The Property Tax in North Carolina

What are the rights and duties of local elected officials relating to the listing, assessment, levy, and collection of property taxes? After reading this book, members of local governing boards should know what they must do, what they may do, and perhaps most importantly, what they cannot do with property taxes.

This guide, part of the Local Government Board Builders series, will help governing boards answer questions such as:

• How is the property tax rate determined?
• When can real property tax values be changed?
• What types of enforced collection remedies are available for property taxes?
• When can property taxes be waived?

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A Model Code of Ethics for North Carolina Local Elected Officials with Guidelines and Appendixes (E-book)

In 2009, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a law requiring all North Carolina cities, counties, local boards of education, unified governments, sanitary districts, and consolidated city-counties to adopt a resolution or policy containing a code of ethics to guide actions by the governing board members in the performance of their official duties as members of that governing board. Each governing board must adopt its resolution or policy by January 1, 2011.

This guidebook, the second title in the Local Government Board Builders Series, is intended to help local elected boards and their staffs develop codes of ethics that meet the requirements of this statute. It includes a Model Code with optional provisions, as well as commentary and discussion questions that boards are encouraged to use in developing and interpreting their own codes. The book is designed to be clear and unambiguous, simple, and easy to read and use.

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Handbook for North Carolina Mayors and Council Members

This handbook in the Local Government Board Builders Series is intended for elected officials in North Carolina cities and towns, and for persons interested in election to municipal office. It explores the nature of cities and towns in the state, including how they come into existence, how they are run, and how they are financed. It also covers the work of the mayor and council, including the organization of the council, council meetings and actions, and potential liabilities of a mayor or council member.

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Getting the Right Fit: The Governing Board’s Role in Hiring a Manager

Hiring a manager may be the most important decision a local governing board makes. To make sure the new manager will be a good fit for the organization, the board needs to agree on expectations for the new manager and design a process that will enable it to hire the best candidate for the job. This guide, part of the Local Government Board Builders series, provides local elected officials with an overview of their responsibilities in hiring a public manager and outlines the essential steps in a successful hiring process.

“I believe this publication would be an extremely valuable resource for municipalities that are in the process of hiring a manager. Not only can it offer officials immediate detailed instruction and guidance in the process of developing the profile, assessing, and hiring the best candidate, but it is as close as their fingertips for follow up review and future use.”Hartwell Wright
Human Resources Consultant
North Carolina League of Municipalities

“Vaughn M. Upshaw, John A. Rible IV, and Carl W. Stenberg’s Hiring a Manager is an excellent resource … it raises key points that both boards and managers should consider in the hiring process. This publication can increase the likelihood of the fit right for both the board and the new manager.”Michael McLaurin
Town Manager
Town of Waxhaw

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Creating and Maintaining Effective Local Government Citizen Advisory Committees with Downloadable Model Policy and Tracking Forms

Local governments often use appointed policy boards or citizen advisory committees (CACs) to engage people in the democratic process. These boards may be established to respond to community-generated issues, including identifying priorities, considering and recommending actions, and evaluating outcomes. Even though these bodies are used widely, developing and integrating their work into the governmental process remains challenging for many local governments.

Part of the Local Government Board Builders series, this new book and accompanying electronic files provide practical guidelines for local elected officials responsible for establishing policy boards and advisory committees. The book includes tips on evaluating costs/benefits of CACs, worksheets for assessing whether or not to establish a CAC, and options for creating a model policy.

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“The questions and tips in this book provide a comprehensive framework for assessing the benefits, costs, and challenges of advisory boards. The book will be useful to local governments when creating new advisory boards, and helpful in ensuring boards’ continued effectiveness as they adapt to changing conditions and priorities.”Bernadette Pelissier
Vice-Chair
Orange County Board of Commissioners

“Advisory committees are the core organizational tool by which local government filters and incepts ideas, policies, rules, and practical decision making. These volunteer citizen groups represent the true essence of how government works and are an integral part of our democracy. This book covers the purpose of citizen advisory committees (CACs) along with helpful tips on creating a positive, healthy relationship between these boards and local elected officials and their staff. It provides an in-depth perspective and includes questions that practitioners and local elected officials should consider when creating new CACs or analyzing existing boards. Dr. Upshaw has proffered a simple yet detailed approach for organizing and empowering citizen groups in the democratic process.”Lloyd Wm. Payne, Jr., ICMA-CM
Town Manager
Town of Elkin

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How Are We Doing? Evaluating Manager and Board Performance

A guidebook in the Local Government Board Builders Series, this publication describes best practices and offers practical tips for productively evaluating the manager’s and the governing board’s performance. It provides examples of manager and board evaluation measures, rating scales, and formats along with suggestions for ongoing performance improvement. For those already doing manager or board performance evaluations, this guidebook offers suggestions that can strengthen an existing process. It may also be used as a step-by-step manual for developing a new performance evaluation process from the ground up.

“Are you satisfied with your manager? Is your board operating in the best way it can? Most people can answer yes or no to these questions. But can you quantify your answers? Do you have written expectations for the manager or board members? This book is an excellent resource for the essential task of evaluating the manager and the board.” Kevin Patterson – Manager, Scotland County

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Suggested Rules of Procedure for a City Council, Fourth Edition, 2017

Now in its fourth edition, this book provides city councils with model procedural rules for their meetings. The model rules cover, among many other topics, the organizational meeting, pertinent requirements of the open meetings law, the role of the presiding officer, agenda preparation and approval, substantive and procedural motions, voting rules, ordinance adoption, public hearings, and public comment periods. Legal and practical issues are analyzed in the comments that follow each rule.

The fourth edition differs from prior editions in important ways. It incorporates significant statutory changes that have occurred since a revised version of the third edition was published in 2007. Both the rules themselves and the comments have undergone extensive modifications in an effort to make the book even more useful to municipal governing boards. New appendixes include tables showing the numbers of members necessary to establish a quorum and the number of votes required to adopt an ordinance or approve a contract.

This book is a must for council members, city managers and administrators, city clerks, and city attorneys. Anyone with a general interest in local government or parliamentary procedure will also want a copy.

BONUS FEATURE:  The book contains information to help readers download a digital version of the book’s procedural rules that can be customized to fit a council’s specific needs.   

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Suggested Rules of Procedure for the Board of County Commissioners

Now in its fourth edition, this book provides boards of county commissioners with model procedural rules for their meetings. The model rules cover, among many other topics, the organizational meeting, pertinent requirements of the open meetings law, the role of the presiding officer, agenda preparation and approval, substantive and procedural motions, voting rules, ordinance adoption, public hearings, and public comment periods. Legal and practical issues are analyzed in the comments that follow each rule.

The fourth edition differs from prior editions in important ways. It incorporates significant statutory changes that have occurred since a revised version of the third edition was published in 2002. Both the rules themselves and the comments have undergone extensive modifications in an effort to make the book even more useful to county boards.

This book is a must for county commissioners, county managers, county clerks, and county attorneys. Anyone with a general interest in local government or parliamentary procedure will also want a copy.

BONUS FEATURE:  The book contains information to help readers download a digital version of the book’s procedural rules that can be customized to fit a council’s specific needs.

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Fragmented Structures and Blurred Boundaries: Strategies for Regional Governance

Among the enduring topics of debate among reformers, public officials, and civic groups have been the fragmented structure of local government and blurred boundaries in relationships among local units as well as between localities and their state government. Critics have pointed to the excessive number of small jurisdictions performing a limited range of duties, costly duplication of functional responsibilities, parochial nature of interlocal relationships, and time and expertise limitations of part-time elected officials. Because of small size and antiquated governing and administrative structures, many communities are unable to tackle complex and costly problems that spill across local boundary lines and require timely collective remedial actions. As a result, tensions have grown between special and general-purpose units, and disparities have widened between rich and poor jurisdictions Supporters have argued the need for local accessibility, autonomy, and control, and for placing democratic values above technocratic efficiency and effectiveness. While local structure may not meet ideal standards, in most places it works satisfactorily in delivering services demanded by the public at “prices” (i.e., taxes and fees) citizens are willing to pay. Part-time elected officials, rather than professional politicians, are appropriate leaders of “grassroots” governments because they are close to both the problems and the public.

Cite as:

Stenberg C.W. (2008) Fragmented Structures and Blurred Boundaries: Strategies for Regional Governance. In: Morgan I.W., Davies P.J. (eds) The Federal Nation. Studies of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, New York

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Historic Relevance Confronting Contemporary Obsolescence? Federalism, Intergovernmental Relations, and Intergovernmental Management

Collaborative public management, managing across boundaries, leveraging networks, and governance through networking are contemporary concepts that characterize a near tsunami sweeping across recent public administration literature. These novel and creative formulations describe, analyze, and prescribe complex modes of management for the current practicing public administrator. In retrospect, Rhodes (1996, 658) was prescient in claiming, “governance is about managing networks.”

The significance and relevance of the “collaboration-networking-governance movement” cannot be denied (Robinson 2006; Bingham and O’Leary 2008; O’Leary 2009). This chapter does not challenge or question the promising paths chartered in that literature. Rather, it explores the antecedents and foundation stones on which the triumvirate of collaboration-networking-governance is erected. Those-building block components are represented by federalism and its legacy concepts, intergovernmental relations and intergovernmental management, concepts that have framed governance and management thinking for decades.

Cite as:

Menzel, D., White, H., S. Wright D., Cho, C. (2011). The State of Public Administration: Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities.

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