Unit VII Scholarly Activity

Running head: POLITICAL CHALLENGES FACING GREEN BAY CITY COUNCIL 1

Political Challenges Facing Green Bay City Council

Oril Demas

Columbia Southern University

PUA6304 Local Government

Unit VII Scholarly Activity

Professor Michael Spurlock

August 21, 2018

Commented [A1]: Unless the professor wants this information, remove it.

POLITICAL CHALLENGES FACING GREEN BAY CITY COUNCIL 2

Political Challenges Facing Green Bay City Council

Memorandum

To: The President of the United States

From: Mr. Andrew Lee

CC: The Governor of Wisconsin

Date: 8/13/2018

Subject: Political Challenges Facing Green Bay City Council

Purpose

The aim of this memo is to provide an elaborate information on the management of the City

Council of Green Bay and how it handles its political challenges. It also highlights the role of

stakeholders on political issues in Green Bay and how they relate with other leadership

challenges facing local governments in the United States.

Summary

Green Bay City Council is headed by the mayor, who operates in collaboration with the common

council. The 12 members of the common council represent 12 districts. Other important

departments include elected municipal judges, commissioners, and other departments. The report

by fire department reveals several political challenges that councilors need to tackle. Lack of

enough resources and poor trainings have led to increased instances of fire in the city. Further

still, most local leaders face the dilemma of managing party politics and leadership.

Background/ Discussion

The organizational structure of the Green Bay City Council is functional. The functional

structure is more bureaucratic and divides the organization into departments. Different

departments are headed by specialists and the chain of command is appropriately established.

Therefore, the roles of elected officials and employed professionals are clearly defined with

Commented [A2]: The red phrase is a clear and effective academic phrase.

Commented [A3]: The green phrases are too wordy. Consider a way to say this in fewer words. Some suggested vocabulary words to use are the following: inform advise

Commented [A4]: Has a lack of resources led to an increase in fire or rather obstacles in fighting the fire effectively? Consider re- wording for clarity.

POLITICAL CHALLENGES FACING GREEN BAY CITY COUNCIL 3

achievable goal. Statutory laws provide procedural requirements that any officials in this council

must follow. The mayor-council is the system of government practiced in this council. Thus, the

mayor relies on the common council to make important decisions.

The Mayor

The Common Council

Boards ,

Commissions

and Committees

Municipal Judge Departments

Fire Police/

Correctio

n

Public Works Water

Utility Law

Parks

&

Forest

ry

Com

muni

ty

Devel

opme

nt

Clerk Administ

rative Metro

Transit

Human

Resource

Commented [A5]: It is helpful to label the diagram, for example, Figure 1. This way, you can refer to it in the memo.

POLITICAL CHALLENGES FACING GREEN BAY CITY COUNCIL 4

The Green Bay City Council is headed by the mayor. The mayor, municipal judge, and

alderpersons are elected while the heads of departments are technocrats are appointed by the

elected officials. The common council is composed of 12 alderpersons who heads twelve

districts within the city council (GreenBay, nd). The clerk’s office is responsible for the

management of election process in the city council. Wisconsin State Statutes provide guidance

on the procedures of elections of councilors and the operations of election officials. The

Wisconsin Election Commission is the overseer of the operations of election officials.

Councilors and mayor are elected by the electorates.

The 2016 fire department report presents some of the challenges that the city council

departments face. First, facility upkeep and maintenance challenge. Some of the city owned

buildings are dilapidated. The study commissioned by the City of Green Bay showed that most

buildings owned by the council require repair and facelift, especially those owned by the

department of fire. The seven fire stations have received abundant financial allocation for the

repair; however, addition funding is required to complete the project to satisfactory standard.

Another limitation facing the department is the fire safety education. The city council must

invest in training the public on safety measures during fire accidents. In 2016, 152 reported cases

of fire were from equipment failures and only one was an act of nature (GreenBay, nd).

Therefore, it is evident that fire, which causes death and destruction of properties worth millions,

can be prevented trough safety training. Even though in 2016 the Green Bay Metro Fire

Department trained more than 30,000 locals on fire security, there were still several left out of

the program due to limited resources. The stakeholders that must confront the challenges

highlighted in the report are the mayor, the councilors, and the technocrats heading various

departments within the city council.

Commented [A6]: Is this related to the figure? It is a good idea to refer the reader to the figure.

POLITICAL CHALLENGES FACING GREEN BAY CITY COUNCIL 5

Several factors influence the leadership of contemporary local government leaders. According to

Perlman (2010), local government leaders face the dilemma of balancing political will and

leadership. Most politicians understand the leadership needs that their electorates deserve;

however, their efforts are impaired by the demands from their parties and political interests.

Furthermore, the intersecting roles of the local government and the federal government hinder

the effectiveness of local leadership. For instance, if a duty can be done by the federal

government, the local people will not pay attention to local government. In some cases, failures

of the federal government hinder the operation of the local government. For instance, issues of

immigration that should be tackled by the federal government might hinder security and reduce

resources in the local government. Finally, the resources available for local government may not

be sufficient to sustain the needs of the local population.

Conclusion

It is evident that the Green Bay City Council faces both internal and external challenges. Even

though it has a functional organizational structure with both elected and appointed leaders, its

departments face numerous challenges. The buildings owned by fire department are dilapidated

and require renovation. Further still, the fire stations require further renovation and expansion.

However, the city council lacks financial ability to renovate it. On the other hand, the external

challenges emanate from the relationship between the federal and the local government. Some

failures of federal government hinder the operations of the local government. Furthermore,

balancing politics and leadership is one of the major challenges facing councilors in Green Bay;

they face both the pressure from their party and that from their conscience as leaders. In short,

the federal government needs to support some of the local government’s project and councilors

also need to shun party politics and focus on serving the interests of the local people.

POLITICAL CHALLENGES FACING GREEN BAY CITY COUNCIL 6

References

Green Bay. (n.d.). Government. Retrieved August 16, 2018 from

https://greenbaywi.gov/27/Government

Perlman, B. J. (2010). Governance challenges and options for state and local governments. State

and Local Government Review, 42(3), 246-257. Retrieved from

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0160323X10390050

.

Commented [A7]: See the webpage example on the references tutorial.