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The challenges of self-government are often greater in small communities because they must deal with the ever-more-complex laws and regulations of the 21st century without the specialized staff of larger cities. In small cities, the clerk covers multiple job scopes, the manager has to make decisions with limited information, and the public works director is probably a “one-man show.”
It may appear that small communities have fewer and smaller problems, but the fact of the matter is that they only have fewer and smaller resources to deal with those problems. Compared to bigger communities, they typically have smaller staffs, less revenue, and less available expertise, particularly in areas such as finance and planning. Although people want to paint rosy images, small communities face the same problems and deal with the same issues as the biggest cities. Regardless of a community’s size it must, at a basic level, provide the services and facilities necessary to promote the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens and it must develop adequate revenue sources to pay for those services and facilities.
It’s easy to think of a city as a stand-alone entity. They have their own borders and unique laws and ordinances. But cities operate within a larger government framework. They were created under the state constitution and general laws as “municipal corporations.” In essence, cities are creatures of the state, exercising local powers only within the limitation of state law.
Running a city has become much more complex in the past 25 years. State and federal mandates, complicated human resource issues, liability and risk management, growth management laws, complex contracts and agreements, difficult budgets, and many other tough issues face cities today. It is increasingly difficult for a small city manager and city clerk to deal effectively with all these issues.
Now we are being driven to answer performance questions as much as budget questions. It means that we, in fact, need to figure out metrics for performance efficiency and effectiveness. Businesses that succeed and make money constantly assess themselves and improve in all dimensions of their business; metrics are the cornerstone of their assessment, and the foundation for any business improvement.
For us the selection of metrics is secondary to gathering data, if you can’t track your progress; how are you going to determine how you’re doing. Small communities have historically failed to value gathering data and most positions are filled with tasks that don’t include gathering the data. As we eliminate positions – how do we start including the time to gather data?