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The council-manager form of local government is supposed to reduce conflict in city governance and increase cooperation between the executive and the legislature. Because the city council is responsible for hiring and firing the city manager, as James Svara puts it, "there is no question about who has ultimate authority, and thus there are few battles to protect prerogatives" (1990, p. 54). The council's clear authority over the executive they appoint also frees council members from the pressure to compete with an elected executive for public support. Chester Newland sums it up this way: "The great strength of council-manager government has been precisely in the combined presence of those two qualities: a powerful council, oriented to community brokerage, and a coordinated executive framework, characterized by diverse expertise and professionalism and free of narrow factionalism" (1985, p. 8).
Nevertheless, conflict does occur in council-manager cities, and, as we will show, conflict has been a frequent cause of managerial turnover in at least one state's municipalities. These cases of conflict-generated turnover permit us to examine what ""went wrong" with the anticipated relationship between council and manager. More constructive management of conflict depends in part on a fuller understanding of the ways council members and managers generate and deal with conflicts.
Conflict in city governance can be harmful. Council members or managers who pursue selfish, personal objectives may divert city resources or delay city action at the expense of public well being. Even conflict over what constitutes good public policy harms the community if it prevents action on pressing public problems or results in the departure of an effective city manager. Similarly, the firing of competent, public-spirited managers because they refuse to violate laws or professional ethics, or because of petty jealousies, costs the city the effective executive leadership which that manager provided.
Conflict in city governance is not necessarily bad for public policy, of course. Conflict among council members may reflect authentic, diverse policy demands of a heterogeneous citizenry. Conflict between the council and the manager may arise as managers assert their professional values and judgment in the face of council opposition. When conflict leads to vigorous discussion of public problems, thorough exploration of options, and creation of mutually beneficial solutions, better public policy results. Nor is...