“Be dedicated to the concepts of effective and democratic local government by responsible elected officials and believe that professional general management is essential to the achievement of this objective.”
Dedication is one of those things that is easy to learn and tough to master. The idea of giving 100% to your job, laying it all out there on the line for your city, is not difficult to understand. However, it is one of the hardest things to actually translate from words to action.
The above tenet is one of 12 which comprise the Texas City Management Association’s Code of Ethics. It is no accident that this tenet is first on the list – it is the principal concept of our profession. It embodies our basic belief that it takes responsible elected officials working with and through professional managers to strengthen democracy. And it further demands that we hold fast to this, not as a purely academic exercise, but on the deeply personal level, to the point of dedication.
For us, being responsive to the democratically elected officials is our contribution to democracy. And, as in any relationship, it requires hard work, collaboration, commitment, and dedication in order to ensure effectiveness, efficiency, and equity in governance. As professional administrators, we strive to build the foundation of this relationship on our knowledge and leadership skills in order to gain the respect and trust of the councils we serve. The academic world calls this a “Principal-Agent Relationship,” where the principals are the elected officials and the agents, those who wield then necessary expertise to complete the vision of the principals, are professional managers.
There are days when the feeling of dedication comes easily – finishing up a huge bond project, getting the next year’s budget out the door, being honored by your peers at a TCMA or regional meeting. But anyone reading this can probably think of a time in the past few months (weeks? days? hours?) when you have felt something less 100% than dedicated to your job. There are days when a council member, a resident, or a developer comes in and tries to ruin whatever warm fuzzy thoughts you happened to have about the grand virtue of democracy.
However, it is in those moments, when the world begins to close down around you, when everything is late and nothing seems to be going right, that dedication is the most important. Can we rightly call it dedication if we’re only doing it when it is easy, or convenient, or happens to coincide with what we want to do? Or can we really only tell if we’re dedicated to something when it is challenged? In the end, what you stand for defines your contribution to the cause.
As managers we are asked to be dedicated to many things; to our profession, elected officials, and especially, citizens. What is being asked of us is a whole commitment to our profession. Not just as an ideal, but as a personal, realized goal.
(Article authored by Murvat Musa, City Administrator, Ransom Canyon and Matt McCombs, Assistant to the City Manager, Addison. Edited by members of the TCMA Ethics Committee.)