Steps to Local Government Reform: A Guide to Tailoring Local Government Reforms to Fit Regional Governance Communities in Democracies - Softcover

Lockner, Allyn O.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1462018181 ISBN 13: 9781462018185

Verlag: iUniverse, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

Does the performance of your local government leave something to be desired? Maybe you're not satisfied with the services your government provides, or maybe the cost for these services is far too much. If so, take heart; you can do something about it. Steps to Local Government Reform is your step-by-step guide to undertaking reform on the local level. Public manager Allyn O. Lockner combines years of experience in the public sector to show how you, as a resident or an elected local official, can work with others to successfully implement change within your community. Lockner explains how to make numerous choices regarding the preparation for, and the study, planning, marketing, approval, implementation, and evaluation of reforms. He also shows you how to share these reform results with others. Using various criteria, comparisons, practices, analyses, and other studies aimed at local government performance, Lockner delves into the sometimes tricky world of enacting reform. He reveals how local government works and provides a map for maneuvering around bureaucratic roadblocks. In addition, he includes a comprehensive bibliography for research, an appendix of terms commonly used in the reform process, and guides to creating reform models that are likely to work. With this compendium, you can help resolve vital issues, improve your community, and live a better life.

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STEPS TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM

A Guide to Tailoring Local Government Reforms to Fit Regional Governance Communities in Democracies

By Allyn O. Lockner

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2013 Allyn O. Lockner
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4620-1818-5

Contents

Preface....................................................................
xv
Acknowledgments............................................................
xxiii
About the Author...........................................................
xxv
Introduction...............................................................
1
STEP ONE Guide Users Prepare to Make Local Government Reform Choices in 
the Regional Governance Community..........................................
19
STEP TWO Civic-Minded Local Government Stakeholders Study the Regional 
Governance Community, Local Governments, and Fact-Based Dissatisfactions 
with Governments...........................................................
63
STEP THREE Local Government Stakeholders Build a Regional Community 
Coalition for Achieving Local Government Reform in the Regional Governance 
Community..................................................................
75
STEP FOUR Regional Community Coalition Chooses the Vital Issues 
Confronting Stakeholders in the Regional Governance Community..............
101
STEP FIVE Regional Community Coalition Identifies Statutory 
Authorizations, Financial Incentives, and Technical Assistance for Reform 
in the Regional Governance Community.......................................
121
STEP SIX Regional Community Coalition Initiates Establishment and 
Influences Composition of the Local Government Reform Commission...........
135
STEP SEVEN Local Government Reform Commission Prepares to Study Local 
Governments and Local Government Reform in the Regional Governance 
Community..................................................................
143
STEP EIGHT Local Government Reform Commission Conducts Early Public 
Meetings on Local Governments and Local Government Reform Choices in the 
Regional Governance Community..............................................
183
STEP NINE Local Government Reform Commission Studies the Contexts of 
Major Forces Propelling and Repelling Reform in the Regional Governance 
Community..................................................................
191
STEP TEN Local Government Reform Commission Studies the Local Governments 
That Are Potential Candidates for Reform and Tentatively Chooses the 
Functions That Need Reform in the Regional Governance Community............
213
STEP ELEVEN Local Government Reform Commission Studies the Major 
Propelling and Repelling Forces of Special Situations and Definitely 
Chooses the Functions That Need Reform in the Regional Governance 
Community..................................................................
283
STEP TWELVE Local Government Reform Commission Studies the 
Characteristics, Advantages, and Disadvantages and the Measurable, 
Nonmeasurable, and Transition Costs of Local Government Functional and 
Structural Reforms in the Regional Governance Community and Tentatively 
Chooses a Reform...........................................................
319
STEP THIRTEEN Local Government Reform Commission Reaches Consensus on 
Rewards-Risks Trade-Offs, Local Government Reform, and the Preliminary 
Local Government Reform Plan for the Regional Governance Community.........
383
STEP FOURTEEN Local Government Reform Commission Requests Comments and 
Questions on the Preliminary Reform Plan from the Regional Community 
Coalition and Other Stakeholders...........................................
411
STEP FIFTEEN Local Government Reform Commission Reviews Comments and 
Questions about the Preliminary Reform Plan and Chooses Its Responses......
415
STEP SIXTEEN Local Government Reform Commission Adopts the Final Local 
Government Reform Plan, Ballot Measure, and Election Date..................
419
STEP SEVENTEEN Commission, Coalition, Marketers, and Other Stakeholders 
Advocate the Final Local Government Reform Plan for the Regional 
Governance Community.......................................................
423
STEP EIGHTEEN Majority of Voting Stakeholders Approves Reform Plan 
Implementation in the Regional Governance Community; If Disapproved, 
Coalition Chooses What to Do Next..........................................
439
STEP TWENTY Guide Users Record, Share, and Use Fact-Based Lessons Learned 
from Using the Guide to Study and Reform Local Governments in the Regional 
Governance Community.......................................................
469
Conclusion.................................................................
479
Postscript.................................................................
491
Appendices.................................................................
493
Index......................................................................
589
Guide User Notes...........................................................
621
STEP NINETEEN Designated Elected Local Governing Bodies Utilize 
Transition Teams,Transition Tasks, Action Plans, and Performance Reports 
to Implement the Voter-Approved Reform Plan in the Regional Governance 
Community..................................................................
445

CHAPTER 1

STEP ONE

Guide Users Prepare to Make Local Government ReformChoices in the Regional Governance Community

No mix of positive tangible factors—buildings, facilities, or other physicalassets—and no accumulation of financial assets and revenues are likely tosignificantly increase the chances of achieving local government reform. The mixand accumulation are unlikely to explain and channel successful choices of thestudy and reform of local governments in democracies. Instead, positive intangiblefactors are more likely to achieve these outcomes.

Elected local government officials are the political agents or instrumentsfor satisfying stakeholders' preferences. Local government reform is political/social reform. Individual and groups of local government stakeholders expresstheir preferences to officials in democracies. The collective effort of officials andstakeholders determines whether to study local governments and, if necessary,to reform them. They choose why, what, and how to study and reform localgovernments. In democracies, stakeholders usually initiate the study and reformof local governments. Elected local officials sometimes join them.

Guide Users, other Stakeholders, and Local Government Functions

Guide users are local government stakeholders. They begin to prepare to make localgovernment reform choices by identifying the local governments that perform thefunctions they use...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: iUniverse
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1462018181
• ISBN 13: 9781462018185
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 648
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: KreGa Onlinehandel GmbH; 4950000000000; info@krega-onlinehandel.de; ; Birkenweg 31; Brakel; 33034; Deutschland