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119 7 State and Local Public Administration Murray S. Y. Bessette Public administration at the state and local levels, as at the national level, is about implementing the programs and policies established by the legislative, executive, and even (at times) judicial branches of government. Because most programs and policies are established only in a general and partial form, the bureaucracy is responsible for the particulars of their complete implementation, and as a result, bureaucrats (who are rarely, if ever, directly responsible to the people) enjoy considerable and significant discretion in designing the final look and feel of the programs and policies established by the people’s representatives. What is important to note about the responsibility of the bureaucrats and the representatives to the people of a town, city, county, state, or nation is that both the bureaucrats and the representatives are responsible, at least in theory, to the people; that is, bureaucrats are indirectly responsible to the people through their responsibility to the people’s direct representatives. Given the increase in the size, scope, and complexity of state and local administration, institutional efforts have been made to increase the responsibility of public servants to elected officials and, thereby, to the people.1 This indirect responsibility, however, can be infringed on by various policies and procedures designed to improve the quality of administration, for example, the merit system, tenure, and other forms of job security, which seek to limit the influence of politics in bureaucratic decision making regarding hiring, firing, and promotion of civil service staff, on the one hand, and the implementation and operation of programs, on the other. Furthermore, limits placed on the people’s representatives themselves, especially term limits, make it difficult for elected officials to cultivate the necessary policy expertise while they are in office to comprehend fully what can and ought to be done to improve the operation of the government. In short, because civil servants typically serve the public for much longer periods than do elected officials, they are able to cultivate greater expertise and, therefore, tend also to have greater influence on the initial design of policies and, thereby, on their outcomes too.2 120 State and Local Institutions The foregoing, of course, highlights the importance of properly understanding the character of state and local public administration. Because the behavior of individuals within any organization is the result of the complex interplay of institutions and personalities , such an understanding entails knowledge of both the character of the bureaucrats and the structure and organization of the offices they occupy. This chapter will first sketch the structure of the state administrative apparatus and then describe the various forms of government at local levels, both county and municipal. Then it will examine the character of those who make up the civil service—what they look like and how they are recruited and retained, hired and fired, and paid and promoted—as well as recent developments in public management and their effect on the quality of public administration. State Government The Kentucky Constitution establishes many of the offices charged with the administration of state policies and programs. In addition to the offices of governor and lieutenant governor, the constitution also sets the qualifications, term of office, mode of election, and compensation for the following constitutional state offices: treasurer; auditor of public accounts; commissioner of agriculture, labor, and statistics; secretary of state; and attorney general (Section 91). All other administrative positions (also known as inferior state officers) are provided for by statute; however, the constitution places certain restrictions on the legislative discretion of the General Assembly. As detailed in Section 93, “Inferior State officers and members of boards and commissions , not specifically provided for in this Constitution, may be appointed or elected, in such manner as may be prescribed by law, which may include a requirement of consent by the Senate, for a term not exceeding four years, and until their successors are appointed or elected and qualified.” Although the constitution establishes certain duties and responsibilities for constitutional officers—for example, “The Secretary of State shall keep a fair register of and attest all the official acts of the Governor, and shall, when required, lay the same and all papers, minutes and vouchers relative thereto before either House of the General Assembly” (Section 91)—it does not organize their internal structure. Rather, the particular organization of each office, whether constitutional or inferior, and its additional duties not specified in the constitution are established and promulgated in the Kentucky Revised...

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