ONSTRUCTIVE business defines the city manager form of government, big business fraught with potential results of, as yet, undreamed of good, of achievements as yet scarcely sketched.

Hold in mind the single fact that a city's management is, ultimately, a business problem to be solved by business men for a business people.

That the modern city is a business. venture. It is no longer merely a political unit administered for politicians by politicians. That the management of a municipality embraces well nigh every phase of commercial activity met within. modern business practice. And, lastly, to so run a city as a business requires a trained executive, selected because of genuine ability to discharge his duties profitably to the municipality that employs him. Such a man is called a city manager. The city manager is an appointive officer selected, by reason of his peculiar knowledge of municipal affairs and because of his administrative ability, to fill the position of chief executive of a vast public corporation, with little restriction upon his power and with only one command, - Produce results. The achievement of three things is the measure of a city's success. Assum

ing popular interest, these essentials of city government to be secured are: (1) Concentrated responsibility. (2) Efficiency. (3) Publicity. To define: First,

concentrated responsibility means certainty of location of any wrong done, and certainty of credit for any good accomplished.

Second, efficiency spells results from men, money, and methods.

Third, publicity means definite knowledge by the citizens of the conduct of their public affairs. A competent official desires this; an incompetent office-holder knows that it is fatal to him. Now, what in detail is the city manager plan of city government? You are familiar with the corporate form of organizations, which provides for a board of directors elected by the stockholders. The board is presided over by the presi

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dent or chairman; the corporation is run by one expert in business and in the management of that particular kind of corporation. Such an official is termed "general manager" or "managing director." This idea of corporate organization has been applied to city government, and designated the city-manager form of government. The stockholders, who are the people in this case, elect a board of directors designated a commission. The number composing this board is immaterial, as it varies with the size of the city. This board of directors passes the

resolutions and enacts the ordinances, thereby formulating the policies of the city government.

The commission also selects this general manager of the city, called "The City Manager," irrespective of his place of residence, whether he lives in the city or out of it. They pay him the highest salary possible and still pay a profit; that means the city will get the very best man available. The city manager of Dayton is paid $12,500 a year.

The city manager is expert in municipal business, usually an engineer, who gives his entire time to the running of the city. He is a man who makes it his profession and business to do nothing else than conduct the post of chief executive of the municipal corporation. He is the administrator of the city; that is concentrated responsibility.

City managership in over eighty American cities has grown into a profession. Colleges and universities offer an entire curriculum with a view to fitting men for this position,-as far as a school can.

The commissioners give a fraction only of their time to determine the policies of the municipal organization; they usually have varied outside business interests. Thus a fine type of business man who is accustomed to formulate policies is secured; he would not serve if it took all his time; and even if he gave all his time, as in the ordinary commission form of city government, he would not be effective because he is not an expert in municipal management.

Briefly, for policy you have men of general business training, and for administration of a technical character you have one who gives his whole time to the work for which he has been specially trained and for which he is peculiarly fitted. That is the plan in its

essence.

The manager has absolute power to run the city as an administrator without hindrance from the commissioners, so far as the administrative side is con

cerned; he simply carries out their instructions as generally expressed by the ordinances they pass. If they do not approve of the way he carries out their policies they can discharge him, but they

cannot retain him and direct him to do certain things in specific ways. The city manager only has administrative powers; that is efficiency.

Powers and Duties of the City Manager. The powers and duties of the city manager are usually as follows: (1) Enforce laws.

(2) Appoint and dismiss subordinates, comprising all persons on the administrative side of the organization.

(3) Control his organization.

(4) Attend meetings of commission to advise and inform that body.

(5) Estimate and advise on finances of the city, and help formulate the entire financial program.

of commission for that purpose. (6) Powers of investigation; agent

Departments of Government under City Manager Plan.

Customarily there are five departments: Law, service, welfare, safety, and finance.

Law. The director of law and his subordinates advise the city on legal matters, protect the city in legal difficulties, and through the police prosecutor attend to the legal end of police work.

Service. The director of service and his associates in that department erect and maintain highways, sewerage systems and sewerage disposal plants, markets, erect and supervise public utilities, clean streets, estimate on public work,

etc.

Welfare. The director of welfare has charge of the workhouse and corrections, the health bureau, public entertainments, the education of the public on matters of crime and health, and the inspection and storage of food. Conserva

tion of the human element is more important than any function of municipal government.

Safety. The safety department is subdivided into the classes of police and fire. Over each class a chief is placed under the director of safety; the latter also has charge of weights and measures.

Finance. The director of finance has charge of the funds of the city, their accumulation and disbursement, the payroll, purchasing, and auditing. There is

a continuous audit of the city's accounts, with a general balance sheet exhibiting assets and liabilities of the city.

The accounting procedure is adequate to record in detail all transactions affecting the acquisition, custodianship, and disposition of values; all labor is kept track of through time sheets and certification of all payrolls.

The principle of departmental division is the grouping of like duties in one department; the number of departments is immaterial, although five departments have been found the best plan of apportionment.

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Three radical principles are tial to a modern municipal administration: First, candidates for office must be tested on the basis of efficiency, not political faithfulness; technical men must be selected for technical jobs, and business men for policy-forming positions. Second, publicity and responsibility of a few well-known men in well-known offices, whose duties are generally comprehended by the public, are the necessary prerequisites for results. Third, business methods must be utilized in a business corporation,-even if it does belong to the people.

Purchasing Agent. One man purchases and sells every article for the city. Each department must requisition supplies through him, and that department is supplied only when the finance department certifies that there is money actually available to pay for such supplies for that particular department. In other words, expenditures are kept within in

come.

The purchasing agent keeps a store of supplies. The departments are supplied from this store or from the open market direct. He buys in quantities for cash when the market is favorable, and only after competitive bidding. In Dayton alone he is saving tens of thousands annually.

Budget. The formulation of the annual budget is the chiefest event of the fiscal year under the city manager form of government.

Its purpose is to lay out in elaborate detail the needs of the city, together with an accurate statement of the city's in

come.

It is a scientific instrument classifying uniformly the main functional divisions of all departments. Then the income and expenditures are made to coincide, with the result that there is no deficit.

To quote from the 1915 report of H. M. Waite, City Manager of Dayton, Ohio:

"In 1915, facing a shortage in tax revenues of $167,000 to meet the needed expenses of the municipality, the city manager was confronted with the gravest financial crisis of the city's career.

In 1914 he cut the estimated expenses of the city $45,000 to keep within the cash income, and in 1915 he cut the estimate $70,000. This work was done in 1915 upon the budget to operate the city for 1916."

This is in brilliant contrast to the fact that Dayton for each of six years prior to the city manager form of government had an annual deficit of $60,000.

The city manager primarily is responsible for the budget, although his subordinate departments all are more or less vitally concerned, as it is based on their reports and necessities.

The city manager thus formulates both the annual tax budget and annual appropriation budget.

Public hearings are held relative to the budget; the public is given a free, full chance to suggest and criticize, and the public, it has been found, takes advantage of that opportunity.

Publicity. The meetings of the commission are public.

Public hearings on the budget are held each year. Reports of the city manager and of the city's finances are plain, intelligible, and readable; they are interesting to the average citizen, short enough for a busy man, and clear enough to satisfy the simplest tastes.

A city is as prosperous in its government as its citizens demand it should be. The public will not make the demand unless they are educated to do so. The city manager form of city government by publicity sells good government to the people, and gets their hearty support in return. Publicity is public education.

Short Ballot. Party politics are relegated to the scrap heap.

The election of the commissioners is by a short ballot, which contains only the names of the several commissioners (preferably only a portion should be elected at one time), without any party designation on the ballot. The term is an unusually long one for city officials, -four years.

Wards are abolished. The commissioners are elected to represent the city as a whole; hence there is no log rolling in commission meetings, as is customary in the ordinary council. The city is a unit, securing for all parts equal representation and consideration.

In cities with over a quarter million population it may be necessary to have some system of wards or districts for

convenience of election.

Franchise. No exclusive franchise grants are made; all grants reserve to the city power to regulate, the right to terminate, and to purchase the property of the utility.

Legal Advertising. Legal advertising is awarded upon competitive bids; it can be published in a newspaper owned by the city if desired. Dayton saved in one year thousands of dollars by this plan of competitive bidding.

Civil Service. Employees in a classified list are selected from those who have passed civil service examinations. The city manager selects his employees from this list, in the main, and discharges them upon due cause shown.

Merit alone is the best test for city jobs; place of residence, political faithfulness, etc., are no longer the standards. by which the ignorant, the incompetent, and the dishonest are allowed so frequently to impose upon the public.

It is the belief of the writer that the city manager should be held strictly accountable for results, and upon that basis should have the absolute power to hire and fire at will any or all of his subordinates at his pleasure. If he is expected to produce results, he should have the means of getting them.

Usually the city manager fixes the salaries of the officials under him, under general restrictions. That is a valuable

feature, because it gives the manager a potent weapon to bring about genuine achievements on the part of the men under him.

Initiative, Referendum, and Recall. Initiative, referendum, and recall are features of the city manager form of government, but not essential to it. Either the city manager or the commissioners can be recalled by the people after the lapse of a probationary period during which they are first given an opportunity to produce results.

Boards of interested citizens who are specialists in certain fields are also appointed under the city manager form of government, to advise on certain civic problems, but their utilization is not essential to the plan. These specialists serve without pay. But when the city needs outside specialists under the enlightened city manager form, then the best men that can be afforded are secured. This practice has saved thousands of dollars in the last few years.

The city manager has saved money, kept out of new debt, and paid off old debt, given increased service, lowered the place of beauty, a great commercial indeath rate, and, lastly, made his city a

stitution, and an asset to those who constitute its people.

Pages of reports recite the facts, but, best of all, its present accomplishments are the impulses for still greater and better things in a way splendidly typical of these United States.

The law must greet a great newcomer to the ranks of the professions, the city manager; and no other profession ever was launched with a more creditable personnel.

Finally, nothing more eventful has occurred to the American people than this actual achievement of putting the city on a business basis. It has been commonly considered that this could not be done permanently. But it has been done; and the job has been performed signally well through the city manager form of government.

There is one thing to be kept in mind, -that for policy you must elect and for