The Manager Plan in Maine
Chapter
1: Conclusions
Early manager plan charters were framed,
drafted and adopted because of dissatisfaction with existing governmental structure and
administration. Auburn and Portland formed citizen charter study committees and adopted
the council-manager form of government upon their recommendations. The committees
apparently found actual or perceived problems related to: the large number of elected
councilors, partisan elections, appointments to office based upon the spoils system and
lack of any single officer responsible for the conduct of all municipal activities. These
were symptoms not unlike those found by municipal reformers in other contemporary
communities.
The charter committees blended prominent
municipal reform ideas with the needs of their communities. Hence, the Auburn charter
combined nonpartisanship, the short ballot and the professional manager with the ward
system, a separately elected (non-administrative) mayor and council appointment of
numerous officers supposedly responsible to the manager. Likewise, the Portland charter
provided for a small council elected by proportional representation on a non-partisan
basis, the initiative, referendum and recall, and a manager in charge of an administrative
organization "disturbed...to the smallest extent possible."
The lack of administrative integration was
prevalent in the early council-manager charters. Most evident was the failure to vest
managers with broad power to appoint and remove subordinates. One can speculate that this
was a manifestation of the first and experimental uses of the manager concept in an
environment in which authority was not traditionally centralized.
The early town charters were largely a
result of the inability of the town meeting-selectmen form of government to meet the
growing needs of towns. While modifications of the town meeting-selectmen form were not
unusual, the adaptation of the manager concept to town government represented a departure
from the traditional emphasis upon part-time citizen volunteer service and its
responsibilities. Selectmen retained certain administrative functions such as that of
overseers of the poor and assessors, and also could dictate the administrative role of the
manager. Typically, the treasurer, clerk, and other officers continued to be elected. As
in the case of the cities, the manager was given meager independent authority to appoint
and remove subordinate officers.
Houlton was the first town to adopt a
charter vesting the municipality's ordinance powers in the council. The administrative
organization and powers vested in the manager were similar to that of other early town
meeting-selectmen-manager charters.
Various factors which contributed to the
growth and development of the manager plan have been discussed. These helped to create an
environment receptive to the manager plan.
It is likely that the 1939 enabling act
did the most to stimulate the development of the manager plan. It made the manager plan
available to all towns and plantations by simple town meeting action. It provided a
general, but extremely flexible, framework so that the manager plan could be shaped to the
particular needs of each municipality.
It is important to note that the manager
plan developed in most of its early stages with only nominal opposition. One might, for
example, expect a stronger resistance to the plan as a threat to the "traditional way
of doing things." Dr. Hormell explained this lack of strong opposition by contending
that the town's viability was being threatened because of the increased demands on its
government. In order to survive, certain ''modifications of the old order" were
needed. Hormell believed that the towns were simply trying to ensure their existence as
separate, viable units.
While the manager plan was promoted by
many dedicated individuals, the operating success of the plan was usually its greatest
selling point. The manager plan might be said to have developed in Maine because it was
available and better than what previously existed.
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