The Caldwell Guardian recently raised this question in relation to governance in Canyon County.

Staunton, Virginia is the Birthplace of the Council / Manager form of governance. Created in 1908 during the Progressive Era to remove city government from the machinations of politics, and place management of the city into the hands of a trained, accredited executive who would remain neutral to city politics.

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Before an unexpected death forced yours truly to drop out of the race (all the time cognizant of my "Snowball's Chance in Hell"), my erstwhile campaign for Mayor of Boise had two main components to its platform.

* Upon election, my first order of business would have been to "demote" myself and transform the Mayor's Office into a far less expensive ceremonial office and switch to a professional, accredited City Manager form of government, and;

* What I dubbed: "Enthusiastic Plagiarism". Very few - if any - of the problems faced here in Idaho are unique to Idaho and have long since been successfully addressed by other communities across America and around the world. Whether we're talking about schools, roads or sewer systems. Abandoning what I view as a nearly insatiable desire to constantly reinvent the wheel, I would have co-opted, and where possible improved upon, proven ethical solutions.


The "enemies" of the City Manager approach are rarely the Mayor's themselves as much as the City Council's and entrenched special interests in a given community who stand to lose their power and influence when forced into a paradigm of greater accountability and logical thinking.

For more information about City Manager governance, visit the International City / County Management Association and / or the Wikipedia entry.