What is City Management: Public Administration

While the KU MPA program provides education for those seeking a variety of public service leadership roles, our full-time intern-option program is focused on preparing students for positions as city and county managers.

The city or county manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of the jurisdiction in a council-manager form of government. In this role s/he is responsible for the day-to-day administrative operations of the locality and supervises all departments in carrying out the policies set by the elected officials.

The videos below feature interviews with respected city managers working in a variety of cities across the United States. The interviews were conducted, recorded, and edited by Matt Monedero, Justin Pregont, and Paul Lampe of the MPA intern-option class of 2011 during the 96th Annual ICMA conference in San Jose. Matt, Justin and Paul created and carried out this project with the goal of sharing information about careers in the field to encourage students and young professionals to consider this profession.

The first video below combines excerpts from all 11 interviews to create an overall idea of what a city manager does. Below this are the 11 interviews in full, offering more in depth perspectives on the work of city and county management.