By Lynn Tipton, FCCMA Executive Director
What do Estero, Hillsboro Beach, Kenneth City, Live Oak, and Sumter County have in common? It isn’t geography, population, scope of services, or tax base…it is the recent adoption or recognition of their form of government as Council-Manager or Commission-Manager (C-M). And, we are celebrating these cities and one county for recently having their form of government formalized (within the past 18 months). We talk about the ‘form’ and ‘the plan’ interchangeably. The facts for Florida are that out of 411 municipalities, about 280 are C-M, and about 45 out of the 67 counties are C-M. The form is also the most prevalent around the U.S. Once a local government has agreed on the form, it can be adopted into a charter (city or county), adopted through state legislation and a variety of other legal means around the U.S.; but in Florida is it primarily through the charter for a city, and either in the charter or by ordinance in counties. And, once the legal side of it is done, many local government managers take the next step and have ICMA conduct its review to confer ICMA recognition upon the city or county.
When ICMA celebrated their 100th anniversary last year, it came after the several-year centennial celebration of the creation and adoption in the U.S. While debates still continue as to which local government first used the council-manager or commission-manager form, most members agreed the 100-year mark came between 2008 and 2012. And, after 100 years the form is still going strong!
My reason for including this subject as a column to the FCCMA membership is that with these municipal revisions and Sumter County’s recent recognition, we realized that many mangers today do not know about the ICMA recognition process and aren’t sure if their respective city or county has gone through it. Knowing the number of years that the local government has used the form, and benefited from it, can be a helpful instructional tool for elected officials, staff and the public in general. Being an ICMA-recognized government can also help with your individual ICMA membership, as in qualifying to be a full-voting member, and holding board or officer seats. As elected officials transition, and as managers and other key staff transition, these details and knowledge can get lost within the government. Want to learn more? Please contact Jared Dailey at ICMA (phone: 202/289-4262 main number and email is jdailey@icma.org).
