Elements of Successful Interlocal Agreements: An Iowa Case Study

This paper explores the factors that contribute to successful interlocal agreements. Success is defined in terms of achieving agreement objectives, increasing the effectiveness of the public service, and increasing the efficiency of the public service. Influential factors of interest include the reason the interlocal agreement was created, the estimated costs and benefits of participation in the agreement, and the types and levels of communication between the parties to the agreement. The paper reports results from a survey of local governments (including cities, counties, school districts) in Iowa that have filed an agreement with the state. The sample of about 1250 respondents includes most of the major cities and counties in Iowa and many smaller governments as well. Results suggest that the most important reasons for creating agreements are to improve effectiveness and efficiency of services, and that most local governments are very satisfied with the success of the agreements

The motivations for the adoption of management innovation by local governments and its performance effects

This article analyses the economic, political and institutional antecedents and performance effects of the adoption of shared Senior Management Teams (SMTs) – a management innovation (MI) that occurs when a team of senior managers oversees two or more public organizations. Findings from statistical analysis of 201 English local governments and interviews with organizational leaders reveal that shared SMTs are adopted to develop organisational capacity in resource‐challenged, politically risk‐averse governments, and in response to coercive and mimetic institutional pressures. Importantly, sharing SMTs may reduce rather than enhance efficiency and effectiveness due to redundancy costs and the political transaction costs associated with diverting resources away from a high‐performing partner to support their lower‐performing counterpart

(Re)Defining The Disarticulated Municipality: Budget Accountability For Networked Governance

This study investigates the degree to which municipalities engaged in public management networks use their budget documents to report their contributions, whether the network provides the member municipalities with performance data, and how budgetary decisions regarding the network are made within the member organizations and the network administrative organization itself. An analysis of network and member budget documents and a survey of network members shed light on the complex accountability issues and the role of budget documents and the budgeting process to support and enhance democratic accountability in a network context-which contribute to building collaborative governance regime theory