Local Land-Use Planning and Natural Hazards in Coastal North Carolina

The North Carolina Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA) of 1974 was designed to protect coastal resources. This legislation required local governments in the coastal region to develop land-use plans to guide development. While many saw a strong need to control growth in the region, few local governments managed land use. Proponents of the law believed that local land-use planning could protect the environment from unwise growth, while still allowing local control of development. To determine CAMA's impact after more than a decade, we interviewed thirty local governments in North Carolina. This research was part of a larger National Science Foundation-sponsored study of land-use planning in North Carolina and four other states. The results from these interviews and additional surveys indicate that CAMA has played a critical role in shaping land-use planning in the coastal region. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that, while the mandate is still necessary to ensure local land-use planning in most communities, CAMA has increased support for planning and may be playing a long-term educational role. In this article, we provide a brief history of CAMA and its land-use planning requirements, particularly those related to natural hazards. We then examine the findings from our interviews and their implications for the future

Exploring Devolved Decision Authority in Performance Management Regimes: Data Set

According to performance management doctrine, successful performance management requires devolved decision authority—that is, meaningful decision authority must be placed in the hands of managers at the program level, where those best equipped with insights can make needed changes. Using both perceptual and objective information on decision authority in 62 select U.S. city and county governments, the authors find a positive relationship between devolved decision authority and reported performance management success—especially when managers both have and perceive that they have meaningful discretion

Exploring the Relationship between operational and financial indicators: the case of water and sewer utilities

There is debate in the literature on whether or not general management principles are applicable to the study and practice of public administration. This research responds by exploring how local officials manage the performance of public services with private good characteristics, where general management principles could be embraced for service delivery. The relationship between operational and financial indicators is explored within the functional areas of water and sewer, with the hypothesis that operational outcomes impact financial outcomes similar to private enterprises. Because the findings do not support this hypothesis, the authors conclude that general management principles may not be applicable to all forms of administration given that public cannot be removed from the management of public services even with private good characteristics

Twenty Years of Benchmarking in North Carolina: Lessons Learned from Comparison of Performance Statistics as Benchmarks

The North Carolina Benchmarking Project has been in existence for approximately 20 years, functioning under the benchmarking category of comparison of performance statistics as benchmarks. This form of benchmarking, however, is diagnostic, requiring subsequent analytical steps before local officials can actually use comparative data for improving service delivery. This article presents lessons learned from the North Carolina Benchmarking Project to advance our understanding of why local governments participate in these types of benchmarking initiatives and how they review and make decisions regarding the comparative data. They include that local governments participate more for the purpose of greater internal accountability rather than performance management and that local governments use benchmarking data both for excellence and satisficing when responding to departmental rankings