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What's the value of ICMA, and what does it mean to be a member of our profession? Or, put another way, what is the value of being part of a […]

Five public servants were honored this year for their exceptional achievements in improving the communities and governments they serve. Representing a broad cross-section of government, these officials exemplify the public [...]

In response to the need for faculty training, the American Society of Civil Engineers developed and funded the ExCEEd (Excellence in Civil Engineering Education) Teaching Workshop, which was offered for the first time in 1999 and celebrated its tenth year during the summer of 2008. For the past decade, 21 ExCEEd Teaching Workshops (ETW) have been hem at the United States Military Academy, the University of Arkansas, and Northern Arizona University. ETW has realized 497 graduates from 198 different US and international colleges and universities. This paper summarizes the content of ETW, assesses its effectiveness, highlights changes in the program as a result of these assessments, outlines future directions, and assesses the effect this workshop has had on the quality of civil engineering teaching in the US. The assessment data were obtained from multiple survey instruments conducted during each workshop, surveys taken six months to a year after the workshop, and a ten-year longitudinal survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public hearings play a critical role in U.S. local government. The evolution of public access to local government hearings and its related challenges have not been documented in a systematic way to encourage research and collaborative scholarship between practitioners and scholars. This article seeks to begin the dialogue by offering seven strategies for navigating access to public hearings in local government. In recent years, local governments have faced increasing pressure to keep pace with evolving technologies while balancing competing budget priorities and assuming a growing role in addressing policy issues that were previously the focus of state and national governments. The COVID‐19 pandemic context has presented further complexity. Left unaddressed, these challenges contribute to a widening gap between what is administratively sustainable versus politically acceptable. The strategies suggested address current challenges, attempt to bridge the gap between what is administratively sustainable and politically acceptable, and propose avenues for further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although servant leadership has emerged as an important community‐oriented leadership approach that is desirable for public organizations, relatively less research attention has been devoted to understanding its antecedents as well as its organizational and community‐level consequences. Drawing on self‐categorization and stakeholder theories, this study investigates the antecedents and consequences of servant leadership in local government agencies using a comparative analysis of three case studies (two counties and a city). Findings highlight two frameworks of antecedents and consequences of servant leadership in local governance: (1) the underlying mechanisms—translating antecedents into servant leadership and (2) the intervening mechanisms—translating as organizational and community‐level consequences of servant leadership. These findings have implications for both public sector leadership theory and practice. Theoretically, servant leadership emerges as an inclusive approach that fosters stakeholder engagement and community prosperity in local governments. Practically, the findings suggest a pathway for utilizing servant leadership as an instrument for potential selection, training, succession planning, and servant leadership development in local government managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]