Masters of Commerce / Local governments worldwide are invariably faced with challenges of human capacity constraints, corruption, lack of operating transparency and accountability, dysfunctional ward committees, poor public participation, non-compliance with legislation and by-laws, poor prioritisation of community needs, unaligned budget processes, unauthorised and wasteful expenditure, tensions between politicians and administrators, as well as weak financial viability. A strong legal framework, clearly defining authority and accountability, backed by relevant skills development training, are necessary foundations for service delivery; however, without the appropriate training, staff performance could remain inadequate. Various countries have reached varying levels of local government effectiveness; however, all too often municipalities do not have the adequate skills required, to deliver the services needed, to ensure community development. Despite being well structured, South Africa’s institutional arrangements are often deeply flawed, while local government still needs to transform from passive service provider to proactive facilitator. Skills development legislation forms part of government policies to enable transformation; however, many local municipalities are burdened by poor service delivery, corrupt staff, and no accountability. Therefore, there is a desperate need to explore the best way of addressing local government challenges and skills shortcomings of their human resources. In this current study, the researcher conducted a case study to explore varying aspects of local government skills development, particularly the implementation of a training programme in a rural municipality. Data collection was conducted with key informants, as well as trainees, through in-depth, individual, semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data, present the findings relevant to the strategies, as well as make recommendations on the required enhancements, for improved implementation of local government skills development initiatives.

Early reformers reasoned that by changing institutional structure in local government you could solve organizational problems. Institutional structural reform in local government has interested scholars ever since. The reform movement in the early 20th century firmly established the council-manager (administrative) model of government, which along with the mayor-council (political) model, is now utilized in 92% of all U.S. municipalities. Recent scholars have observed and reported on the fact that, increasingly, mayor-council municipalities are adopting structural changes that resemble characteristics found in council-manager municipalities and vice-versa. This research seeks to examine the question of whether these structural changes have any effect on these local governments by examining the behavior of Chief Administrative Officer’s (CAO) and municipal outputs. The author examines a representative sample of 266 administrative and political municipalities within the U.S. having a population between 10,000 and 250,000. The institutional structures of these 266 municipalities are measured for political model and administrative model characteristics using three separate independent variables. The effects of institutional structural change is measured using group mean T-tests, ANOVA analysis, and multiple regression for per capita expenditures, working time allocation between the management, policy, and political role activities for the CAO, the quality of services provided, and the involvement level of the CAO compared to the council in the mission, policy, administrative, and management dimensions of municipal responsibilities. The study findings are mixed; significant effects are found in some but not all variables. Changing local government structures from characteristics found in the political model to characteristics found in the administrative model: makes no difference in municipal expenditures; makes a difference in how a CAO allocates his time in management and political activities but not policy activities; makes a difference in how the CAO perceives quality of services; makes a difference in the level of involvement for the CAO in the policy, administrative, and management dimensions of responsibility but not the mission dimension. Overall, this study has found that, by using more complex methods to measure institutional structure change, changes in institutional structures do make a difference in important areas of CAO behavior and outputs in local governments.

No description available.

No description available.

Much discussion has taken place among local citizens in recent years about the possibility of the Town of Blacksburg, Virginia assuming city status. Many of the issues surrounding such a change in government form, however, appear unclear. This study explores some of the economic issues surrounding such a transition in an effort to: (1) clarify some of the arguments which are frequently encountered, and, (2) determine if there is economic rationale for the assumption of city status. The findings suggest that Blacksburg does indeed have considerable economic bases for assuming cityhood. This conclusion was reached after analysis of some of the economic issues involved--both preference-wise and finance-wise--was conducted. / Master of Arts

Does partisanship affect the local budget process? This study examines the effects of partisanship on the local budget process in two cities in Florida, Cocoa and Rockledge. According to the literature, the effects of partisanship are present at the national level, while at the state level, these effects diminish due to legal requirements for balanced budgets and/or factors related to the state of the economy. This study reveals that evidently, partisanship effects diminish even further at the local level. Based on surveys administered to council members and staff, this study attempts to examine the conduct of the local budget process, the relationship between partisanship and budgetary priorities, and the influence on the budget process by citizens and interest groups. Further, budget documents from 1988 to 2010 are analyzed to examine the effects of partisanship using population, unemployment, and crime as controls. Survey findings suggest that budget priorities are very similar for Republicans and Democrats at the local level; in addition, after reviewing three budget items, community development, police, fire, and also millage rates, partisan effects are found to be minimal. Overall, however, it appears that the municipal budget process in Cocoa and Rockledge is not impacted by partisanship.

Published Article / The South African public service has unfortunately rapidly gained a reputation for inefficiency, corruption and incompetence. Government has therefore introduced a variety of legislative measures to ensure that the public service would play a meaningful role in a well-functioning country, one that maximises its development potential and the welfare of its citizens. Examples of these measures are the Single Public Service (SPS) and the Local Government Turnaround Strategy (LGTAS), two seemingly contradictory measures to accomplish the above-mentioned objectives. Concerns that a SPS was a move towards recentralisation by central government were countered by the LGTAS to strengthen local government per se. It was found that both projects endeavour facilitative measures for improved coordination and integration of services in local government to provide efficient and effective services.

published_or_final_version / Urban Studies / Master / Master of Social Sciences

To effectively provide services to citizens, local governments have had to be creative. One approach has been the creation of volunteer programs to meet demands and expanding needs. Volunteer programs hold promise for creating meaningful engagement opportunities for citizens. However, limited organizational capacity, inadequate volunteer management practices, and difficulties in maintaining volunteer retention are concerns plaguing local government volunteer programs. Volunteer programs are often structured around a set of best practices thought to be necessary for ensuring the retention of volunteers. To apply best practices across the board would suggest that local government volunteer programs are similar in organizational structure, budget size, amount of citizen engagement, accountability concerns, and that they adopt similar bureaucratic procedures. Using human relations and bureaucratic theories as theoretical frameworks, four research questions are asked and answered: 1) What are the managerial and political challenges in volunteer management and retention for local government volunteer coordinators?, 2) What challenges are local governments' volunteer coordinators facing in using volunteer management practices?, 3) What strategies are helpful in retaining volunteers in local government volunteerism?, and 4) What challenges do local government volunteer coordinators face in engaging citizens? Data collection for this qualitative study was conducted using online surveys and telephone semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that creating meaningful work for volunteers and coordinating this work with local government managers was an important "best practices" challenge. Although local government volunteer programs also have a mission of engaging citizens, the practices actually used may directly conflict with their mission. Many volunteer management practices are supporting organizational goals rather than supporting the needs of volunteers. The study findings suggest that the best practices used by local governments are not given equal weight and "one size does not fit all." Instead, local governments must prioritize their practices carefully.

Li, Xiaojia. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 161-170). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.