The Manager Plan in Maine

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

This document is intended to provide a description of the development of the town/city manager form of government - commonly referred to as the Manager Plan in the state of Maine. As such, it is an update of and expansion to The Manager Plan in Maine, written by James J. Haag and printed by the Bureau of Public Administration at the University of Maine in 1971.

Haag's original manuscript sought to describe the development of the professional town manager form of government through the late 1960s. His analysis ended at a time when the Maine state Legislature recently had enacted municipal home rule legislation which allowed municipalities great flexibility in defining the form and administrative structure of local government. This document attempts to update Haag's presentation and to add other material relevant to professional local government in Maine. Much of Haag's original work appears here unchanged, some of his material has been modified to conform with current realities and consistency of presentation.

The development of this updated version was initiated by the Maine Town and City Management Association (MTCMA) to help celebrate its 50th anniversary in 1991. MTCMA has a proud tradition of being a national leader in promoting excellence in the town and city management profession. Similarly, Maine has been a leader in employing professional administrators in the management of local government. By discussing the Maine experience, we hope this publication will be useful to all those interested in forms of local government.

All the activities involved in producing this document were the result of a joint effort between the Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy at the University of Maine and the Maine Town and City Management Association. A great number of individuals and organizations provided assistance in the development of this document, more than could be listed here. Special appreciation is first extended to the Town of Madison where one of the authors serves as town manager. Two Graduate Research Assistants at the Margaret Chase Smith Center were instrumental in the completion of our efforts: Wayne Beyea conducted analysis and verification of the results of a survey of Maine municipalities, and Anne Johnson provided substantial editorial review and assistance in final manuscript preparation. We also would like to thank all those who took the time to review and provide comments on various parts of the manuscript. Finally, we would like to thank all the Maine municipal administrators who responded to our survey of forms of government and were patient with us when we called for further clarification.

In compiling the information to be included in this publication, we were surprised at the number of variations of forms of municipal government in Maine. Perhaps a manifestation of "Yankee individualism," the variety forced us to put certain municipalities into categories for presentation purposes. Although we attempted to be as thorough as possible in collecting information about the nearly 500 municipalities across the state we recognized that when completed, some of the information might be incomplete or out-of-date. In that regard, we take all responsibility for any errors or omissions.

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