ABSTRACT
For as long as there have been city managers their roles in politics and the policy process have been issues of paramount concern to practitioners and scholars. The centerpiece of this discussion has been the dichotomy of politics and administration, the doctrine that administration could and should be institutionally separate from politics. Applied to the council-manager form of government, a strict version of this doctrine would place the manager in a role of a neutral expert who efficiently and effectively carried out the policies of the council.
