city and county services as I feel that in the long run it would be upright to all of the residents of the county and city regardless of what the actual service provided is.ReferencesPolitics in states and communities (Rev 14) Pearson Education (10/15/2012) Dye, T. R., MacManus, S. A.countrystudies.us, www.countrystudies.us/united-states/history-114.htm, accessed 26 December 2014 history.com, www.history.com/topics/interstate-highway-system, accessed 26 December 2014