ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of city governmental structure and authority, city leadership, urban elections, ethics, and management tools that can be used by city managers. City managers must operate within the legal structure of their states and then are constrained further by state and federal rules. However, city managers have a variety of management and administrative tools available to them that can help: the ethical standards of their profession, stakeholder analysis, performance measurement, collaborative management, and others. By covering the policy process, city government structure and constraints, and some management tools, students have learned materials in important NASPAA standards about leading and managing, public policy, critical analysis, and ethics. City governments consist of the council-manager structure, formed out of the Progressive Era, the strong mayor structure, commission forms, or hybrids of these. A central role of any government, including city governments, is to provide public goods to residents.
