ABSTRACT
Nearly one hundred million Americans reside in cities served by city managers or chief administrative officers (CAOs). Today, 2,655 city managers and CAOs are appointed by city councils as full-time administrators of their community governments. In a typical council-manager plan city, a small council made up of five, seven, or nine representatives, generally elected on a nonpartisan, at-large basis, serves as the chief policy-making body of the city principally through its legal powers of approving city ordinances, personnel policies and budgetary appropriations.1 The council appoints a chief executive officer, a city manager, or CAO who generally serves without tenure “at the council’s pleasure.”
