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ICMA

The California city/County managersSurvival Skills Guide Project

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Background

• Cal-ICMA Project

•Grant from Bob Murray & Associates

• Project Team:• Frank Benest• Jan Perkins• Kevin O’Rourke• Kevin Duggan

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Purpose

• Identify the Key Issues Impacting City/County Manager Success

• Identify Successful Strategies/Best Practices

•Determine How to Add Resources/Improve Accessibility to Resources

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Methodology

• Survey Monkey Distributed to All City and County Managers in CA (Approx. 500)

• Series of 8 Focus Groups Throughout the State (75 total participants)

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Survey

•Distribution Via Multiple Professional Associations

•Over 250 Responses (50%+ Response Rate

• Purposely Made Brief and Easy to Complete

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Major Findings From Survey

•Most Significant Challenges:

•Dealing With the Consequences of State Actions/Outside Factors• Budget/Financial Challenges•Relationships With Individual Council/Board Members•Conflicts Regarding Planning/Development Issues•Relationships With Unions/Employee Groups

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Major Findings From Survey

• Areas of Most Frequent Challenge:

•Councilmember/Councilmember Conflict• Financial Issues• Personality Issues/Interpersonal Relationships•Defining and Respecting Roles (Council/CM Form of Government)• Policy Issues

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Major Findings From Survey

• Types of Issues That Pose Greatest Challenges:

•Relationship Issues: 69%• Technical Issues: 31%

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Major Findings From Survey

• Techniques Used to Strengthen Council/Manager Relationship:

•Goal Setting: 87%• Study Sessions: 74%•Outside Facilitator: 44%• Team Building: 44%•Code of Conduct: 36%

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Major Findings From Survey

• Primary Issues Derived From Comments Section:

•Respect for Council/Manager Form of Government; Role Differentiation; Micro-Management• Effectively Dealing With Difficult Financial Conditions/Budget Reductions• Effectively Handling Controversial Issues•Councilmember/Councilmember Conflict; Dealing with “Outlier” Councilmember(s)

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Major Findings From Survey

•Need for Councils to Set Priorities; Workload Impacts; Dealing With Limited Resources•Dealing With the Demands of Individual Councilmembers (Versus Direction From the Council Majority)• Bullying Conduct of Elected Officials

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Focus Groups: Ideas to Address Challenges

• Develop Training re Enhancing Interpersonal Skills• Training re How to Deal With Increased “Party

Politics”/Increased Partisanship• Resources re Coping Skills re Expectations of

Constant Accessibility• Develop Resources to Help Managers Cope With

the Avoidance of Difficult (But Important) Policy Issues by Governing Board• Develop/Promote Resources for First Time CEO’s• Develop/Promote a CEO Self Assessment Tool

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Focus Group Ideas to Address Challenges

• Develop Resources to Enhance CEO Skills Re Communication Including Social Media• Develop Training to Address the Challenges of

Rapidly Changing Communities• Enhance State League Training for Elected

Officials• Develop Peer Coaching Program• Promote Use of Facilitated Evaluations

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Focus Groups: Ideas to Address Challenges

• Better Utilize Senior Advisor Program• Encourage Use of Community Leadership

Academies• Develop Model Protocols for Elected Official

Interactions With Each Other, Staff and Public• Develop Resource List of Evaluation and Retreat

Facilitators• Use “Life, Well Run” Resources to Help Educate

Elected Officials

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Focus Groups: Ideas to Address Challenges

• Use of Executive Recruiters to Help Communicate Best Practices re Selection and Retention of CM’s• Training/Resources re How to Deal With “Outlier”

Council/Board Members• Develop/Enhance Standard Tools For Such as

Model Employment Agreements